My ears ring as I try to process what Liam just said. How could I think that everything was fine, and then that annoying friend of his puts the picture in the newspaper, of all places. She seemed like the type that would do that though. But the real question is, will anyone believe it? I doubt it, but look where that's gotten me.
I look up into Liam's eyes just to make sure his isn't playing some sort of sick and cruel joke on me. His brown eyes are troubled and squinted, meeting my blue ones. Any other day I would have found myself lost in his beautiful eyes, but I tear my gaze away from him and let my eyelids slide down.
I exhale frustratedly and say, "This cannot be happening. Why did this have to happen to me?"
"At least your mom isn't grilling you," Liam replies, and he quickly fills me in on the details.
"She wasn't really convinced though," he adds, probably to make me feel better. "And it's not like either of us showed up in the photo, Ocenia."
"Don't you realize that if anyone from my pod found out, or if Cetus tells someone, I'll be outcasted from the rest of my kind?"
He doesn't respond, but stares out at the ocean instead, deep in thought. His expressive brown eyes that normally flash and sparkle are clouded with worry and emotion. I feel exhaustion prodding at my mind and I fold my arms on the sand and lay my head down on top, using them as a makeshift pillow. My tail drifts back and forth with the current underwater, and little bits of seaweed are catching on my scales. Right now I could care less.
"I haven't been able to find the red and white fishing boat either," Liam finally says quietly. "I feel like something really bad is going to happen."
"Same," is how I respond, the shadow of impending doom hanging over both of our heads.
"Has anyone told you how pretty your hair is?"
"What?" I say, confused, raising my head off my arms.
"Your hair. It's...beautiful," he says softly and I feel my cheeks turning red.
"Um, uh, thanks..." I say shakily. He reaches out and captures a strand with his fingers. "No one's really complimented me about it."
"Why not?" he asks as he furrows his brow and studies the tuft of red hair that he is holding.
"I don't know... Cetus and some of the mermaids that you met earlier tease me about it. Alléa once told me that my hair was red because of all the scales my mother ripped off of her tail so she could pay someone to take me away from her."
Liam jerks his head up and looks at me. "She said that to you?" he asks quietly, but underneath his facade I can see that his eyes are smouldering with anger.
"Yeah... Also, Cetus thinks that it's funny to insult me about my appearance." I can't believe I just revealed all that to him. It's weird, because behind my feisty nature, I've been dying to talk to anyone, to feel like someone appreciates me. I know that I still have Coral, but sometimes we don't see eye to eye. With Liam, I feel like he understands all that I'm going through, and he sees past everything, and knows the real me.
"Why would you hang out with her and Cetus if they're so mean to you?"
"Well, Cetus is Coral's older brother, so I really have no choice there. But Alléa, she leads that group of mermaids, and the problem is that I like hanging out with them and Coral, and would enjoy it a lot more if Miss "Queen of the Sea" wasn't always insulting me."
"Oh," he replies, delicately untangling the part of my hair in his hands. I study his moving fingers, in an effort to calm my racing heart. The only thing it does is make me fantasize about how his soft hands would feel on my skin again.
He smiles gruesomely to himself. "Remember how I told some friends of mine about the mermaid tales my grandfather told me?" I start to protest and exclaim indignantly but he stops me. "Before you go and bite my head off, remember that this was before I knew they actually existed. I would never go around telling people tales like that now that..." He trails off awkwardly. "Anyway, they teased me about it relentlessly, and thought I was delusional or something."
I don't say anything, and try to imagine what it would feel like if no one believed me when I told them that humans exist.
"Ocenia, I know what it feels like."
I give him a small but sincere smile, extremely grateful to have someone like him to talk to, even if I am meeting him against the pod's rules, even if we are completely different in some ways.
"Just don't let their words get to you," he adds, moving on to the next part of my hair, separating the tangled strands one at a time.
"The last time someone else spent this much time detangling my hair was when I was seven, and after that I've never let my mom pay much attention to it."
Liam, my incredibly attentive hair stylist, chuckles. "Of course I brush my hair," I explain quickly, because I don't want him to think that I'm a slob.
"Maybe not enough, though," he replies teasingly, flashing that adorable grin of his.
"Shut up!" I exclaim, laughing. "You'd be surprised about how tangled ones hair can get when you swim around underwater all day."
"I'm just saying, maybe you should take better care untangling it!" he protests, his eyes gaining their normal, mischievous expression again.
"Isn't that why you're here? To untangle my hair?" I point out, grinning wickedly.
"Maybe..." His perfectly shaped mouth curls into a smile. "But seriously, Ocenia. I honestly can't stand girls who focus too much on their appearance."
"Really?" I ask, shocked. "I thought for sure that you would be totally into that Bethany girl."
Liam bursts out laughing at this. "Are you kidding me? I've been trying to avoid her as much as possible, but she tends to follow me around. You see," he says, his voice taking on a solemn tone, "my parents met when they were in high school and they think that if I don't find some girl now, I'll end up unmarried until the day that I die."
