The Bad Boy And The Mermaid

Hunter

An impish glee was settling inside me as I packed Blue’s things from my older room where she stayed for the entire week. I was happy because I was finally bringing her back where she belonged. With me.

The entire time that I packed her things, she hadn’t said a word to me. Just remained by my side, helping me pack her bag. I didn’t miss how she kept sneaking glances at me and when I smiled at her she would just look away.

Strange.

I tried not to feel wounded with the fact that I had said I loved her and she hadn’t said that she loved me back. Then again, what had I expected? If it was going to remain a one-sided unrequited love, so be it. I was going to love her nevertheless. It wasn’t everyday that you fell madly in love with a mermaid.

I zipped up her bag, “Is there anything else that I forgot to put inside?”

She nodded and scrambled towards the large oak dresser that I had used half my life when I lived with my parents. I saw as she pulled something out of one drawer and slid it inside her little handbag. A handbag that was the shape and color of a watermelon, clearly picked up from the kids section. But the water melon wasn’t the thing that picked my attention. It was the way Blue popped the items in as if she didn’t want me to see it.

Smooth.

I smiled at her. “What was that you put inside your bag?”

She shrugged. “It’s nothing.”

I narrowed my eyes at her, “C’mon. You can tell me.”

She sighed and unzipped the little bag. She pulled out a few pictures out of it and showed them to me. She was definitely shy. I looked at the pictures which were of me when I was four, dressed for Halloween as Peter Pan. I wasn’t smiling into the picture; I guess I was just emo since the day I was born. The second picture was of me in High school when I played Basket Ball, the time I’d been Captain of the team and had my arm slung around Fred. I was grinning into the camera. When I saw the third picture I noticed there was something wrong with it. Senior year prom, I was dressed in a tux and the photo looked like it had been cut from the center.

Then I remembered. There was a girl I dated briefly in High School, Gracie Hall, Captain of Cheerleader team. Strawberry blonde hair, green eyes. Miss. Popular, also the girl I’d lost my virginity to, if I should admit. She was my prom date that year. We’d broken up the day she decided to move to France to join some modeling agency. It had been a really ugly break up with her trying to make me look like a bad guy. I recalled Gracie being in this prom picture and now she wasn’t.

Blue looked at me guiltily. “I…I hope you wouldn’t mind. I was just having fun with the scissors that I found in Hannah’s room and I happened to see this picture. I just thought I wanted to try cutting it.”

I looked at her for a whole minute, and then burst out laughing.

Of course. Blue wasn’t jealous or anything. This was Blue. She saw a picture, wanted to see how to work a pair of scissors and tried cutting it like kids who keep cutting papers if you handed them scissors. How stupid of me to try and find a different meaning to it.

“Can I keep these pictures with me?” She asked, unsure if I would say no.

“Um, yeah. Of course you can.” I said.

Something told me she would have kept it nonetheless if I had argued and told her she couldn’t.

I pulled another something out of the bag. My Jockey underwear.

Huh. I wanted to see the mermaid try and come up with an excuse for this one.

Now Blue’s face had turned red. She started explaining even before I asked her. “I liked the blue color of it and thought I’d wear it as a pair of shorts at home. It would go well with my…hair color.”

“Uh…Okay.”

up with these outrageous excuses in five

luggage I was packing and didn’t complete the

it look like?”

you leaving?” There was

me because it seems to me like you’re having a hard time taking care

talking to Blue.” Hannah retorted. “Blue, is that what you want, to

the second time I saw Blue shrugging her shoulders. “I like staying here, Hannah, but

to swallow that snot forming in her nose. She always did that when she didn’t want

back and ran out of the room, closing the door behind her. Blue looked guilty. “Maybe I

head. “I’ll

to her

I knew you were going to be so hurt, I wouldn’t have asked

her, make her laugh, hell, laugh at her silly questions and jokes and it wasn’t until she’d moved into this place and out of mine that I realized I couldn’t live without her. It was almost like

turned her tear stained face towards

“Uhm…what language is that?”

* * *

wondered how Fred thought she was a ‘goddess’ literally quoting my best friend. “I said you don’t need to be sorry. I knew

snapped at you earlier.” I said. “I was a little angry, is

smile. Did I just detect pity in that line? Like the way you’d throw an entire bag of Cinnabon rolls at a

It’s all under control.” I continued, “Listen; tell Max that Blue won’t be working

me

evaporated into thin air, now she looked like she wanted to claw

“Says me.” I answered.

and nor her father.” Hannah said it like

I’m

the Lockharts’ and so you can’t make decisions for her.

my mouth to answer and then

Riiiighhhhttt.

what I tell her to do. If I ask her to quit the job, she

clawing my face, Hannah was ready to throttle me. “Don’t you think you’re

position to make decisions for her. Blue, as you may have noticed, doesn’t exactly understand the difference between right or wrong. You tell her that

lips shut, I knew her smart brain was trying to come up with something more. And she didn’t disappoint me. “The way I see it, Hunter, is this. And please feel free to be offended because the truth needs

to let it all

because she’s so innocent and you know she won’t second guess you making decisions for her.

“Excuse me?”

of that teacher who was making herself ready to dish out a long boring speech. “You’re scared that if you let her be free in the wild,

not talking about an animal