Chapter 6: You Can't Be Serious

I managed to grab a bus out of the beach, hoping to make it home in one piece. I was still soaking wet, with no phone, and just enough bus fare to get me where I needed to go. It was pretty much a bad situation I was in, and the only way I could make it worse would be by not going home at all. So I pulled down what looked like the last bus for the night and stepped inside, relieved that it was neither cold nor hot inside, just average, if there was such a name for temperature.

The busman gave me a disgruntled look as I stepped into his bus, noticing that I was practically soaking wet from head to foot. But money was money, and he would accept it wet or dry, just like everyone in the world. After paying my fare I looked for a spot that looked the comfiest (and driest), frowning to see a hobo had taken it and made it his personal bed, snoring loudly to add effect. So I walked to the end of the bus and plopped myself down, waiting for the bus driver to tell me I was home and I could calm down my mom's nerves. The drive home wasn't as long as I remembered when I took it and for that I was grateful. The faster I could get home, the better. I never thought I would be happy to want to go home. But it was understandable; I was alone and cold, and a home was a place to be comforted, even though I knew I was in for a lecture, a tick bath, or both at the same time.

I was dropped off a few streets from the apartments, and the cold air came back to filling my lungs as I was dropped off and forced to walk the rest of the way. As I entered the apartments and after avoiding Lewbert's outbursts ("You're all wet! And that's making the floor wetter!"), I ran up to the elevator and fumbled through my bag to take out my apartment keys and see if there was any possible chance of sneaking inside without my mother noticing.

That of course was all wishful thinking, because as soon as I stuck my key through the hole, the door swung right open and my mother constricted me in her arms. I don't know whether it was a good thing that she was hugging me so closely or it was also possible that she was trying to suffocate me for making her as upset as I did.

"FREDDIE! WHERE WERE YOU?" She said, half laughing from joy and half sobbing from the excessive worrying I put her under. She pulled away from me and inspected every inch of me and automatically noticed the sand on my clothes as well as the smell of the beach in my hair. Of course she was going to notice that right off the bat. She was my mom, nothing ever went past her, and if it did, that would be the day. "You weren't at the library." She said matter-of-factly. I just avoided her gaze, but her voice penetrated me harder than any look she could ever give me. "You went to the beach? And without parental supervision! What were you thinking? Why are you so wet? Did you fall in? What if you drowned? Did you manage to swim? How could you have lied-"

"Mom!" I cut her off just as I was preparing to yawn; exhaustion was tempting me to just fall backwards onto the floor. I didn't take a chance to notice that I was so tired. It was almost as if it crept up out of nowhere, then I realized it was just my mom putting me to sleep. I knew I should have been telling her I was sorry about lying, that I would never do it again but I was surprisingly tired. I just wanted to sleep. Either way I would be hearing more about this tomorrow in the bright and early morning. Right now, however, I didn't want to do anything but close my eyes and sleep.

I didn't even want to think about Sam, even though I couldn't get her out of my head all the way home while I was on the bus. Nor couldn't I get Marina's words of caution out either. What did she mean that I was making everything more difficult? My head was circling around that simple incomplete phrase that she said out of Sam's reach. I pushed my palm to my face as I sighed deeply to cover another yawn. I can worry about this whole thing tomorrow. Right now I just want a nice shower to get the stink out of my clothes and hair. "Can I just go to bed? You can scold me tomorrow." I offered passing by her and walking towards my room. She held me by the shoulder, stopping me in my tracks. I guess I would be receiving the scolding tonight, whether I was awake or not.

"Not before you tell me…" She said, swinging me around in the process, a puzzled look on her face. I can understand her being all concerned about me, even her anger. But her look of bewilderment was a little hard for me to understand. And for some reason that woke me up again. She pulled my backpack from my shoulder and pulled out a bracelet. "Who gave you this?" Even in the low light that was coming from the room it sparkled like a million lights were shining on it. It dazzled me as it dazzled my mom, by the way that she was looking at it. It was almost entrancing the both of us that we were starting to become unaware of what we were talking about before.

It wasn't mine. I wanted to say that out loud. I was afraid however, afraid of saying anything to disrupt a moment of peace it was giving us, when it should have been filled with chaos. I expected my mom to begin accusing me of going to the beach to hang out with girls and that my hormones are out of whack every time I was with a girl, but in the end her anger and her worries were subsided. She wouldn't look away from it. To me, I was just trying to figure out how it came across my bag. It held seashells of ordinary colors, not like the ones you find on the shores, and each one had an interesting shape. The funny thing about it was the string; it looked like it was intertwined seaweed, tied in between each shell, so that in case any of them fell off, the others would still be in place. It certainly was a beautiful art piece, to say the least. I took it carefully from my mom's hands and held it in my own hand. It was surprisingly light; I would have guessed it weighed a lot more due to the sizes of the seashells. My mom didn't say anything else as she walked past me and went to her room. I watched as she walked away from me and closed the door behind her, not making a sound of any kind.

