lifeguard↠ e.d.

the list

six
grace

i knock, and knock, and knock again on graysons door. "open the door! grayson, it's about your brother."

chris opens the door immediately, and he pulls me in the room and then shuts the door right back.

"we're still getting dressed. what's up?" grayson asks, sliding his shirt on. chris was brushing his teeth, and jack was just laying on his bed, he looked up from his phone to look at me.

"well, ethans asleep in my bed and-"

"why is he in your bed?" grayson furrows his eyebrows and snickers.

"did you fu-" chris' words were muffled from the toothbrush in his mouth.
"christian!" grayson exclaims, hitting his arm.

"we were all thinking it." jack shrugs. grayson shoots him a dirty look, causing jack to look right back at his phone.

"no." i roll my eyes. "he just popped in my room last night and we were talking. we both eventually fell asleep, and now he won't wake up. ive tried a million times."

"you guys didn't even make out?" chris pipes in again. i shake my head. "you sure that was ethan?"

i shift my weight on my other foot.
"why do you ask that?"

"n-no reason. chris is just stupid." grayson shakes his head. "right chris?"

"oh uh yeah. so stupid." chris coughs.

"i say you should just leave him in there. we can come and get him after breakfast if he's still not awake." grayson continues.

"avery might rat him out though?" jack says, more like a question than a statement.

"doubt it. averys not as much of a snitch now as she was a couple summers ago."

"i covered him with the blanket, which they'll probably realize that there's a person under there, unless they mistake it for a huge body pillow." the guys laugh in return.

"i don't know man, averys kind of an air h-" he cuts himself off when the door opens. "hey avery!" jack exclaims, frantically looking behind me.

"fuck off jack." avery rolls her eyes as she walks in, alisha right behind her. jacks face goes a bright red.

"we need to head to the cafeteria, all the good food is gonna be gone if we leave any later." alisha says.

all the guys run out of the room, and avery follows right behind them.

"we realized it was ethan under your covers. his snoring gave it away." alisha laughs as we both walk to the cafeteria.

"we didn't do anything," i blurt out. "i mean, all we did was talk and then we both ended up falling asleep. i couldn't wake him up, and i know that you guys really don't like him so i-"

"grace, we may not like him, but if you happen to, or he happens to like you, don't be afraid to go for it." alisha puts her hand on my shoulder. "if anything, you're probably going to be the most beneficial to ethan."

"beneficial?"

"you might have the ability to calm him down in the few times he gets agitated."

"i don't know, i don't even know how i feel about h-"

"just be open minded. get to know him more grace."

what happened to stay away from ethan? what happened to he was bad news? opinions can change faster than you think apparently.

L I F E G U A R D

i picked at my food for a while, just thinking about what alisha told me a little bit ago.

"grace." grayson snaps in front of my face, bringing me out of my daze.

"yes?"

"you've been staring at your food for the past ten minutes. it's been freaking us out."

"oh, i've just been thinking about-"

"have any of you seen ethan? all the lifeguards are having a meeting and none of us have seen him since last night when he got in deep shit with smith." one of the girl lifeguards asks, cutting me off.

we all shake our heads. i hear avery start to laugh behind me. i hit her leg.

"really? you haven't?" she looked right at me. "you've been hanging around ethan lately. i'm surprised you don't know." her eyebrow raised and i shrugged my shoulders. i shift my gaze to my pancakes so i don't give anything away. i'm not a good liar, and i never have been. when i looked up again she was gone.

"jesus grace. you're soooo convincing." jack says sarcastically. i roll my eyes.

"what was i supposed to say?"

"the truth?" alisha snickers.

"that would just lead to a lot of questions. too much unnecessary effort."

"speaking of unnecessary effort," chris nods towards the door, and there ethan was. he looked around the cafeteria, and once his dark eyes landed on me, a small smile spread across his face. his hair was a mess, and his clothes didn't match whatsoever. a piece of crumpled paper was in his hand.

"ethan! over here!" he ignores the lifeguards calling him, and walks towards my table.

"thanks for waking me up sweetheart." he smiles sleepily, sitting next to me. his morning voice was the type that you wouldn't mind if he talked for hours on end.

"ethan, you wouldn't wake up no matter how hard i tried, and you're not even wearing your bathing suit." i raise my eyebrow and laugh.

"shit." he mumbles. "i knew something was weird."

"that's not the only thing." grayson interrupts and laughs. ethan smirks and raises his middle finger at him.

"oh, and i found some paper on the floor of your room, and i made our list."

"our list?"

"yeah! it has what firsts we're gonna do. it's not necessarily in order, and i'm probably going to add stuff. also, some stuff that i plan on doing isn't on there because you'd never agree to it."

he hands me the paper, messy words scattered on the page.

the lifeguards call ethan over again.

"i gotta go, but ill definitely see you later sweetheart." he gets up, and walks backwards.
"read it over!"

food fight ✓
going to the other side (of the house) ✓
the movies
exploration
sneaking out
sleeping on the beach
first kiss
skinny dipping
talent show

expect more sweetheart. nothing less.
-ethan