In which Lucas Sinclair's older sister spends her whole summer trying to tame Billy Hargrove.
NSFW: 18+ only
Contains Dark themes and sexual content that may not be suitable for people under the age of 18.
Read at your own risk-this essentially is...
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Chapter Twenty-Seven: Suns Out Buns Out
It was hotter than sin the Saturday Zara was scheduled to work at Hawkins community pool—her hair held off her neck with a claw clip, one leg crossed over the other under the umbrella shaded lifeguard's perch. Zara had forced her body into the tight one piece bathing suit, a fanny pack crossed loosely over her chest carrying nothing more than the bare essentials—sunscreen, chapstick, deodorant, a spare hair tie and a few snacks. The cold water she'd snagged from the employee break room had long since lost its chill and with that its appeal; nothing was worse than hot water on an ever hotter day.
Damn Heather for asking her to switch shifts.
But Zara needed the money, the four dollars an hour had been adding up nicely; her spoils locked away in the safe she'd kept hidden deep in the crevices of her closet.
Besides, she'd worked up a killer tan and had plenty of time to catch up on the towns latest gossip thanks to the moms who laid out a few feet to her left. Groups of them filtered in and out, a new set of brightly colored towels laid out on the sun loungers, coolers full of cokes and wine coolers in tow as they lathered on the tanning oil and did what all women do—talk.
Flora Donahue didn't pay much attention to her children running around the pool—watched them even less when they were back in the four walls of their newly refurbished home; a fact she'd boasted about proudly. She seemed to know plenty about her neighbors, especially about the husband who was sleeping with the college graduate from a few houses over; claiming to have seen the skinny brunette with long wavy hair crawling out the second story bedroom window and shimming down the flower ladder his wife had installed a few months prior. "Not surprised he's upgrading to a newer model—Evette really let herself go after their last kid."
"Sometimes it's hard bouncing back after a baby," Mrs. Wheeler pitched in, her tone distracted as she dug through her purse for a straw for her Coke.
"It's been six years. That's not someone having a hard time—it's just being lazy."
Zara tuned out the rest, eyes rolling at their cruel words and if men judging women wasn't enough, a woman regarding another woman in such a way made her blood boil hotter than the sun beaming down on her. She huffed out a deep breath, eyes scanning the crowd before glancing down at the watch on her wrist, the long red line tick, tick, ticking down the seconds until it was time for her shift to be over. Sinclair craved air conditioning, cold water and maybe even a dip in the deep end of the pool where kids were too intimidated to swim over to.
The zipper of her fanny pack glided with ease as she fished out her sunscreen, quick to lather on another layer as she was sure she'd sweated off the previous one she'd applied a few hours prior. She returned to spray bottle back in place, forking out the sunglasses she'd swiped from the glovebox of Billy's car the day before and slid them over her eyes.
