Chapter 4- Oliver

Gia? I guess that was something humans used as a name… It fit her. I couldn't see her too well in the dark lightly, but she was very petite, and she had beautiful long wavy hair. I couldn't wait to see what she looked like in the light.

She seemed to know a lot about humans and I could not wait to talk to her!

"Are you ready to continue on?" she asked.

She stood up quickly. How could she do that? I thought. Maybe it is because she is short. I probably made it easier to stand up. I struggled to my feet. She patiently helped me up. It was probably strange for her to be helping a man with such things… I know that no mermaid would have helped a merman with such easy tasks.

We made our way up a path in the woods. I began to become stronger as we walked and it got easier. We came to the bottom of something I think that is called "stairs" I had never seen stairs before, but all of this was pretty new.

She put one foot on the stair and then the other on the next one. I tried to imitate her and it was working well until I tripped on the fourth stair. I fell forward and landed on the stair, hard. My "knee" was throbbing. It was weird to have an ache there. I had no idea what it was like to have knees, but I knew that I did not want to fall like that again. She reached under my arm pits and helped me up again.

"Oh crap," she said under her breath. I looked up. There were more people. More people! Great I would be able to find out more about these strange customs. It is so odd how obsessed with water humans are. They were sitting in something Gia said was a "hot tub". None of this makes sense.

"What is wrong?" I asked.

"Shhh! We have to be quiet, I really don't want them to see… well me carry a naked man up the stairs wearing my sweater around… around… well his private area!"

We walked slower, which I was not complaining about. I focused on not falling on the stairs while I heard her muttering somethings under her breath. We were getting closer to the top and she began to duck her head down, so I did the same thing.

"Crap, crap, crap!" she kept swaying.

"Why don't we go another way?" I asked.

"This is the quickest way, especially because you are not wearing shoes and I left mine on the beach. The next path is all gravel and trust me you do not want to walk up there with no shoes on"

"Gia? Gia? Is that you?" a slurred voice came from a few feet away.

"Crap" she whispered again. "Yes?"

"Well come up here silly goose! We have missed you!" the voice said again.

"Autumn," she whispered again, "Crap, what are we going to do?"

I heard a splash and I assumed that she had fallen into the "hot tub".

"Ok, umm… if we go quickly, they might not see you. Try to stay behind me!"

I got behind her, but I was at least a foot taller than her, and it was hard to duck behind her. We walked slowly up the rest of the stairs. When we reached the landing I heard some more people talking.

"Gia! Come on get in!" the slurred voice said again.

"Autumn, I don't have my swimsuit on, plus I am really not feeling up to it tonight, I think that I am just going to go to bed," she answered calmly.

"Don't tell me you were thinking of that betraying son of a…"

"Autumn!" she said loudly, "I came on this trip to forget about Spencer, but everyone keeps bringing him up! I am just going to go to bed"

"Wait! Is that someone with you?" Autumn called.

She walked quickly with purpose into the building, not answering Autumn. This human world is so confusing. Who was this Spencer the son of? Why did Autumn dislike this man? Why was Gia so upset?

She put her arms around me again and helped me up more stairs into something called the bathroom. I don't know why they had it, but she took off her sweater and put me in the bathtub and turned this strange circular object. Water began coming from the ceiling. She handed me some soap and shampoo and left the room. I tried my best and read the instructions on the bottle. I also found out that there was this strange contraption that allowed your waste to be taken away by water. Humans were really fascinating.

After I finished, I saw that she left me some more clothes. I put the larger things through my legs and fixed the string around my waist. I next pulled the smaller thing over my head and pushed my arms through the smaller holes. I walked out into the next room.

"Good the shorts and shirt fit you," Gia said, "How did you end up naked on the beach?"

Why did she keep asking me this question? It was so strange. I knew I was not allowed to tell her the real reason. Our king, Triton, made an agreement with many different leaders of the human world to keep our world a secret. The leaders were in agreement that finding out that mermaids were real would be a disaster, so I had to make up some sort of story.

"How have you forgotten to do everything? Were you drunk?" she asked.

I got my first good look at her. She had beautiful red-brown hair, it came down to about her waist in waves. Her skin was kissed by the sun and her eyes were a deep green like the sea. In many standards, she was beautiful. Her features were small, but her lips were full. I found myself staring at her, then I remembered that she asked me a question.

"Umm, yeah I was drunk and I fell of a boat…" I felt that was the best thing I could say, she lifted her eyebrow at me.

"I see…" she said with a hint of suspicion. She eyed me up and down.

"Unfortunately, we do not have an empty bedroom for you right now, so you will have to sleep in here. I have gotten the air mattress blown up for you."

"Gia?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you"