Two - The Bad Boy brings the Mermaid home

BLUE 

When I opened my eyes, I realized I was in a completely different place.

Where was I?

Suddenly, it came back to me in flashes. Coral, Oceana, my home, the sea and Adrian. I’d swam away from them and then some mean humans had caught me in a fishnet. I’d pretended to be dead and that’s why they’d left me on the shore.

I knew I was on human land. I shuddered and hugged myself as a sob raked my chest as I cried. I touched my cheek, this was the second time I was feeling the wetness of the tears on my cheeks. I was lying on something soft, a bed. That’s what it was and a blanket covered me. I’d read things about the human life and it had always fascinated me. Now all I wanted to do was to go back into the ocean; my home.

A small brown creature stared at me from the window. It looked fluffy and cute. His big eyes stared, and he padded towards me on fours. I was scared at first so I pushed back against the bed. The little creature licked my hand.

He was cute. The name tag said Leslie.

I looked around myself, inspecting the place. It was like a small room. My eyes drifted towards where my fishtail used to be which was now replaced by human legs. As soon as I was out of water, my body had taken the human form.

I sobbed some more. I missed my tail. How was I going to swim back home?

I cried even louder and there was suddenly a thunder outside, followed by lightning. It scared me.

What’s going on? Was I about to die?

Maybe for real this time?

Just then, something else moved. My eyes searched for it only to find that it was a human boy. He stared at me curiously and sat upright from his little bed. It was the same kind of bed we used for sitting, like a rock bed but this seemed softer.

I watched as the human stood on his feet and walked towards me. He was so tall, taller than even Adrian. His eyes were silver, the color of shining pearls and his hair golden-brown. His face was very handsome; his features were similar to the men’s description that the authors wrote about. I’d read about the romance novels in the sea about a mermaid rescuing a man from a ship wreckage and how the sailor falls in love. I’d loved that book, my friends and I had read that book over and over again and even dreamed of saving some valiant sailor from a ship wreckage but those had just been stories, but now that I was seeing an actual boy standing in front of me, I was frightened.

He took a few steps closer to me, I shook my head at him.

Don’t hurt me!

He took the shaking of my head as a sign to stop approaching and halted. “Didn’t mean to scare you. I’m sorry. I heard you crying and I thought maybe you were scared of the thunders. I tried to keep the windows shut but I guess it’s a really bad storm out there.” he made his way to the little window and closed it shut saying. “Damn these stupid windows. Need to get them fixed soon.”

The boy turned to face me again, he seemed concerned. “Are you feeling alright?”

I was still so shaken up with everything that had happened earlier today that I wasn’t even able to respond.

“Do you remember what happened to you?”

Before I could answer, understanding dawned his face. “Oh. Um, Can. You. Talk?” He asked in a slow deliberate way, drawing some conclusion.

“Do. You. Understand. English?” He spelled out each word for me and that made me look even dummer.

“I’m not deaf.” I said.

“Oh thank god.” He said relieved. “I was actually starting to wonder if you were.”

I sniffled, feeling a bit calmer than before. “Who are you?”

He scratched his head. “Um...I’m Hunter.”

That explained.

“You hunt fishes?” I asked him, the water coming out of my eyes again.

He gave out a laugh. “What?”

“You said you’re a hunter. Is that why you brought me here? I’m your big catch?” I started crying again.

“Whoa! Slow down, Tiger!”

“I’m not a Tiger. If you’re a hunter, you should at least know that much. I’m a mermaid, I live in the ocean.”

“Girl, not to be rude or anything, but are you still high? I suspected you were drunk and passed out on the beach after some stupid ass party and probably even slept with someone you don’t remember. I couldn’t find your wallet or your phone so whoever you had this carnival ride with robbed you.”

I swallowed. I didn’t understand a word he’d said. “What are you saying?” I cried. “I don’t understand.”

The man who was a fisherman or a hunter blew out a breath. “Lady, I drove to the beach tonight and found you passed out, lying in the sand. You were unconscious so I brought you home.”

I wiped my tears. “So you are not from the humans that caught me in the net?”

He shook his head.

I felt relived. He wasn’t among the fishermen. “So you are just a hunter who happened to go hunting on a beach and found me?”

He put his hand to his head and rubbed it. “My name is Hunter. My occupation isn’t. I study in a university, I work part time at a barista and this is my home.”

---

Hunter

I looked at the beautiful aqua blue haired girl in my bed and felt an emotion of pity and sympathy wash over me. Obviously the girl had a screw loose and ended up at a party, became part of some shitty friend circle, a guy probably noticed how wasted she was and took advantage of her.

She reminded me of myself back during my rebellious phase, leaving out the crazy part.

“So..” She said, “will you help me get back to my home?”

“Of course I would.” I assured her. “Just tell me the address and I’ll drop you home on my way to college tomorrow. No biggie. Where’s your house by the way?”

“The ocean.”

I closed my eyes and looked up at the ceiling. Maybe her apartment complex was named “The Ocean”. I was hoping that was it and if she seriously couldn’t remember her residence, I was doomed.

I didn’t want to argue any further, I just nodded. “Whats your name again?”

“Blue.”

That was quite an unusual name for a girl. I smiled, she must like her name enough to get her hair dyed in the same color.

“Go to sleep, Blue. We’ll talk tomorrow morning.”

She nodded and lay down on the bed nervously, looking around the room with curious and frightened eyes.

“It’s okay.” I said. “I’m a good guy. I won’t touch you, I promise.”

Who was I kidding? I’d never been a good guy in my life. In fact, bringing a stray home like her was the only best thing I’d ever done, if you ignore Leslie.

Again, she nodded. I turned and started walking towards the couch where I was crashing for tonight. The couch was cozy and wasn’t big enough to accommodate my entire body and my neck had already started to hurt but I could tolerate it for one day. I’d make sure I found her home by tomorrow.

Before I could hit the couch, I heard a low growl. I glanced back at her. That sure hadn’t been me. I caught her staring at me. I laughed. “You should have told me you were hungry.”

Blue didn’t respond to that. I switched on the kitchen light, she looked at me from the bed with curious blue eyes. “What...what are you doing?”

I opened the refrigerator and pulled out some ham, veggies and Mayo. “I’m making a sandwich for you.” I said.

“What’s that?”

I suspected Blue could be having some mental issues or just having some sickness I wasn’t aware of. I may have been wrong about the schizophrenia part.I watched as she reached out for the night stand and stood up. She took one step towards me and tumbled onto the floorboards. And then I heard a hysterical cry for help. I dropped the veggies and the knife and rushed to help her.

What happened? Was there some injury on her leg that I hadn’t noticed earlier?

“Blue, what’s wrong?” I asked her. “Did you slip?”

She sobbed, the blanket was neatly folded around her slim body but I knew she was naked underneath. She touched her leg and sniffled. “I can’t...I don’t know how to walk.”

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