EPTSo there i was sitting on my now soaking towel, listening to one of the city's bureaucrats tell all of the city lifeguard teams about the practice schedule for tonight, strategies ext ext. I had created a plan, looking over my shoulder, CC was sitting there, brown hair clinging in her face smiling at me. Looking back across our little powwow, Blondie was standing just a bit away. I had to try and make this work. Both girls wanted me in the F-zone, but didn't act like it. I had to try and convince one of them that i was worth it.
The plan? Use Blondie to make CC jealous, and go from there.
I was suddenly snapped out of my thoughts as CC jumped up, and grabbing my arm began to drag/pull me towards our first event. I had to swim, jump pretty much do everything to try and make the city look good. I really didn't get a chance to talk to CC or Blondie, because we were either practicing or at different ends of the pool. Then finally the moment came, me and CC had our big even togeather. As we were crouched by the side of the pool in the ready position, i noticed that all 3 of the other pools were sporting guy+guy teams while me and CC were the only Girl+guy team. I was hoping that we could win. I knew that it was just practice but hey, i am just competitive like that.
With a sound of a whistle we were off. With the rescue tube race, one person is on the bottom, the other on the top. Once you swim 25 yards you switch positions, and race back. Well i was on the top first. Me and CC defiantly were (how do i say this, close?) I mean for Christ sake, she is pretty much spooning with me, and on the way back i will be returning the favor. Anyway, i really didn't think too much about the race, my mind was preoccupied by far more important things. Those things mainly being the hot girl lifeguard right below me. As me and CC reached the 25yard mark, we made our switch and then i was the "lifesaver" on the bottom. Kick off as hard as i could, me and CC began the hard swim back. I only noticed that we were WAY in first when me and CC were about 15ft from the wall. Once we finished, CC and I let out a phelpsish scream/hug thing. It was hot. There was my girl (and me) yelling our lungs out in the night air, acting like complete fools- but i didn't care less. We had just kicked some massive ass. You know that your girl is a keeper when she likes winning as much as you do, and is physically fit enough to win lol. Luckily for me, CC was both.
That was the highlight of the night, as far as sporting events were concerned. However the night was far from over for me. In between some of the practice events, i was swimming in the diving well. The night had gotten colder, and considering that my nipples could cut glass- and was experiencing shrinkage, decided to go back into the deliciously warm water. As i was minding my own business, treading water and generally trying to stay warm, i felt something brush my legs. I quickly looked down, and saw a tight little but, with blond hair swimming about 5ft below me. As this mermaid of the pool surfaced, it was none other than blondie. Brushing the water out of her eyes, she had greeted me with a huge grin, and asked how i was.
What could i say? I was good. Very good. I began to talk/flirt with blondie, not really thinking about what i was doing. I dropped my game for a second, and it cost me. After me and blondie had gotten done talking, about how cold it was- Lifeguard competition ext. She suddenly was called by her LG team and had to go. Here is where the trouble starts. A boy lifeguard from my pool, who i am kind of friends with, had decided to come over halfway into me and blondies conversation, and now that me and him were alone, asked me a question that i wish i would have never answered.
I was giving him the long version, and unbeknown to me CC was chilling in the water within hearing distance of me and my guy friend. From what i gathered she heard every word. Every word. Everything. I said it all, how me and Blondie met, the hug, the great conversations- but i left out the "she has a bf" part- because hey lets face it, I want to sound like top shit. I thought everything was cool, and good until the inevitable. As we were wrapping up practice for the night, me and CC were once again sitting on my towel (she didn't want to get her's wet) and Blondie walked by. Of course i really couldn't blame this on blondie because she had no idea who CC even was. Basically this is the culmination of the evening. Everything from this point goes downhill- fast.
Blondie says hi, I say hi, and then she say's the stupid. "Ben hey i would love to out to eat sushi with you this thurs. I can't wait, see you then!" Yep you read it right. That was said right in front of CC. DAMN YOU BLONDIE (but not really) Well as you guessed, when blondie walked away, CC looked at me- and when i looked into her pretty eyes, i saw, well i saw something that i didn't like to see. All CC said to me was, "So is that the girl you like?"
