Tina had been making good progress selling her cups of frozen lemonade up and down the beach. The hot day basically did all the work for her and all she had to do was take people’s money and give them their cups. Anyone could do it, Tina thought to herself, though one time, Ava claimed to have caught a glimpse of the concession sales sheet and saw that whenever Tina was selling lemonade, sales for that were 20% higher than normal, whatever that meant.
“Hey Lemonade Girl!” The call cut through the noises of the beach like an alarm to a sleeper. It was the sound of more money to be made.
“On my way!” Tina shouted, waving. In her zeal to hurry, her flip flop caught an unexpected divot in the sand sending her tumbling face first into a large sand castle. All that was left of the meticulously crafted structure was scattered shells and sand, sticky from the quickly melting lemonade. Amazingly, Tina had managed to keep most of the remaining cups upright in her fall at the cost of her own body.
Tina quickly got up and though her head was still spinning, she managed to complete the lemonade transaction. She looked for the group of kids whose sandcastle she had wrecked and apologized profusely, even offering them free drinks, which they took, but still looked pretty dejected. As she headed back to the main booth, Ava caught sight of her.
“Whoa! You okay? What happened?” The Asian girl ran up to her friend to help her.
“Just took a spill on route. I’m fine.”
“Stupid sand! How dare you hurt my friend.” Ava gave the beach a few good kicks succeeding only in stubbing her toe against the ground. Tina laughed at her friend’s antics; she was feeling a bit better already.
The two made their way to one of the storage rooms, where Tina sat down. “Ugh, I got lemonade all over my shirt.”
“Oh? Well, just take it off. Jenkins usually doesn’t mind as long as you wear your cap.” Mr. Jenkins was the overall manager. Typical policy stated that you needed to wear at least one branded piece of gear while working. It was fairly common for one of the workers to go shirtless, and sometimes encouraged as it drove up sales.
“Uhh… yeah, but I can’t…”
“Ooooh Scandalous! I never thought you’d go tatas akimbo at work.”
“Tatas a-what?”
“Tatas akimbo, you know.” Ava raised both her hands and made finger guns at her chest level.
“Pew pew pew, like free boobing.”
“Free…? No! I’m not free boobing. I’m wearing a suit under this!” She gave Ava a playful shove. “I burn easily, so I just don’t want to expose too much skin.”
“Well, you are in luck because I’ve got just the thing for you.” Ava reached into her bag and pulled out a suspect looking bottle with Korean characters on it. The only English on it read “SPF 110”. “One of my mom’s friends gave this to me. She said that the sun is her arch nemesis.”
“Is this… safe?” Tina eyed the strange bottle warily.
Ava shrugged, “Probably. The woman somehow has lighter skin than you.”
With a sigh, Tina peeled off her polo and started slathering the mystery cream on her shoulders and stomach. As she finished her front, Ava held out her hand offering to do her back. Ava rubbed the lotion into her back and she relaxed for a moment. That is, of course, until Ava’s fingers grazed a particularly sensitive spot on her side.
“Aaaaah, Ava!”
“Sorry sorry. I’ll be more careful.”
Tina tensed as her friend rubbed upwards toward her armpits.
“Just one more spot.”
“Wait, I don’t need lotion th-aaaahahahahahhahre!”
Ava had slipped her lotion covered hands into Tina’s sensitive pits. She pressed her thumbs into the red head’s smooth hollows in circular motion setting off a cascade of ticklish laughter.
“Thahahahahat tickles! Hehehaha!”
“Hold… Still! I’m just trying to make sure you don’t burn…OOOF” Tina flung her friend off her.
“Ava you little…! Aah… oww.” Tina winced. “I’m still a bit sore I guess.”
“Awww, you rest here then. I’ll take care of your shift for you.”
“Are you sure you’ll be okay?”
“Of course!” Ave hoisted up both lemonade trays with ease and then flexed.
“No, I mean, aren’t you still on grilling duty?”
“The burgers! Omigod!” The small Asian girl went flying out of the door, spilling a few cups of lemonade in the process. How that girl hadn’t been fired yet was a mystery.
“Hey.”
Tina jumped at the new voice behind her. She spun around to see the lanky form of her coworker Roy standing awkwardly by one of the shelves.
“Omigosh! You scared me!”
“Oh… my bad… uhm… I heard your conversation, I mean I didn’t mean to, but I did…” He stumbled around with his thoughts for a sentence or two more. “... anyway, what I mean is, Tasha and I are good without you, take a break if you need.”
