by Alex Tully
And then Zoe walked out the door.
***
It started out really well. The girl in charge was Heather, a junior at Ohio State who came back home for the summers. She was absolutely beautiful, but really down to earth. She made Zoe feel completely at ease. There were two other girls on her shift, also very pretty, who had worked there before—Zoe was the only new employee.
The Crystal Waters pool was a central meeting point for everyone who lived in the community. Rows of white lounge chairs lined the outer edges of an enormous rectangular pool. One end featured a rock formation with waterfalls that cascaded down the sides, framed by a row of cabanas, where the richest residents made their stake at the pool. Apparently, buying a cabana was like buying a small home.
Not surprisingly, the most desirable section to work was cabana row. Heather said the tips weren’t necessarily the best, because some of the richest people were also some of the biggest tight-wads, but it was definitely the easiest. The running around was minimal, and the patrons were regulars who knew exactly what they wanted.
And then there was the kiddie pool section, purposely placed as far away from cabana row as possible. It was also furthest from the Galley bar, where the orders were filled. And with Zoe being the newbie, the kiddie pool would be her section.
But thankfully, since it was her first day, Heather would work with her to show her the ropes. There wasn’t much to it. At first.
They walked around casually at the beginning of the shift and asked people if they needed anything, “How are you doing? Can I get you anything? Fresh towels, bottled water?”
Most people said, “No thanks. I’m good.” At first.
After about an hour, kids got a little cranky, and things got a little busier, “Miss, could you get me some goldfish crackers—oh, and the rainbow colors would be great.”
And then, “Miss, could you get me a couple of juice boxes—oh, and apple would be great.”
And then, “Miss, could you get me some sunscreen—oh, and the stick kind would be great.”
And then, “Miss, could you get me a vodka cranberry—oh, and Grey Goose would be great.”
And then, “Miss, one more thing, if you could get rid of this for me,” as they handed over a shitty diaper, “that would be great.”
Would that be great? Really?!
The word Miss was already starting to create an involuntary muscle spasm between her shoulder blades. Things had gotten chaotic in a hurry and she was starting to feel overwhelmed.
Heather must’ve sensed it, “Hey, don’t worry about remembering everything. It’ll get easier with time.”
Zoe hoped she was right because it felt like her head would explode. But she had no choice other than to keep moving, so she just followed orders, and didn’t stop.
Heather knew exactly who the drinkers were and what they drank. “Okay, so Mr. Peters is the guy over there, under the yellow umbrella.”
Zoe looked under the umbrella and saw a shirtless middle-aged man, “The guy with the man boobs?”
“Yep, that’s him,” Heather handed her a tray with a tall red drink on it, “he gets this Bloody Mary. And then you can go sign out, and get out of here.”
“Really?” Things had been so busy, Zoe didn’t even realize her shift was almost over.
“It’s your first day and we don’t want to give you too much to handle,” she smiled, “you did a great job, Zoe, I mean that.”
“I don’t feel like I did a great job.”
“I can tell you’ve got the right personality. You know how to handle people, that’s the most important thing. Sometimes you’ve got to be able to take a lot of crap from them too—are you okay with that?”
“Yep, I don’t take it personally,” Zoe was used to taking a lot of crap—her mom had trained her well.
“Exactly the mindset you need,” Heather said, “same time tomorrow?”
Zoe nodded, “I’ll be here.”
She was feeling pretty proud of herself. She’d made it through the first day, and Heather thought she did a great job. The residents seemed to like her, and she hadn’t majorly screwed anything up.
And no sooner had the thought left her head, when the unthinkable happened.
Just as she approached Mr. Peters’ table, a little boy with an evil smile and a giant water gun came out of nowhere.
And he shot her right in the face.
The force of the water stung her eyes, immediately blinding her. Her body flinched backward and she lost balance of the tray, the Bloody Mary splashing out all over her pristine white polo.
“Shit!” she yelled. Instinct, reflex, whatever…she yelled it. Loudly.
Everything stopped.
She could feel all eyes at the kiddie pool, on her. She was frozen in the middle of an eternal, awkward silence.
No, no, no…
And then the little brat with the gun began shouting as he danced around her, “She said shi—it! She said shi—it!”
CHAPTER 7
ETHAN
Ethan was walking out of the house to head over to the Sea-quester when Emma texted him: Can u bring my iPad to the pool? Thanks, bro!
He should’ve just kept walking. He should’ve texted her back and told her he was already gone, doing something—anything. But for whatever reason, he couldn’t lie to Emma. He didn’t say much, but when he did say something to her, it was always the truth.
He texted back: be at entrance in 5
When he got to the entrance of the pool his sister was nowhere to be found, no surprise there. He looked over the fence and scanned the pool area. It was crowded, no surprise there either, considering it was Memorial Day weekend.
He texted her again: where are you?
Emma: in the middle of big pool
Of course, where else would she be? That’s how his sister was—always looking for a crowd. She had absolutely no problem walking up to random strangers and striking up random conversations. The more the merrier with Emma.
