Hellooo friends! :-)
Welcome to the fourth chapter of Shoreline! I'm glad you all enjoy the story. :)
Have fun reading the new chapter, wishing you a great day, a lovely week and an amazing weekend! :-)
I really wanted to be brave. I really wanted to stay in the shower, to prove Eleanor and Lucy wrong, to show them that they were nuts, extremely nuts – but I didn't.
As soon as I turned on the shower I panicked and jumped out of it again, faster than I had ever jumped in my life, simply trying to avoid getting any water drops on my bare skin. My pulse climbed up to 180 beats per minute, my breathing intensified, and my eyes were opened wide in fear as I watched my shower running. I panted.
Phew. That was close.
"Judging from the fact that we didn't hear you crash onto the floor, I'm assuming that you left your shower right before touching water. Your reflexes sound promising, we can work with that," I heard Eleanor talking in my bedroom.
I answered, "What did you say? I can't hear you, the shower is too loud!" which obviously was a big lie, so Eleanor simply continued, "I want to see you trying to turn it off without growing a tail."
If possible, my eyes widened even more. Shoot, she was right! Mum would kill me if I kept it on for more than fifteen minutes! But what was I supposed to do about it? Call mum and risk being discovered by her? Definitely not. Call Aaron and ask him to shut off all the water in my house? Oh, hell no.
I had to admit to myself that my options were quite limited.
Then, someone knocked on my bathroom door. "We can help. If you let us." It was Lucy.
"No, thank you. I'll handle it," I answered.
"But don't break your pretty little head trying to find a solution," Eleanor added and as always, I knew she was grinning.
My lips pursed in defiance before I remembered that they couldn't see me. So I just said, "I won't," and watched the shower run in annoyance.
Adding 'Aquaphobia' to the list of things that made my life unnecessarily complicated wasn't my plan when I left for the Moonlight Dinner with Aaron last night.
I stayed silent for a minute. Then another minute. And yet another minute. After four minutes, someone sighed (my bet was it was Lucy) and the shower head suddenly creaked suspiciously. Then, it stopped running. Just like that.
Now it was me who sighed. "Do I even want to know?"
"Depends. Are you ready for the truth?" Lucy asked and there was warmth, a kindness in her tone of voice that finally made me unlock my bathroom door. Maybe she wasn't as bad as I presumed. She really seemed like she wanted to help and guide me.
Without hesitating again, I opened the door and stepped out of the bathroom. "I am."
"Great!" Lucy exclaimed and she beamed from ear to ear which made my tummy feel a bit warmer than usual.
It was Eleanor who destroyed that vibe. She asked with a smirk, "Are you gonna get dressed beforehand?"
I looked down on my body. Right. I left the towel on the bathroom floor. I was still naked.
"Why? Am I making you nervous?" I hit back.
"More like uncomfortable," she answered, now unemotionally.
I rolled my eyes, "I don't even really know you yet and I already hate you."
"Your loss," Eleanor shrugged.
At the same time, Lucy touched my arm and grinned, "Aww, look at you two, becoming friends and all."
My posture immediately stiffened. I tried everything to lock their eyes with mine. Then I said, "Just to be clear: We're not friends and we never will be. I just need some information from you, that's it. After that we can go back to ignoring each other."
Eleanor lifted on eyebrow. "So you're saying you're using us?"
"Tit for tat," was my only response. I was pretty sure they knew exactly what I was talking about. If I hadn't fallen into the moonpool on Mako, they would have never tried to get in touch with me. Not with me. Nobody ever wanted to get in touch with me. I was a happy loner. I only needed my crossword puzzles and Aaron. Nothing more, nothing less.
Aaron …
Tears formed in my eyes and I gulped, once, twice, to blink them away.
He must be so freaking sad and mad at me for kicking him out. I didn't mean to do that. I was just scared to death and acted without thinking. Like I always did.
