I wrote this my sophomore year of college in Fall 2009. I love swimming and have been a lifeguard for 8 years. This summer I get to guard for the Olympic swim trials here in Omaha. Needless to say, I can't wait to hang out on deck with the chiseled pool gods. 

Burnt Cheeks

Dominic plunged into the cool, clear water. His body broke the surface in a swift, graceful dive—unexpected, as his body, chiseled as a Roman statue (though much tanner), possessed the look of a belly flop, tidal wave splash, and a sinking rock. He swam along the bottom of the pool, chest grazing the rough tile, until his lungs burn pleasurably from the lack of fresh oxygen. There was something therapeutic and cleansing in this ritual that he enjoyed before his swimming routine each day. 

His head broke the surface and his hair clung to his scalp like matted moss on a rock in a riverbed, and the droplets of chlorine treated water sputtered out of his nose as he breathed in and out. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the lifeguards staring at him. Smiling to himself, he shook out his shaggy, chestnut hair, licked the salty chlorine from his lips and, pretending not to notice his admirers, dived into a rigorous breaststroke. The water rolled along his body as he powered his way through it. Dominic loved the way it fluttered away from his authoritative kicks and pulls almost as much as he loved the way the eyes of the long-legged blonde lifeguard roamed up and down his body each day he walked past her. 

He had been entertaining the idea of asking her out for the last few weeks, but Dominic was not one to look needy or rash (as if he needed to pick girls up at the pool!). Though he liked the looks of this life-sized Barbie, he wondered if she might be beneath him. After all, she was only a lifeguard. Even so she carried herself with an icy air, poised like a queen, scanning the pool over which she reigned with a prowess that he found simply enticing. Not even the overbearing heat could penetrate her supreme aloofness, as her brown skin never glittered with a sheen of sweat like the others baking in the harsh summer sun. Dominic wondered what it would be like to touch her honeyed legs, or to kiss her freckled shoulders. He could almost smell the coconut aroma of her sunscreen, taste her caramel skin, as a sudden splash he knew not to be his own thundered across his back, snapping him out of his fantasy. 

Dominic stood abruptly and found his face to be met with the blast of stale hose water. Coughing and quite perplexed he flung his arms up to protect his face until the attack ceased.

“Sir, would you please cover yourself?” a voice demanded from above. 

“What the Hell?” Dominic sprayed as he yanked his goggles off of his face. He flung his arm up to shield his eyes from the angry sun to see his assailant.

Barbie stood above him, hands on her hips framed in the blazing sun as if she herself were on fire. “There are children here, sir. Would you please put your swimming suit back on?”

“Wh-what are you talking about?” Dominic heaved, his breathing still labored from the swim.

“Your shorts,” the ice queen spat at him. “You lost them when you dived in.”

Dominic’s eyes slowly drifted down to settle at his area which was, indeed, missing its covering. His eyes widened in horror and his stomach felt as if it sank to the bottom of the pool with his swimming trunks. He slunk over to his trunks waving to him from the pool floor him as if to mock his shameful vanity. While he wrenched his shorts on, Barbie smiled and several people around the pool gawked and pointed at his embarrassment. He rose out of the pool, cheeks smoldering with the indignation of it all, gathered what lingered of his pride and strode past them all with his head held high. Right before he stomped out of sight, however, Barbie called to him, “Hey! You may want to start wearing sunscreen on your bum if you are gonna swim like that again, hun!” Dominic turned the corner and fled.