of course you were here. of course. you worked here. and you were basically glued to dylan’s hip half the time anyway, so the second the head lifeguard paired the two of you up to run the water slides for the afternoon- well, he probably thought he was being smart. or funny. or maybe just lazy. either way, it meant you and dylan were sweating in the sun, manning the top platform like two chaotic lifeguard gremlins with a perfect view of the beach.

“alright,” dylan said to the group of teens on the double tube, grinning with that wide, golden-boy smile of his.“which one of you wants to go in backwards?”

they pointed and laughed and made jokes, and of course dylan nodded along like he was going to do exactly what they said. then he spun the tube the complete opposite way and sent them down with a dramatic wave like he was launching royalty into battle. he lived for messing with people. not in a mean way, but in the kind of way that made him laugh until his eyes crinkled and his shoulders shook.

god, he loved this job. sure, it was mostly because he got to be outside and get even more tan than he already was (not that he needed it), but more than that, he got to hang out with you. and that made everything-heat, sunscreen in the eyes, half-broken slide valves-so worth it.

it’s not like you two never hung out outside of work. you did. sometimes. when you weren’t knee-deep in camp kids at your other job, and when dylan wasn’t teaching tourists how not to fall off their surfboards. it was hard. summer made things busy. everyone was scattered like sunscreen bottles in the sand. but somehow, the two of you still found little ways to fit each other in. late-night acai runs. henna tattoos on the boardwalk. midday swims that turned into two-hour float sessions just talking about nothing.

and honestly, dylan thought about that stuff a lot. probably more than he should.

because being up here with you, shoulder to shoulder, sun on his back and salt still in his hair—it wasn’t just fun. it felt like something else entirely.

like maybe this summer wasn’t just about tan lines and lifeguard shifts.

maybe it was about you.