Matthew
I don’t care
Stay away from him
I tucked my phone back into my pocket without bothering to respond. Matthew’s text was a not-so-subtle reminder of what had happened between Charlie and me at the party a couple of years ago—along with my promise that it wouldn’t happen again. But I had bigger issues to deal with right now.
I nervously chewed on my lip as I walked towards the pool locker rooms. I had no idea what to expect from work today. I brought my bathing suit just in case I had to get in the pool, but I had no idea if I needed to or not. From what I remembered of last year, I did go in quickly for some reason, and knowing Courtney, she would probably make me do so again just so that I would have to wash my hair. She was incredibly petty like that.
The locker room was mercifully empty when I got inside, and I quickly changed into my bathing suit to be safe but pulled my clothes back on over it. I would feel stupid walking around in just my bathing suit when I wasn’t immediately getting in to teach a class—especially since Courtney and my manager, Kelly, would both be fully dressed—but I didn’t want to give Courtney any reason to accuse me of being unprepared, which she had donenumerous times before. To that end, I grabbed my whistle and a pen just to be safe.
There wasn’t a single person on the pool deck and I paused in the doorway for a second, just staring at the flat water. There was something about a totally empty and calm pool that called to me. After all, I became a swim instructor because I loved to swim, and right now that was all I wanted to do. But it was definitely against the rules for me to be in the pool with nobody else on deck at that moment. Besides, even if my boss had allowed me to go swimming today, she probably wouldn’t recommend doing it before sitting down for a meeting.
I sighed and turned to the left, heading for the office that stuck out into the middle of the pool deck. The walls were entirely glass, so I could see Kelly and Courtney sitting inside. They were sitting on the same side of Kelly’s desk, looking at her computer. I couldn’t see it easily from here, but I did see colored boxes that looked like they might be a schedule, and my impatient side reared its ugly head—I desperately wanted to know what I would be teaching this session, but I wouldn’t find out until the first day of lessons.
Last year, I tried to argue that it was unhelpful to us because we couldn’t plan our lessons in advance if we didn’t know the levels, but my manager shot back that there was little we could plan without first meeting and assessing the kids anyway. I didn’t have an argument against that since most of the classes we taught were private lessons tailored to each kid, but it didn’t make me want to know any less.
I had to circle around the far side of the office to reach the door that led onto the pool deck. It only occurred to me then that they were probably expecting me to come to the office door that led out into the hallway, next to where the change rooms were, since that was the way the desk was facing and that door was always propped open. But it was too late for that now, sincethey would see me awkwardly walking away if I tried to do that, so I pushed the door open a little and knocked on it with a loose fist. Both Kelly and Courtney’s gazes quickly shot to meet mine, though the expressions on each of their faces couldn’t have been more different. While Kelly looked genuinely happy to see me, Courtney looked like she was trying to kill me with her gaze alone.
“Madison!” Kelly said happily. She stood up and came around the desk to meet me. “Come in, come in! How are you?”
“I’m good, thank you,” I said. I awkwardly stepped all the way inside like she instructed, though I didn’t feel completely comfortable being in the room. I felt like with every step closer that I took, Courtney’s glare intensified. She didn’t really scare me, but she did put me on edge a little. “Uh, hey Courtney.”
“Madison,” she said coolly.
“I have some paperwork to go over with you,” Kelly said, “but I also need to make a phone call right now, so why don’t you and Courtney talk first? She can update you on everything that has changed since last year.”
I stared at Kelly with a frozen smile. I obviously couldn’t say no to her, but I had no idea how she could expect me to walk anywhere with Courtney. What was I supposed to say to a girl that clearly hated my guts? I wouldn’t put it past her to try to drown me during our meeting.
“Oh…” I said. Kelly continued staring at me, so I awkwardly tacked on, “…kay.”
“Perfect!” Kelly said. She turned to Courtney. “Just the same stuff you showed Penny this morning, okay?”
“Fine,” Courtney said sharply. She pushed her chair back so hard that I thought it must have left permanent marks on the floor and stood up.
“Penny’s working here again?” I asked. That wasn’t really surprising since she clearly loved the job so much, but I foundit interesting that she was coming back when Charlie wasn’t. Charlie got this job so he could work with Matthew in high school, then Penny got the job because it was convenient for her and Charlie to work at the same place. Why would Charlie quit if Penny was still working? Surely, serving at a restaurant didn’t pay more than being a lifeguard.
“Of course she is,” Courtney said. “Why wouldn’t she be?”
She swept past me and out the door before I could even begin to explain my reasoning. Courtney started leading me around the pool and explaining every small thing in there as if I was an alien who had never been on a pool deck before. It took everything in me not to scream when she explained the concept of starting blocks. Luckily, my attention was pulled away rather abruptly as some people entered the deck.
“Is that… Charlie?” I asked without thinking.
“What?” Courtney asked.
I jerked my chin toward the other end of the pool where a group of boys were walking out of the changing room, all dressed in bathing suits and lifeguard uniforms. It was hard to tell from this distance, but I was pretty sure the boy in the middle was Charlie. It was like I’d jinxed myself by telling Violet I wouldn’t see him.
I was so distracted by his sudden appearance that I wasn’t looking ahead of myself while I continued to walk. That came back to bite me when I tripped over Courtney’s leg, which had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, and fell forward.
There’s nothing more disorienting than falling into a pool when you’re not expecting it— it’s hard to hold your breath since you’re not prepared for it, you have no sense of up or down, and, as in my case, your clothes could weigh you down quite a bit. Luckily, all three of these things were discussed quite a bit in lifeguard training, so it didn’t take me too long to reorient myself and swim to the surface. I took a deep gasp of air as myhead broke the surface again. I couldn’t have been underwater for more than twenty seconds, but my lung capacity had always been crap, especially in situations where I couldn’t take a deep breath before going underwater, so my chest was burning, my head was spinning, and I felt like I had almost just drowned.
Coughing and sputtering, I swam to the pool’s edge and grabbed onto it as if my life depended on it. I looked up at Courtney, figuring she would at least be faking some concern for me, but she wasn’t even looking at me. She was staring at the group of lifeguards who were now watching me in concern—most notably, Charlie.
seven
“Oh my gosh!”Courtney said in a fake voice, holding a hand up to her mouth like she was shocked. She wasn’t fooling me, but I doubted she was trying to if where her eyes were pointed was any indication. “Are you okay, Madison?”
“Did you really just push me into the pool?” I snapped. I pulled myself out, cringing at how my jean shorts were weighed down by the water. I immediately pulled them off, so I was standing in just a bathing suit. I didn’t totally hate standing in a bathing suit without anything over—it was a pretty major part of my job—but it felt weird to do so when I knew I wasn’t going to be getting in the pool anytime soon, which was why I was wearing the shorts in the first place. I was just glad that I’d had the foresight to take my phone out of my pocket before I came onto the pool deck. I never, ever brought my phone out here for this exact reason, but I knew a lot of people who didn’t share my concerns and had ruined their phones by doing so.
