by Michelle Day
“It didn’t, I just haven’t seen Kiera behave this way before and I’ve known her forever, I know you told her up front that you didn’t want anything serious but I think she’s getting more involved than you realise. I don’t want to see her get hurt,” she shrugged. “I take it out on you because you are the reason for her behaviour and you don’t seem to be doing anything to stop it.”
“I’ll rein it in a bit and have a chat with her. I won’t hurt her Angel, not intentionally; I do know how that feels.”
“Wow, you have feelings.” She smiled. “You surprise me more and more each time we talk.”
Kiera bounced up beside them. “Are you ready to go?” She asked Gavin, slipping her hand into his.
“Yeah, see you Monday Angel,” he let go of Kiera’s hand as she hugged Angel.
“Think about what I said,” she told Gavin while hugging her friend, he nodded.
The weekend meant work for Gavin. He enjoyed his job as life guard, he loved to swim and it also afforded him plenty of opportunity to flirt with girls his own age that he didn’t go to school with.
Sunday afternoon, Gavin was just about to finish his shift and was waiting for his replacement, when a little girl began to make a fuss by the side of the learner pool. The swimming instructor and other pupils were already in the pool, their mothers’ craning over the railing of the seating area to see what the noise was about.
Angel had just stepped out of the gym, a towel around the back of her neck, wiping her face with the corner of it, she looked up as Gavin climbed down from his high level seat, had a brief chat with his fellow life guard and begin a slow saunter around the pool to the staff changing rooms when the little girl wailed again. Gavin turned away from the changing rooms and went to crouch in front of the child and her somewhat embarrassed parent. Angel moved around the seats and watched her friend, grinning as the group of yummy mummies all craned to get a close look at the handsome young life guard; she was close enough to hear him and also to hear the comments from the watching mothers.
“What’s wrong sweetie? He asked the little girl who promptly buried her face in her mother’s chest.
“She’s afraid of the water but she really should learn to swim, we are going on holiday and I can’t leave her in the day club if she can’t swim.”
“Ok, how about if I get in the pool with you?” he addressed the child again. “It’s my job to look after people in the water, I won’t let anything happen to you.”
The little girl turned to look at him, still sniffing and clearly scared.
“I used to be afraid of going in the water,” he told her gently. “But I’m ok now that I can swim,” he smiled, “I’ll look after you.”
The little girl nodded and whispered “Ok.”
“Cool, just stay here for a sec, I’ll go and get my swim shorts on then we can give this swimming thing a go,” he left only to return a few moments later wearing just a pair of black knee length swimming shorts. He stepped into the shower before coming back to the girl and crouching again.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
“Liana.” came the timid reply.
“That’s a pretty name, I’m Gavin, hold my hand Liana.”
“You won’t let go?” Liana asked as she slid her small hand into his and let go of her mother.
“I promise,” he told her coming to his feet, he addressed the girls’ mother. “If you stay here and keep her towel handy it will give her a little more confidence,” he turned toward the pool, stepped in and went down on his knees, he reached up to Liana and lifted her into the pool where he stayed for the next thirty minutes.
Angel had caught her breath when Gavin emerged from the changing room. She’d noticed his broad shoulders and his pecs were obvious even under the baggy t-shirts he wore to college, Kiera had hinted at the sculptured body beneath his clothes but she hadn’t expected to be knocked breathless by his naked torso, she felt herself flush as he stepped into the shower, thinking, holy shit he’s pretty…oh, and now he’s wet and even prettier.
The yummy mummies had also drawn a collective breath at the sight of him, Angel couldn’t help but hear the comments of, “bloody hell, would you look at that” and “Why couldn’t Olivia be afraid of the water?” Before deciding enough was enough and she really should go home before he noticed her gawping.
As the lesson ended, Gavin reached for Liana’s towel and after wrapping her in it, lifted her out of the pool and into the arms of her mother. Stepping out of the pool, he went to talk once more to the girl.
