Chapter 45: Chapter 45

"Hi Julianna." She says in a soft voice, and I smile.

"Hello, wow, you look so much better! I mumble something, and she smiles as she and her mom walk into the office.

Can I hug you?" I say yes when she asks.

"I might be a little wet after swimming." I warn her, and she smiles and shrugs. She gives me a tight hug, and I can't believe she's standing right here in front of me.

"Thank you." I nod when she whispers. "I'm grateful that you helped me."

"Yes, I do that." I tell her I'm sure, and she laughs quietly behind her back.

Her mom gives a small wave and walks away for a moment, giving us a moment of peace.

"How are things with you now?" I ask as I invite her to sit down in my office.

"I'm better." She tells me this as she wipes a tear from her eye. "I just got out of the hospital yesterday. They were running more tests and found that my allergy had gotten worse while I was there." She gives me a shrug, and I nod. "I've swum a lot, and that's never happened to me before."

"I'm glad you wear a bracelet with a medical alert." I tell her I'm sure, and she nods while looking at it on her wrist.

"I told my mom that the first place I wanted to go was back here to try to see you or at least let someone know I was okay." She talks, and I agree. "You treated me so well. I thought I was going to die, but you kept me alive."

"You frightened me." When I mumble, she laughs a little bit. "I thought I wouldn't see you again."

"I, too, was afraid." She is quiet. She looked so different—alive, happy, and like herself, which made me feel a lot better. "All I have to do now is be more careful."

"I'm so glad you're healthy again." I tell her it's okay, and she smiles.

"You saved my life. Thank you." She whispers, and I get up to hug her again.

"I'm glad you came back." She nods when I mumble.

"Is the other guard who helped here as well?" She pulls back and raises her eyebrows as she asks.

"Brendon isn't here today, but I could give you his number or something because I'm sure he'd also like to know." I tell her, and she puts her lips together and looks at me with hope. "What?"

"I don't know, how old is Brendon?" She asks in a quiet voice and looks toward the door to make sure her mom hasn't come back.

"He's only 17, so if you think that's weird, I can just tell him-"

"No, tell me his phone number. I'd like it." I laugh when she tells me.

"Oh." I laugh and raise my eyebrows.

"What? From what I remember, he was pretty cute." She mumbles, and I laugh because her cheeks are red. Was I going to put my seventeen-year-old guard in charge of the person he saved? I know I shouldn't do that, but I love cute stories with happy endings.

"Do you think he will reply to my text?" She asks in a whisper.

"Did you return so I could set you up?" I pick up the binder on the desk and turn to the page with Brendon's contact form.

"No! I came back to see you, but if we end up with a phone number, that's just a bonus." She whispers, and I laugh as I grab a post-it note and write down the number.

"You can't tell anyone I gave it to you, because I'm not allowed to give out personal information about employees." I tell her, and she squeals, puts it in her pocket, and gives me another hug.

"Thanks, Julia, you're a G!" I roll my eyes when she smiles. She suddenly pulls back and says, "Wait." I raise my eyebrows. "Did he cut off my head?" When she asks, I sigh.

"Yes, we have to take off all your clothes on your torso so we can save you." When I tell her, her face goes white.

"He's seen my breasts already?" I try not to laugh when she squeaks. "You too have seen them!"

"I don't remember anything about them, and they aren't at all important to me when you're dead, Lauren." When I remind her, she takes a tight breath. "They're just breasts-"

"No, don't say that. What if he only thought that?" She asks, and I try to keep my smile from showing. I was so happy about this. Lauren was full of life and back to being a 16-year-old girl. The thing that worried her most about her life-or-death situation was whether or not the hot lifeguard saw her breasts.

"You'll have to call him to find out," I guess. When I make fun of her, she smiles and rolls her eyes.

"Wait here." She gives me orders, and I nod. She calls her mom and the two of them come back into the office. "Can we snap a photo?"

"Of course." I smile, her mom pulls out her iPhone, and Lauren puts her arm around me. I smile along with her, and so does her mom.

"Okay, I know you're busy being a lifeguard and everything, so we'll leave you alone." She lets out a sigh. "But I'm so glad you were here so I could thank you." She smiles and gives me another hug, which I'm happy to take.

"I'm so glad you came back, I was really worried about you." She nods when I mumble.

"Thanks to you, Julianna, I'm fine." I nod when she whispers. "It's time to go, have a nice day." She says this, and her mother pulls a card and a small box out of her purse. "You get this." She says this as she takes it from her mother and gives it to me. "Just a small way to say thanks."

