You Hold The Ocean In Your Eyes

Jessie's favorite hangout spot in the small town of Cushing, Oklahoma happened to be the local pool. She weren’t a huge fan of swimming or wearing the outrageous swimsuits you’d see other girls in, but she’d go, spending most of her free time there when not in class since the background noise was relaxing and allowed her to draw peacefully. Jessie would use the people around her as motivation, making quick sketches here and there when something in particular caught her interest.

Though Jessie would admit to herself that she'd been frequenting the pool more often now that there was a certain lifeguard working there. He’d started a couple months after she had began her usual routine. Jessie still remembered the first time he came out of the ‘employee only’ locker rooms, it seemed like everyone had to stop and stare at the unfamiliar blond bombshell that strutted towards the lifeguard stand like he owned the place.

She had actually dropped her pencil in her daze and came out of the hypnotic spell with a curse, scrambling to pick it up. Though, instead of catching the wayward stationary, Jessie's fingers brushed against the tanned hand that hand shot out and snagged the runaway pencil first. Her eyes drifted up the bare arm in front of her as she numbly took back her property from the good Samaritan. The first thing that registered was the blue of his eyes as they peered at you, his gaze twinkling in excitement.

Jessie about lost your composure when his tongue peeked out, bringing your attention down to his lush, pink lips. And holy hell, he totally did that on purpose. “You’re welcome.” He stated with a flirtatious wink and she realized that she had yet to do anything other than stare. Jessie flushed a bright red under the attention and managed to force out a weak ‘thank you’. The blond grinned then and his teeth were absolutely dazzling in the sunlight.

Once realizing that she was still awkwardly staring at his mouth, Jessie forced herself to glance away, trying to figure out how to breathe again. Figures that the minute that a hot guy was put in front of her, she’d manage to make a fool out of herself. “Name’s Wade.” The blond drawled and Jessie hesitantly looked up again to see him still staring intently at her. She had a moment to ponder why he was still talking to her before any higher function was quieted by his salacious smile.

“Oh, uh Jessie.” She muttered just loud enough for him to catch and he repeated her name, as if measuring each syllable with that wicked tongue before it came out of those soft-looking lips. She could tell that her obsession with his mouth was quickly going to become a problem. “See you around.” He gave Jessie a small salute with another wink before sauntering the rest of the way to the chair.

She watched as he waved and smiled charmingly at the other females at the pool before lifting himself into his spot, every ounce of bronze skin that was still decent on display for anyone who wanted to look. Jessie forced her gaze away and onto her sketchbook full of random doodles, but all she could see was the intensity of his eyes or the tantalizing ripple of his back muscles as Wade climbed up to his post.

And that’s how the obsession began.

She filled pages upon pages up with Wade. The hint of tongue when he played with his whistle, the veins in his hands, the definition of his abdomen when he stretched, the shine of his skin when he lathered on sunblock. The possibilities were endless. So it made sense when she started gushing about him to her friends, every moment of silence being filled up with vivid descriptions about the color of his eyes or the way he massaged lotion onto his glorious calves.

It was kind of embarrassing.

So it didn’t exactly come as a surprise to Jessie when her friends insisted on coming with her to the pool in order to see the guy that she’d been blathering on about for like a week straight. Upon arriving, her friends snatched up a table closest to where she had told them he sat like the horrible, no-good friends they were. Traitors.

Jessie got settled in and ignored the many questions flung her way just long enough for Wade’s shift to start. She knew it was time when all the females at the pool began preening themselves in the hopes to get the blonde’s attention. Jessie knew that her friends noticed the behavior as well because they all began nudging at each other before pointing at some of the older -and married- women.

“Oh my God.” Jessie heard the person closest to her breathe and she hid a smirk behind her cup, serves her friends right for ever doubting her taste. The low chatter at her table stopped completely as Wade approached, his think fingers playfully tangling in the dark cord that held his whistle as he walked. When he wandered past her table, he sent Jessie a sultry smile and his usual wink before continuing on.

She could feel the shocked gazes of her friends on her as she slid further down into the chair, unwilling to talk about why Wade even bothered acknowledging her of all people. As soon as he took up his position, conversation started up again, the screams of children at play drowned out once more. While Jessie's friends opted to mess around in the pool -trying to see which one of them could capture Wade’s attention more- she stayed at the table.

She slurped away at her drink as she opened her sketchbook, twiddling the pencil she had the day that she met Wade in her hand as she scanned the pool for something to doodle, though Jessie's eyes kept being drawn back to Wade. The man was like a magnet and she couldn't take her eyes off of him. He was wearing sunglasses today, which was a shame, but she figured that she could still manage to do a pretty good portrait of the blond even with the shades.

Jessie was just finishing up his face when she heard the girls at the table next to her giggling, looking up to investigate, she immediately understood why. Wade had apparently made his way down off of the chair without Jessie noticing and began to make his usual rounds. She rolled her eyes at the way he seemed to delight in the attention and brought her focus back down to the rough sketch in front of her.

She was struggling with the hair when a shadow stretched across her open sketchbook, causing Jessie to frown. “I swear to God if you scribble on one more picture, I’m gonna gut you.” She threatened without bothering to look up, her friends loved to get her riled up over her 'adorable crush’ and things usually got out of hand way to quickly for her liking when it came to their ruthless teasing.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” The voice was as smooth as honey and dripping with sugar, though this time it made Jessie's stomach swoop in a way that wasn’t positive. She felt dread fill her gut with iron as she hesitantly glanced up, almost afraid of what she’d see. Of course the universe could never take mercy on you and you met the amused gaze of one Wade Miller.

“Shit.” She groaned like she was in physical pain, barely refraining from slamming her head into the table. Jessie would give literally anything to have the ground swallow her up right where she sat. Wade hummed thoughtfully, considering the drawing of him that she had been working on before speaking. “Naw. I think you captured my best features flawlessly, Jessie.” He purred, and she couldn’t even make herself move to stop him as he began to flip backwards, seeing the many...many other drawings of him that she’d done over the last seven days.

He took the pencil from her numb fingers with a smug grin and Jessie vaguely registered that he was writing something next to her most recent artwork before he was setting the pencil back into her hand, brushing his warm fingers across her knuckles as he pulled away. “Why don’t you give me a ring sometime, doll.” It wasn’t a question, just a statement that pulled Jessie out of the horror stricken daze that she’d been trapped in.

She pulled her wide gaze from the blonde’s back in order to look down at the paper, a borderline hysterical laugh bubbling out of her at the sight of the ten digits neatly scribbled next to the portrait that got her into this predicament in the first place. Though, Jessie found herself smiling as she stared down at the sketch. Leave it to the universe and all its mysteries to give Wade a big enough ego that he didn't find her numerous detailed drawings of him off-putting.

And now...now Jessie had a date.