Chap. 11

Jessie

I make my way back to shore after Mary had left to go find Will. I was really anxious to see how it went. I don't even know if she talked to him yet.

As I walk home, I pull out my phone to send Mary a text to ask how it's going. With second though, I return it to my pocket. I don't want to interrupt anything that might be going on.

As I walk, I pass Rikki's Café. A lot of people are there, sitting outside on the patios and people going in and out. I squint as I recognize a face. It's Bella's. She's surrounded by two other girls that I remember to be Rikki, the owner, and Cleo, the sister of Kim, who's in my class. They're sitting on a striped patio couch by the outdoor counter, laughing about one thing or another.

Suddenly, someone else approaches them. I have to squint harder to see who it is. Then I realixe.

It's Will.

I stop in my tracks at the sight of him. Wasn't Mary supposed to be talking to him? I had no clue what was going on. He takes a seat next to Bella and joins them on the couch.

I quickly make a turn and sit myself on a bench, sight distance away from the café. I can still see Will, Bella, and the other two. I quickly take out my phone again to look natural.

My fingers are fiddling with my phone, but my eyes are locked on the four teenagers sitting outside the café. They all seem to give a friendly greet to one another as Will gives Bella a kiss on the cheek. Suddenly, their faces change, as if everything just got serious. I only see Will's mouth moving. Uh-oh.

My stomach drops. The feeling in my gut tells me this is bad. Really bad. I don't know what he knows. Did he even talk to Mary yet? What did she tell him? What is he telling them? Is it even about us? Am I totally overreacting?

I keep my cool and look at them. The girls' faces are changing constantly. Sometimes showing confusion, even shock. My stomach drops lower.

Will's talking goes on about five minutes; sometimes the others chime in with something. He's speaking to them seriously. His face is hard and unreadable.

Suddenly, a teenage boy walks by carrying two drinks in his hand. Focused on holding them, he doesn't see the chair leg in front of him. He trips, sending the drinks flying towards the group on the couch. They splash all over everyone's legs.

The guy stumbles to his feet. I can just make out him saying the word "Sorry," with a sincere expression. But everyone who was splashed is too panicked to notice. They all look at each other quickly, especially the girls.

And then I realize. Bella got wet. She's going to change.

I see Will start to push the girls into the café, running, pushing… all of them? They're all in a frenzy. But why is Will pushing all of them if Bella's the only mermaid?

Before I can see anything else, I spring off of my bench and head in the direction of home.

My mind races over what I just saw. The girls getting wet, Will struggling over himself to get them all out, and the panicked look on all of their faces. What was going on? …Was it possible? It couldn't be true.

Instead of going home, I made a detour and headed to Mary's house. Now that I knew Will wasn't home, the coast was clear. I approached her isolated boat shed house and knocked feverishly on the door. Mary came and opened it.

"Jessie?" She looked confused for a moment. Then her eyes widened. "Jessie! What are you doing here?"

"We need to talk. Now." I brush past her, going inside, grabbing her wrist to make sure she came along. I pulled her into her living room and had her sit on the couch.

"What?" she asks in a demanding tone. She's obviously not in the mood. I suppose this meant she talked to Will.

I cross my arms. "Did you talk to Will yet?" It sounded more like an accusation than I meant it to.

"Yes…" she says. I raise my eyebrows. "Well, sort of…" she adds.

"What did you tell him?" I ask quickly. I take a seat next to her and settle in.

"Really, nothing," she says. I must look confused because she goes on to explain without me having to ask. "I confronted him about it, but he's taking a bit of time to take in the whole idea. I told him to go clear his head."

"He was doing that alright…" I mutter under my breath.

"Sorry?" she says, referring to my quiet speech.

"It's just…" I hold back, not wanting to make a huge deal. "I just saw Will talking to Bella and her two friends, Cleo and Rikki. Whatever they were talking about is beyond me but it looked like…"

Suddenly, Mary shoots to her feet. "WHAT?" she yells. "He WHAT?"

"No, no, no, it just may have looked like that…" I slowly pull her back to sitting position, hoping to diffuse some of her anger. "But there's a twist…"

Mary raises her eyebrows through her furious expression. "What exactly happened?"

I recount everything that happened it the last twenty minutes, from Will's approach to their panicked take off into the café. I don't leave out anything.

