"Wes and I just sold out. Send next month’s stock to Wes’ address.” Chris sent the text message and then dialed Wes’ number.

Wes answered, “Hey man. What’s up?”

“I just told the D.L. to send next month’s stock over to your place. It was a close call with my dad last time; he was just about to open the box when I walked in.”

“Alright, that’s cool. See you tomorrow.”

Chris and Wes had started selling drugs the beginning of their junior year. It was almost over now, just one day left. They worked for a man named Bigram, the drug lord. By contract, Chris and Wes could only refer to him as D.L. It was a very profitable business, the boys were overflowing with cash.

The next day, Chris picked up Wes in his cherry red convertible Mustang and they headed to school. With the music blaring, they pulled in the parking lot for their last day of junior year. The day seemed to last forever, with the anxiousness growing every second. Every tick of the clock equaled one more moment closer to summer. Finally, the last bell rang and students flooded the halls all in a hurry to begin their three-month vacation. Chris and Wes already had reservations at a condo right on the beach.

“Hurry it up, man! We have the whole beach waitin’ for us!” Chris patted Wes on the back and ran off to his car with Wes trailing behind him.

Chris and Wes stopped by each of their homes to pick up their bags and arrived at the beach just two hours after school had gotten out. They hurriedly threw their bags on the floor of their condo and changed into shorts. They had their game plan ready to go: the boys planned to spend all day walking up and down the beach searching out the hottest girls at Gulf Shores. Their goal was fifteen phone numbers by the end of the day.

“That one’s mine!” Chris jumped up and pointed to a girl far off with long, curly blonde hair.

Wes watched while Chris’ smoothness impressed him. Chris walked swiftly over to the girl and the charm began.

“Excuse me, miss, but I’m conducting a survey and I was wondering if I could ask you just one simple question.”

“Well sure, why not?”

“Okay, may I see your hand?” Chris held out his own hand and flashed a beautiful, white smile.

“Of course.” She held out her hand awkwardly, stunned by Chris’ gorgeous smile.

Chris drew a line across her hand with his finger and her skin tingled instantly. She couldn’t help but keep a big smile across her face as his firm hand held her fragile fingers. He explained that the line was a really big, swift river. He then poked the left side of her hand and told her a bunny was there and needed to get to the other side.

“Now, how do you think that bunny should get across?” Chris asked.

“I, uh, I’m not sure.” Her words came out stuttered; her heart was beating way too fast. She was completely under his spell.

“Well, let me help you out a bit. Here’s one reason the bunny can’t cross. Bunny jump in river, bunny goes ‘glubglubglub’.”

The girl just giggled like a little child. “Okay then, why don’t you tell me how the bunny does get across?”

Chris looked at her with his cute puppy dog eyes and stunning smile and said, “I don’t know, I just wanted to hold your hand.”

“Thanks.” It was the best response she could come up with while lost in his eyes and perfect smile.

“Always a pleasure. May I ask the name of the beautiful girl standing in front of me?”

“Hollyn. Yours?”

“You have a nice name. Mine’s Chris.” He pulled out his phone and began scrolling through his address book with a panicked face.

“What’s wrong?” Hollyn asked.

“I think I’m missing a phone number!”

“Whose?”

“Yours.” He flashed another brilliant smile.

“232-9972.” The numbers were spoken hardly above a whisper.

“Thanks babe,” and with that Chris walked back towards Wes leaving Hollyn completely spellbound.

“Phone number one. Check.”

“Dude, that was one of your best performances yet,” Wes congratulated him.

“Thanks man. Now it’s your—,” Chris was cut off by Wes’ actions.

Wes was standing still; eyes and mouth wide open, pointing towards the rolling waves.

“What is it?” Chris obviously was missing whatever Wes saw.

“Come on Chris!” Wes sprinted towards the water and after just a second Chris was sprinting too.

They both saw it now. Bouncing along the waves was beautiful brown hair attached to the head of a girl yelling for help; she was drowning. Chris and Wes were trained for this type of rescue; they had attended a life guard camp during the last summer vacation. Wes told Chris to call 911 and jumped into the water swimming full speed toward the beautiful bobbing head. He picked her up into his strong arms and swam with her back to shore. He kept her as still as possible as he examined her body. She didn’t have many scratches or bruises, but she wasn’t breathing. In a perverse way, Wes felt lucky; mouth to mouth was needed. He did a quick sweep of her mouth, tilted her head upward, and began the resuscitation. After just a few rounds of breathing every few seconds into her mouth, the girl began to breathe on her own. At that same time, Chris showed up with the ambulance and the paramedics examined the girl expeditiously. They announced that she was going to be just fine, thanks to Wes’ rescue. They ordered that she lie down and sleep and then they drove off.