"Oh, you didn't have to. All I cared about was seeing you." She shakes her head when I mumble.

"It's too late, but thanks anyway." She is quiet. "Can I have your phone number so I can send you the photos?"

"Sure." I smile and write my name at the bottom of a second sticky note so she can tell which one is mine. She gives me a wink and one last hug as we say goodbye. Her mother shakes my hand, and then she and her daughter wave as they leave the office.

My smile will never leave my face for the rest of the day. I'm so glad Lauren is okay now that I've seen her. It was strange to realize that I had helped save someone's life. That I had something to do with Lauren being out and about today.

I'm finally happy for the first time in weeks, so I hurry home. I'm so happy that I almost skip through the door. This weight that has been on my body and mind for a week is finally gone, and after talking about the rescue with Micheala and seeing Lauren, I finally felt like I could move on.

"Hey Julianna." Mark says while chopping lettuce in the kitchen.

"Hi." I laugh and kick off my shoes.

"Well you seem in a better mood." Kyle says as he comes out of the next room. He walks up to me and puts his arm around my shoulders. I lean in toward him.

"Have you talked to your boss?" Mark asks as he puts the leaves he just cut into a bowl and his dishes in the dishwasher.

"Better." I smile, and his eyebrows go up. "Well, I did talk to her and everything, but the girl I helped today showed up at the pool. She's moving and breathing, which means she's alive." Kyle laughs and gives me a hug when I insist.

"Wow, Julianna, that's great!" I agree with him and nod.

"See? I told you everything would be okay." Mark says, and then he gives himself a hug.

"I just feel relieved. So I can stop worrying about whether I did something wrong." I groan, and he gives up.

"I think it shows that, Julianna, you did everything right." Mark counts, and I smile. My phone buzzes in my pocket, and when I pull it out, I see a new number. I opened the text message and saw that she had written something nice and attached a bunch of pictures.

"Here she is." I smile as I flip my phone over.

"Cute picture." Kyle grins. "Do that right now."

"When she walked into the office, I did." I nod and save the photos on my phone. "She gave me a card, too." I nod and walk to my work bag, which has the small box inside.

I sit at the dining room table and run my finger along the edge of the envelope to loosen the glue. I pull out a silly thank-you card with a cat on the front. Lauren has written a sweet message inside and signed it at the bottom.

"Did she give you something too?" Kyle asks, and I just nod and shrug as I pick up the box. I pull off the paper and open the lid. The first thing I see is a post-it note on top of what's inside.

"I tried to think of something you needed, but then I realized you're in college, and my mom thought this would be a great gift. I'm sorry I scared you, L.

"She's hilarious." I laugh and pull the sticky note off the top of the box. Inside, I see what looks like a stack of cards.

"What's that?" Mark asks as he sits down next to me. I just shrug and pull them out. Then, my eyes got bigger.

"Oh woah." I mumble. They were gift cards for places like the grocery store, campus coffee shops, Walmart, and other places. All of the cards were worth $100.

"Jesus, what's going on here?"

"Everything is a card?"

"Yes, but they must be worth a lot of money." I whisper and shake my head. "How are her parents able to pay for this? It costs so much."

"You might have saved the daughter of a millionaire." Kyle chuckles.

"What does she go by?" Mark pulls out his phone and asks.

"Lauren Duke."

He types for a few minutes while I look at the stack of gift cards in front of me and am shocked. I wouldn't buy food for a long time.

Mark laughs and says, "Oh shit."

"What on earth did you find?" I ask, putting the cards back in the box after putting them in a neat pile.

Her dad's a senator." He mumbles and turns his phone around to show a picture of his family. My mouth drops open, and they both laugh. "Great choice."

"I need to send her a text message to thank her for this, because this is way too much." I mumble to myself as I pick up my box of plastic money. It was like her parents gave me a thousand-dollar check.

I put the box in my sock drawer because I want to keep it safe, and I rub my face with my hand. Holy ****.

I hear the door across the hall open, and as he walks into the hall, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. He stops right in front of my door, and we both look at each other.

This is not what I need right now, because all it brings back are painful memories. I'm too busy to even try to think about what Kent and I did. So I muster all the courage I have to walk up to the door between us and shut it, keeping him out.

I then lean back against it and gulp as I run my hands over my face. Christ, everything is harder than I thought it would be. I did something stupid and got too close, and now I had to pay for it.

The worst part was that I didn't know if I never wanted to see him again or if I wanted him but couldn't have him. My heart and brain are fighting with each other again, and I'm not sure who will win in the long run.