Free Shipwrecked Summer by Carly Syms

back, and Gianna grinned.
      “Then it’s ‘bout time we got some Jersey in you. Don’t take this lying down! Go after your man.”
        “He’s not my man.”
       “No, but you want him to be.”
        I wasn’t so sure after what he’d pulled today.
        “Oh, get real,” Gianna said, reading my facial expression. “If he came marchin’ in here right now and said he made a mistake today and wanted to start over with you, you’d shoot him down?”
        I like to think that I absolutely would, but I knew there was no fooling Gianna, and what was the point of lying to myself?
        “I guess not,” I replied with a sigh.
        Gianna nodded. “Exactly. So get him back! Sounds like this girl was all over him and he was into the attention and all that jazz. Guys’ll do a lot worse than that, you know.”
       “Fine,” I said, daring to believe her words. “But I don’t even know what to do.”
        “That’s why you got me,” she said. “You just need to make sure he doesn’t forget about you! You’re the one who shares the same patio with him. Get out there in your bikini tomorrow and make sure he sees you.”
        “That’s your answer to it all? Get him to see me in my bikini? I did that today!”
        Gianna rolled her eyes. “Yeah, but you’ll be the only one there this time. You’re too shy for your own good. Gotta stop being insecure like that, Lexie. If you don’t think you’re the greatest, why should he?”
        I paused for a second, her words ringing in my ears. It made sense, of course it did, but it was so much easier said than done. If I was so great, why didn’t he pick me over Pia? Why did I have to help him see that I was worth being with? Shouldn’t he just know?
        “I know what you’re thinkin’,” Gianna said. “Cut it out. You’re never gonna get the guy if you think like that.”
        I opened my mouth to reply when a shout a few yards away cut me off.
        “I can’t believe you just said that to me!”
        A blonde girl I knew I’d seen before but couldn’t quite place was yelling at someone--or something--that wasn’t in my line of sight.
        “You’re blowing it way out of proportion!”
        The blonde rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest, pouting, and Gianna snorted.
        “Don’t tell me how to react. I know what I saw and I know what you did!” she yelled.
       “No,” the male --I still couldn’t see him--replied. “You don’t. But you would if you’d just listen to me!”
        “Why should I?”
        “Because you’re supposed to be my girlfriend? You could at least consider what I have to say.”
        “It doesn’t matter anymore,” she replied. “This is over.”
        “Brittany!” The mystery man stepped out of the shadows and I almost fell over. Jeff the Lifeguard stared at the blonde I recognized from the bonfire that night with pleading eyes.
        “Save it,” she snapped. “I told you. We’re over.”
        And with that, Brittany stomped off, leaving a bewildered Jeff standing rooted in place. He looked around with an embarrassed expression on his face as he realized that their argument attracted an audience.
        And as he scanned the crowd, something resembling sadness etched on his face, his eyes locked with mine and I realized I’d been caught staring.
        He looked at me for a few seconds before offering a small, tentative smile.
        And then he turned and walked away and I was left remembering the feeling that his fingers had left on my bruised thigh.
    “You know him?”
        The crack of Gianna’s gum startled me from my trance.
        “What? Oh, no, he’s just the lifeguard on my block.”
        Gianna raised her eyebrows. “Yeah. Sure.”
        “He is!”
        “Oh, I believe you,” she said. “But I’m not really convinced that’s all he is.”
        “Okay, so he helped me