Something Else (papo g.d.)
âWeâre trending. Number 3 so far.â Ethan slides his phone across the kitchen island on his way to the fridge to grab a Celsius can.Â
Grayson catches it, smiling down at the screen as he confirms that their latest vlog, titled One Year of Posie and featured more content including Marisol and Mariposa than their vlogs usually did, as Graysonâs life for the last week involved getting everything set and in place for his daughterâs first birthday celebration. It had truly been a beautiful video, with party planning, fun banter with Marisol, family moments, and a segment Ethan suggested where each of the most important people in Mariposaâs life recorded a short message for her to see when she was older.Â
It had been an instant hit. The twinâs subscribers lived for family content, and were extremely intrigued to have even a little bit of insight into how Grayson managed to juggle fatherhood on top of all the other projects he tackled with Ethan and their businesses. Any video featuring the women in the twinsâ livesâ be it Cassie, Marisol, or now, little Posieâdid well. This one was no exceptions, and the twinsâ team projected the video would hit #1 on trending in no time.Â
Still, itâs not long before Graysonâs frowning. Heâs scrolling through the comments on the video as Marisol enters, bouncing her fussy baby on her hip as Posie whimpers and scratches at her gums. Ethan pouts at his niece, and then pouts even harder when he offers to carry her but Mariposa just turns and buries her face into her motherâs neck.Â
Marisol huffs. âDonât take it personal. Her teeth are coming in, and theyâre kicking her ass. Can you hand me the teething toys in the freezer?âÂ
Ethan does, and itâs not long before Mariposa is chomping on the relieving cold of her gummies, making her mother sigh in relief. Ethan smiles at them both, nudging Marisol with a wink. âLast vlog is trending, by the way. Top 3.âÂ
âNo way,â Marisol gasps. She chuckles. âTheyâre finally getting baby content from you guys, no wonder.âÂ
âMariposaâs a superstar.â Ethan says, wiggling his fingers at his niece when she turns those big eyes on him. Marisol kisses her head with a giggle.Â
âAnd thatâs all without showing her face.âÂ
âThatâs literally all people are talking about,â Grayson complains from the counter. Marisol and Ethan look over at him, and he just rolls his eyes as he sets Ethanâs phone down, tipping back the rest of the ice at the bottom of his coffee cup to chomp down on it in frustration. âThis is ridiculous. Have you checked twitter?âÂ
âDo I want to?â Ethan says.Â
Grayson opens his app up for good measure, reading through his timeline unhappily. ââItâs been a year I just want to know what this baby looks like.â â Donât be shy Grayson show us your kid.â âI bet they wonât show her face because sheâs ugly or has some weird defectâ âI bet that baby came outââ what the fuck, now thatâs just fucking disgusting and rude.âÂ
Marisolâs eye twitches. Visibly fuming, she hands her daughter over to Grayson, who holds Mariposa on his lap but holds his phone out of reach for his girlfriend. She groans. âPapo.âÂ
âNo,â he shakes his head, and locks the phone. âItâs not worth it.âÂ
âThey cross the line by calling my baby ugly. Sheâs not ugly.âÂ
âShe sure as hell isnât.â
âNo baby is ugly,â Ethan says. âTheyâre just trolling you.âÂ
âItâs annoying,â Grayson grumbles, playing with Mariposaâs fingers. Sheâs such a good little baby, leaning back on his chest and sucking on her gummy calmly while her parents and uncle converse, big eyes just following whoeverâs talking. She smells like her baby shampoo from the bath Marisol just gave her, itâs calming to Grayson. He leans down to sniff the top fo her head to settle his anxiety. âI donât know how many times we have to have this discussion. So much of our life is public, and we chose it. Mari chose it to. But Pos didnât. I just wanna give her a chance.âÂ
âAnd thatâs fine. People have to respect that.âÂ
âNot everyone does,â Marisol exhales. âPisses me off.âÂ
âWeâve done a really good job of protecting her identity this far,â Ethan says. âWe just keep doing what we doing. Weâre in control of what we share.âÂ
Marisol and Grayson glance at each other, and then share a sigh as they nod.
