White Cloud

14- I'm Just Tanning

"I got you another audition," My mom tells me the next afternoon as I'm going downstairs to the pool. "It's for a clothing company and the audition is this weekend. A little late notice but it was really hard to get you in so it'll work. These people seem to only hire in their cliques so it'll take some work to get you into the modeling circuit around here but this audition will get us closer."

"Okay, sounds great," I assure her with a small nod as I'm checking the time on my phone. It's almost time for Vincent's shift to start. I am terrified to see him today but I know that we need to talk about what happened last night and sure, it'd be easier to just avoid him but I always choose to avoid my problems and I think that just this one time, maybe that isn't the best approach.

"You look like you're in a hurry to get somewhere," She observes as I'm checking the time.

"I'm not," I say quickly, not wanting to let her know about what's going on with Vincent. "I just feel like I'm getting pasty, I haven't been tanning lately. Anyway, I'll be free this weekend for the audition. Are we doing dinner tonight?"

"No, not tonight. I've got a meeting with a realtor to talk about finding a house," She explains. "This place is nice but I know that it's not permanent so we have to find a home. This is just the first meeting though, I'm not going to go look at houses or anything."

"Okay," I start backing away toward the pool. "Well, have fun. I'll see you later."

"See you later, sweetheart," She calls to me as I'm finally getting to the door that leads out to the pool. The lifeguard on duty is Mackenzie and she's still sitting on the tall lifeguard chair as she waits for the end of her shift to arrive. She has thirty minutes left. Which means that Vincent will be here within the next thirty minutes. I don't know what I'm going to say to him but I think that it'll be easier if I don't think about it at all. That thought makes me nervous but I just want to know what he's going to say and then I'll just say whatever I'm thinking.

Do I want to go on a date with him? Yes. But am I willing to take that risk? I'm not sure. And I won't decide until I absolutely have to, when Vincent brings it up. And I know that he'll bring it up.

I can't just sit around the pool area without looking suspicious so I pick a pool chair and take off the purple sarong around my waist so that I can lay and tan like I had told my mother that I plan on doing. I don't think that I'm really pasty though because I am outside a lot but I don't mind improving my tan while I wait for Vincent.

I have sunglasses to protect my eyes from the bright sun glaring down on us and then I lay down on the chair on my back. I try not to think about what's going to happen when Vincent gets here which is really hard to do so to try to get my mind off of him, I try to listen to the people around me. Mostly adults today chatting in the deep end of the pool as they drink from their margaritas in the height of luxury. I can't decipher any conversations though, it's all just muddled voices and some calm splashes from the chlorinated water.

With my eyes closed, I can't tell when Vincent arrives at the pool until he's standing over me saying, "Hey."

I open my eyes and look up at him. With my sunglasses on, it's easy to look up at him without having to squint with the brightness. "Hey," I repeat back to him.

"Waiting for me?" He raises his eyebrows at me. I don't know how long I've been laying here so I don't know how long he has until he has to start doing his job but he still has a shirt on but he is wearing his red lifeguard swim trunks.

"Not particularly," I flat out lie. Because that's the best way to start a conversation about honesty. "Just needed a tanning day."

"Alright," He says with a small laugh. I sit up and take my sunglasses off as he sits down on the chair beside mine. "I'm pretty glad to see you here either way though, I was pretty sure that you were going to start avoiding me again after what happened last night."