missing | gilinsky

2

"I really don't think this is necessary," I say, folding my arms across my chest. 

"It is very much necessary," Sam argues. 

"You do know I could kick you out of this place, right?" I threaten. Sam doesn't seem phased. 

"You wouldn't."

"I would." 

Sam groans and rests his upper body onto the counter in front of me. "Just open up locker E20 and grab the guys stuff for me!" 

"No, you pig," I decline. "One, I could get fired for that, and two, it's mean." 

"He's mean," Sam complains. The 'he' Sammy's talking about is a guy that looks about our age sitting in a white plastic foldout chair that's placed on the grass a couple of feet from the pool. He's got dark brown hair and he's wearing these sunglasses that make him look like a douche. But he hasn't done anything wrong except for chewing his gum really obnoxiously, so I really shouldn't judge. 

"Go away." I breathe, turning toward the customer behind Sam, who asks for a towel. I give her a clean one straight off the rack and watch as she walks back to where she was sitting - next to the Douchey Gum Chewing Sunglasses Guy. 

"He took my seat, you know that's the seat I always sit in! Everyone knows that!" Sam says, waving his hands around. 

"I haven't seen him around here before, he's probably new, calm down and go sit somewhere else."

"You're seriously no help, I hate you." 

"Hate you more," I say as he stalks off to go find another open chair. 

I work at the town's local swimming pool on the weekends, and Sam always comes with me to hang out so I'm not alone. Hannah would come too if she knew how to swim. I've offered to teach her countless times, but she always refuses. 

When I see that Sam is sitting comfortably in a chair, I go back to standing at the counter doing nothing. My job as the 'counter girl' is to hand out towels, answer people's questions, and keep tabs on everyone's lockers. Occasionally a little kid will fall and get hurt so I'll get a band aid for them, but that's about all I do. It's a pretty good pay, I get ten dollars per hour and I work about six hours on Saturday and four on Sunday. 

Jack used to come to the pool all the time to keep me company, but now that he's gone it's just Sam. He doesn't pay a lot of attention to me though, he's usually off flirting with some girl. 

Looking around the pool area, I try to scope out anyone who might need my help, but everyone looks like they're doing fine. That's the only negative of this job, it can be really boring at times. 

"Locker E20, please." A deep voice booms. I look away from this one kid who I was about to watch jump into the pool to see Douchey Gum Chewing Sunglasses Guy staring right at me, holding up his key. I feel my palms getting sweat so I quickly take the keys out of his hands before they get any worse. 

"Uh, would you like everything out of it?" I ask, clearing my throat. 

"No, just a towel."

"Oh, we have our own towels we can let you borrow if you'd like," I tell him, embarrassed of how sweet I have to sound. Not that I think it's stupid to be nice, it's just awkward being so formal considering we're the same age. 

"I'd like to use my towel," he says, sounding agitated. 

"Ok, I'll be right back." I turn around and walk into the room that holds the locker and try to find E20 as fast as I can. When I finally locate it I unlock it and the door swings open. I take out all of it's belongings and search for his towel when I see that all the contents of his wallet has spilled out all over the place. "Shit," I whisper to myself. 

Bending down, I pick up his credit cards, money, and drivers licence and go to put them back when I see on his licence that it says his name is Jack Gilinsky. I instantly think of my brother. My eyes move over to his picture and the scowl he wears on his face looks exactly like the one he's most likely wearing right now. Without the sunglasses on he does look fairly attractive. 

"Having some trouble?" 

I gasp and go to stand up when I hit my head on the open locker door. "Fuck," I hiss, dropping the wallet back to the ground. I curse myself for cursing aloud and turn around to match the familiar voice with a face. 

Speaking of the devil. 

"Oh, hi, sorry," I mumble, feeling my cheeks heat up. Jack had just caught me staring at his driver's licence. He probably thinks I'm a freak. "How'd you, uh, how'd you get back here?" No one but employees are allowed to be in the locker room, but Jack has obviously broken that rule. 

"I, uh, I hopped the counter," he says, mimicking me. He has a nasty look on his face that seems to be reserved just for me. I furrow my eyebrows. Maybe the sunglasses were right, he is a douche. But then again can I really blame him? If I caught someone going through my stuff I'd be annoyed as well. 

"Well you're not supposed to be here, I was just about to come out with your towel." 

"You weren't just about to come out, I saw you going through my shit," he retorts. I clench my jaw. I've never met anyone like this. He's being so blunt. I can't tell if it's a bad thing or not, but I'm leaning more toward the bad side. 

"I'm sorry," I apologize. "I was looking for your towel and everything fell out of your wallet, I was picking it up." 

"Last time I checked you don't have to stare at something for two minutes be able to pick it up - just hand me all of my stuff would you?"

I take a deep breath and look down at the pile of Jack's clothes, towel, and wallet. "Here." 

He snatches it out of my arms and glares at me. His eyes wander down toward my chest and at first I think he's staring at my boobs, but then I realize he's looking at my name-tag. 

"Nadia," He states. I get chills. No one has ever said my name like that before. So nonchalant but powerful at the same time. "Thanks," he mumbles, his voice going back to normal. I'm surprised he even said thank you considering how rude he probably thought I was. 

He walks out before I can even say you're welcome. 

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thanks for reading everyone! I hope you liked it and don't forget to comment and vote. If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to let me know. 

-gilinskyshigh