Spend enough time in the spotlight, and people learn things about you. Where you like to eat and shop, who you like to hang around, what you like to wear, etc.Â
Make yourself and your life your business, and people now know a lot about you, and make it their business to exploit it.Â
And when it came to celebrity makeup artist and influencer, Marisol Ocasioâs child with Wakeheart CEO and Youtube sensation Grayson Dolan, getting a picture of something as simple as her face could guarantee a good paycheck for those who made it their business to violate privacy.Â
Living in Hollywood had worked out well for Grayson and his tiny family. Up in their house on the hill in Encino, close to his brother and closest friends. theyâd agree theyâd raise Mariposa in California since both of them had well-off careers in Los Angeles. And their neighborhood was a good one. People kept to themselves. There were both implicit and explicit understandings. In the year since Mariposa was born, both Marisol and Grayson had made it plainly obvious that they wanted to make sure she could live as normally as she could.Â
Literally, Grayson said it on a podcast:Â
âSo have you thought about how this is all going to work,â Ryan asked him. âAs far as raising a family in LA?âÂ
âYou mean like how much exposure sheâll get and stuff?â Grayson clarified. âMar and I talked about it. Basically we just want her to feel like a normal kid. I guess, sheâs not, but itâs not like she chose to have all these people watching her and stuff.âÂ
âBro, itâs weird for us when we get stopped and shit in public,â Ethan said. âImagine how confusing it would be for a little kid, all these strangers who know you but you donât know.âÂ
âYeah exactly. No. Absolutely not. Iâdâ Iâd go insane if I found my daughter in a situation like that. Especially so little. No.âÂ
âSo baby pictures?â Ryan asked. âVideos and vlogs? Are you gonna show her?âÂ
âNot for a bit,â Grayson said. âJust cover her face, not show full on shots of her, for the time being. Like we did with Mando. We just⌠I just think itâs the best way to go for now. Thereâs just some things I want to keep private.âÂ
âLike how fucking adorable my niece is,â Ethan said.Â
Like many instances, there were those that werenât happy with this information. And those that lacked the common sense and decency to respect those wishes, making it their personal mission to try to figure out what the hell Mariposa Dolan-Ocasio looked like. Zooming into pictures, taking calculated screenshots. The Dolans and anyone who knew them became experts at blocking camera angles when it came to being in public with Mariposa. Marisol had a carrier sheâd tuck her baby into that made it easy to walk around, Ethan and Cassie loved shutting the stroller, even Rudy made a game with his niece where heâd give her a funny hat to wear and theyâd both giggle their way past any possible snooping eyes.Â
But see, Grayson is a hands-on, protective father. He doesnât like carriers, doesnât like strollers, because he likes being close to his little girl. And with arms and strength like his, he could carry her around all the time. It was also her favorite place to be, tucked right into her fatherâs arms, no matter where they went. Whether it was shopping, or going on a walk around the town, or heading out for a meal, or hanging out with friends, Mariposa was content when she was being carried by Grayson.Â
It didnât take long for the masses to catch on, until the one evening that Marisol, Grayson, and Mariposa were coming out of the damn grocery store and straight into a swarm of photographers and cameras. There werenât many, only about three max, Hollywood Fix among them, as flashes went off and absolute, complete strangers started to call to a one-year-old Mariposa as if she might know who they are.Â
She didnât. Gasping, clamping her hands over her face as the flash hurt her eyes. Marisol grit her teeth. âHow in the world did you guys even get here?âÂ
âMarisol! Marisol!â a voice called from behind a camera. âYouâre looking well after giving birth. Drop the workout routine.âÂ
She was more than grateful for the bulky sunglasses that hid half her face. Grayson, however, was absolutely seething, and didnât have sunglasses to hide his expression of pure rage. Even the hood over his head did little to disguise him in full protective father mode as he held his daughterâs face to his chest, speeding up and cursing having parked on the curb around the corner.Â