I wanted to laugh at my fortune that this bracelet gave me. Who would have thought that this tiny little wrist ornament would have relaxed my mother? She was the last person to ever be this calm if would ever do something like this. Normally she was a hurricane until I would be the one to promise her I would never do anything like this ever again. That would be the only time. But now, she didn't say anything else, just walked away from me and went to bed. I took it as a sign for me to also go inside my room and land on my bed, the mattress feeling light as a feather underneath my weight. It brought my eyes to close as I crashed against it, and close my eyes instantly as I kept clutching the mesmerizing bracelet.

When I woke up I couldn't stop the strong smell of the ocean from escaping my room. It was like it invaded it altogether, in every corner and stayed there. I tried pushing the blankets and pillows closer to my face, to hide away from the smell, but that wasn't improving it. Rather it was making it much worse. That's when I realized the smell was coming from me. I didn't take a shower last night like I was going to. Instead, I just fell asleep. Just great. Now I had to change my sheets and put these to wash. The growling of my stomach wasn't helping much either. It was driving me insane, making me stand up and stretch to get myself awake and go in search of food. As I did, I noticed the same bracelet from last night in my hands. It didn't shine as it did last night. It actually looked like an ordinary bracelet to say the least; a bracelet that would look pretty on a girl.

Maybe I should give it to Carly as a present, I thought as I pulled my shirt off through my head. I must have been really tired last night that I thought it was shining inexplicably last night. And it made my mom go mute when she was ready to chop my head off. Now I'm thinking that I should keep it, this thing could have some strong powers if it can distract my mother from scolding me. Who knows what other powers it possesses?

I dropped the bracelet by my computer desk and removed the rest of my clothes to jump into the shower, since I didn't do that last night. After a deep cleansing as my mother reminded me to always say, I picked out a fresh batch of clothes and stepped outside my room, tripping over a tiny stack of books that were placed right outside my door.

"Ow!"

"Freddie! Is that you? Are you alright?" I heard my mom's voice come from her desk. I looked over in her direction to see a bunch of boxes surrounding her. She glanced over in my direction, giving me a once over to see if I was fine and went straight back at what she was looking for, disappearing in the mountains of papers and other junk that was all around her.

I rubbed my elbow and knee that broke my fall and I picked up the books that I tripped over and turned it around.

Tales of the Deep and the other one read So You Think You Know About the Ocean… I have never seen these books before in my life. And when I opened them there were thousands of scribbles in the corners, edges, and even where the pictures were. It seemed as though the book was more filled with my mom's writing than it was with its own information.

"Mom, what are you looking for?" I said, walking in her direction, still observing the notes she put in the book. "What is all this?" I had never seen my mom be so interested in something besides me. But here she was, enveloped into something that held nothing about me, pictures of me, or videos of me.

"Well, that bracelet that I found in your bag last night interested me to the point that I knew I saw it somewhere before. So I took out some boxes that has some little tidbits about some things. It was in those fairy tale books I used to read to you. You know about those-"

"I try not to remember or know about those times mom. I used to get a lot of problems. Remember the birthday party?" I said, torturing myself as I was trying to remember a dark moment in my life.

"Well it's not your fault honey." She assured me. She was right; it was hers. But I wasn't smart enough to run my mouth and say that aloud. Actually, I just didn't want to hurt my mom's feelings. "Aha!" she said pointing at something I couldn't see. She turned around and showed me the exact same bracelet in black and white and some writing underneath it. "I knew I've seen it in these books before. Where is it so I can look at it again?" she asked. I told her it was in my room and she handed me the book as she went to go get it. I took a closer look at the picture and began reading:

Pulsera Del Mar.

It was in Spanish. Crap. I knew some Spanish, but not enough to translate a page of it.

"Mom? What does it say?" I asked her as she came up to me to snatch the book from my hands and begin reading.

