Roomate

He had used his last twenty five dollars purchasing the perfect bathing suit, towel and sunglasses combination. He had wanted to go to a barber, but instead had been forced to take a pair of blunt scissors to his hair. There was no way hair gel was going to withstand in a swimming pool and it was important his hair look nice at all times.

Particularly if his job consisted of watching scantly clad women all day long.

He stood in the small motel room he had been staying in and admired his newly purchased ensemble in the small mirror. He ran his hand along his stomach; he needed to work on his abs.

Drawing his hand up past his bare chest, he fingered the silver chain that hung there.

Twisting it around his index finger he contemplated tearing it off and throwing it into the corner of the room for the cleaning lady to find long after he had left.

He had given the necklace to his mom when he was seven. It had a pendant on it then, a silver heart with the word "Mom" engraved on it.

She had worn it every day; every day until she had left. The first time she had moved out without him was shortly after his eleventh birthday. He had come home from Gus' house early and found her packing a bag. It had not taken long to learn her plans.

When he asked her if she was ever coming back, she had taken the necklace off and given him the chain. She wanted him to hold on to it for her, she would get it when she came back.

He didn't take it off until she came back four weeks later.

Every time she left without him she would give him the necklace. Every time he kept it on until she got back.

This time however, he had been the one doing the leaving. But the necklace was still his connection to her.

Slowly he uncoiled his finger from the chain, it would stay. It would stay just like it always had when his parents were separated, when someone had left.

Being an employee on a cruise ship had been a great idea. There was free room and board, maid service, free access to all customer services such as the gym and spa and in addition to that, he was going to be in Mexico twice a week.

He had always wanted to go to Mexico. His mom swore up and down that he would end up getting kidnapped or with some weird disease if he went there. But it wasn't as if he was planning on going down there and hanging out in some back water third world country like slum.

He found his room after several minutes of wandering the crew deck and hesitantly inserted his key.

The room was built to accommodate two people; apparently he was going to be having a roommate. Crossing to the bed he lowered his back pack to the mattress. With the exception of his motorcycle and helmet, everything he owned was in that bag.

It was hard to travel by motorcycle if you had too much luggage, so he had been forced to condense his belongings to the bare necessities.

He sunk down onto the bed, he had approximately an hour until he needed to report in to work, maybe a short nap?

He cracked one eye open as the door handle jiggled and came open revealing a tall man in a tank top. This man looked as if he spent every waking hour of his life sun bathing. He was as shiny as a copper penny. He hugged a strange silver case to his chest, it looked oddly bullet proof.

"Dude! Roomie!"

Shawn sat up puzzled as the man rushed into the room, his hand in the air for a high five.

"What's up bro?"

Not wanting to leave the man hanging, Shawn completed the high five. The man in front of him didn't seem to think he had the capability of speech as he did not stop speaking.

"Dude! So you're the new lifeguard huh? Totally bum deal about what happened to Marco man. Mono? He was such a fun guy, every time we called him it was all 'Marco!' and then he was all 'Polo!' then he would jump into the water and be like, 'I'm gonna get you!' and start tagging random guests. It was like this huge game of Marco Polo every stinkin' night man!"

He watched as his new roommate released his death grip on the bullet proof case and opened it up. Inside rested four trophies. Shawn narrowed his eyes, reading the base of the trophies without keying his new roommate in to the action. "Gregory Fanelli-First Place-End of Summer Tan." Each one said the same thing with the only variation being the year. He had won this award four times in a row.

That explained the man's skin tone.

"-but man I just didn't know what to say about it, like whoa and everyone else was totally dude! And yeah…you know what I'm saying?"

Oops, he hadn't been listening.

"Um…yeah…totally man." With a quick glance to the clock he breathed a sigh of relief. "Sorry dude, but I'm s'posed to head up to the Lido deck, got to get some training in before the guests arrive…I don't wanna be late."

"Dude! No way! I'm totally training some new guy on the Lido deck today! Like whoa, let's walk up together, you prolly don't even know where it is do ya? Maybe they will get Heather to train you! Dang is she the most beautiful piece of work in a bikini! I've been trying for years to get her to go out with me but it's really not that easy. Last time I got caught too close to her I was sentenced to work for three weeks in the kiddie pool. Mr. Dearsing doesn't like anyone getting too close to his girl."

Shawn thought back to Mr. Dearsing's office – the picture. Shit. If Heather was the girl from that picture…and if she frequently wore a bikini-Shawn was in big trouble.