âMari,â he murmured to his girlfriend. âTake the baby. Iâll take care of them.âÂ
It was his tone that gave him away, and the fact she could see his jaw flexing under his skin. Last time she saw and heard him like that, sheâd picked him up in a police station, and she wasnât about to do it again, or traumatize her child further by forcing her to watch her father black out and pummel three papsâ faces in. âNo. You hold her. Weâre almost there.âÂ
He took a breath, and flinched away from one of the men that followed them unashamedly. He held an arm out protectively, his tone deadly. âYo, man, back the fuck up.âÂ
âWe just want to know if she looks more like you or marââÂ
âI said back up, man. Sheâs just a kid. Youâre scaring her.âÂ
âMariposa! Mariposa, sweetie, look here! Hey!âÂ
âDonât talk to my daughter,â Grayson said sharply. âDonât address her.âÂ
âDoes she know about stranger danger yet?â Mr. Hollywood Fix laughed.Â
Grayson took a deep breath, tucking his nose into Mariposaâs curls. He felt her little fists tighten on the strands of his hoodie, and heard her little âPapiâŚâ in his ear that really set him off. If he wasnât physically holding her, heâd be throwing fists. Heâs grateful for her though, his little anchor through any storm. His arm tightened around her, squeezing her and kissing her forehead.Â
âIâm here, babe. Papiâs here. Just ignore them ok?âÂ
They followed the family all way to the car, cameras flashing even as Grayson set his daughter in her carseat and helped hi girlfriend load what little groceries they had: diapers and formula and vegetables. Grayson stood protectively and strategically as he closed the door to the Tesla, keeping his daughterâs identity intact through the extremely tinted windows she sat behind. Marisol got in the car too, but Grayson paused, turning to the sources with a hard face.Â
âListen to me,â Graysonâs voice was calm, but deadly. Anyone that knew him knew that was dangerous. âMy daughter is absolutely off limits. I donât want to see you near her, or near me, or my girlfriend, trying to violate our decision to keep her identity private, ever again.âÂ
âwhen weâre ready, weâll do what we need to do. But I swear to god, donât ever do this again.âÂ
âOr what?â Hollywood fix asked, zooming in on the father, who just smiled at him. That kind of frozen smile that sets you on edge.Â
Grayson just smiled at them. âDonât be cute.âÂ
And with that, he got in his car and drove away, glancing back at his daughter in her carseat over and over again while she played with her toys. Marisol took his hand, kissing his knuckles. âPapo.âÂ
âIf you wouldâve taken her, I wouldâve knocked some skulls together.âÂ
âI know,â she said. âthatâs why I didnât take her.âÂ
âShh,â she smiled, kissing his wrist. âweâre fine. Sheâs fine.âÂ
âPosie, mi amor,â Marisol craned her neck back for a good look at her. Mariposa just blinked big eyes at her mom, and gave her a little smile. âYou okay, princess?âÂ
Mariposa offered her the makeshift rattle Marisol had put together using a sealed sippy cups and some extra almonds she had in her purse on a particularly difficult day. âMama.âÂ
Marisol chuckles, reaching back to squeeze her daughterâs little foot before looking back at Grayson. âSee? Sheâs fine.âÂ
Grayson takes another breath, just for good measure. Marisol assists by rubbing a hand across his shoulders, massaging the back of his neck, leaning forward to kiss his arm. She smirked into his skin. âYouâre sexy when you go all protective papi on people.âÂ
That draws a breathless laugh from Grayson, whoâs shoulders relax as he raises an eyebrow at her. His hand finally falls on her thigh where it belongs, and he squeezes her knee, before sliding his hand up higher to squeeze her upper thigh. âyouâre going to go insane when you read my twitter rant about this tonight, then.âÂ
âWhereâs your phone?â she chuckled. âletâs call Ry and E over. I wanna watch you rage on the podcast.â she licked her lips. âwarm you up.âÂ
âyouâre something else,â he laughed, but leaned over to kiss her anyway. He glanced back at mariposa one more time. She gave him a big, dopy smile, four little teeth on display. He beamed. âAnd you? What are you?âÂ
She kicked her little legs. âPapi!â she squealed.Â