To get to her, Ethan would have to walk right in front of a bunch of people. There was no way around it. Both rows of lawn chairs on either side of her were filled to the max.
He could feel the uncomfortable ache of a “what if” scenario starting in his head…what if he was walking in front of those people and…
He frantically started typing on his phone: come to the gate!
No response. He looked over the fence again.
Emma wasn’t even looking at her phone. She probably planned the whole thing. He would put money on it—that she planted herself right in the middle of everything on purpose. He would even bet she forgot her iPad deliberately. Anything to get him out of his comfort zone.
“Ethan!” she started waving at him, “Over here!”
Shit.
People started looking his way.
He took a step back, “Screw this.”
But just as he was about to turn around and get the hell out of there, he saw something by the kiddie pool that made him stop.
Not something. Someone.
Her.
The girl from the dock—brown hair, white shirt, blue skirt, carrying a tray. Holy shit, the girl from the dock was working there.
His need to escape instantly vanished, and he quickly went into stalker mode. He watched the dock girl as she followed closely behind Heather, repeating her every move. Probably in training, maybe even her first day.
“Ethan!” Emma would never quit.
His mind went blank, and he just started walking.
He walked through the entrance…into the main pool area…in front of the endless row of chairs, full of endless sets of eyes…around the deep end of the pool…and onto the other side.
He just kept walking and looking straight ahead—there was no stopping now.
Emma was leaning forward in her chair and waving her arms out to him. Her face was all smiles, probably feeling victorious. He would let his sister think her little plan worked, she didn’t need to
know his real motives.
“Here,” Ethan handed her the iPad. As if his body was on auto-pilot, he sat down in the empty chair next to Emma. Of course, she had saved him a seat.
“Thanks for this,” she held up the iPad, “I was dying to finish my book.”
Yeah right. He laid back in the chair and pulled his baseball cap low over his eyes. He left just enough space under his brim so he could still see what he needed to see.
From his vantage point, the view of the kiddie pool wasn’t ideal, but it would have to do—there was no way in hell he was moving again. When dock girl walked back to the Galley to get more drinks, he finally got a good look at her. She was even prettier up close.
She seemed nervous though, and he immediately felt a pang of sympathy for her. That job sucked—he’d spent enough time around the pool the last two summers to know that much.
He watched her load up a tray with Sprite cans and then carry it slowly, with both hands, back to the kiddie pool.
As Ethan’s eyes veered over to the cabanas, he quickly realized he wasn’t the only one watching her. There he was—Marty Crawford, aviators and all, his neck crooning over in her direction, his head moving where she moved. The asshole was definitely watching her.
Ethan had heard a lot of shit about Marty Crawford and the girls who had worked at Crystal Waters over the summers—girls who were young enough to be his granddaughters. The rumor was he liked to call them when he was drunk and give money to some girls on the side. He even hooked up with them on occasion.
And Marty was married, not that it would ever stop a guy like him. But his wife didn’t seem like the type to mess around with. Apparently, she had her own money and was just as vested in Crystal Waters as he was. And that was why they didn’t divorce.
Maybe mom and dad could get involved and help out—the hypocrisy was laughable.
Mom and Dad were known to the outside world as Pierce & Pierce, two of the most prominent divorce attorneys in Cleveland. They thrived on the persona of a married couple that would work together for both parties. Dad usually represented the women and mom would represent the men—that way it didn’t turn into a battle of the sexes.
They even had their own commercials where they appeared together, sitting on a couch in a modest but cozy family room—not their actual family room of course. The inside of the Pierce home wasn’t something they’d want money-conscious clients to see.
Looking relaxed but professional, they smiled into the camera. Dad, “Put the arguments and disagreements behind you. We can make your divorce a fair and seamless process.” Mom, “Our clients usually settle in half the time, because we work with each other,” a tilt of the head toward dad, “not against each other.”
And there were obviously a lot of divorcing couples who just wanted to be civil and get it over with, because the concept really took off. Mom and Dad were extremely successful and Ethan and Emma had lived a privileged life because of it.
They went to private schools, and went on amazing vacations, and even had their own healthy bank accounts. Everything was rainbows and unicorns.
Except for one thing—Mom and Dad’s marriage was a joke and had been for years. His parents may be good actors on TV, but in real life, they were much less convincing.
Before Ethan even realized he was saying it, the words came out, “Do you think Mom and Dad will ever get divorced?”
Emma sighed, “I don’t think so.”
“God that’s sad.”
“Yeah, well their whole business is built around the married couple thing, so…”
“I get that, but why put on a show for us, in private, at home? Do they really think we’re that dense? They’re just making asses out of themselves.”
“I don’t know,” Emma sat up in her chair, “maybe we should just call them out on it.”
“Maybe,” just then, he was distracted by dock girl coming back. She disappeared into the Galley and reemerged quickly with Heather and another tray. She definitely looked flustered and he had an overwhelming urge to go over and help her.
“You’re staring at her Ethan.”
“What?” Shit.
“The girl,” a stupid grin was plastered across Emma’s face, “working over by the kiddie pool—the cute brunette.”
