The Bad Boy And The Mermaid

Chapter 27

Blue

This wasn’t a dream. Adrian was right here in front of me. If it had been the Blue who’d left the underwater world, I would be running into his arms, thanking the gods for sending Adrian to recuse me from here. Right now, going back home was the last thing on my mind.

In the course of three months, everything had changed.

And for the better.

He looked the same as I remembered; but he was wearing human clothes and his blonde hair reached his shoulders. He didn’t have a smile on his face like he usually did, and I couldn’t blame him for that. I’d left him and the others without saying a word; I hadn’t even expressed my desire to not marry him. How it must have felt, to think that you’d marry your best friend all your life and then have her just leave everything behind. Family. Fiancé. Home.

“We need to talk, Blue.” Adrian said, his eyes looking serene. The calmness in his voice was enough to scare me. He hadn’t screamed or tried to argue and that was something new coming from my friend.

I found my voice seconds later. “I’m not coming home.”

He smiled, not with humor but a sarcastic candor, “At least you know where your home really is.”

“It’s nice seeing you, Ade.” That was a nick name just between us. “But…I don’t plan to come home anytime soon.”

“How selfish are you, Blue?” He asked, literally a fiery greenish hue blazing in his eyes. “Your Pa, your brothers and sisters are sick with worry! Have you thought of them?”

“Yes, I have! I remember them every single day, but it doesn’t change anything. No one cared when I was there, no one cares now. You know how my life’s always been, Ade, don’t you deny…” I said the last words in a whisper. I had tears forming at the corner of my eyes.

He walked towards me slowly which is when I realized how unusual it was to see him walking on legs like humans did. He grasped my shoulders and urged me to look at him. “Come home, Blue. You don’t have to marry me if you don’t want to but this is not where you belong, Agápi mou (my love).

I shook my head, feeling a little shameful for what I was about to say. “I love you, Adrian, but not the same way you want me to.”

“I know.” He said, pushing my hair behind my ear lovingly. “How much longer do you plan to stay here? And who is that man you’re living with?”

I averted my gaze away from his. His hand slid down from my face slowly as the reality began sinking into him. I didn’t even have to tell Adrian, he could read my mind. “What is this nonsense!” He said through gritted teeth.

“I fell in love with him.” I confessed.

“You cannot fall in love with humans! It is a grave grave sin! You know the rules of our world and yet you broke them. Do you think this is funny? Listen, nothing much has changed, you come home with me and I’ll solve all the misunderstandings, all the problems.”

“You don’t understand! I can’t come with you.” I said pulling my hand away from his grasp.

“You can’t or you won’t?”

“Both.” I answered.

“What is going on here?” The familiar voice came from behind me.

Adrian and I both turned to see Hunter standing in the passageway, looking heatedly between us. “Who is this, Blue?”

I absolutely hated the look on Hunter’s face, the look of confusion and betrayal. “Hunter, this is Adrian…my…

“Fiancé.” Adrian completed. I threw him a sharp look.

Understanding dawned on Hunter’s face. “I see.”

That is all Hunter said and he remained silent.

* * *

Hunter

This Adrian guy was a merman. A freakin’ merman. With the way he was giving me dirty looks, if I didn’t know any better, I could have easily pegged him as a bully and after that comment about him being her fiancé, I definitely thought that he was the bullying type. It didn’t matter that he was her fiancé; Blue had made her choice loud and clear.

She loved me. And there was no way she was going to let this big fish take her back.

He appraised me, from top to bottom in a slow eye scan, probably thinking if I had something better than he did. From a human’s perspective, there was a glow to him, I couldn’t deny it. He was tall, sported long-ish blonde hair that was shiny, high-cheekbones and expressive green eyes. What’s more, he even had surfer board abs. I was a straight man, but I could clearly see any woman panting for his attention. I think that was something to do with the fact that he didn’t belong to this world, just as Blue didn’t.

“Well, Adrian, Hunter is my…”

“Boyfriend.” I completed it for her. “She and I live together.”

I hoped he got the picture. If he hadn’t gotten the imagery, I was ready to plant it in his head. They were engaged when they were kids, Blue didn’t consider him as a fiancé so this goldilock’s-long-lost- mermaid-brother needed to know his place.

Blue sighed. “Will you boys please stop completing sentences for me?”

I caught her hand and pulled her closer to myself, placing my hand over her waist, possessively. Adrian’s eyes strayed to where I was touching her. The merman could swim back into the ocean and find a suitable mermaid for himself. I’d staked a claim on this one a long time ago.

“This is not the time or the place to talk about this. Would you like to join us for lunch, Adrian?” I asked him despite of myself.

“Yes, Ade, join us.” Blue chimed in. Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

“Uh…okay, I guess.”

Guess the merman was hungry after all.

At the table, we introduced Adrian as Blue’s friend. My hands were balled into fists when he sat beside her, his eyes following Blue’s every move, his hands pushing Blue’s hair behind her ear in that over familiar way and I fucking hated it.

Adrian was busy gobbling the food like today was his final day on planet earth, and all the food was going to disappear if it didn’t manage to go into his stomach. He had put both his hands to use, making a mess of out of himself, dripping some of the taco filling on the napkin that was tucked in his t-shirt front like a baby in a highchair.

