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Andy

Underwater.

“Kay, what’s next?” I asked excitedly, bouncing to his side like a little kid. It was late, and I felt hyper, which to be fair, was a nice change from the stressed, numb feeling that had plagued me for weeks.

“To the ocean!” He pointed south, but the view was crowded by tall buildings.

“What for?” I asked warily, pulling my backpack straps further up on my back.

“I want to show you something.”

“Oh no...” I whispered fearfully, stuttering to a complete stop. He took several more steps before he realized I was not following. He looked back in concern. “What?”

“You’re not a ghost...” I whispered, my voice shaking, eyes wide.

“What do you mean?” He looked very confused.

“You’re a mermaid!” I exclaimed, pointing at him. “A mermaid!” I began to pace in the small space the sidewalk provided. “How did I not see this before?” I pursed my lips in deep thought.

He sighed in impatience, tossing his head back.

“Actually, I’d be a merman.” He corrected with such an authorative seriousness that I had to narrow my eyes at him suspiciously. “So you admit to being a creature of the sea? You’ve just been trying to get back to your people!”

He was laughing silently, you know, that kind of laughing when it’s so hilarious, all you can do is grin, while your chest silently rises and falls, trying to catch a breath.

“Okay, I’ll give you that one.” He finally declares once he’s composed himself again.

“You walked into that one.” I reply matter-of-factly. “Now tell me, what are we really going to the ocean for?”

“Are you going to explode again or something?” He asked warily, blue eyes cutting sharply in my direction.

“No. Scout’s honor.” I held up my left hand, then signaled for him to continue.

“I want to show you something.” He repeated thoughtfully, “I discovered it after playing around with the tricks we picked up that night at the funeral home.”

“The bubble?” I wonder doubtfully.

“Yeah. As long as someone is close enough - literally touching, I can not only protect them from harm, but they’ll be invisible and be able to do anything I can. Well, most things. I’m still working out the kinks.”

“So... What does the ocean have to do with it?” I asked in confusion as we passed under another bright orange street light. Distant car horns, music and dog barks breaking my concentration.

“You’ll see.” He replied, sounding almost smug.

We navigated the streets easily. But of course, anything is easy when you’re invisible and bullet proof.

It was beautiful and foreign.. Unlike anything I’d ever seen in Pendant. Everything was brighter, more active and exciting. Just walking around the quieter streets of The Projects, and I could tell the town - and the rest of California, was a great place to do some self-discovery, because of how diverse the whole state was.

On one corner you'd see a cover artist and a juggler, and maybe a block down, a poor man with his pet chimp, teaching him tricks to earn spare change. And then there were clubs and cool hangout places on almost every street, their presence made clear by the obnoxious neon lights hanging all around them.

It took us another thirty minutes before we reached the beach. It was a mysterious sight, abandoned in the darkness, illuminated faintly by the moon.

“Go change.” He nodded towards the bathrooms a little futher up the sand dunes. More moths beat around the dim, flickering light hanging above the shack. I grumbled in reply, but set off towards the building. “I’ll go ahead and head down to the shore.”

I nodded in agreement and walked away.

After checking under all the stalls to be sure I was alone, I secured the bathroom stall furthest from the others, and stripped down, fumbling with the top of my new bathing suit, which proved to make a better Rubix cube than a swimsuit.

I tied it off, shoving my jeans back into my bag, hesitating with my t-shirt in hand before pulling it over my head, draping it over my swimsuit. It gave me a small bit of peace as I proceeded to put my sandals back on, unlocking the stall door, heading out into the hot, humid air to meet Andy by the shore.

I could see the stars better on the beach, but not completely. I looked to my left, then the right, and I saw no one... Which I felt was very unusual. Don’t people normally hang out on beaches all hours of the night?

I looked ahead then, and I could see him, little more than a tall, intimidating black outline standing by the shore.

The water was calm, hardly lapping against the sand. Small, harmless ripples vibrated across the glassy water top, reflecting back the inky darkness of the sky.

“Why isn’t anyone else on the beach?” I wondered curiously as I lingered a few steps behind him. He hadn’t changed his clothes or done anything to prepare to run out into the black water, save for the cuffs of his black jeans, rolled up significantly over bare feet.