"Mila? Are you okay?" Lucy's soft voice pulled me back to reality.
I remembered that tone of voice. She still asked that question the exact same way that she did nine years ago. She always made me envious of her for being so good at being kind.
Because I couldn't get myself to answer, Lucy grabbed a pair of black sweatpants and a red shirt from my desk chair and held them out to me. "Here, put these on. And then we'll talk. Or you'll just listen. That's up to you."
Eleanor added, "Lucy's right. Seriously, I'll get nightmares if I have to see your boobs for another minute," which led to Lucy hitting her.
"Ow!" Eleanor exclaimed, "I'm just saying. In case you don't want to get dressed, I'll just pour some water over you. Your mermaid-form luckily shows less skin."
"Oh my god, Eleanor! Can you be quiet for like, one second?!" Lucy hissed angrily.
"As quiet as a seashell," Eleanor promised, grinned and laughed, "Honestly, you're no fun. What did I do to get stuck with sharing such an amazing secret with two killjoys like you? But okay, I'm all serious now, I'm sorry." She paused, waited for me to get fully dressed and continued, "Mila, sometimes destiny links different people, different fates to certain places. This is what happened to all of us. We were at the right time at the right spot, or at the wrong spot, whatever you think. There are a million factors that played a part in us being in the moonpool at Mako Island on a full moon. Maybe it was meant to be, maybe it wasn't, who knows? But what I do know is very important and I'll only say it once, so listen carefully: Mako changed you. From now on, whenever you touch water, you'll turn into a mermaid. And don't get me wrong, it's awesome, but let's be realistic, it also kind of ruined your whole life and you need to get used to that at first."
Because all I did was look at her as if she had a screw loose somewhere, Lucy quickly cut in, "I know it sounds crazy and I swear it's not as bad as Eleanor makes it seem. It just is a lot to take in and to handle, which you'll do brilliantly, I'm sure of that. We only want to help you make your transition into your new life as smooth as possible. Because when all of that happened to us about one and a half years ago, there was nobody to help us and to show us what to do. We had to learn it the hard way and we don't want that for you, not if we can prevent it."
… They were nuts. They really were nuts, no doubt in that.
And so I laughed. I laughed and laughed and laughed and I couldn't stop. It was a hysterical laughter, a laughter that only the maddest of people could master. And here I was, laughing so extremely loudly that perhaps I had to accept the fact that I was as nuts as Eleanor and Lucy.
Then, Eleanor had enough. She shouted, "Oh, for god's sake!", Lucy screamed, "Eleanor, NO!" and next thing I knew, a huge water tentacle appeared in my bathroom sink and attacked me so fast that I couldn't even react, let alone squeak or anything.
For a few moments I just looked at them, not knowing what to say, before I felt that weird tickly-tingly feeling in my toes again which immediately climbed up my whole spine until I lost my balance and dropped onto the floor – again.
"SCREW YOU!" I yelled, anger overfloating my voice, "That's harassment!"
I didn't say a thing about me not being able to move my legs. Deep down I knew that they were gone. And I had a tail instead. I also didn't mention that I started to believe them. What else could have led to me growing a tail if not being a mermaid? There simply was no logical explanation for magical bubbles of light, bronze-coloured tails and freaking water tentacles.
"Desperate times," the blond girl answered and shrugged while she juggled five little water balls in her left hand. There definitely was no logical explanation for this.
I shook my head. "You're crazy. You're all just crazy."
"True," Lucy agreed and grinned, "I'm sorry about Eleanor's behaviour. She can be a bit impulsive sometimes."
"Sometimes?" I asked in disbelief.
"Often," Eleanor herself corrected. "But, to be fair, you kind of asked for it, Mila. So, we'll harshen the rules a little. You'll listen to us, without judging. If you judge, debate or interrupt, I'll throw these water balls at you and you'll have to stay a mermaid. Understood?"
"What?! That's ridicul- Uuuugh!"
