Reese
  
The school hours passed quickly, Coach cut practice short due to going home to celebrate his twentieth wedding anniversary with a surprise homemade romantic dinner for his wife.

We all ‘oohed’ and ‘ahhed’ and also gave him a standing ovation. For the first time in a long time, Coach Chris smiled—blushed even—at a point before shooing us away.

With quick promise to meet in the beach later, Lucas and Lewis headed to their respective homes while I drove back Malibu to grab a few things.

Malibu? I know that’s the thought running through your mind. My parents and friends lived in Cherwood, but I lived a little bit further away. I lived in my parent’s beach house in Malibu because I couldn’t handle their lifestyle anymore.

In the business world, my parents displayed a perfect relationship, but beneath the headlines, they were real life fucking assholes. And I got to learn that the hard way at thirteen.

At first, it all started with a simple disagreement. A week later, they advanced to fights, turning my once loving parents to walking-statues. At month's end, they decided on an open marriage...

For years, I watched my parents, who didn't care they had a child, bring in to and fro strangers.

Soon, I began to feel nauseated, uncomfortable, angry and irritated. Turning sixteen was the last straw, a stranger walked into my room like he owned it and asked me for con*oms. I tossed him out and that same night, I moved out.

Staying away for three years and they still didn’t care. They only cared when I needed to appear in dumb business parties and made sure there was a large sum of money in my bank account.

Driving past the Santa Monica’s pier in high speed, my phone starts ringing. Connecting it to a Bluetooth device I picked up, “Hello,” I said, making a u-turn down the road.

“Hey Reese, getting hyped for our hang-out later!” he yelled into the phone.

Rolling my eyes to no one in particular, "same here, just getting my surfboard and stuff.”

“K, k, stay safe, my man,” he said, his voice changing to all seriousness before hanging up.

Lucas Tate was my best bro. We became friends in middle school after aiding him in a fight with some big bullies making fun of Aria’s dorky glasses and braces.

I was walking past the hallway when I saw the crowded hall. Pushing my way to the front I saw a black-haired boy shoving his hands into the tallest of the guy's chest. "Don't you ever come near my sister or I'll deal with you," he said with confidence. I was amused by the sight in front of me. The boy had confidence. He was tiny as hell and there he was making threats. Suddenly, I heard quiet sobs and sniffing. It was a girl. "Lucas please stop. Let's go. I don't want to get hurt please," she kept saying but, he didn't listen. The tall boy chuckled and the guys behind him followed suit.

He flicked Lucas hand away from his chest like some fly. "What are you going to do 6th grader? Call a teacher? Or your mummy?" He cooed. Lucas inhaled deeply, it was clear he was getting annoyed. "I would kill you with hands," Lucas shot back, making eye contact with the boy. The students gasped aloud, shocked by his words even the boy flinched. I watched on with more admiration and respect for Lucas.

Then the boy did the stupidest thing, he bent his head to Lucas' height. Immediately, Lucas punched hard him straight in the nose. His sister screamed. The boy almost lost his balance and tried to stand when Lucas kicked him hard in the groin. He yelped in pain as Lucas continued to kick his legs.

All of a sudden, the other guys advanced forward. I was about to jump in when Lucas quickly sat on the boy's head. "Stop. Don't come any closer." The guys paid no attention to his words and moved closer.

A loud fart was heard and a stench followed soon after. I pinched my nose tightly together. Who did that? "I did. And if you guys move a step. I'll fart right into his nose. Yes, get it all on video," Lucas said, facing the students already recording the whole thing. His eyes meet mine, sending me a silent plea. Immediately, I moved over to his sniffing sister and nestled her into my arms, her back facing her twin as he delivered the final blow.

"Guys, please listen to him. Oh, God, I can't take another fart." The boy under Lucas butt begged. The boys spotted something down the hall and scurried away.

Lucas got up from his face, "now listen. Don't ever come near my sister again you hear me?!"

"Yes, I do. I won't, ever." Lucas hit him again in the shin when a voice rang out from the crowd, "Tate. Peters. The Principal's office now."

