It was sweltering outside and I was sweating my ass off working in the conditions.
I'm Trevor, a 23-year-old recent college graduate without a job. I moved in with my folks while I continued looking for solid employment. I started taking odd jobs on the side to make a little cash in the meantime.
That's why I was trying to mow a lawn in temperatures reaching the upper nineties.
The house I was working at belonged to a family friend out of town for the summer.
I was keeping an eye on the place and maintaining the yard for some pretty good scratch. Today, however, I was questioning if it was worth it.
I stopped for a minute and took off my shirt. I'm in pretty good shape. I'm 5'9", 160 and with all the outdoors work I'd been logging I was developing a pretty nice tan.
I started the mower again and finished up another row. I noticed someone come out of a sliding glass door one house over.
The backyards touch, and despite a few trees, are open to each other guarded by trees behind. It's far enough from the road that it's very secluded and quiet, aside from the damn lawn mower.
I mowed down and turned back to face the other yard again. The neighbors had an above ground pool with a deck that connected to the house. It was a nice setup just made for parties.
The person who had come out of the house was standing down on the deck by the pool. It was a young guy, probably in high school. He tossed a floating raft into the pool and eased his way in up to his chest.
He noticed me and waved a friendly hello. I waved back and continued in my task, desperately wishing I could jump into that pool to cool off.
I kept mowing for about fifteen minutes while the kid next door floated in his pool.
I stopped to remove the bag and when it caught on the mower's frame, grass spilled everywhere.
I yelled and kicked the bag drawing the attention of the neighbor boy.
I turned the mower off so I could clear some grass clogged underneath near the blade. I flipped the device right side up and reattached the bag.
"You look like you could use a dip!"
I turned and he was smiling at me.
"Yeah man, I'm jealous."
"You should come over and go for a swim."
"Actually, I'd love to but I've got to finish this first," I said gesturing toward the remaining lawn.
"Well, come over afterwards. I'm just hanging out all afternoon."
"Thanks."
I went about my task and using the thought of a swim as motivation I was soon finished.
I put away the equipment and walked over toward the neighbor's pool.
I came up to the edge and the kid opened his eyes.
"All done?"
"Yeah. That was a huge pain."
"Well hop in and cool down a bit."
"Thanks. Maybe I'll dunk my head. I realized I don't have a suit or anything."
"Oh that's okay you can borrow one from inside."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah no problem. We've got some extras laying around."
I got out of the pool and walked up to the sliding glass door he'd exited earlier. We went inside to a large living room with high ceilings that was open to the kitchen.
I followed further around a corner and down some stairs to the basement which is where his room was located.
"I'm Mason by the way," he said finally.
He opened a drawer and pulled out a pair of board shorts like the ones he was wearing but with a slightly different color scheme and pattern.
He casually tossed them to me, then reached into another drawer.
"Do you smoke?" he asked.
To remove any doubt of what he meant, he produced a large blunt and a lighter.
I laughed and nodded in the affirmative.
"Cool. Let's take this out in the pool. You can change in here. I'll be upstairs."
I quickly changed and joined him in the kitchen. He got two glasses of water and handed me one. I gulped down half of it. He took it and gave me a refill laughing while he did.
