Chapter Text
The sun glints off of the ocean beyond Galo’s sunglasses, blue skies and bluer water tinted dark green. A plastic whistle perches between his lips. Waves crash and kids laugh; leaning forward in his chair, he rests his arms on his knees and scans the shore. He spends a moment watching a boy move further out into the water, but after his dad appears to call him back to safety, Galo returns to his surveying with a nod of relief. The crackle of the radio draws his attention from watching some seagulls.
“Galo, do you copy? Shift is almost up.”
Galo narrowly avoids kicking the walkie talkie where he set it down on the floor of the tower.
“Ah, shit,” he mutters, fumbling with the hunk of black plastic. He presses the button to replies, “Righty-o’, Remi.”
The static snaps on the other end before Galo hears him sigh. “Your responses get stranger by the day. Over.”
“It gets boring saying the same thing every day; it’s fun to switch it up! C’mon, you know you love ‘em.”
Galo can imagine him sat at his desk back at the main Lifeguard tower, lifting his glasses to massage the bridge of his nose.
“Love is… a strong word. But sure. Whatever will get you to stop finding new, even worse ones," Remi says.
"Could you at least use the proper radio terminology? Over.”
“Can-do. Righty-o’, over.”
There’s a long pause before Remi replies. “Over and out.”
Galo snickers and checks the beach one last time. His focus drifts to a group of surfers. For a few minutes, he watches them, gaze breaking away occasionally to make sure none of the other beachgoers are in need of help.
Hands tap rhythmically on the tower’s metal support beams, snapping him out of his trance. Aina looks up at him from the sand and smiles. “Looking a little distracted,” she teases.
Galo pushes himself out of the chair and hangs his torso over the railing. “Slow day. I’ve been sitting still for way too long.”
Her blue eyes sparkle behind red oval shades. “You say slow, I say safe.”
Galo sighs. “I know, I know. Tomato, tomahto. I’m just saying that if I have to sit and do nothing for much longer I think I’ll go crazy.”
“Well,” Aina smirks, “it’s a good thing you don’t have to! Now that your shift is up, want to go get ice cream?”
“That’s not even a question.” Galo slides under the rail and plants his feet in the sand. He nods up at Varys, who’s here to take his place, and falls into step with Aina.
“So, ‘Na-na, how are things?”
“Things are pretty good. School is school. Went to the library yesterday, finished an essay for English class. All in all, pretty standard. You?”
“Good, good. Just been working out and doing this, not a whole lot else.” Aina checks her watch and glances at him.
“And Kray?” Raising his arms above his head, Galo tilts his head skyward.
“Hasn’t really talked to me,” he says not-quite nonchalantly.
Aina tightens her ponytail as they reach the street, making a noise of disgust under her breath.
“It’s been three months and he still hasn't - I mean, what an irresponsible, self-righteous -” she sees Galo’s grimace and restarts.
“Sorry. I just think he’s the one who needs to apologize. Not you.”
The two cross to the storefront. Sunburned tourists stroll past them on the sidewalk; Galo’s eyes are still fixed on the sky.
“Yeah, maybe. But it’s not likely. I mean, you think I’m stubborn? He’s the one I learned from.”
Bells jingle as Aina opens the door. Her mouth presses into a concerned frown.
“I don’t think your stubbornness and his are the same though,” she says, “you, at least, seem to care about people.”
Galo laughs, “Well I’m glad it seems like it!”
“Oh, no wait I phrased that wrong-” Galo laughs and pats her shoulder, focused on reading the list of flavors.
“No worries, just messing with you ‘Na.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t know how a guy like him ever managed to raise someone as nice as you.”
Aina turns to the cashier, “Can I get one scoop of Neapolitan please?”
Galo offers a small shrug, “Who knows?”
He knows. He learned how to be nice on his own.
Or maybe he just learned how to fake it better than his uncle, maybe he's even worse because he's really just manipulating people into thinking he's nice-
Galo shakes his head to clear the bummer thoughts, replacing them with flavors of ice cream.
“Rocky Road for me. Two scoops!”
The bells announce more customers as Aina and Galo sit down across from each other with their ice cream.
Galo swipes a spoonful of Neapolitan before Aina can fend him off. She pulls the rest of her ice cream closer and wraps her arm around it.
"I swear to god, you’re just a tall blue seagull.”
“Hey now, I resemble that remark; seagulls are pretty fun guys,”
Galo scoops Rocky Road into his mouth. A dreamy smile spreads across his face. “Mmm, marmshmellows.”
“Also,” Aina pushes her sunglasses onto her forehead and swipes Galo’s from off of his face,
“You think you look cool wearing those indoors until you mess up your eyes.”
Galo laughs and retrieves the glasses from her hand to hang them on the neckline of his white and red lifeguard sweatshirt.
“Okay mom.” Aina rolls her eyes and grins.
They sit quietly, savoring the ice cream and air conditioning. Galo rests his chin on his hand, keeping himself busy with a bit of people-watching.
An elderly group sits and chats excitedly at a table near the door, all wearing faded floral shirts and heavy strokes of sunscreen on their noses.
Two kids in matching turtle backpacks complain about wanting the other's ice cream but refuse their parents' idea to swap cones.
The employee who served Galo and Aina flips the ice cream scooper around in their hand before putting it back in its compartment, which looks super cool.
Galo wonders if he could learn to do that.
At the counter stand three people in bright rash guards and board shorts. After a second look, Galo recognizes them as some of the surfers he'd been watching earlier.
The tall thin guy with long black hair is debating over flavors while the long-legged, gangly redhead leans against him.
The shortest surfer has hair so blond it’s almost a greenish white; he turns to speak to them with an annoyed expression on his face.
