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CHAPTER FORTY " POOL'S CLOSED "
SHE WAS STARTING TO THINK HER SMALL BREAK WOULD BE SPENT ENTIRELY POOLSIDE. She wasn't complaining, it was nice to sit by the pool, drink soda, and gossip with Tina and Heather. But by her third day home, she had dropped a friend.
"You know what's so weird?" Tina said with a deep frown. "I haven't heard from Heather at all. I think she's mad at me."
"I doubt she's mad at you, you guys are best friends, maybe it's me," Dylan looked up at the lifeguard tower. Billy sat at the top, staring ahead, wrapped in a towel, drinking a slushie. "Speaking of, I think Billy of all people is icing me out. He didn't call me, not that I care, but it's weird. He's reliably persistent."
Tina turned her head to look at him too. "He looks like a wreck. I mean that hat? And he's been sweating like crazy all day."
Dylan hated it but he was acting so odd that she was actually concerned. "I'm gonna go talk to him."
Dylan approached the tower and shouted his name. He barely glanced her way.
"Playing hard to get, are we?" She joked, hoping to break whatever tension was between them. He didn't crack even half a smile. Usually, he'd be trying to get in her pants by now. "Alright, I can take a hint..."
Dylan gave up with a frown, growing even more concerned.
The sun was going down and Tina packed up her stuff, hiking her beach bag over her shoulder. "Ready?" She asked.
Dylan shook her head, spotting Billy enter the employee change room. "No, I'm gonna stick around. You go."
Tina followed Dylan's eye-line and smirked, interpreting the wrong message. "Oh. I see."
Dylan didn't correct her, knowing she'd never be believed anyway. "Mall tomorrow?"
Tina nodded.
Dylan followed after Billy but by the time she found him, he was already in the shower.
She sighed but stuck around. The tap shut off and she watched him walk toward his locker, the same distressed look on his face. She took a step forward, coming around the corner.
Dylan seemed to startle him. "Pool's closed! Who's there?"
"It's me." She said rather than introduce.
"What're you doing here, huh?" Billy looked her up and down. "I thought you wanted nothing to do with me."
"I don't. But unfortunately some idiotic part of me still cares about you and I was worried, you seemed off all day." She noticed how much he was sweating, even after his shower. "Are you sick?"