He coughed and Blue handed him a glass of water and thumped his back. I was compelled to feel bad for him. God knows what kind of conditions he’d been living while he had come on land to rescue Blue.

Hannah and Fred were looking at the exchange with interesting looks on their faces. They were completely baffled, they’d forgotten about their lunch altogether, probably even forgotten that I was seated at the table.

“He…went to school with Blue.” I said as if that clarified the lack of his manners.

Fred and Hannah looked at me. “We can see that.” They said like two inseparable twins with the same set of dialogues.

Adrian picked up a pitcher of coke and downed it like it was nobody’s business. Blue looked like she was embarrassed for him, which was kind of ironic because she used to do almost the same thing when she was new to the human world.

“That was delicious.” Adrian declared.

Blue giggled and picked up a napkin, she slowly dabbed it on his face with so much familiarity that I was starting to regret my decision of inviting him over on the lunch table. I was burning inside, the type that could cause explosions and blaze an entire forest.

He looked at Hannah and said. “You look beautiful. Never met a real woman in my life, would like to get to know you.”

“I’m honored.” Hannah said smiling at him. I couldn’t tell if that was sarcasm or if she was being honest.

My sister? And Beautiful? I was sure Adrian and Fred both needed to get an eye-checkup. I watched Fred’s hand tighten over hers. I think I had enough of dealing with one mermaid trying hard to hide her nature and saying outrageous things, I didn’t think I could deal with a pair of them.

When the waitress came to the table to give us the cheque, Fred and I reached our wallets to pay.

“Fred, put your wallet back. My turn to pay.” I declared.

“No, dude. You put yours back. I’m gonna pay today.” Fred replied.

Adrian pulled his hand out, palm up as if to stop us from arguing, produced a small netted pouch from his jeans and emptied it on the table, spilling a large amount of round shell coins, there was even a rare looking starfish there. He looked pretty fucking conceited like he’d opened bags of gold and silver in front of us.

It took me a while to realize he was trying to pay for our meals.

With the fucking mermaid money!

The waitresses face was priceless as she stared at the table. “Uhm, you guys decide who will pay and I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“It’s your tip, lady. Just take it. ” Adrian said with so much confidence it made me cringe.

There was a suffocating silence on the table, one heard only in the confines of a library.

“Nice food. Don’t really appreciate you roasting the shrimps, those are usually my friends.”

Except Blue, the others looked at him like he needed to check into the nearest mental health facility.

“I don’t really take shells for tips.” The waitress said, her lips pursed, now looking outraged for thinking we were making fun of her.

Blue began picking up the shell coins silently and putting it back inside the pouch, throwing me looks of apology. And then I heard her whisper to Adrian. “Humans use different money. Mermaid coins aren’t used here on land.”

“Why the hell not?” He asked.

I ended up paying the bill even though Fred insisted he wanted to, I didn’t let him.

“Blue, I still have things to tell you. When you left the under---”

I coughed really loudly and that stopped Adrian from speaking further. “Guys…” I addressed Fred and Hannah. “I think we’ll call it a day and head back home. Something important has come up.”

“Uh-huh.” Fred said.

“Sure. We’ll see you soon. Bye Adrian.” Hannah said and waved at us as we made our way towards the exit of the restaurant.

“Where are you staying, Adrian?” I asked as I walked towards my car. Blue was right beside me, Adrian walking behind her.

“Nowhere.”

I stopped dead in my tracks. “What do you mean nowhere?”

He shrugged. “Just came to land three days back and didn’t know where to look for Blue, but us mer- folk can trace the scent of our kind. I sensed where Blue was staying and followed the trail. Spent my night in a house where people didn’t live. Picked clothes and other things from there.”

He’d broken into an abandoned house and lived there like a homeless man.

I hated the idea of Blue’s fiancé making an appearance and asking her to go back with him, but no matter how much I despised this guy, my conscience wouldn’t allow me to let him live in a dangerous place, or go hungry without any proper food.

“You’ll stay at my place.” I told him.

“Yeah, of course. I’ll stay where Blue does.” He hadn’t even argued or tried to act prideful which clearly told me he’d been living in a bad condition.

“It’s going to be so much fun.” Blue said. “Hunter has a really cute pet called a ‘doggie’. He’s brown and fluffy and lets me kiss and cuddle him. You’ll love him too.”

“As long as he’s not a seahorse.” He said.

“A seahorse?” I asked climbing behind the wheel.

“Yeah. Blue had a seahorse pet that I used to hate.” I watched him as he sat in the backseat.

I snorted.

“This is a modern carriage, isn’t it?” He asked, looking like a child who was sitting in an amusement park ride for the first time.

“It’s called a car.” I told him. “Whatever you do, do not open the car door while I’m driving it, okay?”

As I drove the car, the two began conversing in a different language, one that I didn’t understand. It sounded like Greek. I couldn’t tell what they were talking about but Blue’s expressions told me whatever that Adrian was saying wasn’t good. He was either convincing her to go back with him or telling her updates from their world.

I loved Blue too much to let her go. My hands on the wheels were shaking, but I fought to keep my emotions in check. If Blue decided that she wanted to go with Adrian, there was nothing I could do to stop her besides begging.

Blue’s real feelings were going to be put at test. It all came down to what she ultimately chose.

Going back to her world…

Or…

Spending her life as a human with me.