The car ride home was quiet. I couldn't say anything to CC. I just couldn't. There was an odd air about us now. Something wasn't right. The slide, the night- everything leading up till then was great. But now, only silence. I couldn't think of anything to say. (and coming from at extrovert like me, is a very very bad sign) After dropping CC off, i had no idea what to do. I couldn't talk to anyone, no one would understand, or care. The girl that i truly cared for, may now be an impossibility. All because of my vanity of trying to find another summer fling.
Work sucked. It really sucked. Me and CC went from having a fun flirty fun, to just friends for sure. She was mature enough to try and not be selfish, or really i cannot say. I just don't know guys. I don't know what she was thinking, or if she was even thinking about me. About US. I knew that she had told me to "never turn on me" don't even do anything to me Ben. But CC never acted like she actually would mind me and her going to the next level in a relationship. At the time, i didn't want to do anything that would hurt her. I valued her friendship so much, that the thought of risking my most heartfelt companion on a few gut feelings of mine, was not enough of a justification for me. I thought that the best that i could do for her (CC) at the time, was be her friend. I thought that i should give her time to recover from everything that had happened to her, and for now be a steady and firm friend. I regret that i had never said anything that summer.
As the days rolled by, and Thursday was coming closer and closer, work began to suck more and more. CC was more distant, less flirty. I missed the looks, i missed the glances. I missed everything, so in one last desperate attempt to try and regain some of our flame, i pulled out one of my aces. Sailing. I had been sailing since i could walk. My dad races boats, and while we do not own one, I have had plenty of experience racing sailboats. One day as me and CC sat down, and were eating lunch, i asked if she would like to go up and sail with me. She gave me this odd look, and i tried to recover quickly.
CC "thought she knew" that i liked Blondie, but the opposite was true. I didn't want to seem like a cheat or womanizer in her eyes, so i did something crazy, which sank me deeper into my whole. I was digging down and down. I said the following (probably one of the worst things to ever come from my hole) "Well i mean, Frank is coming too (If you don't know who frank is, go back and read the rest of my blogs. To shortly try and sum up Franks relationship to CC and me, it is the following: Mutual and long friend to me (known since kindergarten, and Totally head over heels for CC. CC is aware of this, and doesn't share his feelings of compassion.) I tried to throw it off as a get together, not a date- or some romantic thing. I could never have been more wrong.
In my head, i wanted to come clean with CC tell her, that really she is the one. I don't want to go and do friend things with you, i want to date you. Sadly my actions spoke a different tune. One the upside, at least CC said yes. Me, Frank, and CC would have the day to ourselves.
So Thursday rolled around, and for those of you that had forgotten, i had a date. A date with blondie. Another girl, who F-zones me, but then acts differently. That day at work as INSANE. Hottest day of the month for sure, and it was City free day. Basically if you are a city resident, and come to the pool at 5pm you get in free. Also because it was really hot that day, we stayed open longer- till 8pm. Well my date was at 9pm so i thought i was going to be fine.
NO NO FUCK NO i was not fine. Mess after Mess happened at the end of the night, a fight- missing child omg it was terrible. Basically by the time i had changed from work and made myself look fairly presentable, i was late. Jogging from my car, and closing in on the sushi bar- i noticed Blondie sitting on a city bench waiting for me. I grabbed her hand, and led her inside.
Well because of me being late, really late for that matter- the sushi joint had closed the doors, and were not seating. Great. I throw away CC and now, Blondie isn't looking much better. You see, i had no backup plan. It was now 10pm, on a Thursday. Blondie lives half an hour away from me, so no going back to my place. There was nothing open, nothing for us to do. Before i could come up with an idea, blondie told me that it was ok, and that she was going to back home, and hang out with her older sister (who i guess had just came home from Spain.) I let out a grin, and said "ya im really sorry. about tonight. We should still go out sometime though?" Blondie looked at me, and not to enthusiastically said "sure, call me some time."