His friends laugh and apologize before ordering.
Galo turns his focus back to his Rocky Road. After another bite, he spares a glance past Aina’s shoulder. The trio has collected their ice cream and sat down at a nearby table.
Leaning back in their chairs, they talk quietly,save for an occasional sharp laugh rising from the red-haired one.
"Helloo? Earth to Galo?” Blinking, Galo’s eyes focus on Aina.
“Hm?”
She turns around in her chair to look at what’s distracting him. “Do you know them?”
Galo nods, a spoonful of ice cream in his mouth. “Saw ‘em earlier,” he says after swallowing, “Surfing.”
He thinks for a moment over a couple more bites of ice cream, then stands up. “I’m gonna say hi.”
Aina’s eyebrows rise to hide under her bangs, but after a moment’s hesitation she stands too. She waves off his wide grin, holding back her own smile.
“ What? ” She says, "There’s no harm in being friendly.”
Galo offers her a thumbs up, “Yeah! That’s the spirit!”
The two walk over to the other table, Galo taking the lead.
The three strangers initially look up at him with varying levels of annoyance.
“Hey there! Just wanted to say I saw you out there today while I was on duty.
From what I could tell, I thought you guys were really good!”
The long-haired one makes eye contact with the both of them. “Thank you."
He turns towards them in his chair, "You’re lifeguards, I take it?”
Galo nods with enthusiasm, “Yeah! I’m Galo.”
Aina shifts on her feet and musters a nervous smile. “And I’m Aina. It’s nice to meet you..?”
The long-haired one returns the smile. “My name is Meis.” He nudges the slouching redhead with his elbow.
“Name’s Gueira,” the redhead says, annoyed at being jostled mid-bite, “‘n that’s Lio.”
The two of them shoot a glance at their friend, who’s been watching the exchange with a neutral expression.
“Good to meet you! You guys new around here? Don’t think I’ve seen you before.”
Lio spends a moment studying the pair of strangers before speaking.
“We just moved here,” he answers.
“Came to get away from some of the city ruckus, y’know? And for the surf,” Gueira adds.
Aina nods in agreement and exclaims, “Hold on, I thought I recognized you! By any chance, do you work at the grocery store on Second Street?”
Gueira laughs, leaning forward on his elbows.
“Yeah,” he says, “just started a couple weeks ago. You look kinda familiar too; hard to forget the pink hair. Which I dig, by the way.”
“Thank you,” Aina smiles, "I love pink. Yours’ is cool too! How in the world did you manage that two-tone effect?”
Gueira offers an exaggerated shrug and shoves Meis’ shoulder, “I’m not gonna lie, Meis here was just messing around and it turned out like that. And, speakin’ of hair,”
he turns to face Galo, ”dude. Yours’ is like… physically impossible.” Meis shoots an incredulous look at Galo’s spiky blue hair.
Galo rubs a hand over the back of his neck and laughs. “Ah yeah, I dunno. Lots of blow-drying and exposure to a coastal breeze, I guess!”
They joke about how fast they would have to run in order to achieve the amount of volume Galo’s hair has until Lio pushes his chair out from the table.
The conversation falters.
“We have to go. It’s almost 1.” Lio proceeds to stand, grab his sherbet, and walk towards the door. He raises his hand over his shoulder in farewell.
Meis gives an apologetic look to the two of them. “Sorry, he’s not a fan of meeting new people-”
“Because he’s an asshole.” Gueira interrupts, half-jokingly.
Meis spares an annoyed glance at him. “...But he’s right, we have to get going. I have work.”
“It was nice meeting you,” Aina says.
Galo waves, “See you around!”
Gueira returns the wave and Meis nods, “It was, you too.”
He and Gueira follow Lio out the door.
As they leave, Gueira slouches into Meis and groans, “Hombre I told you, your hours are trash.”
Meis wraps an arm around Gueira’s waist and sighs, “No shit babe, I’m the one who works them.”
Galo and Aina head back to their seats as the bell above the door stops ringing.
Aina exhales and tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear, “How in the world do you do that without getting nervous?”
Galo gestures upwards, palms towards the ceiling, “My motto is that every stranger is just a friend you haven’t met yet!”
“But what if they don’t like you?”
They sit back down and eat more of their melting ice cream.
Galo shrugs, “Well then, they’re just not your friend.”
Aina prods at her Neapolitan with a yellow spoon. She’s thinking.
“Guiera and Meis seemed nice, but the other guy, Lio? Like Meis said, he didn’t seem to like talking to us.”
Galo chews on a marshmallow in thought. “Maybe... I dunno, it was an unexpected situation. Not everyone enjoys surprises.”
Setting her chin on her palm, Aina sighs.
“You might be right. It’d make plenty of sense if he doesn’t like us though – we’re pretty annoying.”
Galo leans back, feigning hurt. “We? How could you include me?”
Aina swats at him. “Oh my god, it was your idea in the first place!”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He sticks his blue plastic spoon in his mouth, wiggling the handle at her.
She snickers. “You’re an idiot.”
Galo sees Guiera and Meis around pretty frequently afterwards. He and Guiera talk about the surf when Galo goes to buy groceries. Meis waves whenever he sees that Galo is on duty. The three of them and Aina exchange numbers once they run into each other at the gym and figure they might as well be friends if they’re going to keep bumping into each other.
In the back of his mind, Galo can’t help but wonder about Lio. Meis said he was at work when Galo asked about him at the beach, and at the gym Gueira mentioned that he prefers to work out on his own. It seems like he’s always busy.
Or maybe Aina was right, he didn’t like them.
Which is okay. That’s life. But still, Galo feels bad. He probably came off too strong.