The Lifeguard Hates You (Completed)

June Chapter 26

A whole week.

This bullshit has lasted a whole week.

And oh my god are we sick of this.

Okay, great, Rory's really, really, really happy but we're all miserable. Rory has no time for us anymore, she doesn't take shifts for us, and in fact she frequently takes shifts off even if she doesn't have a replacement. She has turned into one of those new hires that doesn't care about her job and for some reason Lacey won't talk to her about no matter how often Jay bitches to her about it. No matter how many times Rory leaves us in the lurch, which she only did a handful of times before and only because she was deathly ill and unable to move.

She has started hanging out more with the PEGs and the attitude change is completely apparent. I've tried to be understanding but it is not going well.

Today is special, Bryce has shown up with several PEGS: Milo, Daphne and for some reason Kaitlyn who has done nothing but stare at and talk to Shawn. This is absolute sacrilege. That they even thought it would be okay to show up at our pool to swim is unbelievable. I mean... they even had to pay to get in here. Why would they do that? Especially since this place was supposed to be beneath them.

Rory and I are supposed to be guarding outside, and at first glance it would look like both guards were paying attention. But that was not the case. Right now, it's just me up on the guard stand and Rory's standing at the shallow end wall except she's not watching the pool, she staring at only Bryce having some amazing conversation she won't stop laughing at.

"Rory! Watch the goddamn pool!" I scream from the lifeguard stand. She jumps and nods her head at me and I frown. I've fucking turned into Jay and I'm not happy with it. Okay, so maybe I'm not Jay, I've kind of turned into Rory but that's just as bad because she's a mini-Jay.

Bryce goes back to swimming and Rory slowly makes her way around the pool. "Do you want to rotate?" she asks me all sweetly as if that will make everything okay.

I say nothing to her as I climb down off the stand. It's one of the newer ones since our last one got hit by lightning. You know, the ones where the ladders are in the front and you climb up to the chair? It even has wheels so we can move it to a different location if the sun is in our eyes. All that means is we have to chain it up at night, which is just more work for us. I barely get off the damn thing and yeah... guess who's leaning against the ladder and talking to Bryce again?

I try to ignore this, I shouldn't care. If I say anything about it, she could easily just bring up all the time she covered for Shawn and I and how she used to let us buddy guard for hours, which is an exaggeration by the way. It was one time and it was one hour, it wasn't even that busy of a swim she was completely fine on her own, even if we did forget to rotate her off.

I blame both Bryce and Jay for this. I blame Bryce because Rory wasn't like this with any of her other boyfriends, and I blame Jay for not liking her. None of this would be happening if she were with Jay right now, and I hate that this could have all been avoided. Maybe it is partly my fault, maybe Shawn and I should have pushed Jay to ask her out. I mean, he's more miserable then Shawn and I combined over this, but that's more to do with Rory just not caring and the fact that the person she's picked to date is literally Jay's arch nemesis.

Jay got so used to having Rory's undivided attention that he just doesn't know what to do anymore now that he doesn't have it. And now she's following in her footsteps and getting in deep with the PEGs. At the rate she's spending time with them I'd say she's better off just working with them. Not that I'd say that to anyone of course, if Jay heard me, he'd probably have a heart attack. Personally, I don't think he'd survive if he lost someone else to Bryce and Polished Elite. Even if that someone else was Rory.

I'm so busy glaring at Rory that I don't even notice that the general spa goers have all left as it's apparently too windy for them.

"You can go in if you want!" Rory calls to me. "It's just the PEGers so I'm sure it'll be fine if it's just me who watches them."

I don't even bother to tell her that Jay will, in fact, care, instead I leave her at the chair. I expect that she'll clean up for the both of us. There's not much to do except to take the umbrella down and put all of our guard stuff away. I manage to get one foot in the pavilion and already Jay is bearing down on me.

"Why aren't you outside?" he asks me.

"It's only Rory's PEG friends..."

"They are not her friends," Jay snaps, interrupting me. I'm a little surprised by this because it's such a strange outburst. He's been acting weird all week, since the incident with Rory in the pool. He didn't drown her so he's not hiding a murder so I don't know what his problem is.

"Whatever, they're the only ones out there so she can watch them," I tell him.

Jay shakes his head and says: "Switch with me then."

I don't go to the guard chair though, I don't even look at the pavilion pool. I'm staring out the windowed doors, watching as the guard chair starts pitching as the wind catches the umbrella. I note that Rory is had pushed it away and into it's "Off hours" position. She's leaning over the edge of the water, staring down at Bryce not paying attention to anyone else. Jay is already walking around the deep end of the pool his eyes, or more aptly his scowl, hasn't left Rory once.

Milo is outside the door, his towel draped over his scrawny shoulders. The wind has caught him blowing the towel cape out behind him majestically and messing his hair perfectly like an Adele music video. "Look at me! I'm like a tanner, more fly Jesus!" he cries. "Bitch! I'm lifeguarding's seconding coming!"

It's at that moment Jay picks up speed, he's suddenly sprinting and for a moment I don't know why. It's then that I notice it, the fact that guard stand is moving, being towed by the umbrella. Rory is in the way of this now mobile guard stand that is going to run her over and then topple into the pool taking her with it.

I want to cry out in warning but Jay's almost there. There's one big blast of wind, a huge one, it practically throws Milo's form against the window he's standing in front of. It's all that guard stand needs to ram into Rory and fall into the pool. Except Rory isn't there, at the last minute Jay reaches her and shoves her out of the way, only problem is that he's now in the way.

Let's just say my scream isn't one of warning as I watch Jay get rammed by the guard stand consequently getting knocked off his feet and into the pool.