THE LIFEGUARD | shawmila

fourteen.

"You're not going to make me sing, right?" Sofia mumbled. 

Though she sounded like her usual annoyed self at the moment, Camila had to admit she'd noticed quite the change over the past few days.

It seemed to happen the split second that she told Camila she'd broken up with Derek. She seemed to feel guilty for doing it over text but Camila assured her she was hardly the bad person in this scenario.

She then noticed that she saw Sofia down at the gym almost every time she was down there, and Sofia never seemed like she was there to work out. She was never dressed to work out, anyways. But of course, she wouldn't be Camila's beloved sister if she didn't get to complain about what Camila wanted to do.

"No, you don't have to sing if you don't want to." Camila rolled her eyes. "But you can order whatever food you want, and then we'll hit the party."

"I'll be the only one too young to drink." She mumbled.

"No you won't, Shawn's sister will be there. And maybe once we get to the party, I'll let you have something. You can't get into much trouble anyways."

"Where is this secret place anyways?"

"The pool deck."

"What? That's stupid! We go there every day!"

"Yeah, but this is at night!"

Camila had also been a bit disappointed when Shawn confirmed where this special secret spot was. That was, until he explained that they'd all sneak back to the pool deck after closing.

They'd get the whole pool to themselves and get to bring their own drinks and stuff. The only thing was that Shawn had to get a hold of the key by signing up for cleaning duty. He'd gone back to the pool every night for the past two days and strained it. Camila thought it was nice of him to put in all that extra work so his boss wouldn't get suspicious.

"They won't get in trouble for that?"

"Shawn says that they do it every year." Camila shrugged. "We just can't get too crazy and break anything or anything."

Sofia finally agreed to come and Camila was glad. She was actually coming out of her shell. It was late, but it was better than nothing. As per usual, Sofia went back to her phone.

Camila wanted to ask about Austin, but she had a feeling Sofia wouldn't tell her anything. She then noticed that Sofia wasn't happy texting someone, but rather sad texting. Like she used to.

"What's he doing now?" Camila demanded. "Didn't you block him?"

Sofia wordlessly held out her phone—a first, and let Camila read what Derek was saying. He'd sent some long paragraphs that Sofia hadn't responded to and Camila couldn't read all of, but she did get the gist.

"Oh, he's gonna drive down here!?" Camila scoffed. "What a fucking loser. Please, block him."

"I—I don't wanna just block him. That might make him madder."

"So? Who cares? He's never threatened you...has he?" Camila looked at Sofia, but she didn't answer. Camila's eyes widened and she sat down on the couch beside her. "Sofia, answer me."

"No." Sofia glanced away, her face red. "Not really, not...physically. He just gets really mad sometimes. It's like, his voice gets so scary. It's like I can read that in his voice."

"Then he's all talk." Camila rolled her eyes. "Just block him. He's only mad because you don't need him anymore."

"Yeah, you're right." She looked down at her phone, Derek's paragraphs still staring her in the face. She sighed and put her phone in her pocket. "I will."