Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 107673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Then the national news got wind that I was a Richmond. AOL’s AIM and Yahoo chat groups filled with details about me. Without realizing it, I gained a following. So much so the local news let up on us, congratulating my parents on raising me in such a grounded, responsible way. Inadvertently saying something positive about the resort.
My dad was very proud and happy with me.
I, in return, was forced into a summer job, regardless of my qualifications.
Think positively. My tan was coming along nicely. After the first few hours on the first day, I’d taken my tank top off. The shorts weren’t speedos, but I wouldn’t have called them shorts either. They didn’t hide much.
Also, the sun added natural sun-blond highlights to my hair.
Another downside, the chicks—not really a word I used to describe females, but they referred to themselves that way. The ones who lay on the loungers and walkways all around me made me self-conscious and nervous. I felt like prey, and they were predators. When I relocated to the next guarding point, they followed, stretching out there too.
My father kept saying I should take it as flattery.
Maybe, but I couldn’t get there.
“Dasham,” Tamara, another lifeguard, said, drawing my attention to her as she came up behind me. I went for my shirt, towel, and water bottle, preparing for the next cycle. “They’re calling you up front.”
“Why?” I asked, shoving a hand through my tank top to pull it over my head.
“Don’t know. Go up front and find out. They’re taking you out of rotation,” she said, dismissing me. She dropped her towel on the concrete walkway and squirted a large amount of sunscreen on her forearm.
“Why?” I asked again.
Tamara had the standard lifeguard vibe. She was older than me and had real training. All she did was look at me as if I were dumb and shook her head. Where the public loved me, the other lifeguards considered me privileged and unworthy of the job. They weren’t wrong.
“I still don’t know why,” she quipped.
As I walked across the pool area, I made a quick detour to drop my towel and company-issued water bottle into the recycle bin. I removed my visor, running my fingers through my hair. I’d stop in the locker room on my way. Everything I wore, down to the water shoes, was designed to fit well and not hinder me in the water. I didn’t normally believe in baggy clothes and certainly didn’t wear any, but I felt barely dressed as I pushed through the resort’s swimming pool entrance.
I was surprised to be met by my brother, Collin, the sibling closest to my age. “You’re a douche,” he greeted in his standard way. His entire life’s focus this summer was to give me shit. Collin believed he should have been the baby of the family. I messed it all up on my arrival, and never heard the end of it.
“Why am I now?” I asked, glancing past him to see the rest of my family standing in the main foyer of the resort, directly down the hall from us.
“I don’t know why you’re a douche, but you can’t seem to shake it, can ya?”
“What’re they all doing down there?” I asked, barely paying him any attention as I stepped past him and started toward the employee locker room to change.
Even being in the resort at the same time, the family was rarely ever together. Something big must be going on.
“Waiting on your douchey ass.” Collin walked the few steps to the long windows showcasing the swimming pool. “You’ve got all that tail running after you. Why haven’t you tapped any of them?”
“Why’re they waiting for me?” I asked again. Whatever drew his focus, released him. A mischievous grin tugged at the corners of his lips.
“Why do you look so scared? What did you do?” Collin asked, laughing at me as his gaze did a full-body scan. “You should fix your hair.”
“Let me go change real quick,” I said, letting the visor hang on my arm as I ran my fingers through my hair again.
“There’s no time.” Collin grabbed my forearm tightly and started to drag me down the hall toward my parents.
“Tell me what’s happening,” Panic rose, knowing Collin loved the worry in my voice.
Joy, my niece who was sixteen, met us about halfway to the foyer. With a practiced WWE move, I yanked my arm free of my brother. The three of us came together, walking stride for stride. Joy never missed a beat. The opulence of the main part of the resort made me woefully underdressed. The dress code didn’t allow anyone in swimming attire to be outside of the pool area.
The thing about Joy was that she might possibly be my best friend in the family, but she liked to give me shit as much as Collin did. “You know, you’re officially a douche after what happens next.” She gave me a side wink, letting me know she was teasing.