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Your name is DAVE STRIDER and it is currently hot as fuck outside. Sure, you're in swim shorts and a tank top but it's not enough. It’s simply too hot.
“You put sunscreen on, right?” June comes up behind you with three ice cream cones in hand and gives you the chocolate-vanilla swirl cone you'd requested. You take it from her graciously, mostly because you are seriously sweating and shoot her a thumbs up. “Yeah, got lathered up in that shit til’ I looked like the holy ghost.” Jade comes back from the concession stand with Rose on her tail, and June continues your conversation while handing Jade and Rose their ice cream cones. “Sure, sure, I'm just wondering. Don't want you looking like a raw hotdog at the public pool.” You laugh, but she makes a very valid point. You really don't want a repeat of last time where you didn't sunscreen your back and physically could not lay on it for two weeks.
The four of you moved to the set of beach chairs you occupied while everyone got their stuff ready. You finished your ice cream and were already set to fully jump into the pool, but nooooo. Jade can't blow a fucking beachball. Rose needs to take her sweet time with her ice cream while helping, ironically, June with her sunscreen. There's only a few kids splashing in the pool since it's just a random Wednesday, but thankfully most of the others are infesting the kiddie section of the pool or the playground. There's two lifeguards on duty, one girl by the waterslide who has her dark hair pulled up into a pony tail. You think she took your tickets at the entrance. Ara… Deeeen….. Dio…? Dia! Aradia. First try.
There's also a second lifeguard. He's sitting in the lifeguard chair with red swim shorts and a whistle around his neck. That, and he's also not wearing a shirt. He's got a black mop of curls on his head and you see him wipe sweat from his forehead occasionally, if not yelling at preteens for running near the pool. You don't know if he's allowed to curse, but by the way he almost does and instead trails his words off or trades them for something somewhat PG you have to not chuckle. You must've been staring for a while though, because June's nudging you to get up. You follow them to the entrance of the pool, trying to follow the conversation.
Its hard.
You're sitting on the edge of deep end, legs in the water next to Jade and June (who have been splashing each other and trading workplace drama for the past 10 minutes) while Rose enjoys her soda concoction next to you. The sun is beating on your back brutally, despite your sunscreen. It doesn't burn (yet) but it's still hot. Rose tips her drink towards you to let you have your share of it on the side of the cup. Sibling taxes. “You could totally open one of those, like, Mormon dirty soda places in Utah.” She sips from her straw and hums. “Very funny, Dave.” You shrug and do some kind of movement with your hands. “Seriously! Think about it. You'd make major bank, Rose. These’d bang and you know it. They couldn't get their hands off of it. You could be on secret lives of Mormon wives.” Jade snorts. “Everybody knows Utah isn't even real.” You lean back on your arms and continue your previous gawking at the male lifeguard with background noise of Jade and June blabbering on.
He's busy talking to one of the employees who you saw inside in the office. It's a tall-ish asian boy in a black t-shirt and tight jeans, which is definitely not ideal for this weather. He says something probably snappy to the lifeguard which makes him pout. Its actually really fucking cute, his top teeth stick out a little. The office worker walks back inside and the lifeguard goes back to, you guessed it, lifeguarding. You're zoned out and don't realize that the two of you are basically maintaining eye contact and my god he's looking at you he's looking at you holy shit. You feel your cheeks warm slightly but before you could do anything you find out that in the time you'd been fawning over some dude, June was about to pull your leg first into the pool.
The second you resurface, you, one, check to make sure your shades are still on your face (they are). And two, to see if that guy saw any of that. And by the way he's tilting his hand away from you and his shoulder are shaking slightly as if he's holding in laughter, he definitely did. You huff and the sound of June and Jade laughing at you fades in while the water in your ears receeds out. June says something to you but you're not listening, still staring at the lifeguard chair. Or really just the lifeguard.
“Daaave? Earth to Strider?” She waves a hand in front of your face before June follows your gaze and lands on the guy in the chair, gaining an evil grin, Jade in suit. “Oh my god, are you checking him out?” You nearly gawk at her, “What? No!” You shove her head under the water and she comes up giggling. “You so were-!” You shove her back under for good measure and climb out of the pool, adjusting your shades. Your tank top is sticking to your skin from the water so you pull it off, wring it into the water and threaten to whack June with it if she says anything (jokingly, obviously. Ok, partially joking.) and set it down next to Rose, who takes it with her back to the shade of the chairs that she decided to retreat to with her book. You get back into the pool to see Jade grinning at you. “I hope you know he was totally checking you out while you took off your shirt.” You flush again and look back at him only for him to whip his head away the second you look at him. He's not slick.
