Riptides (Jalex)

Chapter 2

Jack rolled up to the station at midday the next day; the December sun was high in the sky and beating down on the beach. The run up to Christmas was always busy and the sweltering heat was proving to be too much for some of the beach goers. When he stepped inside he found Tommo and Jenna tending to someone who'd collapsed in the first aid bay. He'd barely had chance to tear his gaze away when Riley was calling him over to the monitors.

"I was looking through the cctv from last night and you might want to see this." Jack focussed on the screen watching the time on it tick round to 7:10 pm and someone, who could only be Al, dumping his stuff on the sand before heading into the water. Riley fast forwarded through the video to a point where the gaps between Alexander dropping under the water and resurfacing were getting increasingly long. "He was trying to get back in for almost fifteen minutes before he first went under, then he kept fighting. If you look at screen three, you can see Zack and yourself in the garage."

Jack watched intently, knowing there was a lesson to be learned from this or Riley wouldn't be showing it to him. If he didn't know any better, he'd have said that there was another skunk-dyed haired man propelling himself into the water just mere seconds later. Riley re-winded the short amount of time and Jack saw himself fly across the screen again. "That's your new personal best Jack-o. If you perform like that in the challenge you'll probably be in the top 3."

The annual Lifeguard Ironman Challenge wasn't until January, but over the last year Jack had been pushing himself to train more and clearly it was paying off. Last year he'd placed thirteenth and although that wasn't particularly high, it'd earned him the respect of the other lifeguards. Astonished didn't even cover the emotion Jack was feeling at that second in time, he was in complete disbelief. "You really think?"

Riley nodded. "You're a force to be reckoned with; if you keep your training up you might even beat me."

Jack laughed at the ludicrous possibility that he could be a competitor for the prize position. Even if he put his mind to it, there wasn't enough training in the world that could get him to peak above those who'd been competing for years. It was a nice thought though.

Jack got up and headed for the window to watch the beach as usual, when he noticed Zack wasn't sat beside him; he frowned looking back over his shoulder at Riley. "Where's Zack?"

"Promenade patrol." He stated, flicking through some notes on a clipboard. "And locker room duty later. He did well last night too, but the fact that you were here because he'd had his phone on the buggy can't go unpunished. It serves as a reminder to everyone that your mobiles stay in here or your locker and turned off unless you're on a break."

A chorus of 'yes boss' rang out through the station so Jack nodded, looking back out at the coast with his binoculars. It couldn't have been ten seconds before Riley's voice returned to his ears. "Oh and Jack-o, I need you to swap with Pixie down by the swim zone, he's been out all morning and we all know he'll look like a tomato if I leave him out all day."

Jack bounced to his feet, quickly dumping his mobile before making his way out onto the steps. The moment he stepped out a smirk pulled at his lips as he called back through the open door "Hey Tommo, lover boy's here."

Tommo stumbled out of the first aid bay and past Jack, a grin already plastered on his face as he bounded down the metal staircase and threw himself straight into the arms of his boyfriend. Jack felt something flutter in his chest as he watched the two interact; he soon pinpointed the feeling as pining. He pined for that sort of relationship with someone where you could wear your heart on your sleeve and never worry about distance. Tommo's boyfriend flew ten thousand miles just to get here for this moment –Tommo hadn't shut up about it since last week. A few of the other guys joined Jack to watch the scene, hooting and teasing as Tommo clung to his boyfriend that little bit tighter than necessary. In Jack's opinion, Louis 'Tommo' Tomlinson was quite possibly the luckiest man on the beach at that moment.