Kavya has her binoculars trained on Dominic. So she’s about to see what happens whether I tell her or not. Which might be a good thing, actually, because I’ll need somebody to drag me out of here after it happens. Maybe that’s why the club has a two-lifeguards-at-a-time rule, in case one of us collapses from heartache.

I make my way down the ladder, the whistle around my neck smacking against my chest with each step. It’s nothing compared to how hard my heart is beating.

When I finally make it to the ground and look Dominic in the eyes, I’m positive my suspicions are correct. This is the breakup scene, and even though I know it, I can’t stop myself from saying “Hey, handsome. What’s up?” like nothing’s wrong.

It’s how I’ve greeted him every day for the past thirteen months. Ever since I saw Dominic staring at me from the beach, smiling while biting his bottom lip. I wanted to bite it back so badly, and I just felt this surge of confidence in me like I’d never felt before. “Hey, handsome” tumbled out of my mouth, we flirted for a few days until we had an epic make-out session and I asked him out, and we’ve been together ever since.

Dominic gives me a weak smile at the familiar greeting, nowhere near as bright and vibrant and sexy as that day at the beach. Well, he’s definitely still sexy, still has that brooding-vampire thing about him, and why can’t I stop myself from thinking this when he’s about to dump me?

“I, um . . . Man, this is hard.” Dominic scratches the back of his neck like he always does when he’s nervous. “We’re over, Sean. I’m just not feeling it anymore.” Then he delivers the actual worst set of four words in the English language. “I met someone else.”

I’m pretty sure the mega earthquake geologists keep warning about hits at the exact time he spoke because it feels like the ground falls out from under me. I literally collapse, the unforgiving plastic of the turf digging into my knees. But they’re just pinpricks compared to the knife stabbing my back, my gut, my heart, over and over.

Every single moment of our thirteen months together flashes before my eyes: our first date downtown at the VR arcade, where Dominic nearly threw up from motion sickness; going to his junior prom together in our matching dusty-pink tuxes; losing my virginity that night to this heartless piece of shit who decides to just throw it all away on someone else. And he tells me now? While I’m at work? Surrounded by dozens of drunk parents and gays who sure as hell are not going to feel confident in my lifesaving duties if I freak out poolside for the whole world to see.