𝑺𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝑺𝒊𝒙𝒕𝒚-𝑻𝒘𝒐 | b. rodriguez

the laundry talk

Summer in the City/The Lovin' Spoonful
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He is in deep shit.

After Wendy yanked Squints up she proceeded to drag him by the arm all the way through the chain-link gate at the side end of the pool. Me and the boys followed them closely, calling for Squints all the way.

It was quite the scene.

"Squints!"

"Squints, man!"

We all sounded like a crowd of seagulls chanting his name as he was pulled to his doom. I still couldn't believe he'd actually done it – he kissed Wendy!

Wendy had every right to ban Squints like she did. And call him a pervert, and it would've been fully justified in my book if she never spoke to him again– but she did, and that's another story.

As horrified and frustrated and disgusted, and a little insulted as I was by what Squints had done, for being a female after all, I still had to admit: He had some balls. And true– if it was me he'd kissed I'd probably have socked him in the nose– but he was my friend, and a strange part of me was actually proud of him. Squints had always been the geeky underdog of the group, and from that day forward all of the guys actually listened to him when he told them to bug off on the teasing.

As angry as I'd ever expected Wendy to be, she dragged that boy all the way through the gate, and onto the green grass out near the sidewalk, and then she shoved him down on the lawn.

Half of us went rushing to his side, myself included, while the rest of the boys ran to the locker room doors where the other lifeguards were throwing out our clothes. After grabbing a dazed Squints off the ground we made a run for the far side of the exterior of the vvpcp– a narrow alleyway between the fence and some sheds that served as a shortcut back to the sandlot.

"Oh hey, hey hey, here's your glasses," Ham said, holding them out to Squints after giving him his clothes. "Did you plan that?"

"Of course I did– been plannin' it for years."

Yeah, right. Squints totally lost his shit.

I wanted to talk to him about it, but I was still speechless. I slowed to a stop amongst the crowd of boys who were now putting their clothes back on outside the pool. We were on the only end of the fence that didn't have a door to get through, so we were safe from Wendy, and safe from the other other lifeguards who totally had he hots for her – go figure.

"Wait, where are my clothes?" I asked, thinking aloud.

"I got this," Scotty said, handing me my towel.

"Thanks Scott. But where's my–"

"–Here," Benny said, tossing me my shorts over Ham's head. I caught them, somehow and just nodded at Benny.

"Thanks."

Wether his face flushed or not, I couldn't tell because he bent down and hid his head as he tied his old converse. Quickly, I slid my legs through my shorts and slung my towel over my shoulder.

I looked for Squints, and turned around to catch the last glimpse of the smile he shared with Wendy, and that taunting wave she sent. Everyday when he passed by that pool, she's smiled at him since.

After staring at his future-lover, Squints let go of the fence and came back to us, smiling brighter and dorkier than ever before. It was sweet, I gotta admit.

We were banned from the pool after that. Too hyped to play baseball that day, we all went home to stay safe from the heat.

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