Chapter Text
Salt air, and the rust on your door
When Shea took a job as a lifeguard at the beach for the summer, she hardly expected the most exciting part of the job to be the summer fling she found herself caught up in.
Her job wasn’t nearly as glorious as the movies made it out to be. There were no dramatic rescue missions, just a lot of little kids shrieking and waving at her as they pranced through the waves. It was cute the first couple of days, but after nearly two months of it, Shea had quickly grown tired of the loud children.
Her shifts rarely overlapped with Brianna’s, but when they did, it was a struggle to keep their interactions casual when they had spent so many nights after work sneaking out to meet each other on the pier. Moonlight dates and stolen kisses from behind the office building plagued Shea’s thoughts whenever she saw the blonde strolling across the sand, causing Shea to swallow the lump in her throat as she gave Brianna a friendly wave, before they both went on their way. But Shea wasn’t blind; the mischievous glint in Brianna’s eyes as she smiled at Shea sent a shiver down her spine in the August heat, and Shea found herself counting down the minutes until they were both off work and could go mess around in the backseat of Shea’s car.
I never needed anything more
Summer storms were to be expected, but they usually occurred later in the evenings, not in the middle of the day when the beaches were crowded. But that day, however, Shea found herself sitting on the floor of the lifeguard office beside Brianna, both of them soaked from the unexpected torrential downpour they had to run through to reach shelter from the weather. They sat in silence for a moment, watching the rain come down in sheets against the windows, before Shea heard Brianna begin to snicker softly under her breath. She turned her head, raising an eyebrow curiously at the shorter girl, whose blonde hair was drenched and stuck to the sides of her face.
Shea couldn’t help but think that even when she was soaked and borderline shivering from the rain, Brianna was still beautiful. But she shook the thought from her mind, instead reaching to grab one of the bright red sweatshirts from a box beside the desk, handing it over to Brianna without saying a word. The blonde smiled gratefully, slipping the too-big sweatshirt on before scooting closer to Shea.
Sucking in a deep breath, Shea could feel her heart swell inside her chest. Brianna looked adorable, sweater paws and all, as she quietly nuzzled into Shea’s side. Her head came to rest on Shea’s shoulder, and the older girl found herself instinctively wrapping an arm around Brianna’s waist, holding her close.
“You know,” Brianna started after a while, turning her head to peer up at Shea with warm brown eyes. “The rain doesn’t look like it’s going to let up any time soon. We’re probably gonna be stuck here for a while if you wanna, y’know, play a game or something.”
Her words were innocent enough, Shea agreeing and suggesting they look through the desk against the wall to see if there was a pack of cards in any of the drawers. But after searching each of the drawers thoroughly only to come up empty handed, the two girls instead found themselves playing a different kind of game. Brianna had moved to pin Shea against the wall, the taller girl glancing down at the blonde with an amused smirk playing at her lips.
“Cute,” Shea mused, before tilting Brianna’s head up so their lips could meet in a frenzied kiss. Her hands drifted down to rest on the blonde’s hips, spinning them around so she had the shorter girl pressed against the wall. She felt Brianna’s hands in her still-wet hair, the blonde letting out a soft gasp as Shea’s nails dug into her hips. Shea had the fleeting thought that their bodies fit together perfectly, almost as if they had been made for each other, but the thought was instead replaced by a need to have Brianna even closer as she felt a tug on her hair.
They broke apart a few moments later, both breathing heavily as they glanced back out towards the waterfront. In the distance, they could see the storm clouds rolling in from over the ocean, lightning flashing in the distance. They exchanged a knowing glance, both silently agreeing to leave before the storm hit. Their fingers intertwined as Brianna dragged Shea towards the door of the office, preparing to run through the rain to Shea’s car.
But as they moved to leave, Shea found her eyes lingering on a deck of cards that had been pushed beneath a stack of papers on the desk, and she found herself wondering how Brianna had overlooked them.
And I can see us twisted in bedsheets
Clothes littered the bedroom floor of Shea’s tiny house by the beach, the lightning outside drowning out the soft snores of Brianna napping by her side. She stared up at the ceiling, not daring to move out of fear of waking up Brianna, the blonde’s head resting peacefully on Shea’s shoulder. But then Brianna rolled over onto her side, back to Shea, and Shea took the chance to carefully slip out of her bed. She pulled on an oversized t-shirt and padded into her kitchen, grabbing a glass from one of her cabinets as she looked out the window above the sink, her eyes fixed on the storm around the house.
The skies outside were dark, clouds swirling together, the occasional white flash illuminating the outlines of the clouds. The accompanying boom rattled the windows of Shea’s little home, the lights momentarily flickering from the power of the storm.
Shea found her thoughts drifting back to the blonde napping in her bed, a fond smile overtaking her face at the idea of slipping back into bed beside her soon. She could get used to this, she decided. Shea wasn’t usually one for flings, but this one felt promising. Brianna gave her hope for a future together. What that entailed, exactly, Shea wasn’t sure of yet, but she was happy to find out.
So much for summer love and saying "us"
'Cause you weren't mine to lose
Their job only lasted another two weeks, both girls having to go back to college by the middle of August in order to prepare for the final year of their degrees. They exchanged numbers before leaving, promising to meet up whenever they could since their schools were only an hour away from one another. It was a bittersweet goodbye, filled with nostalgia over all of the evenings they had spent together and a giddy sense of hope at the possibilities the future held.
But little did Shea know that as Brianna climbed into her car to drive away, that would be the last time she would hear from the blonde for months, their summer fling slipping from her memory the moment she stepped foot back on her home campus. Shea didn’t know then, but it didn’t take her long to figure it out.
Brianna wasn’t really her’s, and likely never would be.