The sound of the waves lapping against the shore. The noise of seagulls flying overhead. The pure blue sky high above us.

All this I ignored as I felt the fretting inside take over me nearly completely.

Alberto was right, I had change.

I had caught feelings.

You'd wonder how exactly could that happen? Well, if fish could be caught in a net, why couldn't I be caught in a net? A net of love.

And I think Alberto could sense that off me as soon as me and Giulia had arrived.

"Well, now, Alberto." Giulia said to him as she strolled over confidently with her hands placed on her hips relaxed, "Has things changed?"

"Yep," He said with a grin and pointed at my throat again, "Luca's been eating steak. That's why his voice has deepened."

"Alberto," I whined, annoyed at his assessment.

"Everyone knows if you eat cow your voice goes deeper because of it."

"Er, no it doesn't." Giulia replied and suddenly thrust her upper half towards him, "Then how do you explain these?"

"You rammed coconuts into your chest."

"Ha!" She laughed and I laughed back too, but was becoming red in the cheeks again, "Where do you get these facts?"

"I'm a pure expert." He replied with a sharp grin, "My Bruno tells me so."

I chuckled at his answer to her and Giulia only sighed exasperated and tired of this 'Bruno' talk.

"Come, come now." Her father said, approaching us and leading us away towards town, "I made your favorite. Pasta."

"Pasta..." Alberto said in an intoxicated hungry voice. I could almost see drool melt out from his mouth. Giulia laughed at the sight and also at her dad, adding.

"Papa, you make that every day."

"Well, I guess we could have fish?"

"No!" I gasped and all eyes turned on me. For some reason, I believed they wanted to eat US sea monsters. We were after all 'part' fish. And even though we also ate fish... I still felt dirty over it.

"What's wrong with your boyfriend?" Her father asked, interrupting my inner turmoil over the whole fish thing.

"Boyfriend?!" We both squeaked and Alberto grinned, Mr Marcavaldo raising one over his thick heavy eyebrows up.

"Luca is not my boyfriend."

"Yeah," I butted in shyly, "Giulia is not my boyfriend either!"

"You mean girlfriend...?" Alberto chimed and I went red in the face, yelping.

"Yep! Not my girlfriend!"

Mr. Marcavaldo and Alberto glanced at one another then back at us two and Marcavaldo just shrugged his shoulders, muttering.

"Okay."

He picked up our stuff and carried it out of the station.

"Hey, Luca." Alberto said to me as we followed the huge burly man out to the town's main street, "Your parents said I could come over tonight and we can hang out like old times."

"Oh, Alberto, that sounds wonderful."

"Pity, Giulia can't come."

"How come..?" I asked puzzled. Alberto put his hand in front of me, blocking me from walking on.

"Because it's under the sea."

~x~

Alberto wasn't wrong about that. The two of us had a blast though. We raced each other through the waves from the island and back to my family's cave. I think even our fish herd were happy to see me, it was a bit hard to tell... but yes. They missed me.

"You're not going to beat me again!" Alberto laughed as he dodged between big rocks that jotted out of the seafloor.

"No," I said with a gleeful smile and swished past him effortlessly, "But I am going to win!"

"Haha!" He called and tried to grab my tail to pull me back but his fin hand slipped from lack of grip and I darted ahead, my tail swishing side to side so quickly, "Where did you get this stamina?" Alberto cried after me and I giggled, turning around to look back at him.

"I don't know!" I said in a laugh, "Maybe the human air has made me stronger?"

Alberto chuckled back before yelping, "STOP!"

I twisted my head back to the front of me and suddenly jolted back, trying to avoid the sea wall I was about to hit. I swam back from it and Alberto approached me quickly, pointing at it and saying, "The humans have been building in the sea."

"How come?" I asked him, annoyed but was only annoyed because I had nearly smashed into their construction.

"They call it 'fish' farming."

"Is that legal?"

"No. See," Alberto continued and tapped his fin hand against the hard cement, "They say it's more durable to the economy than just taking guesses on where the fish will be that day."

"Economy?"

"Yep," He said back, not very fazed by this development, "C'mon, let's get back to your girlfriend. She's probably looking for you."

"Nah, she wants to spend time with her dad."

"Your girlfriend does?"

"Yep,"

"Your girlfriend... Giulia?"

"Uh huh- WHA, wait!"

Alberto only laughed to himself, floating around in giggles and I crossed my eyebrows, my lips going into an angry frown.

"She is NOT my girlfriend..."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, because if she was my girlfriend, wouldn't I know?"

"Er?" Alberto chuckled to himself and gazed at me, a big smile still peeled over his fish lips, "Maybe she is... she's just waiting for you to confirm it?"

I sighed heavily and closed my eyes in pain.

"That... that will never happen."

"Why?" Alberto asked and I floated down on a rock, sitting upon it and dropping my head into my hands in sadness.

"Because... I'm a sea monster... and she's... not."

"Oh," Alberto seemed to realize and came over to me, upset as well, but only upset because I was.

"Does that even matter?" He asked me, placing his fin hand on my shoulder in support and I laughed, cried, and joked at the same time, replying.

"Not to me... but maybe, to her."

I closed my eyes sadly, just resting my head on my hands and Alberto jumped back off the rock, floating there before me in the water, and just smashed his hand into his other hand's palm, saying as if he knew how to fix this.

"I know how we'll find out."

I blinked open my eyes, glancing up at him and seeing his determined smile and eyes.

"You'll need to ask her out you hear me! On a date!"

"But-!"

"Uh huh!" Alberto cheered lifting his arms up victoriously as if he had answered the hardest question in the world.

"How will I?"

"At dinner tonight!" He continued, almost patting himself on his back at his brilliance, "Fill her up with so much pasta, and she'll be so bloated she'll say yes to anything!"

"That's actually... PERFECT!"

"I know!" Alberto laughed, and came back down to me again, "Because I thought of it!"

So the plan was set. At that moment, I thought that nothing would go wrong.

But I was WRONG.

As the night was going to take a serious turn... a turn none of us would have ever predicted. Even our Brunos wouldn't have.

And that's saying something, if you ask me.