The guy - Jaan was his name - ordered a drink for me. Garcela handed me a pink drink in a high glass that fizzed real hard on top and came with a lime. I couldn't get a first sip to taste because Jaan through his arm around me and half lifted me up. He dragged me to his friends in a bumpy kind of way that made me spill my drink all over my fingers, but he was way too happy to notice.

Their group had made a fort out of lounge chairs. They were in a circle so that they could all face each other and interact with each other. The group was real lifely - pushing each other and jumping onto each other's lap. Drinks were in everyone's hands. Half-empty drinks were on the floor and the little side tables. They had been going hard. Jaan cut above the noise to get their attention.

I heard my name "Damien" somewhere in the barrage of rapid-fire Spanish. The whole group started making an "ooh" chant and waved with both arms at me. The sight of so many friendly faces and so much energy in my direction was overwhelming. They made me feel like I was special and laughed. I waved back at them, grinned big, and said "Nice party!" That was probably the most underwhelming response that I could have given them.

But their love for me wasn't limited. A small olive-tan Latina with an almost greenish tint to her skin color and small mousy eyes seemed to be bursting with energy despite her small size. She pressed an orange drink in a heavy bottom glass into my hand. She seemed to want me to taste her drink. So I did. I gave her the thumb up. Then she took my drink out of my hand to sample it. I tried to protest that I hadn't been able to try the drink. But the drink seemed so overwhelmingly good that she shook her hand like shaking a pair of dice in her hand and called out "Boaah!" while rolling her eyes and pressing the drink onto the chest of her friend next to her while spilling some of it. My drink just disappeared into the group, passing from hand to hand.

The guy next to me was a bit wiry like a tech nerd, he noticed my sad eyes following the drink's passage and resigning that there were only ice cubes left. He handed me his half-empty drink. It was a dark brown, harsh-tasting concoction. Something whisky, cola, and very bitter. The drinks flowed through the group. I don't know what I was drinking, but the enthusiasm of being presented with one gift after the next as if it were the most exciting thing did lift my mood.

I had a hard time breaking into the interaction of the group because I didn't speak any Spanish. They definitely liked me, but any time someone said something, they got so excited about it that it took all of their attention. So I became a bit of an observer. The leader of the group seemed to be a white girl. Back home, she would have been completely overlooked. She had round glasses with extra thick lenses. She seemed to be nearly blind to need such a strong prescription. Her body was tall, but very plain. There was no curviness to it at all. I would have described her a bit like a worm. She didn't seem to work out. But she was constantly pushing the story and gesturing. The entire group followed her like she was the queen.

The group was quite boisterous and drunk. A girl would randomly start twerking because her song came on. Another girl would throw her body on top of a guy. Two of the guys decided to grind each other out of plain fun to mock the girl twerking. There was such an ease of doing whatever wild thing came to people's minds. And the group was so accepting laughing at everything. Somebody tried to upstage it or mock it.

The girl that threw himself on top of the guy seemed to like him. She tried to motorboat him. She had overflowing breasts that had a terrific wobble from all the fat. He was completely unaroused by it and teased her back. He grabbed her, held her whole body over his head and then threw her into the pool with an overhead throw. The leader - Shaika - was her name stood at the edge of the pool shaking her butt as if to taunt anyone to dare to throw her in as well. Jaan placed both of my hands on her butt cheeks. She was wearing a white pair of bikini bottoms the curved nicely inward. Her butt cheeks felt hard and bony. I knew what to do. I pushed. The group cheered me. Two guys rubbed my head in appreciation.

The remaining girls on land banded together to grab my wrists and ankles. I reacted by pushing back. Their weaker bodies couldn't contain me, but Jaan shot me a look that I was ruining the game. And so I surrendered to the eight hands grabbing and pulling me to the ground until they picked me up and swung me a few times back and forth before they threw me in the water.

Hanging out with them was easy and blissful. I slowly gathered info about them. The tall black girl was Maizy. There was a real chubby, white Latina. Back home, she would have known her place in the social order for being overweight and not attractive. Here in the group, such social norms and prejudices didn't seem to count. It was freeing to be outside of the familiar norms from back home. It was like anything could go and anyone could be appreciated. They were also a wild mix of ethnicities. My solitary observation on the edge was regularly interrupted by someone turning to me. One of the guys challenged me to arm wrestle. One of the girls groomed my hair. She seemed to want to imagine what I'd look like with a different haircut. For a brief moment, I was in the center of attention as everyone discussed what haircut would look best on me. That attention felt so good and was so fleeting.

All good things must come to an end. Shaika put on shorts and picked up a throw from the ground to cover herself up. The other girls followed her lead to put regular clothes over their pool clothes. The group became a bit demure as they individually searched for their belongings on the floor. The place looked like chaos with bottles, glasses, and spilled ice cubes. Plenty of the colorful cocktails had spilled to leave a calico tapestry behind.

Soon, all I'd have left would be memories of the fun while I would be sitting alone at dinner overlooking the sunset. I must have looked real sad. Jaan punched me like he was really upset with me. I quickly realized that he was offended that I thought I wasn't invited to join them. "Pre-party in the room," he told me. Kyo - a really short but strong guy with a tendency to be a bit mad angry - jumped on my back, throwing his arms across my throat. I felt a bit strangled but realized that I was supposed to give him a piggyback ride. I struggled forward with Kyo's weight pulling me back.

