Deep

5

Deep chapter 5:

“Hey Larry.” I said as I walked into the building that I was picking up my schedule at.

“Avery! Here ya go.” Larry handed me a white packet of paper.

“Thanks!” I said and turned to leave.

“Wait, Avery. Would you be interested in switching to working Dolphin Point this time? Its not fair to keep you and Ryder, our two best lifeguards, up at South Beach when hardly any people go there.”

“Would my hours still be the same?” I asked. Larry nodded. “Um, well then I guess I can do it.”

“Perfect. Thank you so much Avery.”

I climbed back into my car and drove down to Dolphin Point. Dolphin Point was a lot farther away from my house and the school than South Beach. But it was way nicer. Little cabanas scattered the sand and reclining chairs with rolled up towels were available too.

When I got to Dolphin Point I climbed up to the lifeguard station and began to put on some sunscreen. The beach was empty due to school starting again so I put in my headphones.

My shift was nearly over and I was thinking about leaving early anyway because I hadn’t seen a single person in the 3 hours I had been there. I gathered my things and climbed down. I walked around the side of the lifeguard station and nearly collided with a beach runner.

“Sorry. My bad.” I mumbled. I reached down to pick up the bottle of sunscreen that had fallen out of my bag.

“No, no. Its okay.”

I felt like I recognized the voice so I looked up and looked straight into the piercing hazel eyes of Kyle Davenport. I immediately began to blush and started to walk toward my car again.

“Wait!” Kyle called after me.

I turned around and he jogged over to me. He was sweaty and was wearing nothing but black athletic shorts exposing his perfectly chiseled stomach.

“Avery, right?” Kyle smiled a little bit before wiping his sweaty hand on his shorts and extending it to me.

“Yeah. And you’re... Kyle?” I tried to act like I didn’t know who he was.

“Yeah. What are you doing here?” He asked.

“I work here. I’m a lifeguard.”

“Sweet. I would love to have a job like that.” Kyle smiled and ran his hand through his hair. “So I don’t mean to impose, but I heard that ice cream shop on the pier is pretty good and I was gonna go there anyways. Any chance you wanna come?”

“Okay. Just let me put my things in my car.” Kyle and I walked up the wooden steps and toward my car. Kyle opened the back hatch so I could put my things in.

“Do you wanna drive or walk?” I asked. The ice cream shop was about a mile away, but he probably didn’t know that.

“Well I need to change first, could we stop by my house? It’s just down the beach here.” Kyle looked down at his sweat soaked clothes. I nodded.

We started to walk down the beach toward the orange villa-style house that overlooked the cove.

We talked about school, mostly Spanish, and he told me that he went to a private school in Atlanta that specialized in learning languages, and that in his years there he had worked on Spanish, Italian, and French. He also told me that he had a sister, Caroline, and a brother, Lucas. I didn’t mention to him that I already knew that. He told me that he spent his sophomore year on a foreign exchange in Spain, and that he wanted to go to college there.

The whole walk to the villa was consumed with chatter and it didn’t feel like long at all before we approached two tall iron gates.

Kyle put in a code on the gates outside the house and they swung open. The driveway was lined with palms and cars; A porsche, a huge Hummer, 2 Audis, and a white Range Rover. He pushed open the front doors and told me to “make myself at home” before he ran up the staircase.

The living area was exactly what I expected it to be, the ceilings were high and the walls were painted the same rusty orange color as the outside of the house. The furniture was white and there were two sets of french doors that led out to the deck which overlooked the gulf. A giant television hung on one wall and the other wall had a canvas with a blown-up family photo.

Kyle was a little younger in the photo, but still just as handsome. Lucas was very small but his bold features still looked the same. But Caroline looked the most different. She had long blonde hair almost to her butt and a smile that stretched ear to ear. She was holding a womans’ hand. The woman had the same smile as Carolines and shoulder length blonde hair. On the other side of her was Mr. Davenport who was wearing a similar suit to the one he wore to the school today, with his hands on Lucas’ shoulders. They all looked so happy. Like the ideal, perfect family.

“Isn’t that a great photo?”

I turned around to see Kyle standing at the bottom of the stairs in a baby blue polo shirt and khaki shorts, smiling. He came over to me and the photo.

“That picture was taken on me and Carolines’ 15th birthday.” he sighed a little and then turned to me. “You ready to go?”

I smiled and nodded.

We walked back out to the driveway and Kyle pressed a button on his keys. The white Range Rovers’ lights flashed and he opened the door for me. “Thanks,” I said, blushing.

Somehow Kyle knew exactly where the ice cream shop was. “How did you know where to go?” I asked, breaking the silence of the whole car ride.

“I know I said I hadn’t, but I’ve been here before. My family used to vacation in Gulf Shores before we moved down here. I couldn’t risk you not coming with me if you thought I already knew where to go.” he explained and took one of his big hands off of the steering wheel to run it through is perfect blonde hair.

When we got there he opened the car door for me and then the door to the shop. I ordered a cookie dough cone and he had something called “Monster Cookie Crunch.” It was a blue monstrosity that turned his entire mouth blue. I could imagine him as a kid with his perfect family with the same blue mouth.

We got back in the car but he didn’t start it. “Hey, thanks for coming with me. I spent the whole summer here before school started and I still don’t know anyone.” Kyle said.

“Well now you know me!” I said placing my hand on the console between the expensive leather seats.

“Yeah. Do you have any plans for Saturday?” Kyle asked while he put his hand on top of mine.

“No,” was all I could manage to spit out.

“Great, cause you’re coming to Kyle and Caroline’s 18th birthday party extravaganza.” He made air-quotes with the hand that wasn’t on top of mine around “birthday party extravaganza.”

I laughed and nodded.

“And you’re welcome to bring all your friends. It would really be nice for Caroline to make some friends.” he said as he squeezed my hand.

“Okay.” I said shyly, my green eyes locked on his sparkling hazel ones.

“But don’t bring a plus one.” He said and changed his gaze from me to the steering wheel.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“You know. Like don’t bring a date.” he said shyly.

“Okay.” I laughed.