“That wasn’t so bad was it?” He asked.
“No,” Liana shook her head.
“What happens next week?” Liana’s mother asked.
“I’ll be here,” he told her “I’m quite happy to get in the pool with her for as long as she needs me.”
“That’s very nice, thank you”
“No problem, see you next week Liana,” he waved at the child as he walked away.
Arriving home, he called a hello to his father and step mother who were pottering in the garden, before going into the large kitchen. By the time Paul had walked up the garden after slapping his wife loudly on the bottom, Gavin was raiding the fridge, placing items for a stir fry on the worktop with one hand while plucking grapes from the large bunch on the fridge’s top shelf and loading them into his mouth with the other,
“It seems that all I see of you lately son is your back side as your face is always grazing in the fridge.” Paul greeted his son.
“I’m not grazing,” Gavin protested but remained pretty much in the fridge. “I’m starving and planning on making us all a stir fry, seeing as you appear to be unable to leave your wife alone long enough to make your poor son something to eat.”
Paul ignored his son’s comments. “You come home, graze, go out, come back, graze some more, sleep, get up, graze, go out. Do you see a pattern emerging here?” He joked, cuffing his son playfully round the ear when he finally turned to face him.
Gavin laughed. “For an intelligent man, you really can be a moron. I’ll make dinner, you need to put on something that isn’t straight out of the seventies,” he gestured to Paul’s hideous orange and green shorts, his only item of clothing.
“Disgusting aren’t they?” Paul asked. “They had the desired effect of winding up the neighbours though; you should have seen the looks I got when I was working on the front garden.”
Muttering “I cannot believe you wore those in public.” Gavin then addressed Paul. “They also clash with well, everything,” Gavin told him. “And they make me want to vomit, hi Suzanne,” he greeted his step mother.
“Hi Gavin,” she replied. Turning to Paul, she slapped his arm, “I think you left a hand print on my bum.”
Gavin saw his father grin and look down at his wife’s bottom. “Oh God,” he groaned seeing his father’s intention. “Stir fry won’t take long,” he warned when Paul guided Suzanne out of the kitchen promising to kiss her better.
“I’ll try to be quick,” Paul called from the hallway.
“Hi Mum,” Angel looked up from her laptop. “Good day?”
“Yes, how was your work out?”
“Great.” Angel went back to her computer.
“Gavin Jensen, he’s a friend of yours isn’t he?”
“Kinda, he’s closer to Kiera really.” Angel answered her mother.
“He’s a lovely boy, very good with the customers, just goes to show it sometimes pays to take a chance on someone with a criminal record,” Linda Palmer mused as she walked away.
“Wait!” Angel called after her. “He has a criminal record?”
Her shoulders dropped as she realised her mistake. “Yes, he hasn’t told you?”
“He hasn’t really said an awful lot about himself yet.” Angel confirmed.
“Oh, well, I’m sure he will when he settles in a bit more, I’m so pleased I took him on, he was absolutely fantastic with this little girl this afternoon.”
“Yeah, he was, I saw him,” Angel paused. “What’s his criminal record for?”
“Angel, I can’t tell you that, its confidential, I’ve already said far too much, you’ll have to ask him.”
Hmm, or get Kiera to ask. she thought digging into her pocket for her mobile.
Gavin woke with a start when his mobile jumped on his bedside table. Rubbing his eyes, he leaned over and slid open the phone to find a message from Kiera, telling him that she wouldn’t be going to college in the morning as she had developed food poisoning, so he didn’t need to pick her up. He sent a text back wishing her a speedy recovery then checked the time, 3:45am. He slid from the bed and opened his window a little wider in an effort to cool down, that’s when he heard the moan followed by a deep throated chuckle. Leaning out of the window he looked down into the garden and the hot tub where the sound had come from to see Paul lift Suzanne onto his lap where she began to grind onto him, droplets of water falling from her full breasts as she gyrated.
