vermillion | ✫

lifeguards lobby | 4

Crowds move out of the way for the whistle, and George wastes no time sprinting down the pier with all acceleration possible.

This was his job.

"Move!" Dream calls, and the crowds around the barrier disperse, they watch expectantly, like something from a movie. It's not like a movie, reality hit harder.

George dives from the pier, crashing down into the waves with what little time he had left. Twelve in the afternoon, George and Dream at the scene first. They'd been walking down the pier together at break one second, and next their ears collected with screams as a girl was pushed into the barren waters.

"George!" Dream cautioned, and he watched the man bob up from the waters, "The rip!" And Georges face fell, but he took a large breath, diving under the waves to search for the girl. At first Dream wasn't so sure if he was alright, it had been thirty seconds and finally, the lifeguard appeared with the teenager. "Dream! The buoy!"

And the blonde quickly started untying the lifebuoy, a circular inflatable that was used to exactly these times, he throws it over the edge, and seconds later George has her secured within it, he says something to her, and Dream quickly helps her up the final ropes of the ladder.

"Are you alright? Can you breathe properly?" Sapnap questions and he sits her down, laying a hand over her forehead gently. She coughs, and smiles seconds later, giving him a thumbs up. He'd just got to the scene and started treating a cut from the pillars of the pier.

"Oi Lad, is the lifeguard good?"

Dreams heart plummets, and he quickly looks over the waters to see George struggling to get back to the water. "Quick, i need the buoy."

Sapnap nods and the girl unravels it from herself, letting out another string of salty coughs. It was Dream again who threw the lifebuoy, and George who grabbed onto the rope, fixating it around his body and letting Dream pull him closer to the ladder. "Got it!" And a few cheers are let out when George finally climbs up the ladder, laughing and shaking his head.

"Scared me there." Dream shared hesitantly, his voice is but a mere whisper, only loud enough for the brunette to hear, and he earns a scoff in return. "I knew what I was doing." He pauses, watching the crowds leave, and the girl is standing up and thanking the lifeguards. "But thank you." He says carefully, leaning into Dream ever so slightly before leaving.

"First saved life of the summer for Tower Seven." Sapnap grins, and he slumps an arm over Dreams shoulder, picking up the first-aid kit. "A week in and thats the first?" Dream scoffs, he's taken by surprise, how used to the rough beaches he was. Down here, Founders Beach was a breeze, with flags that had to be regularly moved, and he often found himself people watching because of how boring it could be.

"Things must've been real harsh in Miami, dude. Why did you move anyway?"

"Oh uh, groups of us did. Um, yeah." He lets out an anxious laugh, "Too many of us in Miami."

"Strange, usually they'd just do rosters." Sapnap shrugs, "Back to the tower? George is long gone."

He was long gone, his figure eased through the crowds before they had properly dispatched, and now as Dream looks for him, he spots tower seven in the near distance. Three guards sitting in a circle just in front, and one of them, a brunette who slips a red sweatshirt on. "He always wears that, I swear."

"It was Noahs."

Noah.

Noah? Who was Noah?

"He uh, did George tell you about him?" Sapnap laughs awkwardly and Dream can only shake his head, "Well come on, i'll catch you up in time before we even reach the tower.

The walk was not silent, careful words were spoken, and Sapnap spoke gently to the other. Through waves of salty airs, and blues that carried far beyond the horizon, words of vermillion were told.

"His name was Noah, the sixth person in our squad. He joined when George did when they were eleven, ran the group, took the leadership role."

"He was always the first to the scene, and acted quickly. Soft-spoken boy who grew into the twenty-two year old he is now."

Dream breathes out in relief, and Sapnap chuckles, "George made it sound like he died." Sapnap only shrugs, exhaling a laugh before continuing on. The two had just made it to the end of the pier, and was now sinking through the hot sand. "See the pier over there?" The two stop, and Dream looks to where Sapnap was pointing.

It wasn't hard to see, in fact, it stood over the water and was much taller than the other two piers.

(it would look like this i'd assume, but my dumbass wants a ferris wheel too.)

"Yeah."

"Group of teenagers went bombing last year, rip caught them and started sending them out. Wasn't particularly a nice day either. Anyway, the jet skis got taken out, and Noah didn't wait for anyone, he just left."

They started walking again, Dream searches the waters carefully, he noticed a blonde, one that stood waving to him by the waters edge. Tommy. A wave was sent back.

"Anyway, I don't want to get into it, but the rest of us arrived fairly quickly, we'd been doing tower swaps that week, so we were put in Tower Eleven."

"Which is the tower that looks after that pier?"

Sapnap nods. "One of the kids drowned, Noah wasn't lucky either, he was sent straight into the ambulance. George was, mad. Disappointed because he opted to take the other jet ski."

"I'd imagine they were close."

"Oh very, them and their useless flirting. George is like that, he'll flirt straight back and not even realise what it is, but yeah, I think they actually kissed, like once."

The two burst out laughing, and by then, they'd both arrived at the tower. The white paint cracking in the sun as each summer passed, and each of the lifeguards had some sort of task. Tina was cleaning the motored surfboards, one had just been used to help a man get back to shore. And both Karl and Quackity were inside the tower. George, where is George? Dream looked for the man, and sure enough he was just behind the tower.

With colours of vermillion sharpening his words.

❛ authors note ❜

Been trying to sort out the story a little more :)) Theres gonna be lots of cool scenes, and maybe angst-

Anyway! Thank you for like 70 reads???!!! HOLY COW THATS AWESOME. I legit wasn't thinking this would get any reads but here we are, nearly at the view goal and its not even October :DD

I was watching MCC this morning, and aside from October 2020's MCC, its definitely my favourite, like oh my god the teams were so good, and dreams POV for the win <333

Much love, hope you're all doing well, to my silent readers, y'all are awesome <33 And all love to my commenters/ regulars (from other books) :)