We immediately became friends after the incident; I was still somewhat jealous and adored his relationship with Aria—the bond they had.

Killing the engine in my garage, I got out and strolled to the porch. Squatting down, I pushed the medium-sized flower pot a few inches away and picked up my key.

Standing up straight, I slot in the key and turned the doorknob. It clicked open. I walked straight to my room, used the bathroom and grabbed my gym bag and surfboard before heading back to my dark blue BMW convertible.

Dumping everything in the backseat, I walked around to the front seat, turned on the radio, speeding down the road I came from.

My mind wandered to Noelle, she slapped me. In the face. It was an unexpected move. No girl had ever slapped me. It wasn't just done.

I slap my hand to my forehead, groaning. I still remembered her brown eyes, how she tasted, her scent.

I took a deep breath, the song on the radio wasn't doing any good. I turned it off. She clearly did not remember Friday! How she was all over me and then on Monday, she slaps me hard, on the face.

I got to the beach in no time. Although, Cherwood was a small, jolly town. It had a good beach.

Parking in a good spot, I sight smiling Lucas at the corner of my eyes moving towards me. “Well, that was fast,” he commented reaching me at the same time I got out of the car, carrying my surfboard and gym bag in both hands.

“The guys already arrived anyways,” he added.

Lucas and I worked evening shifts as lifeguards. Despite my parents being rich and their obvious disapproval, I still worked for extra cash. Mostly not to depend on their money, but to show them, I did not need to kiss up to them when I got broke. While Lucas, on the other hand, did it for fun and to keep me company.

Getting to our station, I dumped my bag in my locker. I picked up my surfboard again; looking over to Lucas who moved to his locker in the tiny station.

The station was more or less like a peeling orange painted cubicle; tiny and had little space. It was built close to the ocean with wood, it was lifted a few meters above the ground. With four heavy wooden poles maintaining its balance. It had a few stairs leading to the station.

The inside was painted peach, which was fading and peeling. It had six medium-sized lockers fused with the wall, one for each employee. My locker was the third and Lucas had the last one.

Checking the small clock hanging in a corner, it read 3:40. “Let’s go surfing!” Lucas hooted excitedly as we ran out of the office and unto the stair, shoving each other playfully as we both struggled on the small stairs, laughing loudly.

Finally making our way down, we ran to join the other guys in the water.

We both our shifts were from four-thirty to seven due to a dumbass who tried to commit suicide on the quiet beach one night.

With the same case happening for the third time, authorities took action by: extending beach security, hiring more lifeguards, building new stations, giving lifeguards a raise and also, adding a lighthouse.

Sometime later, we all headed down to the station. Lewis decided to hang out with us and some other guys from the swim team joined in too since they had nothing better to do.

Getting there, the others stayed behind while I climbed the stairs alone to inspect the beach. I couldn't let them come in because of what happened the last time Lewis got in. Lucas and I left to save a stuffed toy from drowning for a few minutes and Lewis, threw a weird party, inviting people to the tight spaced area—even getting beer.

Worst of all, we didn’t even know it was a toy! We both thought it was a child because Lucas saw the lady was screaming into the ocean and the stuffed animal was floating.

Running as fast as we could, we got there to find out the woman was a mother and the thing floating was her daughter's stuffed dog who had gone to get ice-cream with her father. She explained that the toy slipped and floated into the ocean.

Being the playful guy he was. Lucas foolishly explained we couldn’t swim for some dog and I stood behind him, nudging him to stop talking. The look the woman gave him before he completed his speech was venomous and in flash, Lucas and I swam ashore with a heavy large stuffed dog.

Checking the clock again, it read 4:35. Hurriedly, I raised one of the binoculars resting on the aisle for any abnormal activity on the beach, satisfied with the calm scenery, I placed the binoculars back in its original spot before heading back to the group huddled by a pine branches roof snack shack, sipping smoothies.

They were conversing about the hot topic; Friday night.

