Chapter Text
There were a thousand other places you’d rather be than at a work meeting. Especially one taking place on a Friday evening in the middle of summer. The dying light of day and sound of cicadas surround the group of people gathered under the overhead light outside the pool house. You look around at all the other employees attending. They’re teenagers for Christ sake, all of whom also don’t want to be here. You see a few new faces that must have been hired recently which is why August’s pre- month meeting is taking longer than usual. Why does this place even hire so late into the summer?
You can feel the beads of sweat forming on the back of your neck as you focus your attention on the Hawkin’s community pool manager. His bushy mustache moves up and down with each word “Make sure you’re checking the chemicals every hour,” he looks around to see if everybody is paying attention. His words are met with blank stares and a few absent nods. His voice quickly becomes background noise as your thoughts trail off.
You don’t know why he’s trying so hard anyway. The people who come to the pool wouldn’t care if they were swimming in piss so long as there’s a body of water to cool off in. Plus every kid here is just lifeguarding to get paid for doing nothing but tanning all day. Not a single person has drowned at the pool and the deepest part of it is only five feet.
“New kid, did you get that?” The manager’s sharp tone haults your train of though as you register the words.
You follow his gaze to the tall dirty blonde in a band tee who clearly wasn’t expecting the abrupt question, seeing as though he’s still making eyes at some girl nearby. They’re are a deep shade of blue, paired with the hard lines of his face, making for a handsome ensemble. You haven’t seen him around Hawkins before. He looks about your age, maybe older.
He flashes a single-dipmpled smile at the man before replying, “sorry I didn’t catch that, sir.” It’s clear he’s all sweet talk. It’s probably the same routine he gives to every authority figure when he’s been caught in a mistake.
The manager shakes his head in defeat and takes a sweeping glance over the group “Everybody listen up,” he starts “you cannot leave the pool deck unattended at any point while on shift.” His eyes fall to the dirty blond again, who’s actually paying attention this time “Got that, Hargrove?”
“Yes sir,” he says cheerfully with a mocking smile and nod to match. The gesture seems to come from him so effortlessly. It’s clear he’s already mastered the art of ass-kissing, which you hate to admit, is going to quickly get him a raise.
The manager drones on for the next ten minutes before dismissing everybody “Don’t forget to check the schedule before you leave,” He says on his way out “It’s on the wall by the front desk.” His hand lazily gestures to the building behind him. “There’s only a month left before school starts and we close, let’s make sure you don’t fuck up until then.” He’s the only one who laughs at his own remark and turns on his heal leave us with the proclaimed expectation.
“What a dick.” the girl next to you says under her breath between pops of gum. She’s a brunette with a small and short build. You recognize her from school but you’ve never had any classes together. You’ve probably passed her in the halls a few times and Hawkins is so small that everybody knows everybody anyway.
“I know right,” you whisper to her as you both watch him push through the double doors of the pool house that lead to the parking lot “I swear his mustache was a caterpillar for a second there.” You continue, “At some point, I thought it was gonna crawl away.”
She lets out a snort next to you and shakes her head “At least we get to work with the hot new guy.” She says, jerking her head to where ‘Hargrove’ is shoving past everybody else in a rush to get to see the schedule before everybody crowds it. “I mean, just look at that ass.” She whispers loudly with a playful smile. Everyone has started walking inside and checking the schedule by the desk where the Hargrove is already scanning it.
You watch as he pushes past the door, your gaze dropping to the subject of her exclamation. You have to admit she was right. You shake your head, remembering the kiss- ass routine he just pulled and the eye-fucking with that girl. “Yeah but he seems like such a douche.” You tell her as you join the crowd of people lining up to check the schedule.
“He’d be good in bed though,” she says with bite of her lip. Her eyes stay glued to him as he finishes checking the schedule and crosses the lobby to the door leading to the parking lot.
