Eight - The Mermaid is lost

BLUE

"Hannah, where do your parents live?" I asked her since I'd never heard Hunter talk about their parents.

"We used to live together at first. Me, Hunter, Ryan. I'm in my senior year of high school but I live with my parents, Ryan has a condo downtown and he takes care of the family business. And Hunter’s not the obeying kind so Dad disowned him temporarily after a series of bad behavior. He's the black sheep of the family."

Hunter certainly didn't seem like a sheep to me.

"What kind of bad behavior?"

I didn't think there was anything remotely bad about Hunter's behavior. Sure he was a little scary when he was angry, but he was still nice.

"He used to get kicked out of schools, the soccer team, getting into fights. That sort of thing." She explained.

I nodded. I could ask Hunter about it later.

"Who is Ryan?"

"He's our oldest half-brother. Ryan's mother died when he was four and then Dad remarried Hunter's Mom who...well, it just didn't turn out well. They separated, and then he remarried for the third time to my mother." She explained, taking a sip of her drink that she called a "slushie" it made her tongue look blue. "Dad's been through some rough marriages."

"So the three of you have three different mothers?" I was surprised. I'd never heard of something like that.

She nodded. "Yup, but we share the same Dad. My mom's pretty cool though."

"My mom's cool too," I told her.

Then Hannah started talking about music and some boy band that I didn't know anything about so I continued to nod my head. I guess she was tired of my nodding because she suggested. "How would you like a nice haircut?"

"A haircut?!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah. We'll just trim your hair a bit."

I shook my head. "I can't. I'm not allowed to."

"Why not?"

"Mermaids can't cut hair. It's a sin."

Hannah seemed suspicious. "Mmm-hmm." She eyed me warily. "Oh, I see." It was clear she didn't believe me at all.

It's a good thing she didn't push about cutting my hair. I liked my hair long.

"Hannah, can I ask you something?"

  "Go ahead."

  "How do I make Hunter like me?"

   She laughed. "I think he already likes you, honey."

   I didn't believe her. "I don't think so. Whenever I ask him if we could kiss, he gives me his cheeks."

She snorted. "Well, in that case, you should take the lead."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't ask for permission, just kiss him."

My eyes widened. "Really? I can do that?"

"Yes. There's nothing wrong with that, and I'm pretty sure Hunter wants that too."

"Hannah, can I have your number so that we can talk sometimes if I needed your help in these matters?"

"Sure." She rummaged into her bag but came empty, then she picked her bag (that read Prada) and dumped the contents onto the table. Finally, she picked the phone out of all the junk. "Save my number. It's double four..." after we'd successfully saved our numbers and she'd dumbed the garbage back in her bag, she asked me. "What do you wanna do next?"

"I like the color of your nails. Can we paint my nails?"

"Sure thing. I know a great saloon in this mall. We are giving you a mani and a Pedi and then we'll do some makeup for your face." She declared with a mischievous smile. "I'm just dying to see Hunt's reaction."

Hannah was too excited for some unknown reason. As decided, we went to the shop called a "beauty salon". An hour later, when the lady started dipping my feet inside water, I refused to let them. Hannah insisted that it was fine but I kept refusing. In the end, they painted only my toes and did a mani for my hands. My nails looked lovely with the peach nail color. I stared at it in awe. I had matching beautiful nails like Hannah. I loved it.

I thanked her and tried to hand her the money that Hunter gave me but she waved it off and told me to keep it instead and use it when I wanted to buy something for myself in the future. I thought that was a good idea.

I changed into a nice short lemon-colored dress from one of my purchases. Hannah did some face painting that she called "makeup". She assured me that she was good at it. When I looked at myself in the mirror for the final product, I really looked different. I had something called gloss on my lips. It was in pink color. I touched my lips.

I looked pretty, right?

Would Hunter like it?

It was almost evening when she told me it would be time for me to go back home and that Hunter would come to collect me after his part-time job. I was elated with the idea of going back to him.

