St. Joseph's Island

9 - Lizzie

"I brought sunscreen today." I said as I boarded the ATV behind Noah. 

He turned around and looked genuinely surprised. 

"What?" I asked, incredulously. "I'm not an idiot, ya know." 

He chuckled as he started the engine. "Could've fooled me." He muttered. I smacked him in the arm as we followed behind Jack and the other two lifeguards. On the way down to the beach I reminded him that a couple of days ago, he was the one defending his idiocy, not me. He didn't respond. 

The first part of the shift went slowly without a lot of action. Every once in a while Jack would arrive and chat with me for a little bit. He was a lot of fun, actually. The same could not be said for Noah, who wanted absolutely nothing to do with me. I didn't care though, because Jack always had something to say. 

"How have the past thirty minutes been without me?" He asked as he pulled up next to the stand. 

"Absolute torture, I must admit." I retorted, sarcastically. He smiled up at me, squinting into the sun a little but not so much that I couldn't see the bright blue in his eyes. 

"Did I miss anything interesting?" He asked, pulling off his bright red windbreaker to reveal a white shirt with the lifeguard cross on it that complemented his muscled arms and chest perfectly. 

I shook my head as he started the ATV up again. "Oh, hey are you going to the staff party this weekend?" He added. 

"I don't know yet." I called over the loud motor. 

'You should." He said, squinting up at me again and I saw the blue of the water reflect in his eyes, making them even brighter. "I'd be glad to see you." He winked and sped off to the next stand. 

I readjusted in the chair and looked back out to the ocean, letting a slight smile make its way onto my face. 

He'd be glad to see me. 

I was still smiling when Noah pulled up again. He saw my joyful demeanor and grimaced. 

"I don't understand why you hate me so much." I remarked. 

"I don't hate you, you're just a pain in the ass." He retorted. 

"That doesn't mean you have to be such a douche all the time." I quipped back. 

"A douche? Really that's the best you could-" 

"Shh." I said, looking out to the water to find the source of a noise. 

"Really? And I'm the douche here-"

"Shh- Shutup!" I half-yelled down at him without taking my eyes off the water. I quickly saw an older woman waving her arms and pointing to a young girl floating face down in the water about twenty feet away from her and took off running, already blowing my whistle. Noah caught on quickly enough and started sprinting after me, yelling into the walky talky he had grabbed from the ATV. 

"Unconscious young girl pulled out by the riptide, need a backboard ASAP and-" 

I didn't hear the rest of what he said before I dove into the water with my rescue tube. I was a strong swimmer but it still took me longer than I would have liked to get to the little girl. The blood rushed in my ears as I swam up behind her. I flipped her over onto the tube and saw she looked to be about nine, too young to be so far out by herself but I pushed the anger at her guardians out of my mind as I swam her back to shore while checking her CABs. I could feel the thumping on my fingertips, signaling that her heart was beating, but she wasn't breathing. 

Once I could reach the bottom, I was met by Noah and Jack who had the backboard ready in the water. We transferred her and I immediately started administering rescue breaths as we pulled her onto the sand. A girl lifeguard I'd probably seen before but didn't recognize ran up with an AED and the blood pulsing in my ears got even louder as I considered the possibility of this little girl's heart stopping. I pushed the thoughts out of my mind and kept breathing into the CPR mask every three seconds. 

"Liz, it's been two minutes." Someone said and I bent down to check her CABs again. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as I put two fingers against her carotid artery and didn't feel anything. I counted to ten but still didn't feel the familiar thumping that I had felt before. I readjusted, and counted to ten again but even so, nothing. 

"I can't find her pulse." I said quietly, keeping my eyes on her little face. 

"Shit." The person said and pushed me to the side. I watched as his hand went to the same spot mine was, checking my work. I couldn't hear much over the rushing in my ears and I couldn't see much through the tears in my eyes but when he shook myshoulder and made me look in his dark brown eyes, I heard him say "Chest compressions" in a calm voice, despite the panic behind his eyes. 

I nodded and my body went on autopilot, going through the motions of what I'd done so many times on a mannequin. As I was giving CPR, ignoring the cracking of her little ribs under my hands, Noah wiped the water off her chest and started putting the AED pads on her. The rushing in my head started to subside and I finally noticed the crowd that had formed around us. Jack and the girl who'd brought the AED were holding back a hysterical woman, the same woman who had pointed her out to me. She was screaming and tears were rushing down her face and I was so frustrated at her for leaving her kid alone in the middle of the ocean. But, then again, shouldn't I have seen her too?