“Oh awww thanks Roy! You’re the best!” Tina gushed. The lanky teen rubbed his neck and looked away, cheeks reddening a bit.
As he was walking out, he turned to say “Ahhh, one more thing, you’re pretty close with Ava, right?” Tina nodded. “I saw the grill unattended so I flipped all the burgers, if you could let her know.”
Tina snickered with the sudden realization of what was happening, “Don’t worry, I’ll put in a good word.”
The teen thanked her and hurried out. Tina chuckled to herself, Roy was cute in his own way and this little tidbit of drama would make the summer more interesting. After a short rest, she got up and walked out. There was still a bit of time before her lunch break, so the plan was to just chill and pick up her shift after lunch, which gave her an hour or two. She had made it a few steps out of the storage room, when a young boy approached her. He looked to be about 10 with a blonde fade cut and a determined expression. Flanking him were a pair of redhead girls and a shy looking girl peering out from under a sun hat. It was the group whose castle she had face planted on.
“Ahem, you owe us for destroying our masterpiece.” The boy stated matter of factly, while crossing his arms.
“We spent aaaaall morning on that.” One of the twins chimed in.
Tina still felt a little guilty and remembering how dejected they had been pulled at her heart strings. “I guess the lemonade wasn’t enough? Well, what can I do to make it up to you?”
The boy’s eyes lit up almost as if he hadn’t expected this to work. “You have to help us build our next sculpture!” The twins started bouncing up and down at the prospect and even the shy girl smiled a little.
“Okay okay, you’ve got yourself a deal.”
They led her back to where the original structure was. In its place was a large shallow hole, long enough to fit an adult. Strewn around were a number of shovels and pails filled with various items scavenged from the shore.
“First, we need you to lay down in hole.” The boy commanded.
“Uh, I thought I was helping you build your new castle?”
“Sure you are! We are going to bury you, so you can be the base of it!” One of the twins replied gleefully.
“I don’t know about that…” Tina was no stranger to being buried in the sand. In fact, she had probably been buried more than most normal people. Most beach trips ended up with either her, her sister, or her mom with their feet, stomachs, and head sticking out of the sand at the mercy of the other two. That’s why she was so nervous, but these kids weren’t her sister, right?
Seeing her hesitate, the shy girl quietly said, “You promised to help.”
Tina relented, “Alright alright, here I go.” She reclined in the shallow hole and the kids got to work burying her. She was a bit relieved when they covered her legs and feet though her upper half was sticking out of the sand. The boy and one of the twins got to work piling sand around her lower half and molding it. This was a sand sculpture Tina realized. Her bottom half was quickly forming into the shape of a fish tail. The other twin and the shy girl went to work burying her upper body covering her arms, shoulders, and chest. She flinched as the shy girl’s smoothing fingertips brushed her armpit.
“Don’t move!” She chastised seriously.
Tina did her best with amused patience but every now and then, a finger or palm would brush a sensitive spot on her neck, underarm, or ribs eliciting a shake or squirm. Soon, she was immobilized in her sandy sculpture. Only her head and a strip of her midriff around her belly button remained uncovered. The young boy had begun forming the sand in the area around her hips. Tina did her best to remain still, but she couldn’t help the invading ticklish sensations when his finger brushed over the exposed skin of her midriff. At the same time, one of the twins was working the sand around her ribs. An errant poke or stroke would send her flinching sweetly. She clenched her eyes and pulled her head back hoping she wouldn’t give away her ticklishness too much. Thankfully, there was no reason for the kids to do anything around her deep navel. That is until they were decorating the sand sculpture.
The shy girl slipped a small conch shell directly into the sensitive dimple. Tina held her breath feeling the little shell scrape along the sensitive walls of her navel. When she felt movement stop, she breathed out only to feel a sudden push causing her to squeak. The others stopped what they were doing and Tina quickly tried to cover it with a cough.
“We’re almost done. Hang in there a little longer.” The boy said. The shy girl said nothing and Tina hoped she hadn’t noticed her ticklish reaction. A few moments later, the four kids gathered around Tina to take pictures of their creations. One of the twins turned her phone to Tina’s face so she could see the finished product. The trapped redhead was quite pleased with how it came out and asked the girl to send the picture to her. Shells lined her tail to look like scales, she was given a classic seashell top (along with a sand boob job), and the conch in her belly looked like an actual piercing.
As the kids finished their pictures, one of them spoke up and said…
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