Just then, Hannah received a call and she excused herself. "It'll just take a minute." She walked a little farther away from me.

I glanced around myself. People were still staring at me, mostly boys the age of Hunter. I didn't know why. Maybe I looked really bad.

I saw a little shop with a huge ice-cream cone on it.

"Ice-Cream!" I shrieked aloud. I think some people turned to give me weird looks but I kept walking towards the cone. It was humongous and lit up, shining like a star. I stared at it in awe and reached my hand towards it. If I could reach it, maybe I could taste it.

"Hey!" The guy inside the shop yelled. "What are you doing?"

I pointed at the ice cream on the truck. "I was wondering if I can get that ice cream." I pulled out the money I had from Hunter. "I can pay."

He laughed, just like others had. "You're funny." He looked me up and down and I really didn't like the way he was looking at me, it was similar to Hunter's but also different. Hunter's gaze never made me feel uncomfortable. This man seemed like he had bad intentions.

I backed away. He continued to leer at me. "Are you alone, honey?"

I didn't answer because I was not his honey and started walking away. I looked behind me but there was no sign of Hannah. Where was she? It was crowded and I couldn't see her. I'd strayed away from her because I was a dummy and I'd been too mesmerized by the large ice-cream.

Stupid Blue!

"Hannah?" I called out to her but knew there was no use. There was no way she would hear me over the noise in the mall.

I tried walking back towards the path I'd walked in but I still couldn't see her. I remembered I had a spare phone that Hunter had given me. I could call him and then he'd know where to find me. I reached for my pocket when I realized I was wearing a new dress. The phone was in the pocket of the shorts that I'd worn in the morning, the shorts were in a bag and the bag was with Hannah.

My lower lip trembled, and I knew I was going to cry. What if Hannah couldn't find me and went back home? What if Hunter didn't bother to come to the mall and decided I wasn't worth all the trouble? What if he looked for me but failed to find me?

"Hunter," I whispered.

The tears had blurred my vision.

"Excuse me?" Someone called out to me. It was an older man with a bushy mustache. He was tall and had a bulging stomach. He cleared his throat. "Need help with something?"

"I'm looking for my friend. I've lost her."

"What's her name?"

"Hannah.”

"Follow me. I'll help you find her."

My eyes widened. "You would?"

He nodded as I followed him.

***

HUNTER

When I got a call from Hannah saying that "there was a problem" I knew something was terribly wrong or else she wouldn't have called me again when I'd already called an hour back to check up on them.

"Hey.”

"Hunter, please don't be mad." That was the first thing that my sister said when she answered the call. Hannah answering on the first ring was a clear reason this was something serious.

"What is it?"

"Blue."

A chill ran down my body, and my palms were starting to feel sweaty. "I'm on my way," I told her as I stormed into the staff room of the café, pulled down the apron, and stuffed it inside the locker. It was a good thing my brother wasn't around, or else I'd have to explain as to why I was leaving an hour earlier. The cafe was a family business, my brother Ryan was the in-charge here and fortunately, he wasn't around. 

    Stella was mopping the recently vacated table. I was going to talk to her and make up an excuse for an emergency, hoping like hell she'd fall for my excuses one last time.

"Stella, I got a call from my sister, Hannah. She's in trouble, kinda." I told her. "It's urgent."

She regarded me through her Harry Potter glasses with suspicion. "Huh. For once, she's taken your position of getting into trouble. Good for you."

I suppressed an eye roll. I hated how she enjoyed teasing me. "Can I go? Will you cover for me? If Ryan asks about me, tell him it was an emergency."

"Sure. If you agree to a coffee date with me." She added.

Joy, the chef had warned me that Stella had a thing for me and it seemed like everyone knew about it, excluding me. Sometimes when we were working together, she'd find a reason to touch my hand or just playfully hit me, things like that. I'd assumed it was just a friendly thing between colleagues. Now, it seemed like that little "rumor" had some truth to it.

