The Hot Mess of Kristiana Washington (HIATUS)

Chapter 3: |Current|

A/N: Sorry the chapter is so short, folks. I'm uninspired.

Caine Abeley was currently leaning on the Lifeguard stand, making Dahlia incredibly nervous. Scarlet Daiquiri wasn't known to be frivolous with its money (despite being pretty damn prestigous as prestigous goes in such a hick state), and it appeared that keeping their (four) lifeguards and (measley one) lifeguard-in-training was quite frivolous. Case in point- the stability of the stand was questionable, and Caine was extremely tall and muscular for his age. Unfortunately for him, his soft jaw, feminine face, and too-huge eyes gave him a disadvantage when it came to scoring with the older women. Not like his Catholic upbringing would actually allow him any "scoring," anyway.

"Um, Abeley? Sweetie? Can you please stop leaning on the stand and leave the premises? The club doesn't open for another 5 hours." Caine snorted, and winked at Dahlia Hollands. Gross. He was 14, she 17. The thought of anything happening between them sent shivers down Lili's spine.

"Chillax, Lili. It's not like I'm gonna stand there and watch you fall, but it's alright because I lo-" Caine's obnoxious song reference was cut short by a light kick to the face, dotting his touseled auburn hair with specks of sand.

"Go over there with Nicholas, babyface. I'd appreciate it if you would stay out of our way as we're trying to set up, and please, stop acting like an ass. It'd be a huge help." The two grinned at each other. Both hailing from Edisto island, they knew the other as young children. Nobody really disliked anyone on that island.

"You got it, blondie." Strawberry blonde, technically. As Lili was about to correct him on this, Nicky (who was substantially blonder than Dahlia, the fact of which somehow irritated her) rushed over to Caine, grinning at his bromantic best friend.

"Hey, dude. Glad you could make it." Caine bro-hugged Nicky and returned his grin.

"You think I'd miss the opportunity to see Lili bounce around in a bikini? Heck, naw. The Lally's love me enough to let me in early, anyway." The two boys skirted away from Lili's stand before she got the sense to get down there and beat their asses.

"You need to stop teasing her like that, bro. You know Lili's too dinghy to realize if you're being a serious pervert or not." Caine shrugged, patting some sand out of his hair.

"You need to loosen up, bro, take my example, and find yourself a girlfriend. Everybody thinks we're a closet case. My dad even took me aside at Mass last week and told me that if I stopped skipping confessional and actually offered to pray at dinner, he'd try to 'cure' me if only I would work with his sorry self." Nicky laughed outright at this, it was too damn funny! Especially as Caine was, even though you wouldn't notice at first glance, very religious and proud of his Catholicism, which differed from the Baptist and Methodist majority of the south.

"God, that's freakin' ridiculous! Don't he live in Summerville? How does he know, anyway?" Dodging a shove from Caine, Nicky shoved his hands in the pockets off his swimtrunks and strolled along along the cresting waves. 

"Geez, slow down! Anyway, yeah. You really need yourself a love interest. And a tan. Maybe even a four-pack, at the least. You're pretty damn scrawny, you know that?"

"Oh really? Caine, I might not be absurdly muscular and tall for my age, but at least my face doesn't make me look like some sort of conflicted butch lesbo. Plus, girls like big words." Caine saw his "absurd"  muscles and height an advantage. If not for swimming and football, he really would look like an extremely confused, extremely androgynous (how Nicky describes him on occasion) teenager. And who needs big words? He couldn't pull off the "cute dork" facade if his life depended on it.