Almost a week later, when I arrived at the Y for the start of lessons, I was rather surprised to see no sign of Brandon. I looked around but didn't see his bag either, nor was there any sign of him on the pool deck. "Did Brandon call in sick?" I asked the rest of the guards who were there. "It's fifteen minutes till lessons."
"No idea," said Eric with a slight shrug. I went to the men's room and changed into my lifeguard uniform, but when I returned to the office Brandon still wasn't there. I was confused: it was completely unlike him to cut it so close for the start of a shift, there were now less than ten minutes left for the start of lessons.
With only four minutes to go, I finally saw his van pull into the parking lot and his figure rushing towards the main building. Grinning, I continued to watch as he dashed towards the front doors, but as he entered the building my amusement was replaced again by confusion. Something looked different about him, and for a moment I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. It was only once he was nearly at the door to the lifeguard office that it hit me: his jacket was zipped all the way up, right up to his chin. From a quick glance around I could tell nobody else in the office had noticed anything out of the ordinary, but I knew Brandon well, and he never zipped his jacket up even halfway. However, I refrained from broaching the subject to him in the presence of everyone else, and waited till the others had all vacated the office to start teaching before I turned to him.
"So?" I began. Brandon jumped; having been temporarily catching his breath and leaning back in the chair with his eyes closed, he hadn't noticed that I was still in the office.
"So... what?" he said, with a rather poor attempt at appearing innocent.
"You gonna explain the reason you suddenly have no neck?" I grinned.
"Dammit," he grunted. "Only you would have noticed."
"I like to think I'm observant," I said, "so why are you hiding your neck from everyone? And does it have anything to do with why you were almost late to work?"
He gave me a scrutinizing look for a few seconds and then sighed in a resigned fashion. "Cam was over at my place last night, so I just had to drop her off at her house before coming to work this morning." I understood now, knowing that Cam's house was about a twenty-minute drive out of town.
"What about the jacket?" I went on. "Go on, what are you hiding?"
"Fine, but you can't tell anyone," he said; he unzipped his jacket to the extent he usually had it, and I stared. On his neck, very clearly, was—
"Cam gave you a hickey?" I said, my voice shaking with suppressed laughter.
He nodded, looking a little annoyed. "I told her not to!" he exclaimed. "It doesn't look good coming to work with something like this so visible. I told her not to but she just—"
"I don't need to hear the details of your sex life, thanks," I broke in hastily.
"There wasn't even any sex," he grunted. I laughed at the disgruntled look on his face.
"But what's the big deal if any of the guards see that hickey?" I said. "They won't care."
He shook his head strongly. "Yes, they will, you know how everyone here likes to gossip and shit! They don't know that Cam and I are dating, you see."
"And you want it to stay that way," I concluded.
"Well, I know it's bound to get out soon," he admitted, "but the longer it can stay a secret, the better." I knew perfectly well what he meant; if I were in a relationship I wouldn't mind not telling anyone about it apart from those closest to me.
