Rhiannon // Max Mayfield

5: climb a tree

The next day Alex felt a bit better, turns out actually eating a meal and keeping it down does wonders to your body, especially when it was recovering from the previous night. She was also happy because she was at the pool today, she had a lesson in the morning but the rest of the shift she was lifeguarding.

She looked in the mirror, dry swallowing four pills dry. Two were her antidepressants, one was pain relief and the other an energy booster. She thought she looked better today, her neck wasn't as red, the bruising faded a bit overnight. Her cheek wasn't the same story, she quickly covered it with concealer, hoping the pool water wouldn't wash it off.

She dressed quickly, not wanting to have a confrontation with either of her parents before she left the house. Her clothes were simple, she used her red Hawkins pool bikini top as a normal top as it wasn't a proper bikini, the top's length similar to that of a cropped top, the bottom half was the same, closer to a pair of high waisted underwear as opposed to a thong.

She wore them with sweatpants on top as she biked over to the pool, the cool breeze biting at her exposed shoulders.

She got to the pool in record time and greeted the boy she was on shift with, noting that Heather was absent meaning she had more hours today, instead of leaving at noon she had till mid afternoon

The pool was quiet, it was only ten am but rain clouds overhung Hawkins, At least it would be an easy day.

She started the lesson quickly, only having half a class so she had more time to help the students one on one. However, she did find it significantly more boring without her two best friends, both the boys had to miss out on it, both being on vacation somewhere else in the country for the fourth of July.

Once the lesson was over she swapped out with the male life guard, Heather still hadn't turned up so they agreed to swap on two hourly rotations. She quickly noted only one of the boys from the usual group had turned up today, it was Rocky, the brunette one who was a bit taller than her.

The girl was slowly growing bored, the weather had taken a turn and less people were at the pool, even fewer swimming so she barely had a job to do, just watch over a couple of seniors and elementary school kids.

The hours she was on passed quickly, the girl off in her own head most of the time. Alex jumped down from the chair as soon as it was time to swap, getting sick of the plastic chair hurting her ass.

She sat in the reception area with her feet on the desk for a while before someone walked over and dinged the bell, she looked up to see Rocky. she smiled at him, 

"Your friends skip out on you today?" she asked, the boys laughed and trailed his eyes up her chest.

"I could ask you the same thing, but yeah, they all had to stay at home or went out of town for the holiday," he said, sitting on the desk right beside Alex's outstretched legs. Alex couldn't help but look at his defined torso.

"Same thing here, one's gone out of state, the other is just visiting family a couple towns across," she stated, having nothing better to do than talk to the boy.

They were talking for the entirety of the remaining hour, conversation flowing easily between them as they realised they had more in common than they initially thought. Her colleague walked back in, Alex made a move to go outside but he stopped her, "Don't bother, it's raining, no-ones in the pool anyway," he explained, sliding in front of the desk so he could take over, Alex nodded and slid over the desk so she was by Rocky.