Chapter Two
Chapter Two
It was my second day of lifeguarding, but my shift didn’t start for a few hours. The closing shift lasted from four o’clock until eight, but I’d been told that it usually went a little later. Taking the late shift was a risk. I’d have to eat dinner during my snack shack time, and I probably wouldn’t get back home until around ten o’clock. But maybe it’d be okay. I’d gotten pretty lucky with my morning coworkers, so who’s to say my evening ones wouldn’t be as good?
Anyways, this Tuesday afternoon was going to be spent filling in my friend Amy on everything she’d missed during her two week vacation. And boy had she missed a lot.
I was meeting Amy for lunch at this popular greek place. She was my only friend that liked greek as much as I did. I’ll admit that my tastes were a little strange. I liked obscure foods, like fallafel, stir fry and brussel sprouts. My favorite food was easily sushi, but no one I knew shared that love.
As I entered the building, I spotted Amy already sitting at a table in the corner. She waved me over with her menu. I walked to the table and sat down.
“Hey!” she said, “What's up?”
“Nothing much. How was vacation?” I took a menu and looked through the options.
“Good…”
Amy spent the first two weeks of summer in the Bahamas every year. I envied her. I only went on vacation on special occasions. And I had a feeling I wouldn’t be going anywhere any time soon.
“I hope I didn’t miss anything major,” She said. I smiled sympathetically. She’d have a lot to catch up on.
“You missed… a lot.”
“Uh…” She looked worried now. “Nothing bad, right?”
“Some of it is.”
“Well spill it!”
I laughed and put my menu down. “First of all, I’m a lifeguard now.”
“Oh, right. How’s that?”
“Good so far.”
“How ‘bout your coworkers? Anyone good?”
“A little…” Anyone who knew Amy knew what the word ‘good’ meant to her. But I was hesitant to tell her about Brendon. I knew she’d disapprove.
“Who??”
We were interrupted briefly by a waiter, who took our orders. He walked away with our menus, and Amy eagerly leaned across the table.
“Laura McCoy, Donny Frost, and…” I hesitated.
“And?”
“Brendon Moreno.”
She wrinkled her nose. I guess she missed his breakup too. “Uh, I hope you don’t plan on pursuing any of them…”
“Aw, come on. Brendon’s cute.”
“Isn’t he with Jennie? Or did I hear they broke up…?”
“They’re over. He’s actually pretty nice.”
“Really? And how do you plan on seducing him? Isn’t he straight?”
“He keeps flirting with me.”
She shook her head, clearly a little disappointed by my choices. “Well whatever. What else?”
“Reuben’s grandpa died.” Reuben was one of our best friends. His grandfather passed away a couple weeks ago.
“What?”
“And my parents are getting divorced.”
“WHAT???”
I’d seen the divorce coming for months. My parents were always going to unspecified appointments, avoiding the subject whenever I brought it up. They weren’t the kind of people to fight. Their split hadn’t been loud, which oddly made it more painful for me. There was always an air of ambiguity when I spoke to them about it. They’d waited months to break the news, leaving me guessing all winter and spring. It was always a guessing game with my parents.
“My dad’s moving out in July.”
“Ah.”
I’d live alone with my mom. He’d visit and I’d stay with him every other weekend. That was his plan. But I had work on Sunday mornings and as a seventeen year old almost-adult, I wasn’t keen on having bi-weekly sleepovers with my father in a tiny apartment.
Amy and I ate our lunches fairly quickly. We talked about everything we could think of. She told me about her brief romance with a foreign traveller named Tyler. I told her about my many failed attempts at love. My love life was far from lucky. But I was hoping it’d improve soon.
I was in somewhat of a hurry to get to work today. Amy and I quickly said our goodbyes before I ran to my car and sped away. My shift was starting in about a half an hour, but I had to stop at home and change first. Loud music blared from the car radio as I drove home. I couldn’t hear my own thoughts. But maybe that was a good thing.
I pulled into the driveway, carefully avoiding my dad’s car, which was permanently stationed there. He worked from home every day. He was an architect and he did most of his work in a small office in our basement. I didn’t know where he was planning to do work when he moved out, but I assumed he’d have plenty of room.
The door was unlocked when I got to the house. My parents stood in the kitchen, quietly talking to each other. I tried to ignore them (I didn’t have time to eavesdrop). After quickly changing clothes and saying a fast hello to my parents, I left the house. They continued to chat next to the counter. Who knows what it was about.
