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Language:
English
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Published:
2023-07-31
Completed:
2023-12-29
Words:
72,800
Chapters:
20/20
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674
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964
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In Deep

Summary:

It is Nick's first day at his new job as a lifeguard.

“Who’s that?” Nicks whispers to Ben.
“Who? Oh” Ben huffs.
“That’s Charlie. He’s a swimming teacher. Proper weirdo though.
I’d give him a wide berth if I were you.”
“What? Why? He seems ok.”
“Nick, I’m telling you. He’s just some gay nerd, not worth your time.”

Notes:

Thought I'd try something new.
Its a bit different to Muddy Spring Pet Parlour
Hope you like it.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: Day 1.

Chapter Text

Nick was nervous.
Nick was unsure.
Nick was….. going to be late if he didn’t get a wriggle on.
Two months ago, he decided he wanted a summer job to save up for when he goes to uni. He looked around at where an athletic energetic, people pleasing 18-year-old would fit best.
He didn’t fancy McDonalds he didn’t want his guilty pleasure to be ruined by going behind the scenes, he didn’t fancy the chippy and smell of fish grease, he didn’t fancy Aldi lumping boxes about in the warehouse, no matter how strong his arms were. Nick was still 18 and so wanted to make money doing very little. His mate Christian worked at the local leisure centre in the kid’s club teaching tennis and badminton, he told Nick of a lifeguard’s course and that was that. The pay was good, the hours were reasonable, the work was, relaxed and he could rotate to the outdoor pool and tan up.
His application went in the same afternoon.
Three weeks later Nick had passed his lifeguard course.
And now it was his first day.

He was looking at himself in the mirror, navy shorts that rested mid-thigh, red T-shirt with yellow sides and the word lifeguard printed across the back of his shoulders. White socks and trainers, a pair of flip flops in his bag along with jogging bottoms baseball cap, a towel and suncream. He’s got his sunglasses resting in his hair and his whistle around his neck hanging on a rainbow shoelace. Nick didn’t actively tell people he was bisexual, he only told the people who mattered most, but he did wear blue pink and purple striped shoelaces in all his trainers, so that if anyone cared to look and understand they’d get it, if not he just had colourful shoelace choice, he was happy with this balance not feeling the need to explain himself to anyone.
He heads downstairs to make a travel mug of tea for the bus journey and some toast, he made a packed lunch last night it’s waiting for him in the fridge. He also did nervous baking last night but doesn’t have the courage to take a big trey of chocolate brownies in on his first day, so he’ll share those with his mates instead. He has twenty minutes to get to the bus stop, so with a scratch to Nellies head and a promise he’ll take her for a walk later, a quick ‘bye Mum’ and he’s off. Off to his first day at work.

He reaches the leisure centre with plenty of time to find the staffroom and put his lunch in the fridge. They have a staff meeting first thing where all the lifeguards get their rota for the day. To help stave off boredom when on poolside they switch around every half an hour. Nicks nerves have turned to excitement.
“Alright mate. You new?”
“Ah, yeah, yep. it’s my first day”.
“Cool, cool, we’ll welcome. I’m happy to show you about if you like. I worked here last summer season in the uni summer holiday. I’m Ben by the way.”
“Yeah, thanks mate. I’m Nick, nice to meet you.”
The head lifeguard walked into the meeting and saw Ben and Nick chatting, so paired them up for Nicks first week so he can learn the ropes. Nick was grateful not to be thrown in the deep end. It was also explained that on Wednesdays after the pool closed, they had update training, this was a requirement to keep your lifeguard registration current, that you practice the life saving techniques and CPR. Nick didn’t mind it was only an hour and he got to swim some lengths too.

So, his first day went on, civil chit chat with Ben as they worked their way round in a tour guide fashion, both being left off the poolside rota for the morning to allow this. He was shown the cleaning cupboard, the first aid room, the equipment store, the plant room where the chemicals for the pool were stored, he walked round the outdoor pool and the grassy area where people sunbathed, he noticed a few people staring at him as he walked through, they obviously noted he was new. The two of them walked past a group of girls roughly the same age and heard them chatting, and giggling.
“I think you’ve got a fan club already” Ben nudged Nick.
“Huh? Oh, I know them from school, they never leave me alone.” Nick shrugs and rolls his eyes. Ben has a wicked grin on his face. “You’ll make a good wing man on a night out” Ben says. Nick doesn’t look impressed; he’s never been one to actively flirt to pick up girls or boys.

The tour carries on and then concludes in the staffroom conveniently at lunchtime.

“This afternoon we have swimming lessons in the small pool, lane swimming in the main pool and the outdoor pool is for general swim.
We’ll start with the swimming lessons.” Ben explains, Nick nods along while eating his lunch.