"Uh-oh," Mary says, finally calm, despite what I just told her. "This is bad."

"We seem to be using that phrase a lot lately, haven't we?" I reply. I put my head in my hands. This is too much.

"So the other two…" Mary says. "They're… mermaids?"

"It seems like it," I reply. "But we shouldn't assume anything." We both let out a sigh.

"I'll sort this through myself," Mary tells me. "This is my problem, not yours. Will doesn't know about you yet. This is my fault."

"Mary, don't even say that," I reply. "Don't even say that. We're both mermaids. We're both at risk here. And I'm not about to let you face this alone." My voice lowers. "I'm here for you."

She smiles. "Thank you," she replies. She looks at out the window. The sun is setting. "You'd best be getting home. It's starting to get dark. Plus, I don't want you to have to see what's about to come." We both laugh.

"Alright," I stand up and head for the door. She follows me there. I turn around to face her before I exit. "Good luck. Again." I smile half heartedly.

She chuckles slightly. "Thanks, I'll need it."

I turn and exit. As I walk towards my own home, I keep hoping that this will just get better.

Bella

That evening, Cleo, Rikki, and I decided to meet up at the café. We're all still a bit worried about everything that's going on with Mary. We decided some girl talk would take our minds off it.

I grabbed the three strawberry smoothies from the counter and joined the girls at the patio couch where we claimed a spot. I handed them their drinks and sat down next to them. We enjoyed our smoothies for a minute without speaking.

Cleo finally broke the silence, but not with something any of us wanted to hear. "So how do you sppose it's going with Will and Mary?" she commented anxiously. She took another sip of her smoothie.

"Ah," I put my finger up to stop her. "We're supposed to be taking our minds off of that, remember?" I sipped my smoothie too. "Anyway, I'm sure it's fine."

"Uh, I think we're about to get our answer," says Rikki. I look up at her. She's pointing out somewhere. I turn my head and look in that direction. She's pointing at Will, who's jogging towards us. As he approached, I could see he was looking distressed.

When he reached us, he stopped to catch his breath. "Will, what are you doing here?" I ask anxiously.

"I needed… to talk to… you guys," he says between breaths.

"What about?" counters Cleo, even more anxious than she was before.

I can barely make out the breathy word that comes out of his mouth. "Mary."

My eyes widen. I motion for Will to sit down. When he finally catches his breath, we're ready to talk.

"What happened?" I ask quickly. "Did you talk to her?" Turns out I'm not as calm as I supposed myself to be.

"Yes, I did," he replies. His expression is unreadable.

"What happened?" I repeat.

He explains the whole story to us. What he did, how he let her know he found out, and how she responded. We all groane simultaneously.

"Will!" I scolded. "You went about that the completely wrong way!" Cleo and Rikki nodded in agreement.

"I know, I know, I realize that now," he says. I can hear the regret in his tone. "But I fixed it."

"You what?" Rikki says.

"I fixed it," he repeats. "When she came back after running away, I apologized. She accepted my apology."

"Then what happened?" replies Cleo.

"We just talked a little bit. I told her a little about Bella." My eyes widen. He WHAT? He answers my expression. "She knew about you."

"She WHAT?" we all say in unison. He holds up his hands to calm us down. "How did she find out about me?"

"I asked her the same question. Her exact words were, 'Tell her to be more careful where she swims'." He shrugs.

"How long has she known about me?" I realize I'm now leaning forward in my seat when I almost fall off.

"About a month, she said," he tells me. "Even before she was a mermaid."

I'm perplexed. "You… you mean she kept my secret?" I say slowly.

"Yep," he replies. "At least, I suppose she did. That's what she said."

I can't believe that Mary actually kept my secret. Why would she do that? It's a mystery to me.

"After I told her about Bella, without giving anything away, she decided to trust me. But I was a little too freaked out at the moment so she told me to come clear my head." He pauses and tilts his eyes up. "Feels clear," he says. He grins as I give a little laugh.

"Well, as long as-" I don't have time to finish before a teenage boy trips on our couch, sending his juices flying. The liquid spills in the laps of the four of us.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the kid says as he hands us some napkins. Before I can even hold out my hand or say, "It's okay," Will is pushing the three of us into the café as quickly as possible.

And right before we enter, I can't help but see an extremely familiar girl on looking this entire event.