One of my last chapters focused on two mermaids who were meeting each other for the first time-Bella and Charlotte. This one will focus on the relationship between Emma and Ash as well as two other mermaids getting to know each other-Emma and Sophie! I think it's important to show Sophie's personality a little bit more, as she will be a crucial character later on...
Emma sipped her drink and smiled at the wonderful people around her. The thing she had missed most while on her trip was this-the feeling of friendship, of belonging. She had met lots of new people but none that could qualify as her best friends.
Seated between Cleo and Ash, Emma had never felt more at home. Well, at home-with a few guests over. Bella lounged on the other side of Cleo with her boyfriend, a nice blonde guy named Will. Sophie and Charlotte were on the other side of the table with Rikki. Sophie had invited Zane to sit with them, but he looked uncomfortable next to his ex-girlfriend.
Actually, it wasn't just Zane who was uncomfortable. Rikki wouldn't stop tapping her foot, and Cleo was staring into space with a worried frown on her face. Emma wondered what was bothering them.
At least Bella seemed to mimic Emma's happy mood. She was wearing a cute, colorful dress and was clutching a small bag with excitement.
"I have a surprise for you!" Bella said to Emma, Sophie and Charlotte. Her teeth were white against her tan skin.
Cleo snapped back into reality and Rikki finally stopped tapping her foot. Sophie leaned in closer with anticipation. Although Sophie was smiling, Emma could sense the hostility between Sophie and Bella. Emma wondered what had happened between them to cause it.
Bella pulled three small boxes-jewelry boxes-out of her bag and passed one to each girl, except Cleo and Rikki.
Sophie tore open her box and Charlotte carefully unwrapped hers. Emma waited a minute, watching what Sophie would pull out.
"It's-one of those crystals!" she finally said triumphantly, holding up a blue crystal necklace. Charlotte opened hers to find a nearly identical necklace. Emma unwrapped hers but didn't take the crystal out of the box. She nervously rubbed the locket around her neck. Replacing it was not an option for her.
"Thank you so much, Bella!" Charlotte squealed. Sophie was examining the crystal in the sunlight the way a jeweler inspects diamonds.
"Yes, thank you." Sophie said, her voice lacking the warmth that Charlotte's did.
"No problem." Bella replied happily.
Emma looked at the crystal reluctantly. The color was too bright for her to wear it with everything...it looked great on Bella, but Emma couldn't bring herself to replace her locket with it.
"I can't accept this..." Emma said quietly to Bella, passing the box back to Bella.
Bella seemed to understand and slipped it into her purse without making a fuss about Emma's refusal of the gift. Emma was grateful for that. She didn't want Rikki and Cleo thinking she didn't want to be Bella's friend. She thought the crystal necklace was a thoughtful, kind gesture but it just didn't feel right. She hoped Bella wasn't offended.
Charlotte slipped on her new necklace, her smile flashing just as much as the blue crystal. Sophie was still looking at hers with awe. No one noticed that Emma didn't have hers.
Rikki finished her drink with a loud slurp. Clearly she was anxious to leave. With a hurried excuse, she left the table-and her purse. Zane grabbed it and went after her. Emma grinned, pleased that at least some things were still the same.
Emma finished her drink and Ash squeezed her hand.
"Want to go downtown? I need to pick up a few things." Ash asked her quietly. Emma agreed quickly, eager to spend some alone time with her boyfriend. She waved goodbye to Cleo, Lewis, and the others, took Ash's hand, and left the café.
Ash and Emma walked along the water, dodging bicyclists and pedestrians left and right. Cairns was a truly beautiful city, right along the Great Barrier reef. But the heat! Emma was sweating in less than five seconds.
Nevertheless, the couple carried on, keeping in the shade whenever possible. They stopped at an ice cream store and each got a cone. They were tourists for the day, stopping in almost every souvenir shop and perusing the items. Emma got a keychain with her name on it, the CD of a local band that looked promising, and a funny cowgirl hat. Ash also got a funny hat, a Cairns t-shirt, and a Christmas ornament in the shape of a horse. Emma took photos of them with their new belongings and they spent the afternoon giggling at each other and having a great time.
Eventually Ash found the shop he wanted to go to. It was a men's store so Emma wasn't very interested in it. She and Ash agreed on a time to meet up at an Italian place for dinner and then she left him to his shopping, and him to hers. Luckily there was a nice women's boutique nearby that Emma stopped into.
She spent nearly a half hour trying on all sorts of outfits, ending up with a pretty blue sundress, yellow jogging shorts and jeweled white sandals. She left the store with a considerably lighter wallet and arms weighed down by her many purchases of the day.
It wasn't quite dinnertime so Emma decided to find Ash at his men's store.
She found him, alright-chatting up a petite red-head near the clearance section. She appeared to be flirting with him, not the other way around. The girl had a hand on his shoulder and was laughing just a little too loud. Ash, who never noticed when girls hit on him, was just being friendly. At least Emma hoped so.