Stella was kind of hot in a dorky way. Trim waist, boobs the size of watermelons, dark hair tied in a ponytail, and eyes the shape of almonds. She was nice but totally not my type.

"Sure. A date. It's a deal." I said whatever I needed to get off the hook.

That's when her eyes lit up like a damn Christmas tree. Her cheeks turned pink. "You sure?"

I nodded. "If you cover for me, we'll do a date. One coffee in the shop."

She started pushing her hair behind her ear. "Cool. I'll handle everything here. Now go, save your sister."

I climbed into the car and drove to the mall fast and furious style. I managed to reach the mall in under ten minutes when it would take twenty, thankfully she'd texted me where to find her so I didn't have to waste any more of my time. When I approached Hannah, she seemed agitated, talking to a security guard which is when she noticed me.

"Please don't be mad at me.” She looked close to tears. “I was just making a call and then when I looked around she was gone."

"Gone?" I asked her. I was feeling the fury starting to burn inside me, any time I was going to explode. "Into thin air?"

Hannah pressed her lips together. "I looked everywhere for her, Hunt. I couldn't find her."

"Well, you should have tried harder," I growled at her. "I told you specifically to look out for her. Blue is not a normal girl, Hannah. She's different."

I knew I'd upset Hannah. She was already teary-eyed. "I'm so sorry."

"Let's not waste time arguing about it. Let's go find her."

We'd finished looking at most of the places, just breezing through, and then there was an announcement.

"Calling the attention of a lady named Ms. Hannah. Calling attention. Your friend Blue is in the reception waiting for you. Calling attention Ms. Hannah."

Hannah and I looked at each other before we took off towards the reception on the ground floor of the mall.

A short young woman greeted us at the desk, she smiled at us. "May I help you?"

"We heard the announcement." Hannah and I both said in unison.

"About a girl named Blue," I said.

Realization dawned on the woman and she nodded. "Oh yes, she's in the security room and she's really upset."

The lady led us into a small room, Hannah walked in front of me. It seemed she was more worried than I gave her credit for and it'd been wrong on my part to verbally attack her.

I was furious and worried. When those things happened, I was usually snappy. It's one reason why I never got along with my father nor my older brother, Ryan.

I spotted Blue seated in one of the plastic chairs, hugging herself fiercely, staring at the floor, mumbling something to herself. Her aqua blue hair that had been in a braid, now had a few tendrils loose and her eyes were stained with tears.

My heart sank looking at her and my hands were balled into fists.

Before Hannah could approach her, I was already by her side. "Blue," I called out to her.

Her eyes snapped to mine, relief crossing her features as her lower lip trembled. "Hunter!" I didn't even have time to think before she flung into my arms so fiercely, I almost stumbled back.

"I thought I wouldn't see you ever again." She sobbed, holding me tightly.

I rubbed her back. "Oh, no, baby, why would you even bring that into your mind? I told you I wasn't leaving you, didn't I?"

Her body shook. "Home..." She choked. "Take me home."

For a minute I thought she meant the "ocean" as her home but then I realized it was my apartment she was talking about.

While we were walking to the parking lot, Blue already seemed traumatized by the incident. Her fingers were tightly wound around mine, she was almost choking the air out of my hand but I didn't mind. I saw her eyes darting towards the ice cream shop once or twice so I bought her a chocolate cone. She calmed down a bit after that.

Hannah kept apologizing to Blue about leaving her alone for a minute but Blue admitted that it was her fault and thanked her for helping her out.

Soon, we were riding in the silence of my Jeep. She was usually cheerful but when she was upset about something, she kept to herself and I had to coax her into talking to me.

I took her hand in mine and held it through the entire ride, some new feelings were riling up inside me that I wasn't sure what to make of.

The only thing I knew was that I wanted to hold onto her.

Forever.