"That was water ball number one," Eleanor grinned.
"Are you out of your freaking – dammit ELEANOR!" I contorted my face as another water ball hit me and I spat right in front of her feet. "I swear to god, if you throw one more water ball in my face, I'll –"
"You'll what?" Eleanor asked.
"I'll …"
"Yes, dear?"
"Ugh. Fine," I grumbled.
"Fine?"
"Yes, fine! I'll listen, I won't argue, I'll behave," I gave in. Shoot. That was a fight I lost. But in the end, I would only benefit from them telling me about this huge mess. Consequently, it wouldn't be too stupid to listen to them.
Eleanor nodded and seemed to be super satisfied with herself. "Finally! Took you long enough to get to that point. Well, what counts is that you did reach it. Anyway, let's start simple. I want you to turn around and have a look at your tail. You need to get comfortable with it because it's going to accompany you for at least 35 more years."
WHAT?!
I opened my mouth but closed it again without saying anything. 35 years?! I would be 51 in 35 years! I would practically be dead!
Because I didn't move, Lucy squatted down next to me and gave me a sympathetic smile before she ran over the scales of my tail with her hand. "It's not that bad. You don't have to be scared. Your tail is a part of you now which you should cherish. The earlier you accept that, the easier your future will be. How about you touch it and then I'll help you turn back into a human for now?"
My heart started beating faster. I didn't want to touch it. Because touching it, feeling it would mean it was real. That this wasn't all just a very weird dream.
"Whenever you're ready," Lucy tried encouraging me.
I shook my head in refusal. Without further ado, she took my hand and put it on the part of my tail where my thighs were supposed to be. A shiver went through my whole body as soon as my fingertips touched the scales. Yikes. They were hard, rough and strong at the same time and I wondered how much my tail would weigh. I guessed it would be extremely heavy. Even trying to lift it was almost impossible.
"See?" Lucy smiled. "I'm so so proud of you. Now, let me help." She closed her hand into a fist and moved it over my body. Starting at the bottom, she stopped after reaching my head. Then she went all the way down again. While she did that, I suddenly began to steam, and every inch of my body was heating up. "What are you doing? It's getting a bit too hot under my skin."
"Just wait a sec," Eleanor answered, still juggling the three last water balls in her hand.
Oh, right. No judging, debating or interrupting. So I stayed silent. Until the moment when I thought Lucy was about to burn off my skin. I was ready to yell at her to stop, but suddenly it was over as fast as it had started. And I felt something that I didn't even realize I missed so much: My legs. I was human again.
I didn't know whether I was supposed to be confused or shocked. That's why all I did was ask, "How on earth did you do that?!"
"We're mermaids," Lucy and Eleanor responded in unison as if that would explain everything. Which it didn't. Obviously.
"Being a mermaid isn't just growing tails in impractical situations. It comes with a few perks as well. One of them is being able to manipulate water any way we want. We can form it, freeze it, heat it, vaporize it, …" Eleanor pointed at her water balls and juggled them even faster, then slowlier, feinted throwing them at me all at once and laughed loudly when I ducked in fear. "STOP IT!"
"Geez gurl, what the hell is wrong with you?" the blond girl grinned before swallowing one of the water balls out of the air.
I stared at her furiously. "Call it 'aquaphobia' or whatever!" But unfortunately, that only made Eleanor laugh even louder, "Aquaphobia? What do you mean, you're scared of water? You shouldn't be scared of water, you're a damn mermaid! Water is your element!"
"Is it?! If I remember correctly, I haven't been in the water as a mermaid yet, I've only ever been a mermaid on the floor and that sucked!"
"Duh, of course it sucked! The land isn't the natural habitat of a mermaid, it's the ocean. I don't think that fish enjoy being outside of the water either," Eleanor speculated and swallowed another one of her water balls. Drinking out of thin air – they had to teach me how to do that.
All of sudden Lucy clapped her hands together. "Oh, maybe it's time for your first dive!"