"Emma, hey!" he called when he saw her in the doorway. "Look who I ran into."
The red-head turned around and Emma realized it was Sophie. Sophie now had her arm around Ash's shoulder, like they were BFF's.
"I was just looking for a present for my brother, Will." Sophie explained. "I like Ash's style so I thought I'd ask him for help."
"Actually, Emma got me this shirt." Ash said modestly. "You might want to ask her for advice instead." He pulled away from Sophie and went to browse through a stack of jeans in his size.
Emma approached Sophie, plastering on a smile just as Sophie's smile slid away.
"I think I found everything I'm looking for." she said coldly, pulling a blue shirt off the rack.
"Ohhh...kay." Emma said slowly, amazed at Sophie's mood swing. There was definitely something about that girl Emma didn't trust. She really needed to ask Rikki or Cleo what her story was.
Sophie went to talk to Ash again and Emma pulled out her phone. She got Rikki and Cleo on a conference call and waited for them both to pick up. She leaned discreetly against a wall, eying up Sophie and Ash. Sophie was all smiles again, leaning into Ash and laughing at almost everything he said.
"Hey, Em." Rikki answered on the third ring.
"What's up?" Cleo asked on the fourth.
Emma explained where she was at and what she was doing, describing how Sophie had acted one way towards Ash and completely differently to her. Finally, she asked them to tell her more about Sophie.
"Well..." Cleo said in a kind voice, the one she used when she wanted to talk badly about someone but was too nice to actually say anything bad about someone. "She came to town last year and got a job at Rikki's café..."
"She scared away everyone else who applied for the job." Rikki added.
"Right, so she got the job. Bella thought that she was flirting with Will but then learned she was his brother." Cleo continued.
Rikki cut in. "She started flirting with Zane every chance she got, and eventually they kissed."
Emma was shocked. "Was that why you guys broke up?" she asked Rikki.
"Yeah. Then she tried to take over the café." Rikki abruptly changed the subject away from her and Zane's breakup.
"It was having some money issues." Cleo said. "Sophie met Ryan, this geologist who wanted to study the Moon Pool, and they found out about the blue crystals. They were worth a lot of money so Sophie convinced Zane to help her get crystals out of the walls of the Moon Pool."
Emma's mouth hung open, but the story wasn't over yet.
"Sophie, Zane and Ryan got the crystals but basically destroyed the Moon Pool in the process." Rikki finished emotionlessly.
"Wow." Emma said, at a loss for words. "I knew the Moon Pool was ruined but I never knew why..."
"Now you know." Rikki snapped. Bringing up Sophie's story had evidently made Rikki angry. "Listen, guys, I have to go soon. But Emma, do yourself a favor and keep Sophie away from Ash."
"Oh, I will." Emma vowed, narrowing her eyes at the flirtatious redhead. She was holding up a yellow shirt to Ash's figure, as if imagining what it would look like on him. Emma ended her call, picked up a navy shirt, and held it out to her boyfriend.
"I think this would look better." she told both Ash and Sophie. "Blue is definitely your color-and it's on sale!"
"So is the yellow one." Sophie argued. Emma rolled her eyes at how ridiculous this was-they were arguing over dressing Emma's boyfriend, like he was a Ken doll they both wanted. But the fact was, he was already Emma's.
"Why don't I get both?" Ash suggested, always the compromiser. "After all, I just got promoted."
Emma's jaw dropped. Ash got promoted?! "That's amazing, Ash, congratulations!" she threw her arms around him, almost dropping the navy shirt in the process. When they broke apart, Ash's grin covered nearly half his face.
"It just got confirmed this morning. I was going to tell you at dinner-I'm officially the manager of the stables!"
"Let's talk about it more at dinner, I'm starving." Emma said, tactfully trying to get out of the store and away from Sophie.
"Me, too." Ash agreed, taking the yellow shirt from Sophie and the dark blue from Emma. He went up to the register to pay, leaving the two girls for a few minutes.
This time, Emma didn't try to make small talk. However, Sophie did.
"I was thinking we should all meet up at that moon-pond place for a little talk. I'd like to practice my powers a bit more, too." Sophie told her. It sounded like more of an order than a suggestion.
"Sure, maybe tomorrow if we can get all the girls together." Emma replied. It still felt weird to say "the girls" and mean Bella, Rikki, Cleo, Charlotte, Sophie, and herself, rather than just the three original mermaids. It would've been hard enough just including Bella in their trio, now they had to fit in two former enemies-perhaps a current enemy, judging by how Emma and Sophie were getting along.
Ash reappeared with a shopping bag and a receipt. "Ready to go?"
"Definitely." Emma said, a little too relieved. They walked out of the shop hand-in-hand and never looked back.
Sorry this is a shorter chapter! I've been trying to make them longer but this chapter wasn't planned to have a lot of action or drama, just a few personalities clashing and Emma learning Sophie's background. Please let me know what you think about this chapter and review! xo