“Okay Emma, whatever,” he could feel his face burning under his cap.
His sister wouldn’t give up easily, “Do you know her?”
He glanced over at dock girl, now walking back to the kiddie pool, “How in the hell would I know her?”
Emma shrugged, “I don’t know.”
They sat in awkward silence and he closed his eyes, afraid of letting them wander again. He never should’ve been so obvious.
“Well…” Emma started, “do you want to know her?”
“No!” Ethan sat up and gave her the meanest glare he could conjure up, “Don’t even think about it, Emma.”
But she wasn’t deterred, “I wouldn’t say anything about you, obviously,” she stood up.
“Emma, sit down now.”
“Why can’t I just find out—?” She stopped mid-sentence, “Oh shit.”
“What?”
He looked over to see dock girl, speed-walking from the kiddie pool area, looking like she was going to burst into tears. Her face was flushed bright red—which matched the bright red stains all over her shirt.
“On second thought,” Emma sat down, “maybe now isn’t such a good time.”
CHAPTER 8
PARKER
Parker was happy because Zoe was babysitting. He hated the term ‘babysitting’ because obviously, he wasn’t a fricking baby. She just came over and hung out with him—and got paid. They made popcorn and were playing Call of Duty. His Xbox was an older version—the 360, but it still worked fine.
Mom used to play Xbox with him all the time. She didn’t want to at first—she took one look at the controller and lost it, “Oh come on! Just looking at all of those buttons gives me a headache!”
But she eventually got the hang of it. They played a lot in the winter when it was too cold to fish. They would get under the super warm flannel blankets—because the trailer was always cold—and Mom would make hot chocolate and put lots of little marshmallows in it. They would play for hours.
And then, when Zoe started babysitting, he asked her to play. He loved playing with her because she was actually pretty good. She was still behind his level of course, but she was good enough to be on his team.
But tonight Zoe was in a bad mood. He asked her about her first day of work and she said it was fine, but he could tell it wasn’t.
Parker wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t want to work over there anymore. He’d snuck over to Crystal Waters a bunch of times—they had a super sweet pool, but the people over there were also super snobby.
“Is Meredith coming over?” He already knew the answer, but he had to ask.
“Yeah, in a little bit.”
Of course. She always had to come over. “Why do you even hang out with her? She’s sooo annoying.”
“C’mon, she’s not that bad, is she?” Zoe laughed.
“Uh, yes. Yes, she is.”
“She just likes to give you a hard time because she thinks of you as like, a little brother.”
He sighed, “Whatever…” But he wasn’t going to argue with Zoe since they had only precious minutes before she showed up.
And how awesome those three minutes were—just him, Zoe, popcorn and COD—until Meredith burst through the door and ruined it all.
“You talkin’ about me, Twerp?” she flopped down on Gram’s favorite chair like she owned the place.
He glared at her, “I wouldn’t waste my breath.”
She immediately started clicking away on her phone. One good thing—Meredith hated playing Xbox. “So have you recovered from the disaster at work?”
“Yeah,” Zoe sighed, “I’m over it.”
“Well, at least you didn’t yell ‘fuck’ instead of ‘shit
.’ Then you probably would’ve been fired.”
“Hello?” Parker wasn’t in the loop, “What happened Zoe?”
“Sorry Parker, I guess I just wanted to pretend like it never happened,” she paused, “I spilled this drink at work—you know what? Meredith can tell you the gory details.”
“You spilled a drink because one of those entitled brats shot you in the eyes with a water blaster!” Meredith yelled. “I would’ve kicked the little shit, swear to god.”
Zoe laughed, “And that is why you don’t work around children.”
Meredith was lucky, she had a cool job. She worked at the police station doing stuff for her dad.
Zoe wasn’t so lucky. And Parker knew she would pretty much put up with anything to make some money. Her mom, Debbie-downer, sure wasn’t gonna give her any.
“Speaking of little shits,” Meredith smiled, “How late do you have to watch Twerp, here?”
He wanted to kick her—right in the face, “Screw you, Meredith. And the name is Parker.”
“Um,” Zoe was still in game mode and hadn’t looked away from the screen, “I think a little after nine. That’s when Shirley usually gets home from bingo.”
Grams went to Bingo every Saturday night from five to nine. It was her one splurge, she said.
“Oh shit…” Meredith said quietly.
Zoe immediately looked over, “What?”
“Um…” Meredith hesitated, “I guess Amy Wyler—she works at the Outrigger…”
Zoe paused the game, “Yes, I know Amy works there…what?”
“She sent out something on Snapchat and it’s going viral…brace yourself.”
Uh-oh, that didn’t sound good.
“What?!” Zoe shouted, “Spit it out!”
Meredith bit her lip, “Uh…Amy is telling everybody that your mom is having a big rager after work, and from the looks of it, most of our high school will be there.”
Zoe’s face turned ghost white, “Oh my God! Are you kidding me?” She threw down the controller and pulled a blanket up over her head. “She’s unbelievable! Why do I have to have a mother that still thinks she’s a fricking teenager? Why?!”