"Nu-uh. Not in a million years. Nope," I immediately blocked.
"Why not?"
"Aquaphobia! I just got my legs back, I don't want to lose them again!"
Now it was Eleanor who shook her head. "You're being ridiculous. You should respect the water when you're on land, not almost start crying as soon as you see it somewhere. There is no way around dealing with your new life, so unless you want to lock yourself in your room and never leave it again, you should quit your moaning."
Eleanor was like the personification of that really mean reality-check that nobody ever wanted but secretly needed.
A big sigh left my mouth. "How are you so chill about all of this?"
"We had about 18 months to adjust. And there's no way to stop the transformation – we tried. It won't go away just because you deny it. So better accept it and try to build your life around it," Lucy suggested and held out her hand to help me to get up from the floor. I took it gratefully and for the first time since they entered my bedroom, I gave them a little, tiny smile. Not much and it was so short, they almost didn't notice it, but it was there. And it was a start.
Eleanor added, "You have my word that we won't leave you alone underwater. With your brains you might get lost and end up in New Zealand or something and we can't risk that, can we? You also won't drown or suffocate, and you will one hundred percent be able to transform back once out of water. It's all perfectly safe. We're with you. And you're meant to do it, otherwise Mako wouldn't have chosen you."
I smiled again and sat down on my bed. Maybe they were right. I was a mermaid. A freaking mermaid. And I would be one for a long, long time. So, I had no other option than learning how to handle it. Couldn't be that hard. Or at least, that's what I hoped.
For a short moment, my world was okay. Even though I was walking on a tight path between 'Nailing it' and 'Total disaster', I was confident that everything would turn out fine.
That was when my phone started to vibrate, and I didn't even have to look to see whose name had appeared on it. I could feel it. In every single one of my veins.
"Aren't you gonna answer that?" Lucy asked confusedly and I just stared at my phone's display. Nope. To be honest, I didn't want to answer because I didn't know what to say.
'Hey Aaron, sorry for kicking you out, I just had a mental breakdown because when you left me in that little cave at Mako last night, you let me turn into a fish and now I can't spend time with you or your friends anymore or else everyone will find out.' Nice. That meant, I had nobody to talk to anymore. Only my crossword puzzles but they couldn't talk back.
"You can't tell him, you know that, right?" Eleanor looked at me after watching my phone vibrate for a while.
I lowered my head and gazed on the floor. "I wasn't planning on it."
Apparently, it was very clear how upset I was since the black-haired girl immediately sat next to me on my bed and began to gently stroke my arm. "We can't force you to break up with him. Hell, we can't even ask you to break up with him. That wouldn't be fair on you."
"But we all know that it would be the most responsible thing to do," I finished her sentence.
Lucy and Eleanor nodded slowly. I sighed.
Suddenly Lucy cheerfully exclaimed, "Hey, that means, it's us three against the world now!"
"Make that two and a half. We're still not friends, understood? We just share the same secret which bounds us together, if we want to or not," I objected. Man, my mood was dead by now.
That's why Eleanor cut in, "It's okay if you don't want to do it now. We're not rushing you. I'm just saying it would best if you could separate yourself from him as soon as possible. Or at least keep your distance for a while."
"Hmhmh," was all that left my depressed mouth which apparently led to Lucy getting on a mission to lift my spirit. She jumped up excitedly from my bed and pulled me up with her. "No time for moping! You're a mermaid, Mila! We have to celebrate that! Let's go to the beach and see how far you can conquer your 'aquaphobia'! And after that we'll get some smoothies and pizza!"
I took a deep, deep breath. She was right. It was time to find out what all that magic was about. And after that, a looong time after that, I would think about my Aaron-problem.
I shot one last glance at my still vibrating phone before I declined the call, not knowing that that actually was the first tiny step towards a huge, enormous mess that the future had in store for us. I really should have read the signs.