You’re glad she’s so focused on him that she can’t see the blush that you feel rise to your cheeks. You’d only ever slept with two guys and they had both been your boyfriends at the time, neither of which lasted more than a few minutes. You simply mutter a “yeah,” at her statement and move up in the line.
She checks her time slots first, her finger pausing on the name Tina Walsh. You recognize the name from the Halloween party flyers that circulate around school each year. Finally you can put a face to the name.
Once she’s finished you scan the paper taped to the wall in front of you. When you find your name in the nine to three o’clock time slot on tomorrow’s column, you let out a groan of frustration because in the box right next to it is the name William Hargrove.
Tina comes to stand next to you, finding the spot where your finger meets the sheet of paper on the wall. “Ugh lucky,” she says “I have to work with Mandy for the rest of the week.” You barely register the words, too focused on finding your name anywhere else on the rest of the paper on the wall.
You quickly scan the rest of the week’s schedule noticing that you’ll have to work with him, not just tomorrow, but Wednesday and Thursday as well. You commit the information to memory before turning to head for the door with Tina.
Why would they put you with the new guy so much during his first week? You’d only been working there for the past two months and now you’re probably gonna have to show him how to do everything. Why not have him with somebody more experienced like Richie. They’d get along just great, like all dickheads do. They could probably talk about how many girls they’ve laid and which shitty rock band is their favorite. I’m willing to bet it’s the same one.
You only make a bit of small talk with Tina as you exit the building into the parking lot. The faint smell of cigarette smoke hangs in the air, which truthfully has always been one of your favorite scents. You were never really big on smoking though. You had tried it a few times at parties and hanging out with friends but the smell was always better than the taste which felt more like ashes in your mouth than anything else. The smell is likely lingering from patrons who smoke out here all the time, after all the pool only closed about an hour ago. You swear it’s ingrained in the pavement or something with the way it seems to hang in the air.
Tina waves goodbye and makes her way to a white convertible as you grab your skateboard from the bike rack outside the building. Your house is only a few blocks away so you usually take your board with you instead of driving your car. It saves a lot of gas money that you’ll need to save up for college anyway.
As you make your way to the back of the parking lot towards the street, the smell of smoke becomes more potent. Your eyes quickly find the source. William Hargrove is leaned against the hood of a bright blue Camaro with a cigarette loosely held between his index and middle fingers, just inches from his lips. He parked in the very back of the lot so he could stick around, probably waiting for that girl to pass by so he can offer her a ride home.
You roll your eyes at the sight. Of course he smokes, you think to yourself before looking straight ahead to ignore him as you pass by. The smell of smoke fills your senses and you take a deep breath to inhale it deeper. The scent is weirdly calming.
“Hey,” the voice comes from nearby where William is leaning against his car, holding out his half- smoked cigarette to you “you look like you need it.” The gesture is accompanied with a cheeky wink.
Jesus Christ. It takes everything in you not to roll your eyes again. “I don’t smoke,” you say flatly and level a gaze at him. He’s a bit taller than you so you have to look up to meet his eyes which are a deep shade of blue that’s vibrant even in the darkness of the approaching nighttime.
He chuckles softly to himself and shakes his head. “Could’ve fooled me,” he says, taking a drag before flashing a smile at you and holding it out again. “Only people who smoke breathe it in like that, sweetheart.” You’d think he wouldn’t wink again, but the bastard does. It’s almost laughable how see through he is.
You can’t help yourself this time, rolling your eyes at the remark. “Yeah, no thanks,” you reply to the gesture and start towards the sidewalk again. Hargrove shrugs and smiles to himself as if to say ‘your loss’. It most definitely isn’t.
On the way home you can’t help but dread your morning shift tomorrow. Usually on Saturday mornings you get to relax because everybody sleeps in but even if there’s nobody at the pool, you’re going to have to train Hargrove. Or he’ll just blow you off and make you do all the work the whole time. Either way it’s going to absolutely suck.