"Honestly Freddie what is the point of taking Spanish classes if you can't translate a simple passage." She said and returned to her book, translating out loud, even though it was hard to catch on what she was saying. "It says that this bracelet," she held it up, "is a bracelet that comes from the water, or ocean since you, my delinquent little liar," I rolled my eyes, "found it there. It says that this is what mermaids would give to sailors they fell in love with, if they started talking about them, and also if they came in contact with them more than once. Because it was dangerous to associate themselves with humans, the mermaids that would come in contact with humans would give them this in exchange for their silence. Think of it as a permanent parting gift. It says that the females gave them this as something for the sailors to remember them by, and they would take it and keep it with them every time they ventured out to sea and if there were ever in any shipwrecks, it was those sailors that would be wearing the bracelets that would be saved. It would shine brighter than any star to pinpoint exactly where they are so that they can be saved before being claimed by the King of the Sea." She stopped her translating and took one last look at the bracelet before handing it over in my direction. "Looks like you found a mermaid." She said amusingly.

But my face was stern and studious about the trinket that she handed me. It was something to remember a mermaid by? But Sam wasn't a mermaid. She was just fond of the water if anything. She lived by the sea because her dad was rich so he could afford a house like that. But before anything like that, who could honestly believe in mermaids? It was just as bad as believing in vampires and other mythical creatures. Come on, there's no such thing! I mean if there were such a thing, then the whole pigs' being able to fly is also just as believable. I had to laugh at my mother's vivid imagination, trying to play around with my head. What a practical joker she was becoming, even going as far as taking out a bunch of boxes that were probably empty just to add to the joke.

"Come on mom, you can't honestly believe this can you?" I said, still laughing out loud. But she was not laughing, at all. She was serious about this fairy tale. I stopped and just looked at her, hoping for her to say something like "gotcha!" But she didn't. Instead she grabbed the bracelet from me and began to tie it on my wrist. "Wait ma-"

"No buts Freddie." She said, making sure it wouldn't fall off my wrist. "If the legends are true-"

"There's no such things as mermaids mom!" I yelled at her.

"I would rather not risk it if you think about going back to the beach. I'm just happy they were there to save you, even though whatever reckless thing made you go into that water. You and I both know you are horrible at swimming." I was ready to confront that but she let go of my hand slowly, calming me down from my apparent anger. I was calm when I should have been feeling other emotions. "I hope they can save you every time." She looked up at me and I shifted uncomfortably, avoiding her gaze much like I did last night. "You will wear this at all times." She told me.

"Come on mom, you can't possibly believe-"

"I believe in a lot of things Freddie. So sue me if this is another belief of mine, but if it keeps you safe you will do what I say and that's final." She said, packing up some papers and books back inside the boxes. I looked up at the bracelet and for now it was abysmally dull. Not at all like I remembered it last night. I sighed. I didn't have much a choice and I wasn't much of a fighter when it came to my mom. Some things just weren't worth fighting for. There are much more important things that I'll fight for in time.

"Fine. I'm going over Carly's to see if she's ready for school. I'll see you later." I said, walking out my door only to stand outside in the hallway and knock on Carly's. It took her longer than usual for her to answer the door and when she did, I saw her make-up less and her hair in disarray. I jumped back a little; I've never seen her like this, so it came as a surprise for me.

"Hey Freddie, what's up?" she asked, yawning as she stretch against the doorframe. I'm not going to lie, but when she did that it made me catch a lump in my throat. I cleared it as she positioned herself back to normal.

"Ready for school?" I asked unaware of the time. She looked at me with a dumbfounded look on her face.

"It's six in the morning. How about coming back at the right time to go to school." She said as she shut the door. I muffled an apology and headed straight back inside my apartment. My mom was still reading something when I came back in. No doubt it had more to do with the mermaid myths. I never noticed my mother's dark fascination with myths, I would always think it was just a way to keep me entertained when I was a baby and when I was growing up, but now, I see it was more for her own purposes. She wanted to know about them, and by the way countless books surrounded her, she wanted to know all about them.

"I thought you were going over Carly's?" she said, looking up from her book. Looks like I still held her attention more than whatever were in those books.

"It's six in the morning." I said flatly. She shrugged and went back to reading, as I went into my room to get my bag and open some windows as well, the ocean's smell still as strong as it was in the morning.

A/N: Ahhh! It's been forever since I updated any of my stories! Curses for going away on vacations without any electronics! Well I'm back now and typing away but I felt as though this story should have been updated before Where the Sins Lie, being that I already had this one done while I was away. I just never published it. :P

Well hope you guys liked it and leave a review and all that good stuff. And I'll have Where the Sins Lie Chapter by the end of the week. Promise! If not I'll have to give out free cookies!
Until Next Time. :)