The drive back to my house was one of the longest trips ever. Even though i hit every green light. I had nothing to look forward to. Friday was tomorrow, and i had to chill with frank and CC. Great. Another lie, that i didn't mean to fabricate. Everything was going downhill. Blondie didn't seem very impressed with our "date" if you could call it that, and CC now thought that i had no interest in her.
What the hell was i supposed to do? (I'm sure that you TL guys are going to love laughing at me *especially fake_steve* at this point in the story.)
Well the sun rose on Friday. Like it always does. I got ready, and because i was going to be the one driving (1.5hrs to my favorite sailing bay) i had to think of something to try and pull my brain away from numbing reality. Frank and CC arrived at my place on time, everything was good. Everyone acted civil, and like old friends. Because hey lets face it we were. But now CC didn't have the spark for me. Of course she was still fun, still a blast, but i felt that everything was lost.
The drive up to my favorite beach was actually fairly enjoyable, we joked around a lot. Well me and Fank did, CC just sat in back and ate pretzels most of the time. I had to try hard to include her in the conversation and share a few laughs with us. I was trying to figure out what she was looking at, she spent forever staring out the window. One thing that definitely picked up the conversation was when i began to make fun of frank. You see frank was going to an engineering school, and because the girl guy raio is something to the effect of 10-1 I told frank to take a good look at CC. Because it is going to be the last pretty girl you are going to be seeing for awhile. Everyone shared a few lol's.
Needless to say, we arrived at my favorite beach not too worse for the wear. As i stepped out of my car, i looked to the sky. The weather was perfect, but i could tell that it was going to rain, sometime later tonight. As we all gathered our stuff out of the trunk, we began the walk to the beach.
The first half of the day was great, we went swimming, played ultimate Frisbee (CC runners sport)and generally had a good time. After lunch, i had finally decided to go sailing. Now frank, while not a good sailor, had at least some experience. He had at least been on a sailboat. CC on the other hand, never had sailed. And told me that it looked boring, and decided to bring her towel, and some food. I warned her that she probably shouldn't because it is going to be more exiting than she may think, but she didn't listen.
Now the boat that i would be commandeering is called a 13' Hunter. Now the boat is only made for 4 people max. It's fairly small, very agile, and in even the smallest swells you will get wet. When we pushed off, and all of us were on the hunter- i was finally in my element. I pulled out my aviators, and pulling a jack sparrow look, piloted us out of the bay and into lake Michigan. COOKING WITH GASSSSSSSSS the wind was great!!!! There were a few white caps on the lake, and with a boat so small- the wind speed took us flying! Thankfully it was a weekday, and near the end of the summer, so there were not too many stupid power boaters to get in our way.
I tightened the main sheet, and pulling a long reach against the wind with the boat, began to fly. Now for those of you that have never seen a sailboat, or sailed- something very odd begins to happen. When the wind begins to push on the sail, the boat begins to tip. In bigger boats, tipping over is really an impossibility, but trust me in these little hunters, it felt (for the first time sailor at least) that we were going to die. CC had expected a nice and graceful ride. We got and I made sure to try and push the boat to the limits. Water was splashing over the deck, and at many times during our sail, our rail was in the water.
After CC had finally gotten over the initial fear of "holyshitweretippingslowdownweregoingtodie!!!!" She began to love every second of it. I was looking like a complete bad ass, pulling lines, driving and piloting this little rocket, while frank and CC hung on for their lives. It was great! Everything in the boat was soaking in under 5 min (which in a way is a bad thing, because CC had her towel.
After about 2 hours of our little adventure, CC was finally getting the hang of it. I showed her how the sails work, and what to look for on the surface of the water. I showed her how to find wind direction, and to look for gusts of wind. She was really getting the hang of it. I tried to coax her into driving, but she declined.
The sailing was great. Everything went smoothly, and i know for a fact that some time during the ride, i accidentally grabbed a handful of CC ass. For all of those skeptics out there, yes it was an accident, i was trying to grab the jib sheet. Needless to say, accident of not, it felt great.
The ride home in the car, was exiting. CC loved the Sailing, and wanted to go more, everything seemed well. I went to sleep that night a happy man.
