by Terra Kelly
As I turned to walk back to where Ally was still sunbathing, the guy tried to lure me back. I wasn’t buying what that fucker was selling. Ever.
“I’ll show you how to use a paddle board,” a voice said from behind me. I turned around and came face to face with that creepy guy from earlier.
“No thank you.” I was starting to hate the beach.
“Are you sure?” he said from behind me as I quickly walked away.
“Very sure.” I increased my pace to get away from him. He must’ve got the picture because he didn’t follow behind me. “Well, never mind,” I said and dropped to my knees beside Ally.
She lifted up onto one elbow and shaded her eyes with her hand. “Never mind what? Where’s the paddle board?”
I let my body fall back onto the sand. “They don’t rent. Oh, and apparently six hundred is cheap to buy one.”
“Buy one?” she repeated. “Why the heck would you buy one?” She reached in her bag to pull out her wallet and stood up. “Fuck that.” Ally was one of those friend’s you wanted in your corner at all times. She never took no for an answer. “Come on.” She reached for my hand and tugged me up until I was standing beside her.
“It’s okay, Ally. I promise.”
“You’re here to relax and recharge.”
“I can do that swimming or laying on a towel beside you.”
“Nope.” She looked over at me and wrapped her arm around my waist. “What my Gabs wants, she gets.”
I leaned my head against hers and squeezed her hand. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” She kissed my cheek. “Is that the guy you talked to?” She pointed toward the hut with the very same guy.
“He’s the one.” I had a feeling the guy would regret trying to sell me a paddle board when he technically did nothing wrong. Ally knew how to tap into your emotions and somehow she always got what she wanted.
Was the paddle board even worth all this trouble?
My dear friend seemed to think so.
It wasn’t really about the paddle board anymore though. It was the principle.
Four
Leslie
“You can’t have single use plastic items on the beach ma’am?” I was making my way around the beach checking to see if everyone was following the rules. “They sell reusable water bottles in the hut over there.” I pointed to the small building where every beach item known to man was displayed.
“I can’t afford it.”
“Did you go over there already?”
“No,” the woman said and leaned back in her folding chair.
I was about to say more but stopped myself. “You’ll need to take it back to your vehicle,” I said over my shoulder as I passed the woman. From the corner of my eye I could see her head lift at my words. “The sign at the entrance to the beach shares all the rules and regulation.”
“Fuck you,” she ground out.
Did the women come together this morning and discuss how they could be the perfect asshole? It was starting to become a trend today. There had to be a few good women left on the beach.
As I wandered around my section of the beach my eyes caught sight of something. Well, more like someone. The woman in the red brimmed hat was carrying a large green and blue paddle board toward the water’s edge. Carrying was the wrong word. It was more like dragging it behind her and dropping it several times.
“Are you watching the same woman?” Cal said and stepped up beside me. He was the other lifeguard on duty. Our stations were not far from each other.
“This could be entertaining to watch or end very badly.” I couldn’t take my eyes off the woman. The friend she was with earlier walked up behind red hat lady and tried to pick the board up. Somehow the woman stumbled back and fell on her behind. Then magically her bikini top slid down exposing one breast.
“I’m going with entertaining.” Cal crossed his arms over his chest.
“We should go help them.” I said the words but never moved from my spot.
“Yeah, we should.”
Red hat lady placed her hand over the woman’s breast that was exposed. They both had smiles on their faces and suddenly were in fits of giggles.
“They may not want a man interrupting their fun.” They did look really close. It was possible.
“Why are the good ones always taken?” Cal mumbled and walked away.
I couldn’t take my eyes off the women. The one was not exposed anymore and red hat lady had helped her friend to a standing position. Now they were both carrying the paddle board in an awkward position into the water.
Instead of making my way over to the women, I walked back to my station and grabbed the binoculars. The day had finally improved thanks to red hat lady and over exposed woman. Paddle boarding wasn’t hard but if you weren’t coordinated it could become interesting.
There were people I had observed that just were not meant to paddle board. Every time they would try to stand up, they would lose their balance and fall forward. Every. Time.
I was curious to see if the woman would prove me wrong and quickly figure it all out. Just at that moment, exposed woman turned with the paddle and knocked over red hat lady.
Odds were not in their favor at the moment.
Five
Gabby
“Seriously, how do they make paddle boarding look so easy in the videos?” I glanced down at the red spot on the center of my thigh where the paddle hit me. That would turn into a pretty bruise for the week. “And how the hell do you do it every time. You need to teach me oh wise one.”
“There was a sign for renting equipment. It was hiding behind the sunglasses’ display.” Ally sat the paddle on the board. “The asshat was just having fun messing with you.”
“Wait,” I stood up and brushed the sand off. “How did you know they rented out the items?”
“They always rent out equipment,” she shrugged her shoulders.
“Why do men have to be such dicks.”
She laughed and wrapped her arm around my waist. “Because they think with them.”