The club wasn’t busy today, and I found a good parking spot pretty easily. There were about ten minutes before my shift, so I sat in the car, listening to music. My car was very special to me. It was my mom’s, and she passed it down to me on my seventeenth birthday. I practically grew up in the thing. We’d taken so many road trips and weekend vacations in this car. Most of my memories in it weren’t so great, but they were still memories.
I nodded along with the music and pulled my phone out to text Claire. She’d told me she would spill all the information about my new coworker soon. I was dying to know why he broke it off with Jennie. The incident was infamous by now. Everyone knew they were over, but no one knew why.
The time came to leave my car and go to work. It was a cloudy evening. Not too hot either. I could see why the place was so empty. I showed the guards my card and walked down the path to the pool. The coworkers in this shift were going to be different from the ones from yesterday. This was slightly upsetting, but I could deal with it. As I approached the gate, I peeked at the guards from the previous shift, who were still working.
Before going to the shack, I stopped at the break room. It was a small room next to Pam’s office where we hung our coats and ate lunch sometimes. The two rooms were behind the bathrooms and showers. There was a TV in there that was permanently tuned to the weather channel and a few random chairs scattered around. No one really went there. Most of us just kept our stuff in the snack shack.
I opened the door and walked in. The TV buzzed with news about clouds. No rain. But there will be some next week. This excited me. Rain was a guard’s best friend.
“Hi Emmett.” I turned around and spotted Brendon, who had just come in. I guess he had the same idea as me. “You work this shift too?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I only have opening and closing shifts.”
He smiled and walked to the TV, glancing at the forecast. His eyes lit up at the news of next week’s storm. “Oh, same. Opening on Monday, Friday, Sunday? Closing Tuesday and Thursday?”
“Yup,” I answered. We’d have every shift together. This was very good news. He seemed to like the idea too.
Soon, we left the break room to take over the pool. Donny and Laura were already in guard chairs, basking in the remaining sun. Both my shifts would be spent with Brendon (and the others). I was happy about this, and Brendon even smiled when he saw our other coworkers.
“I guess you’re stuck with me all summer,” he joked as we sat down. “Good luck with that.”
I laughed and slid my sunglasses out of my hair, then onto the bridge of my nose. “Good luck with me.” He leaned back in his chair, stretching his arms behind his head. My brain begged my eyes to look away. But I couldn’t pull my attention away from him. This was going to be a very long summer.
Thirty minutes past eight, it was finally time to close. The last of the pool-goers walked through the gates, leaving us to close up. I was nervous about this (for the same reason I was nervous about opening). I took the keys out of my pocket and everyone else stared at me in awe.
“What?” I asked as they watched me shuffle through the keys.
Donny’s eyes were wide. “Where’d you get the keys?!” He sounded shocked and betrayed. I wouldn’t trust him with the keys anyways. But I’m sure if he was on time yesterday he’d have the keys instead.
“Pam gave ‘em to me,” I answered. His jaw dropped and Laura complained about their lack of responsibility. I exited the shack and started to lock up. “Can you guys do something? Or are you just gonna watch?”
“What can we do?” Brendon asked.
“I dunno, clean? Organise snacks?” I suggested as I locked the men’s bathroom. They all stared at me blankly, as if I was insane. I glared and finished locking up. They eventually moved around some boxes and fixed a membership display.
The sun was just starting to set now. The summer nights of June were short and cool, the days long and hot. I wished the day could be as temperate. I guess that’s why we had pools though. If I could actually swim during my shifts, I’d be fine with the heat.
“Can I close the gates?” Donny asked, glancing between the keys and the pool entrance. I was happy to let someone else do work, so I tossed him the keys and grabbed my bag and sweatshirt. Donny successfully closed the gate, and now we just had to lock up the snack shack.
“Are you guys off tomorrow too?” Laura asked as I pulled the metal window down.
“Yeah, I am,” Donny said.
“Me too,” Brendon added.
“Me three,” I continued. Laura laughed and commented on our shared schedule, suggesting that we should all hang out on off days. The rest of us quickly agreed that we didn’t need to spend any more time with each other.
We all walked to our cars together, watching the sun set over the offices next door. Donny and Laura flirted blatantly, while Brendon and I chatted about the shift. I was glad everyone was getting along, but I still needed some information. Claire’s story would determine if Brendon was really worth pursuing.
“Goodnight,” I called as I jumped into my car. I tossed my bag onto the passenger seat and started the car. Soft music emanated from the radio in contrast to the usual obnoxious pop. I didn’t mind this, and I began to drive away, waving to Laura as I pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street.