Christ Dad, you must be powered by Duracell. Gavin thought, he turned away from the window, his healthy respect for Paul’s sexual prowess renewed, picked up his iPod, put in his headphones to block out the noise and went back to bed.
During Biology the next day Quinn decided it would be a wonderful idea to tease Gavin over his good natured help for little Liana at the health club the previous day. He’d seen him making obvious efforts at flirting with Angel and it was time to put this upstart in his place. Gavin found it easy to endure the digs, he knew he’d done the right thing and besides, there was a net ball game going on in the court below the window. Gavin managed to lose himself in the view of long legged players in tiny net ball skirts and stupidly tight tops jumping to stop the ball going in the net.
Quinn began to change tact when Gavin refused to rise to his jibes, although he’d promised Angel that he wouldn’t mention either Gavin’s helpfulness at the club or his criminal record, he realised a change of course was required to get Gavin to bite. He waited until Gavin turned his attention back to the lecture on genetics before leaning closer to him and whispering;
“You may be stupidly rich but you and I both know that you are nothing but a common criminal, what did you do?”
Gavin frowned and looked at Quinn. “It’s none of your business Sloane boy and it’s in the past,” he hissed.
“I’m going to find out. Then I’m going to make you do whatever it is that got you the record and get you kicked out of this college, fucking con scum.”
Tired from having been woken in the early hours of the morning and not really getting back to sleep, Gavin wasn’t thinking straight and gave in to his temper, jumping to his feet, the stool he was sitting on flying into the wall behind him, Gavin hauled Quinn to his feet and, inches from his face growled,
“Why don’t you go fuck yourself you preppy arsehole.”
“Mr. Jensen!” the lecturer, Mr. Benson bellowed “Kindly put Mr. Masters back on his feet and go and wait in my office.”
Quinn smiled as Gavin released him, gathered his things and left the room.
“Mr. Masters, would you like to elaborate on what just happened?” Mr. Benson asked Quinn once Gavin had gone.
“I have no idea why he blew up sir, he’s a psycho.” Quinn shrugged.
“Take your seat Mr. Masters.”
Still smirking, Quinn picked up his stool and sat, glancing over at Angel he saw her frowning at him and knew he’d have some serious sucking up to do later.
“Right Gavin, what was all that about in my lesson?” Mr. Benson walked around his desk and sat in his lush leather chair, regarding the boy sitting opposite him.
Gavin was sitting on the edge of his chair, his head in his hands; he slowly raised his head and looked at his teacher.
“I lost it.” was all he said.
“That much is obvious, did Quinn provoke you?”
“He did but that’s beside the point, I should have a better handle on my temper by now, I know better than to react to people like him.”
“Yes, you should know better, what exactly happened Gavin?”
“He started going on about me helping this kid out yesterday at work, which annoyed me but I ignored it, I know I did the right thing, then he started on about my record which got to me, I didn’t think anyone knew about that.”
“Well, the faculty know, but that of course is confidential. Other than you and your family, I wasn’t aware anyone else knew.”
“He called me a common criminal. I can handle that, it was just a hell of a shock that he knew. That’s why I blew, there wasn’t a build up, it was just like he’s flicked a switch. What happens now Sir?”
“Technically, I should report this to the Dean but as you were provoked and didn’t actually cause any physical harm to Quinn, I think I will just dream up a suitable punishment for you. You will have to apologise to Quinn,” he stopped when Gavin pulled a face and his shoulders visibly slumped, “I didn’t say you had to mean it,” he continued “I am also going to call your father as I believe he has asked to be kept informed of your behaviour, how does that sound?”
“That sounds fair, I would have told my Dad when I got home, thank you Sir”
“Come and see me at the end of the day, I’ll let you know what I expect you to do as punishment.”
“Ok,” Gavin rose to leave.
“Gavin, don’t let anything like this happen again, you are a bright young man and incidents like this could put an end to your academic path.”
“It was a momentary lapse Sir, it won’t happen again, I’m aware I’m here on thin ice, I won’t get kicked out over someone like Quinn.”
