1930's
I was out swimming around a small lake when I decided to go lay on a rock. I was laying for a bit until I heard footsteps. I quickly jumped off the rock and hid behind, peeking out to see who it was. There was a skinny boy who looked about 15 with blonde hair and piercing blue eyes, like mine. Usually I would swim away fast, but this boy caught my attention and made me extremely curious. He sat on a. Board walk and stared out to the ocean. He got something out of his pocket and sticked it in his mouth, pumping the end of it. When he was about to put it back into his pocket, it fell into the water.
"Shoot" he muttered. He went to pick it up out of the water but only grazed his fingers when he fell in. He clearly couldn't swim by the way he was thrashing around in the water. "H-help!" He yelled out. Eventually his body stopped moving. I leapt into action and quickly swam to him. I grabbed him and swam up to shore. "Come on, wake up..." I muttered under my breath. I touched his cheek when I saw a flash of images.
I was dancing with this guy but, he was much bigger. We were dancing and there were people I didn't recognize around me. I looked down and I had... legs?! We gazed affectionately at each other until it all faded away.
What the hell was that? Was I souled? I was taken away from my thoughts and when he started coughing. He opened his eyes and looked at me before I jumped back in the water.
I don't know why, but something inside of me told me to stay at the lake the next day, so I did. I was chilling until I heard something. "Hello! Um ms. Lady that saved me! Are you there?" The boy called out. I carefully brought my head above water and he saw me. "U-uh, hi, uh thanks for saving me yesterday." I gave a small smile. "Uh do you talk? I-I mean, uh, I shouldn't have said that, that's rude." He stuttered. "Yes, I speak." I replied quietly. His eyes widened.
"You have a lovely voice." He said.
"Are you going to hurt me?"
He looked taken aback. "No! Why would you think that?"
"You'd be surprised." I said plainly. "What's your name? Mine's Steve."
"I'm crystal." I swam up closer to shore, as I saw he was friendly. He then saw my tail. "Y-you're a mermaid?" He stuttered. I looked down, ashamed, like being a mermaid was a curse. "Your tail is beautiful." I looked up and saw him looking at my shiney bright blue, tail. Usually, people look at it with disgust but he looked at it with amazement. "Thank you." I said shyly. I usually thought of it as a burden but now I see it as a gift. We talked for a while until I had an idea.
"Would you like for me to teach you how to swim?"
"Yeah!" He said excitedly.
I taught him how to kick his legs and swim properly. When he we begin to fall, I would hold on to him. Eventually, he got the hang of it. "I'm doing it!" He cheered. But then, I heard footsteps nearing and I ducked underwater and hid behind a rock. I peeked over and saw a guy about his age with brown hair walk over and when he saw Steve, his eyes grew wide. "Steve you're swimming!" He exclaimed. "Yeah!" Steve replied cheerfully.
We spent the rest of the week hanging out together, until on the last day, he came with bad news. "Crystal, I'm sorry, but I'm leaving since summer is almost over." He said, sadness in his eyes. "O-okay." I said with tears in my eyes.
"But I will come back next summer. Will you be here?" I nodded. And just like that, I found the good in humans.