The Beach Brat

Chapter 1-2

The sun faded from the sky, and Finn took down the flags and shoved them in his bag. He folded his chair, then clipped his rescue board on his back. The day had been uneventful, the best kind of days were when nothing traumatic happened, and he and Trent could casually patrol the beach. At any moment the tone of the day could change, and they had to be prepared.

Finn walked up the beach and paused when he saw Brody walking in front with his friends. Finn knew he could easily walk at a faster pace, go around them, but he didn’t want Brody’s eyes following him, he was bound to trip up. Besides trailing him up the beach had its advantages. Finn’s attention was glued to the shorts cupping Brody’s perfectly shaped arse.

Brody reached around to scratch his back, and when he did, an object fell from his board shorts onto the sand. Finn blinked to focus on the half buried shell, then swooped down to grab it.

The shell fit nicely in his palm. There were no chips or cracks, and the color was a soft coral. Finn had seen Brody with it that morning. He had found it in the damp sand, then sat on his board with it cradled in his hand. Finn had watched as he squirted his water bottle to clean it, and his lips had twitched into a smile that rounded his cheeks. Watching had made Finn’s insides feel light and tickly, and he had flushed red in embarrassment.

“Hey!” Finn shouted.

Brody and his friends turned their heads but didn’t stop their walk up the beach. Finn huffed, and ran over the sand. He could move better on sand than most, it was one of the requirements for working as a beach lifeguard.

“You dropped this.” Finn said.

Brody stopped, and c****d his head. He looked at Finn, and his cheeks reddened. It was an interesting reaction, and Finn grinned, then Brody saw the shell in Finn’s hand and his eyes flashed open before narrowing suddenly.

“It fell out your pocket.” Finn added, holding the shell out for Brody to take.

“A shell?” Reece smirked.

Finn was close enough to see Reece’s cheeks were dotted with amber freckles, and his eyebrows were so fair it didn’t appear like he had any. Emily shook her head, flicking her black hair left to right, then they both turned for Brody’s reaction.

“Nah, not mine.” Brody said, lifting his chin.

He kept his eyes narrowed, and Finn still couldn’t see the shade of blue.

Finn frowned, and wagged the shell. “But it fell from—”

“Do I look like the kinda guy that collects shells?”

Reece, and Emily laughed, then patted Brody on the shoulders.

Finn retracted his hand, then shoved the shell in his shorts. “Must’ve been mistaken.”

Brody nodded slowly. “Yeah, you must have been.”

He turned and continued walking up the beach with his friends. Finn watched him go, then retrieved the shell from his pocket.

Finn thought about throwing it back to the sand, letting the sea reclaim the treasure Brody no longer wanted, but he didn’t. He liked that it was part of Brody he got to see, even if Brody denied it to his face. He might not have looked like the kind of guy that collected shells, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t.