“I’m glad to hear it, come back at four.”
Gavin was very relieved when the bell rang for lunch. There had been a few sideways glances from people in his Biology lesson that had seen him blow up. But he had also been patted on the back by a few people who expressed the view that they were pleased to see someone stand up to Quinn. Grabbing a plate of lasagne and an apple, Gavin sat at a free table, trying to distance himself from his friends for a while until he was in complete control of his temper. The chair next to him moved as he was texting Paul, he looked up to see Angel sitting beside him.
“Angel, not a good idea right now,” he gently warned her.
“Actually, I think it’s a fantastic idea. Are you ok?”
“I’m fine,” he replied going back to his text message. “Hadn’t you better go and comfort Quinn?”
“He’s playing tennis and is hardly the one who needs comforting,” she answered.
“I don’t need your sympathy,” he growled.
“I’m not offering it, I came to apologise. Put the phone down Gavin please, there’s something I need to tell you.” She placed her hands over his, lowering them and his phone, he looked into her eyes, his frown didn’t escape her notice. “It’s my fault Quinn knows about the little girl and your criminal record,” she gabbled.
“What?” His frown deepened “How would you know about either of those things?” As he asked the question, the answer dawned on him. “Shit, I work for your Mum, terrific.”
“Mum was singing your praises about yesterday and it just slipped out about your record and I’m so sorry I told Quinn, I clearly can’t trust him.”
“Why would you tell him?”
“He’s my boyfriend, he promised me he wouldn’t say anything, I’m so kicking his arse later,” she griped then noticed Gavin’s grin.
“You are going to kick his arse?” He asked.
“I most certainly am. I’m really sorry Gavin, I wish there was some way I could make it up to you.”
“Well,” he mused. “You did say you’d help me out with reading music,” he smiled, unable to remain cross with her and seeing an opportunity to spend some alone time with her.
“Yes I did, ok, you’re on, sorry,” she said again.
“Stop saying sorry, it was a genuine mistake I hope, just do me a favour, if you find anything else
out about me, ask me about it and don’t tell Quinn.”
“Ok,” she agreed. “Can we change the subject?”
“Sure.”
“Did you talk to Kiera?”
“I did, she’s cool with just friends with benefits,” he saw her grimace. “I know you don’t approve Angel and that you think I’m using her, but just because it’s a casual thing, doesn’t mean I don’t care about her, I do, she’s important to me and I’d kill anyone who hurt her.”
“She said exactly the same thing and although I don’t get it, I’m actually ok with it.”
“What’s not to get?” He asked.
“Put it this way, if I was having sex with you, I would want to be in a relationship with you.”
“Maybe we can explore that avenue some time,” he grinned.
“Stop it,” she chided “I’m with Quinn.”
“Lucky Quinn,” he groaned.
“Not after today he won’t be,” she said. “Anyway, I wanted to tell you that I was hugely impressed with the way you dealt with that little girl yesterday,” she told him.
“More intel from your Mum?” He asked.
“No I was there, I saw you. Actually, I saw quite a lot of you,” she blushed slightly as she remembered how he looked without his shirt. “As I said, hugely impressed,”
“Just doing my job,” he shrugged.
“You were off duty; you went above and beyond what your job expects of you.”
“Hang on,” Gavin sat up straight. “You were there? At the pool? You mean I missed seeing you in a bikini?” he asked.
Angel decided to play along. “Oh yes, you missed all this in two tiny bits of material,” she giggled.
Gavin closed his eyes, his imagination running wild. “God damn it,” he moaned “Do you go every Sunday?” He asked.
“Maybe,” she replied coyly.
“How tiny was the bikini exactly?” He asked, playing along.
“Postage stamp size,” she confirmed.
He groaned again. “At least give me a heads up next time you decide to bare all,” he teased. The bell rang.
“We’d better make a move.” Angel left her chair.
Gavin glanced at his lap “I’ll catch you up.”