“The girl I took back to my hotel room was crazy!” I heard Lewis say as I sat on the empty chair next to Lucas and ordered a banana smoothie. It was on the house as one of the perks of being an employee.

“I specifically told her it was a nightstand and she agreed. The next morning, she kept dropping hints for me to take her number. I let her down gently, reminding her of the deal last night and BAM! Fuck, she went psycho! Guys, I almost died,” Lewis narrated and the other guys burst into laughter while I chuckled quietly. Lewis idea of letting a girl down gently was bad. He looked like the good guy but naah, he wasn't that. He was the worse.

The guy running the shack choose that moment to hand me my smoothie. I took a large gulp down as another guy in our huddle of five spoke up after wiping tears from his eyes.

“At least you got to her. I didn’t even get to second base with the girl I left with,” Matthew said, twirling the plastic cup in his hands. I felt bad for him and wanted to laugh but I decided to swallow my tongue to avoid the attention dragged to me.

Lucas, who was silent finally spoke up, “sorry Bro. I told you she was bad for you but you didn’t listen. I kept throwing that Blondie in your face and you didn’t get the signal. So then what happened?” he tapped Matthew shoulder lightly in a sympathetic manner and tossed his empty plastic cup in the trash.

“Okay, so we got to the hotel and when I made the first move, she screamed and hit my 'restricted' area,” he paused as we laughed at his demise. He patted Lucas on the back as he continued, “you were right bro. she was a nun.”

“I still don’t get it, why did she come to a club; dress to kill and when a guy made a move, she chickened out?" Justin, our fifth weird friend asked.

We all stopped laughing immediately. Justin always...well, clingy. He had been trying to get in our tight threesome bro circle. He wasn’t a weird person at all but the way he looked at me, sometimes Lewis and Lucas was weird. He followed us around most of the time instead of paying attention to his girlfriend Aisha, the second most popular girl in school who also, gave me weird looks.

His question hung in the air as no one answered his obvious question.

Then he decided to try again, “what about you Lucas?” Lucas looked up from his phone, grinning widely.

“Nothing interesting. Just made out with a few girls and watched over drunk Reese who getting on it with that hottie. Up top.” He said, raising his hand for me to high-five at his last statement.

In some alternate universe, I wished the conversation would not direct to me but it did. All because of him.

The other guys faces crunched with confusion for a few seconds like they were thinking and then, their faces brightened up again. “Yeah. The smoking hot brown head girl he was busy with,” Lucas stated.

I also wished in yet another alternate universe that he had forgotten about Noelle but I was wrong, for the hundredth time in the past two days.

“Yeah, that girl,” Lewis said, his eyes twinkling in amusement. Suddenly, I was curious about what Lewis wanted to say. “She was firing up the club. I was tempted to drag her away from him as they grinded on the dance floor, she won’t have the mouth to say no because she, would be melting into a puddle. I mean, have you seen me,” he continued, pointing at his body. I couldn’t help but scoff at his last statement.

He was cute.

“Come on Reese, you have to tell us her name,” Matthew chipped in and all the guys nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, maybe she is my soul mate? Did you look at that body? The curves, the—” Lewis went to dreamy land. I resisted the urge to push his face down Lucas second cup.

Quickly, Lucas stood up from his high stool to defend ‘the queen of his heart.’

“Hey, don’t talk about the future Mrs. Lucas Tate like that,” he retorted. Lewis rolled his eyes and Lucas, pushed him to the floor and began to wrestle him.

Slipping quietly away, back to the lifeguard station, I imagined what Lucas would do if I went ahead with my previous plan and I told him.

I caught the sight of the three other lifeguards working our shift with us. They waved at me and I nodded in their way.

I took a sip from my drink, looking back at my friends, I saw Lucas rolling Lewis under him and shoving his face into the sand.

I'll be the one on the ground and he would be on top of me, instead of the sand, he would punch the daylights out of me. That happened, he might not be my friend anymore.

I trot away faster with their laughter still faint from afar and the other guys shouting, cheering them on.