You try to go the rest of the afternoon not checking him out. Not when he walks by and you can see the defined muscles on his legs or the sweat on his neck in the sun. Or not the way his voice sounds when he yells at a kid for pushing by the slide. But you digress. He's hot. Not much to say about it. At some point Jade had roped Rose to get into the pool and play chicken, June on your shoulders (you two are the dream team of chicken) and Jade carrying Rose. Rose was busy fighting June above you while you thought about pretending to drown so maybe he could rush over and give you mouth to mouth. That is, before Jade kicks her knee up and water gets in your eye under your shades. Unfortunately, this sends both you and June toppling into the deep end.
You know how you just wished you could pretend to drown to get some lifeguards attention? Yeah fuck that, having water in your lungs is not for the weak. You can feel your lungs burning from the inside out and your shades have surely slipped off your face at this point. Maybe at your funeral they’ll all wear swimsuits like that one sims meme.. Man, is that still even relevant? Holy shit it's happening you're seeing your life flash before your eyes- there's you and Rose at Hannukah and the friend group having lunch oh never mind your being pulled out of the water. So much for flashbacks.
You feel somebody doing CPR on you, before you then suddenly feel somebody kissing you. Unfortunately, this could-be-nice-moment is ruined by you coughing up chlorine into the person's mouth. Unfortunately again, it's the really hot fucking lifeguard you've just coughed into the mouth of. You cough a bit more and sit up, instinctively trying to adjust shades on your face that aren't there before begrudgingly opening your eyes. The guys really pretty in the light and there's water running down his face and hair and he's flushed from the face down to his shoulders and it'd be really hot if you weren't still kinda lightheaded and- yep your head just hit the fucking pavement.
You wake up on a cot in a, thank god, air conditioned room. Your vision is still a bit hazy but there's clearly a person leaning against the wall next to you. Good news, your shades are next to your head. Bad news, the person next to you is not one of your friends.
“You awake?” The lifeguard crouched down next to you while you tilted your head over. “You took quite a fall.” His tone isn't the kind of motherly tone you usually take from that sentence but more so like he's holding in laughing at you. You don't respond at first because you're busy staring straight into his eyes. They're as deep brown with dark flecks of red near his pupil, and it contrasts against his tan skin nicely. He notices your staring and flushes slightly, looking away. “Are you going to answer me or just lay there like an idiot?” you take the message and sit up. Luckily, you're totally prepared for the situation where a hot lifeguard saves your life and you're alone in the (presumably) medbay with him. (This is a lie, by the way.)
“Well sorry, I didn't know a hot lifeguard would be saving my life today.” You cringe internally at yourself because what was that, but try and maintain composure while putting your shades on. He's redder than before. “That was a real stupid fuc- freakin’ stunt you pulled out there.” You try not to cringe physically again or laugh at him. “You know you can curse right? There's nobody else in here and we're both adults, I'd hope.” You laugh but the idea of being alone with this guy does not make you feel any more straight. He stood back up. “Fuck, finally. If my boss catches me though she… Actually, I don't think Porrim would really care if it's not in front of a kid..” his words spiral off into mumbles but you're only focusing on how his arms flex when he crosses them. “... Anyway, your friends are still waiting at the pool so whenever you're ready-” you grab his arm quickly before he can turn and leave. Man, this room really is tiny. You gulp. Was it always this hot in here? “Can.. Can I get your number?”
He looked at you first in shock before he flushed again, his cheeks looking a bright red. “You're serious?” You swallow again despite your throat feeling strangely dry. “Yeah, dude.” There's a brief moment of silence before the guy looks over his shoulder and fishes out a pen, gesturing to your arm. He writes his number on your arm and his Pesterchum handle, along with his name. He writes in blocky capitols so it's pretty easy to read. “Karkat… Vantas?” You twist your arm around and he nods, almost sheepishly. “Yeah. Uh, I get off at 6 if you'd maybe want to get food…?” His head is turned away from you and you’d laugh if you weren't also equally as nervous. “Yeah, yeah that uh.. That sounds good.” You both kind of nod at each other like awkward middle schoolers hugging in the hallway and you slip past him, but before you can leave the medbay you turn back around. “Dave, by the way.” He snorts. “Oh, I know. Your friends filled me in, I think we went to high school together?” You really hope they didn't tell him anything weird. “Shit, really?” He nods, but you can't respond because the sound of Jade yelling for you is echoing outside the hallway. “I better go. See you tonight?” He smiled at you and you felt like you might as well drown again, just for the hell of it.
When you return to your friends, they, one, ask if you are okay, and then proceedingly ask if you two had been making out considering how long you took in there. You said you just were passed out for a bit and Rose tells you they could all very distinctively hear you both talking. Busted.
The four of you drove to some fast food place and got food from the drive-through, you in the passenger, Rose driving, and Jade and June huddled up watching some new episode of a YouTube series they're invested in in the backseat. You fish your phone out of your back pocket, add Karkat to both your Chumroll and contacts list before texting him. Unfortunately, you've got a whole ass Egbert on your shoulder mega-phoning the entire message back to the car. You playfully push her back and threaten to recline your seat onto her. You may be red enough to be mistaken as sunburnt, but the fact you and the whole car are currently laughing at you covers it up just enough.