I laughed and leaned my head against Ally. “I missed you.” It had been way too long since we had time together. Now I was dragging her ass onto a paddle board when she would much rather be sunbathing safely on the beach. “Maybe this was a dumb idea.”
“What was?” She started to wade out into the water with the board.
“Getting a bug up my ass about paddle boarding.”
“Well.” She reached for my hand. “The bug is squarely up there, but I get it.” She grabbed the paddle and placed it on the board. “We can sunbathe anytime together. I’m excited to try something new with you.”
“You’re not just saying that?”
She paused for a beat before finally answering. “Well…”
“Oh hush, I covered my hand over her mouth.” It was hard not to laugh. We were standing in the ocean with the water thigh high. “I have a feeling we need to get on the board here.”
“I still can’t believe I let you talk me into this.” She climbed up and sat down in the middle of the board.
“Technically I didn’t.”
She pushed at my arm. “Just get your ass up here.”
“I’m really glad they had a board for two people.” Then I followed suit and climbed up. I grabbed the paddle and sat on my knees getting ready to stand. “I can’t believe how you went all Kill Bill on the guy. We didn’t have an option about grabbing the board after that show. We would’ve looked like the asshats if we just said fuck it and decided to sunbathe instead.”
“I prefer to say, I went all Uma Thurman on the fucker.” Ally brushed her hand back and forth in the water.
“Ally, if you went Kill Bill on someone then you would be The Bride not Uma.”
“The Bride does sound more dramatic than saying Uma Thurman.”
I had a feeling anyone in earshot would start to wonder about us. We had conversations like this on a daily basis back in high school. She wasn’t
much for specifics, whereas I was. Plus, we watched way too many movies.
“Okay, you ready?” She reached out her hand to help me as I attempted to stand.
“No, but okay.” I grabbed her hand to steady myself. “This may end up being one of the dumbest ideas of my life.”
“I still think that rock climbing trip was your dumbest idea.”
“Thanks for the reminder.” I was wobbling back and forth. “Chris Andrews was worth the fall.”
The memory of clinging onto a fraction of the 600-feet of granite at Stone Mountain State Park made me giggle. I could still feel my nails digging into the rock as I cried like a baby. Chris’s face was vivid in my mind. He was standing beside me and told me to just step down. I had only climbed up maybe a foot. After that embarrassment Chris found a few excuses to why we shouldn’t hang out anymore. If I remembered correctly, his one reason was because he had to visit his Grandfather every weekend for the foreseeable future. Funny part, Chris didn’t have Grandparents.
“Focus, sweetie.” Ally still had a hold of my hand.
“Stop bringing up old memories.” I used the paddle to steady myself and carefully let go of her hand. “What was I thinking?” The water was thankfully calm, but I still managed to get up in my head and found myself shaking.
“Gabs, take a deep breath and count to ten, but slowly.”
“How is that going to help me?” I cleared my throat and started to count to ten. “Sorry.”
“Maybe I should get off and let you experience this without me.”
“No,” I yelled. “Don’t you dare move.” I pointed the paddle at her face. “I got this.”
It felt like everything went in slow motion at that moment. Ally didn’t listen to my protest and slowly slid off the board. Right as Ally’s body was all the way off, I lost my balance. Not that I was feeling very steady when she was on with me, but when her weight left everything went to shit. I tried to use the paddle to right myself but the blade slipped on the pools of water around my feet. The action caused me to naturally try to stop my body from following suit and slipping, too. I ground my feet down on the board and squatted slightly to get my body in a good position that could maybe stop a fall. Unfortunately, the moment I moved my body down a fraction everything that could go wrong, went wrong.
I felt myself fall forward and my head slammed into something hard.
That’s all I remembered.
Six
Leslie
“Oh, this is going to be good.” I mumbled to no one. After making my rounds and checking on everyone, I was back at the station watching the beach.
My eyes had locked onto red hat lady who was struggling to hold a large paddle board with her friend as they walked toward the ocean. The women were obviously just as amused as I was because they were both laughing nonstop.
“Are you watching this shit?” Cal walked up the ramp and leaned against the railing.
“Can you be more specific?” I was sitting in my chair with the binoculars. “There are a lot of people here.”
Cal bent down beside me and pointed. “You’re looking that way. The two women. You see them, right?”
“Yup, I sure can.” I sat the binoculars on my lap. “They’re on my side, too.”
“We’ll see who can reach them first.”
We had this fight on a regular basis. If a pretty lady had an accident, who would take care of them first. The fucker better not touch red hat lady. She was mine.
“Shit,” Cal reached back to grab the second pair of binoculars hanging on the wall. “Did she almost fall?”
I stood to get in a better position and adjusted my binoculars. “Not yet, but I’m guessing any second now.”
“They’re laughing about something.”
“They’ve been laughing since they got the board at the hut.”
“There are two.” He glanced over at me and shrugged his shoulders. I knew what he meant, but I hated to share.
