After Hours (boyxboy) | ✓

Chapter One

It was the third Monday in June, and I was starting my summer job. I'd be spending the whole summer a slave to the typical high-class assholes who visited the Elmore Hills Country Club. Lifeguarding for the whole summer wasn't exactly ideal, but it wasn't a bad option either. With a job, at least I'd be doing something. My friends and I had a tradition of doing absolutely nothing for three months a year, and I was going to be the one to break it.

The club desperately needed guards. My friends Theo and Claire were the children of the stuck-up owners of the place. Their parents had reached out to me in spring, begging for me to take a few shifts. It's not like I had anything better to do. So I signed up for the training and planned to work a few hours a day.

"Welp," I muttered to myself as I pulled into the freshly-paved parking lot. "Here we go."

The country club was a pretty nice place. They had tennis courts, two swimming pools, a golf course and a little restaurant. My parents never bothered to buy a membership, so I'd only been there a handful of times (usually to play tennis with Claire and Theo). I wasn't the kind of person to go to a country club anyways. Sure, I was friends with the richest group of people in our school, but we weren't close. I was too different from them. My close friends were quieter, and less involved in the ever-dramatic upper class of our school. Hence our tradition of staying home all summer.

After showing the security guards my temporary membership (issued to lifeguards), I walked through the fancy metal gates of the property. It was early. Around seven o'clock. My shift started at eight, and there'd be three other lifeguards with me. We'd have to rotate every so often. I didn't know who was in my shift yet. I knew we'd have to open the pool. Our boss, Pam (the pool manager) would be in her office, probably watching us through security cameras. Pam didn't really seem like the kind of person to breathe down her employees' necks, but the thought of messing something up sent shivers down my spine.

I finally reached the gated swimming pool and entered through the back as Pam had taught us to during orientation. She was there already, smoking outside her office. I gave her a small wave and she started to walk towards me.

"Morning!" she said, "You're the first one here!"

She tossed me a ring of keys and smiled widely. I smiled back and glanced at the snack shack (where I'd be spending three fourths of my time lifeguarding).

"Take care of those keys. I only have one extra." No pressure or anything. "You're Emmett, right?"

"Yup."

"When're your shifts?"

"Uh..." I thought for a minute. "Monday, Friday and Sunday opening; Tuesday and Thursday closing."

"You're off Wednesday and Saturday?"

"Yeah."

"Alright."

With instructions to open everything up and organise snack shipments, I started working. Pam retreated to her office. I started with opening all the doors. The locker rooms, bathrooms, and the snack shack all needed to be unlocked every morning. After unlocking the shack, I went to the back to retrieve the shipments of potato chips and Gatorade.

The snack shack was stocked with all kinds of junk food, ranging from candy, to chips, to beef jerky. It was a small little building full of old crap and food. Two folding chairs sat in front of the counter. An old, ratty couch was next to the cooler in the back where we stored ice cream and popsicles. There were countless boxes scattered all around the room: under the counter, on shelves above the freezer, and lined up on the wall next to our closet, which was also, presumably full of boxes. On the closet door hung a 1984 calendar and a big corkboard.