Waiting on the Sidelines

“Well, Jason lifeguarded all the time. I remember he had to do some speed swimming, nothing fast, just to show you could get to someone in time. There were also a lot of strength drills, like holding the dummy’s head above water, CPR, treading water. Why, you nervous?” he asked.

I was actually a really good swimmer. I wasn’t fast, but I was strong, so I was pretty sure I could pull it off. I didn’t want to come off cocky though, so I just shrugged a bit and said “Nah, I think I’ll be ok. I’m going to be tired, though, that’s for sure.”

Out of nowhere, Reed reached over and touched the tip of his finger to the tip of my nose, crinkling his face a little into a cute new smile I’d never seen from him before. “You better sunscreen that face of yours up,” he said. “You’re still a little pink from yesterday.”

“Aye aye, captain,” I said, saluting him. What the hell? I did that same thing to his dad. I’m a loser.

I settled back into my seat and looked at my face in the right-side mirror, watching strands of my hair blow around as they came loose from the braid I worked up to keep my hair out of my way in the water. I studied myself for a while, and then it hit me. For the first time in my life, I looked at myself and I felt like a woman. I looked older. My cheeks were more defined, my lips fuller and my hair was in all the right places. If ever there was a day to feel confident about how I looked, this was it. I reached back behind the seat for my bag and dragged it through the middle of us onto my lap.

“Sunglasses,” I explained when Reed looked over, wondering what I was doing. I pulled them out and slid them on my face and leaned back to admire myself once more. Yes, I was hot today. And I was going to use it to my advantage.

We got to the facility with 15 minutes to spare. Reed speeds a bit, but he never makes me nervous. There were 10 or 12 other lifeguards there with sheets of paper and they started calling out names to gather us into groups for testing. I started in the deep end for treading while Reed’s group started at the lanes for timed swimming and rescue drills. I dropped my bag over in a shady corner and tucked my sunglasses inside. Reed jogged over to hand his to me for safe keeping as well.

“Where’s your purse?” I joked.

“Must’ve left it at home,” he threw right back at me. We were getting good at this type of back-and-forth with one another. It felt comfortable and just right.

I waited for Reed to turn before I slid my shorts down and kicked them to the side. I slipped out of my flip flops and headed to my group at the deep end. When I reached them, I stood at the edge and stretched my arms a bit, dangling them in front of me and relaxing the muscles in my back. When I pulled my head up, I looked at Reed who was looking right back at me with a bit of a wicked smile. I made out the slightest wink and blushed a little from his attention.

Head in the game, Nolan. You’re hot stuff, remember?

We all listened closely to the instructions and were soon jumping into the pool and spreading out to give one another space. We treaded for several minutes before the guards on duty stopped us and then handed us small weights and asked us to do it again. A few of the girls in my group couldn’t keep up and had to drop out then and there. I was breathing hard, but I wasn’t having any trouble holding my weight up.

Whenever I needed a distraction, I would shift my eyes to glance at the racing lanes where Reed stood dripping wet in dark red board shorts and nothing else. In the two years I’d known him, his body somehow filled out even more. His arms were defined and his chest was chiseled like a college football player. I knew he lifted and ran every day, but I never had so long to really take in what was going on underneath those T-shirts and sweatshirts.

Reed caught me staring at least twice, and each time he winked at me, making me laugh and almost lose my weight.

The rest of the testing was a breeze after the treading portion, and I was glad I had that part first. I was the fastest swimmer in my group for the timed sessions. I was getting ready to brag about it to Reed when I looked over the sheets posted on the board and realized I was the second fastest overall. Reed was first.

“I think you need to be tested for performance enhancers,” I joked behind him, snapping my towel at him a bit as he turned around.

“Hey, what’s this with you being this stud swimmer, huh?” he turned, his breath catching a bit when he looked at my full body in a swimsuit. Where I would normally feel embarrassed and want to wrap my towel around me and cover up, I instead felt empowered. I threw it on the bench and just kept talking.

“Yeah, I swam a lot with Mike when we were younger. He swims at the college for exercise all the time and I sometimes join him, but I haven’t gone in a while,” I said. I loved swimming. Would totally join the swim team if we had one at Coolidge High. We didn’t really have a pool in town, so that idea was out.