The Lifeguard - Tyrus

Chapter Twelve

Cyrus was sitting at the kitchen island, taking bites of his chocolatey muffin. Some time had passed, Cyrus was on his phone and decided to ask Jonah if he wanted to go to beach.

Cyrus: Heyyy! You wanna go the beach today?
Jonah: I'll ask my mom's, my new foster brother will be coming today!
Cyrus: Oh fun! Maybe you can invite him along
Jonah: 👍

Amber came downstairs in her work clothes, grabbing a protein bar out of the pantry, "hi Cyrus! Where's TJ?" She asked. "He had to get to work early, I was gonna go along with him but he was running too late so I'm meeting him later". Amber nodded, "Well I could drive you there, first we could stop at your house so you could get your swim gear, and then I could drop you off at the beach". Cyrus agreed that it was good plan.
Amber sat down next to him, "thanks for being so nice to my brother. TJ has a hard time making friends, and with our parents not being in the picture all that often, it's important he gets some type affection. Whether it's friendship or not". Cyrus smiled, "I'm happy to help out. A little off topic but how's it going with Andi? She says you two talk a lot". Amber smiled with a little sparkle in her eye almost, "She's really sweet, and cute if you ask me. Not in a weird way, though". Cyrus tilted his head, "what do you mean 'not in a weird way'?" Amber took a bite of her protein bar, "I don't know, I felt like if I didn't say that, you would laugh or something". "Why would I laugh? It's not like you're a clown or something" Cyrus said. Amber shook her head, "let's talk about something else". Cyrus laid his head on his hand, trying to come up with a topic to talk about. "What type of jobs do your parents have?"   Amber placed a hair behind her ear, "I'm not exactly 100% sure what their jobs are, but they usually have overtime and business trips. We moved here because the job offers they got had a better pay, but TJ and I still have jobs to be able to help pay bills and crap". "What do your parents do for a living?" Amber asks Cyrus, returning the question, "Well they're pretty much all doctors of some sort. My mom is a child therapist, my stepdad works with adults for therapy, my stepmom is an intern at the local hospital and my dad works with the youth at doctors' office. It's very difficult to fake being sick" Cyrus laughed a little bit at the end of sentence.

*Time skip to when Cyrus gets to the beach because I'm too lazy to write more in that convo*

When Amber dropped Cyrus off at the beach, and had his stuff, he found a shady area a couple feet away from the lake. As he put his towel down, he decided to find TJ's lifeguard chair. "Hey, you made it!" TJ exclaimed when he saw Cyrus walking towards him. "I did! I invited my friend Jonah, he should be here soon."   As Cyrus said that, a smiling brunette boy came running towards them and he had an unfamiliar boy next to him. "Hey jonah-ba-bonah!" Cyrus laughed. Jonah was still smiling, when was he not though, "Cy-Guy! This is my foster brother, Reed... Cooper?" Jonah asked, looking at the blonde haired boy. "Yeah... my name is Reed Cooper, but just call me Reed because it's weird to call me by my first and last name" Reed said, rolling his eyes a little bit. Cyrus put out his hand, "well it's nice to meet you, Reed!"
He shook Cyrus' hand with a somewhat smile. TJ met eyes with Reed for a split second. 'He looks familiar' TJ thought to himself. He let it go, "So I have break in about two hours or so" ,checking his phone, "So how about me meet up at one of those picnic tables over there?"   Cyrus nodded to the plan. Reed let out a little snicker, "what are you two? Boyfriends?" Which caused Jonah to give Reed a look. "I'm not trying to be rude, just asking a question" Reed followed. "No, we're not. I'm straight" TJ said. "Then what was with the makeup last night? Or the musical where half the characters were gay?" Cyrus asked, sarcastically. TJ rolled his eyes, "just meet me when I'm on break".

Cyrus, Jonah and Reed were in the water, there weren't any waves so Cyrus felt more secure with himself. Cyrus was lost in his thoughts when he felt a cold splash of water on his face. He looked over to realize it was Jonah, "you're going down!" Cyrus exclaimed. Jonah and Cyrus started having a little splash fight in the shallower end of the lake. "Reed, join my team!" Jonah yelled over to Reed who was in the deeper end of the water. He swam over to the two boys, splashing them both. "I don't play for a team, I just play" Reed said, plugging his nose to go under water and save himself from getting splashed.
   Cyrus was getting a bit chilly from the cool water, even though it was really hot out, he decided to lay in the sun for a while. He fell asleep on his towel, and woke up to TJ kicking his ankle that it's his break. "Well hello there, sleep much?" TJ asked, giggling a little. Cyrus raised his eyebrows with a smile, "not last night, I don't usually stay up that late and wake up so early". TJ rolled his eyes, "Come on, let's go to the picnic table over there".