Beach Days

Chapter 6 - Party In The USA

I wasn't really able to do any lifeguarding the next day due to a white bandage around my leg. When we wiped away all the blood at the hospital, I was fine after I got stitches but I just had to have a very stubborn best friend who made me wear the bandage for at least a few days more than I absolutely had to before I went back to lifeguarding.

I had been surprised when Max had backed her up on that, to which I rolled my eyes at them and told them I didn't need another set of parents.

"Hey, Princess, look at this!" Max called, a tone of urgency in his voice. The bandage was off now, it had been about two weeks since the shark incident. Abby and Samantha were fufilling their lifeguard duties on the other side of the beach as usual, we had agreed to meet up when we were all done.

I jogged over to wear Max was squatting down, and I leaned over to see what he was looking at. My heart almost broke when I saw the dolphin with half a plastic bag hanging out of its mouth and stuck in some sort of net.

Max was buisily cutting the dolphin free of the net with a pocket knife with intricate swirls on the handle.

"Where the heck did you get that?" I asked. Max kept his eyes on the poor dolphin, but I was pretty sure I saw his jaw clench.

"I always carry this on me." He said shortly.

Max freed the dolphin of the plastic bag protruding from its mouth as well before giving it a gentle push into the ocean. The dolphin hesitantly began to swim away, and soon it was gone from sight.

"It's ... important to me. I, uh, a family member gave it to me." Max explained, beginning to walk along the beach. Our shift was over, and we were on our way to hand over our whistles to          Mr. Cane and meet up with Samantha and Abby before we left.

I nodded, not really responding. In the back of my mind, I found myself wondering if I could get Abby to read Max's mind for me. There was something he wasn't telling me, and for some reason it bothered me.

"Ah, Trelle, Miller." our boss grinned. Samantha and Abby were both already there, smiling at us. Then they caught Max's expression and Abby frowned slightly. She shot me a questioning look but I shrugged as subtly as one can shrug.

"Hey boss." I smiled at Mr. Cane as Abby nodded, message delivered. Max remained silent, a quiet brooding look having taken over his face. The knife must have carried much more sentimental value than I realized ...

"So, you guys have the weekend off." Mr. Cane told us.

"Huh? Why?" Max asked, finally snapping out of his thoughts. Trust him to listen at the prospect of a vacation when he had been ignoring me this entire time since the dolphin.

"Because tomorrow the beach is closed." Mr. Cane told us. We weren't listening. We were too busy cheering.

"So what do you wanna do tomorrow?" Samantha asked excitedly as the four of us left the beach.

"I know, there's this really cool amusement park like ten minutes away by car, do you guys wanna go?" Max answered enthusiastically. I studied him. He certainly looked like he had shrugged the moment at the beach off.

But what with the strange feeling I'd gotten when I first met him combined with the gut feeling I had now that Max was hiding something important didn't sit right with me, no matter how much I chastised myself that it was none of my business.

"Yes, let's do it!" Samantha nodded.

"Yeah, sounds awesome." I answered.

"Uh, think you may have to ask your grandma before getting too excited, Princess." Max pointed out. I sighed, raking a hand through my hair. He was right, Grandma was was no fun hater but I doubted she would let us go out for an entire day with people she had never met before. But I certainly didn't want to miss out on this day of fun.