"Wow..." is all I can manage to say.
"And, of course, they think that Bethany is "the one," so they're forcing me to spend time with her, when I'd much rather be with you."
I look up into his captivating eyes, that reflect the moonlight. He stares back at me intently, his gaze flickering down to my mouth and then back to my blue eyes. He leans in ever so slowly and-
"Who's out there?" calls a deep masculine voice.
A look of despair crosses Liam's face. Quick as a dolphin, he picks me up and silently wades into the water. He lowers me into the water soundlessly.
"Ocenia, you need to go," he whispers desperately. "My dad heard us and thinks we're trespassing strangers. "
I shake my head no, put my finger to my lips and motion with my hand for him to follow me. I swim swiftly in the shallow water to the rocks that I had tried to perch on the day I first met Liam. He wades after me, not minding the chill of the ocean. I haul myself on to the lower part of the rocks, just high enough so that I can see, but also so that I can duck down at any moment.
Liam comes and stands behind me, bracing his hands on the rock in front of me. Once again I realize how close he is to me, and I shiver involuntarily.
"Are you cold?" he whispers in my ear. I feel my heart beating out of control and shivers rack my body, even though I shake my head to say no. Not satisfied with my answer, he carefully slides of his jacket, takes off his hoodie, and gives it to me. He slips his coat back on, wearing only a blue tee shirt underneath.
I gratefully accept the grey piece of clothing, and I slide it over my head. It fits loosely around my mostly bare torso, and it feels strange at first. Mermaids never wear more than their tops as far as clothing goes. Liam's sweater is soft and fuzzy and still warm from him wearing it. The sleeves are so long that they cover most of my hand, and it cocoons me in a bubble of warmth. I lift the sleeves to my nose and inhale; the clothing article smells just like him.
The brown haired boy behind me shifts his weight and looks to the top of his family's beach where a tall, imposing man his walking about, scanning the shoreline.
"Who's there?! Show yourselves!" he demands, and I feel Liam instinctively press closer to me, in a protective way.
"How long is he going to keep searching?" I mumble.
"Any second now my mom is going to come out and-" he starts, when a woman comes out from the grey house on the rocks.
"Dave, honey, I'm sure it's no one. Come back inside," the woman, Liam's mom, says.
Dave grumbles but eventually complies and they disappear into the house again. After a little while the lights turn off and no more sounds emit from Liam's house.
"That was way too close," I start, turning around to face him.
"I know. I'm not going to risk bringing you back to my beach again tonight."
"You do know that we technically are still on your beach right now," I respond to his statement. "And, I don't need protection. Don't treat me like I'm weak." The last part of that sentence comes out a little too harshly, considering everything that's happened since I got to this beach.
"I know, I know, okay? Just when I think I'm getting close to figuring you out, you shut me out again," Liam snaps.
I suddenly realize that he's right about everything with me. And someone like me doesn't deserve him. He should spend his time with someone who won't always snap at him, is slow to anger, doesn't push him away, a girl who isn't a half fish freak.
"Liam," I start out weakly, my eyes downcast and full of shame. "I'm sorry. I really am. I'm sorry for being such a pain, being irritable, selfish, ignorant, stupid and-" I say, but he cuts me off.
"Ocenia. It's okay. Don't beat yourself up about it. As long as you don't mean what you say and you don't lie to me," he says gently, the corners of his mouth tugging upwards ruefully, his gold flecked eyes flickering warmly.
"Oh..." I say pathetically. " I won't lie to you," I promise loyally.
"You can keep my sweater if you want," he says smiling down at me. "I'd rather you have it than me."
I tenderly take his fuzzy sweater off and hand it back to him. "I swear I'm not trying to insult you, but it would just slow me down in the water, and imagine what it would mean if I brought back a human object."
He smiles sadly and shrugs his sweater back on. "If you ever need it again..."
"I'd love to borrow it," I finish for him. "Thank you. For everything."
He nods slowly. "When do you want to meet next?"
"I don't know..." I reply, thinking. "This time the day after tomorrow? To make sure no one gets too suspicious."
"Sure. See you then, I guess."
I slip into the water, swimming out a little ways from Liam, and call, "Have fun thawing your feet!"
He smiles sadly. "I will. Bye."
And with that, I dive under the surface and flick my tail above the water, the moonlight catching on the scales as I disappear from view.
The ocean is quiet, and I only encounter the odd fish as I pass by bunches of kelp, gradually heading deeper down into the serene, still waters. I swim up to a algae covered rock near the entrance to my pod's caves, checking to see if the coast is clear, and then I pass by the guards like an unseen shadow. I make my way through the caves to my family's residence.
I make it to my bedroom without any incident, and I collapse wearily on my bed. No sooner have I crawled under my seaweed blanket and laid my head on my pillow, when I fall into a deep sleep full of impending doom, treachery and the loss of the few people I hold dear.