“The brunette’s mine.” I sounded so controlling and yet that wasn’t in my nature.
“That’s fine by me.” He looked through the binoculars again. “Wait.”
“What?” I peered through mine, too. “Oh shit, this may actually end up being a two-man job.” Just as I said the words the woman I claimed started to wobble. “She’s going to go down.” I grabbed the rescue can and started to run their way.
“And she’s down,” Cal yelled. I could hear him running behind me to catch up.
“Shit.” I said and picked up the pace.
When I reached the area where they were at, all I could see was the woman yelling and then she bent down to reach for something. I ran into the water. They weren’t far from the shore which concerned me. If red hat fell in an awkward way she could hit the bottom easily.
“Help,” the woman yelled and pulled her friend close to her body. “She’s not answering me.”
“Are you okay, ma’am?” I had to ask the conscious one first before tending to the unconscious woman.
“I’m fine. Just help, Gabby, please.”
Gabby. That was much better than calling her red hat. I carefully grabbed Gabby out of the woman’s arms and made my way to the beach. As I was about to lay Gabby down, she started to wake back up. “What the hell?”
“Don’t move.” I rested my hand on her shoulder. “You had a pretty significant fall and may have hit your forehead pretty hard.”
“I’m fine.” She tried to fight against my hold and lift her body up.
“Gabs, stop moving. Listen to what he’s saying to you,” the friend said and knelt down beside her. “He’s here to help.” As she said those words I noticed her wink. “Listen to what he tells you.”
Gabby looked over at me and then back at her friend. “Um, sure.” Then she winked back at the friend. What was this shit? Did they have some secret code they were speaking at the moment?
“Can you tell me how many fingers I’m holding up?” I was holding up three.
“Five,” she said and started to laugh.
“Gabs, be serious.” The woman shoved at her arm.
“Okay, okay, three.”
Just then the two on-duty EMT’s ran over. “She fell off the paddle board and it looks like she hit her head on the way down,” I said and stood up.
“Wait.” Gabby reached her hand up, “What’s your name?”
“Les,” I took her out-stretched hand. “They’re going to take you to the hospital to check you over. If you want, I can store the paddle board in my station?”
“We did rent it for the week,” the woman said and followed beside Gabby as the EMT took her to the back of the ambulance.
“You can burn the fucker,” Gabby groaned. “I can check paddle boarding off the bucket list and move onto the next item.” I wondered what the next item on her list was, which was not where my mind should be currently.
The friend looked over. “That would be great. I’ll stop by tomorrow and grab it.”
I could’ve returned the board back to the hut, but it was the perfect way to see them again. I’m not sure why I had the urge to see them. Hell, I didn’t even know who they were. They could have boyfriends or husbands at home waiting for them.
“You know you could return the board yourself?” Cal said as the ambulance pulled away.
“And why would I do that?” I didn’t stop to discuss the topic. I needed to get back to the station to fill out the incident report. The board was an awkward size but I slid it under my arm. When I reached the top of the ramp I noticed Cal making his way over. “Let me guess, you got her name?”
“Ally.” He lifted his hand up to flash a number written on his palm.
I didn’t say anything. The guy was a lifeguard for one reason, to rescue the girl…and then hopefully fuck her. That felt extreme to me. Sure, I was tired of being single but my goals were much different…kinda.
The board was getting heavy, so I perched it up against the wall inside the station and walked over to the d
esk. I pulled out the chair and sat down. Leaning back, I thought about what I did want in a woman. Someone who was strong, independent, and funny. Funny really was number one on the list.
I sat up and rested my elbows on the desk. This was crazy. My job didn’t entail daydreaming about the perfect woman. I was there to protect and rescue when needed. Why did I have my head all wrapped around this one woman? I grabbed the paperwork I needed to fill out and walked back out to the deck area. There was still two hours before I could leave. I needed to focus.
I sat down and tried to fill out the form. The woman was messing with my mind. Her head falling back and laughing played over and over, and now I really needed to find a solution for my damn blue balls.
Seven
Gabby
“Did you hear his name?” I thought about how my dreams were pretty fantastic last night thanks to one specific lifeguard. I grabbed the Jell-O off my lunch tray and dug the spoon into the container.
“Les.” Ally sat down on the end of the bed and reached for the fruit cup.
“This is my lunch.” I was teasing of course. “Les. I wonder if it’s short for something.”
“Like maybe Lester.”
“Or Leslie.”
“That’s a women’s name.”
I sat the Jell-O on the tray. “Ally, really?”
“What? It is.”
“Don’t you think you’re being a little biased? There are names that can be for both sexes.” I scrapped my spoon in the bottom of the container to get all the Jello-O pieces. “The poor guy rescues me and all we care about is his name.”
“What? It’s an important topic,” Ally said and sat the empty container back on my tray. “Now we need to make sure to go back and grab the paddle board. I want to find out his full name.”