The staffroom door creaks open and a slight boy walks in. He’s wearing swimming board shorts and a T-shirt; it says Charlie in his back. The boy walks over to the lockers takes out his lunch box and then places his bag inside. He sits on a chair at the side of the room and opens his lunch box. He hasn’t acknowledged anyone in the room, but he has certainly caught Nicks attention.
“Who’s that?” Nicks whispers to Ben.
“Who? Oh” Ben huffs.
“That’s Charlie. He’s a swimming teacher. Proper weirdo though.
I’d give him a wide berth if I were you.”
“What? Why? He seems ok.”
“Nick, I’m telling you. He’s just some gay nerd, not worth your time.”
Nick doesn’t know what to reply. Instead, he just continues to look at Charlie while Ben is distracted with his lunch.
Raven black curly hair, Nick can’t wait to see it wet in the pool and land on his face, piercing blue eyes, Nick can’t wait to see the pool water sparkle and reflect in them, he has a slight body, he’s not just skin and bone, there is muscle definition and Nick can’t wait to see him glide through the water. It’s then he notices Charlie has flicked his eyes up and catches Nicks eyes on him, he offers Charlie a friendly smile and is rewarded with a smile in return, revealing the most adorable dimples Nick can’t wait to make deepen with a bigger smile. Then he sees Charlie’s eyes flick to the boy next to him Ben, the smile is gone in an instant and Charlie seems to shrink a little and fold in on himself. Nick doesn’t know why but in hearing the negative review from Ben about Charlie he guesses they aren’t friends.

Charlie has eaten Half of the food in his lunch box and packs it away, he gets a few pieces of equipment out of his locker and heads to poolside for his first lesson.

“Right. You ready to go? We’ll head to the lessons first then move round through the afternoon.”
“Yeah, no problem, I’ll just put my lunchbox back in my bag. Umm, Ben?”
“Yeah mate?”
“Do I have a locker?”
“Oh shit. Yeah, sorry, totally forgot, you’ve got that one with no padlock. You’ll need to bring in your own lock.”
Nick looks and the locker is the one next to Charlie’s.
“Ok, I’ll get a lock on my way home ready for tomorrow.”

They head back into pool side and Nicks breath instantly leaves his body. The sight in front of him is extraordinary. He can see Charlie under the pre pool showers, head backwards under the water, water running down his face and throat on to his chest and shoulders, down his arms and dropping off his fingertips. Nick takes a moment to notice his hands are slender and careful in their movement, his fingers run through his hair releasing the curls and dampening them with the water. He then switches to have his head facing down, chin on his chest, the water runs down the back of his neck, down over his shoulders wetting the T-shirt he’s wearing making it stick closer to his body. His slender, finely toned body. Then the water stops, he flicks his head back runs his hands over his hair to brush it from his eyes and places a head band on to keep it from falling forwards again. It’s like Nick is watching his own personal 90’s Diet Coke advert.
“Nick?” He hears Ben calling probably not for the first time.
“Nick mate, come on” with a little tug on his T-shirt sleeve Nick is drawn out of his daze. He looks at Ben and moves to follow him. He glances back to the shower, but Charlie is gone.

“So, we have four swimming teachers there’s Charlie, Tori, Tara, and Darcy. They’re all a bit fruity and weird so maybe just don’t mingle if you wanna be seen as normal.”
“What makes them weird?” Nick asks out of curiosity, also wondering how safe it would be to let his sexuality known, given Bens gay nerd comment.
“Well, Tara and Darcy are lesbians Darcy is chaos personified, Tara is as strait laced as they come. Tori is miserable like all the time, don’t think I’ve ever seen her smile and Charlie her brother well, he’s just a pathetic gay guy who thinks the world is out to get him. They generally stick to their little group thankfully.”
Nick does not feel it is a good idea to come out to Ben. In fact, he hopes he doesn’t notice his shoelaces, this doesn’t seem the most accepting environment, but he does want to meet the swimming teachers, he likes to find the queer community, it’s where he feels most comfortable.
Nick returns to watching Charlie in the pool. He watches as his muscles flex and stretch allowing him to glide through the water. His student today is a four-year-old, Nick watches in awe as Charlie builds the girls confidence, he has clearly spent a lot of time teaching her, she has total trust in him. The girl goes from floundering doggy paddle to a stroke that resembles front crawl within a few widths. It’s all too soon that Ben is moving them on. With a sigh and a glance back to see Charlie encouraging a star float from the girl Nick turns and walks to the outdoor pool.

Outside is women’s only swimming. Ben explains they have an hour everyday it’s normally in the mornings but today they had maintenance so it’s now.
He tells Nick it’s always the same women.
“Olive who is 94 she dives in every morning swims six lengths then gets out and chats to the receptionist, we’re all waiting for the morning she doesn’t turn up cos then we know she’s died, leather Jan is the skinny rake lady with skin too big and sun wrinkled she looks like an old leather bag, she swims for the full hour non-stop, then we have Fat Pat”, he points to a lady swimming breast stroke chatting away to her friend “dithery Dot, she dithers for so long before getting in the pool she has started coming fifteen minutes earlier.” Ben continues to ramble on obscene things about the women who have come for a swim outside in the sunshine not hurting anyone.
Nick is listening, he’s not really liking what he’s hearing, he quickly realises Ben isn’t just homophobic, by the sounds of it he’s just a nasty person. Nick now hates that he’s stuck with him for a full week.

The tour continues and Nick cannot wait for it to end. They are just walking back to the staffroom when they pass Charlie in the corridor.
“Hey” Charlie says to Ben.
“Why are you talking to me?”
“I err, sorry” Charlie looks to the floor as Ben continues to walk, without looking back.
“Hi, I’m Nick”
“Your friends with Ben?” Charlie replies quietly.
“Umm, we’ve been paired up for my first week” Nick replies.
“Oh. Ok. See you then” and before Nick can reply, Charlie weaves his way past and leaves for home.
Nick is left with two feelings.
1. His voice is beautiful, I want to talk to him more.
2. I need to get away from Ben.