Jaan quickly swung on the back of another guy. Both ran ahead of me. Kyo started jumping up and down in the seat on my arms. I realized that he wanted me to run. Suddenly, I was in a race, running past the palm trees up to the resort lobby. Everyone picked their favorite team and hailed swats on their cheeks to spurn them on. I heard the thuds on Kyo's butt cheeks. I felt the swats on my butt cheek. And as we passed the cart of the room cleaner, one of the girls - I couldn't see anything behind me - decided to be smart and pinched my bottom really low and near my balls. I jumped into the air both from shock and fear of her going after my balls. Our supporters behind us cheered her discovery and quickly adopted the new tactic. Kyo yowled into my ear like they got him really good. My eardrum wanted to split.

I was sweating and panting, running down the long hallway past two houses with rooms. When someone opened a room door ahead, without a thought, I ran right into it. The first couch that I saw, I threw myself and Kyo on. I was sweat covered and done. Maizy threw her body on top of mine. I was surprised for a moment how I got a girl lying on top of me, but I got it. She was simply copying my strong emotion of throwing myself flat. She saw that I was lying on top of Kyo. She was trying to make a human pile. I got the game that she was going after. Before I knew it, she scrambled up, stood on my thighs, and climbed onto my shoulder to exit the couch over the backrest. So quickly, the attention and touches came and left.

Someone turned on Dembow music. The beat, the alcohol, and the constant human commotion was hard to keep up with. I had to let go of all my thoughts and let myself be in the moment. Love at a joke, gawk at the antic someone would do, and see if I could get away with slapping a butt and giggling when the girl looked back at me. But something had them quiet down. There was a serious discussion where only one person at a time spoke. The center of the conversation seemed to be Soledad.

Soledad was six feet tall. European exchange student described her best. She had a haughty air of education about her. She was very white, which stood out among the broad spectrum of people. Her chest was very flat. Despite lacking feminine curves and tall size, it was absolutely clear that she was a woman. I think she carried femininity in her personality and all the details. Like the lips were dark red and soft. Her eyes had a deeply blue piercing look to it. Her body posture and movements were extra feminine. Perhaps, the lack of traditional curves made her other aspects come out so much stronger.

She had sometimes been a bit in the background when the energy balls at the pool draw more of the spotlight. But she seemed more intense when she drew attention. Nobody had drawn attention like her. Shaika seemed to be speaking up - even protecting - Soledad as the guys seemed to negotiate. I heard something English sounding like "Texas Hold'em." Shaika seemed to count down rules with her fingers. The guys seemed to bow to the rules as if they were really going to agree to them.

They seemed to have come to the end of their negotiation. Kyo opened a suitcase next to the bed. It's the first time that I took a look around. The room was a junior suite with two beds. The room felt very lived in with clothes, bottles, food wrappers, towels, a scuba mask, phone chargers, and a little boom box spread out all over. People had found their own places like sitting on top of the desk, on the bed, on the couch, and on the table. The smell in the room was thick from vaping, a hint of weed, alcohol, sweat, human perspiration, some leftover food in the trash, and a eucalyptus air freshener.

Kyo handed me a pack of cards from the suitcase. Jaan explained to me, "We are playing strip poker with Soledad. Maizy negotiated that you are the dealer because she trusts you won't cheat."

I took a quick look at Soledad's body. She was wearing jeans shorts and a white crochet throw over her bikini. Then I shuffled the cards. I showed a bit off by letting the cards fly from one hand to the other. Of course, they gave me that appreciative "ooh" that made me feel so good. Their enthusiasm made me feel like one of them. I smiled with each card that I slid to Soledad anticipating to seeing the good bits of her body, something that would make my vacation a full success.

The guys were in equal anticipation. Jaan was the only other player. He passed me four cards back. Things didn't seem to be going well for her. Soledad only gave me one card back. I figured that she might have two pairs. Pablo was a skinny, black lad with kind eyes. Pablo ripped the cards out of Jaan's hands and then threw them on the ground. Jaan didn't even have a pair. Soledad never showed her hand because all the attention went to Jaan tesing him with a song. Jaan threw off his Bahamas shirt and waved with abandon that he was out and couldn't go any further.

Pablo handed me the cards and waved for me to deal the next round. I shuffled the cards. It felt good to have their attention. The anticipation hung heavy in the air. The anticipation was really heavy from the guys and the girls. It suddenly dawned on me that they were building towards something bigger. I noticed that the guys switched player, but the girls didn't. The other girls made the impression like they were spectators and not even at risk at all. It was as if Soledad was the sole focus, and the guys were the hunters, rubbing each others' shoulders and drawing closer to each other physically.

Soledad lost that round. She had a grace and slowness to pulling the throw down her shoulders that suggested that she was preparing and savoring the process. She savored the limelight like she was the chosen one. The guys got very quiet. Their faces turned red with anticipation. The girls drew a bit away from her and made cheeky sounds.

Soledad lost again. When she slipped the jeans shorts off, she made sure to stand with her legs straight, bend far forward to make her butt stand out, and then slowly slipped the shots down to her feet. She stepped out of them and left them on the floor right there. I kind of knew that she wouldn't bow out like Jaan, but I was still tensely observing her to be sure that it was real. She really went for the next round where she could end up revealing something. Everyone seemed to feel a bit heavy and aroused.

With a knowing smile, she showed her cards and lost again. Everyone knew what was going to happen. Everyone stared at her chest. She knew that she had their attention. She waited to indulge in all the eyeballs centered on her chest. There was something odd about her losing three times in a row. I used the moment of distraction to turn the cards over and check what she had passed back. I had dealt her a three of a kind of kings. She had given me two kings back. I looked at her differently.