“This part of the beach is closed off for construction, actually.” He replied, looking over his shoulder with a sheepish expression. “Sorry. We’re doing more illegal things.”

I normally would have scolded him, then lectured him about how I’d be punished if my parents found out... But this time, I just let it go with a quiet sigh.

We stood there for what felt like a very long time. I waited for him to say something or move towards the water, but he looked like he was etched from stone, planted at the water’s edge with his rolled up jeans and bare feet.

“Kay...” He murmured to himself, before turning halfway back to look at me. “Do you trust me?”

“Is this a trick question?”

“Ash.” He scolded with a serious expression. I sighed, allowing the humor to fall away for a moment to be realistic. “Yes.”

“Stay close to me, and walk into the water.”

He held out his hand towards me, the tattoos on his arm a murky mass of blackness in the moonlight. I stared at his upturned palm for a moment before reaching for it, combing my fingers between his, locking them in a cat’s cradle, holding on tightly.

With one more look of uncertainty, I stepped into the water at the edge of the sand, and it was surprisingly warm. More slow, silent steps, and my ghostly companion followed silently.

We continuted to decend deeper into the water. And the water got more and more chilling the deeper we went.

It was just above my waist when I began to get uncomfortable with the depth. My limbs were locking up on me, and my breaths were jagged because of the temperatures.

I took an additional moment to collect myself before taking another small step forward, feeling the water creep up the lower portion of my back, and continue to meet the bottom of my shoulder blades. My breath hitched and I couldn’t force any air to move from my lungs. All I could do was stare into the impossible blackness in front of me, and the swaying sqwiggles of brilliant white moonlight on the water’s surface.

“It’s not much further.” He whispered from behind me.

I got a nervous smile, even though he couldn’t see it. “You’re trying to kill me.” I joked half hearted, but my heart thudded harder, shaking the vibration of fear into my voice.

Two more steps forward, and the water came to my collarbone. I could still feel the slick, soft sand under my feet, and a mixture of blunt rocks and stones tucked into the sand. I couldn’t see anything beyond the water, which made it feel like I was submerging myself in an ink well.

“Are you ready to go?” He asked, but his voice also betrayed him. He sounded nervous, giddy, and maybe even regretful. I stopped to look back at him.

“Don’t be afraid.” He reminded me calmly, though his posture was defensive.

He came closer to me, and hugged onto me tightly. I pulled my arms from the blackness to wrap them tightly around him in return, before turning towards the water again. We each kept on arm wrapped firmly around the other’s torso as we moved deeper into the water.

We decended until we were up to our necks, and I still had to stand on my tippy toes to stay up above the water.

Dark ripples patted against my neck, matting strands of my hair to my neck in a sickly vein pattern.

He looked to me, and I saw something in his eyes that sent a surge of uncertainty through me.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered quietly, shifting slightly to put his other arm around me to keep me from submerging completely in the middle of his speech.

“For what?” I whispered in response, even though there was no one around to hear us.

“For not kissing you earlier. But know, that I had good reason.” His lips twitched into a crooked smile. And even in the dark, his eyes seemed to glow. “I was sorting things out in my own way, and it surprises me beyond belief that you view me as more than a bundle of white energy with a voice, but as a person. A real, breathing person.” His smile grew into a grin, dim in the light of the full moon.

“It’s just taken me forever to realize I like you, too.”

The words felt like concrete blocks chained to my ankles. Threatening to submerge me further into the dark pool of secret obsession I already felt for him. The longing to be around him when he was not.

“Oh...” Was all I could manage to say.

“And stupid as it sounds,” He laughs quietly under his breath, “I couldn’t summon the bravery to do anything but stare at you when I thought you were not looking, and getting caught up in everything you say.”

My cheeks were slowly turning red, but for the first time, not out of embarrassment. I felt flattered.

“So...” He paused thoughtfully. “That’s that.”

He hesitated again, and my heart lunged up my throat, and I was literally shivering from anticiption. The small, slow movement he made made my heart stop altogether, and I held my breath in shock. He leaned closer to me, brilliant blue eyes disappearing behind blackened lids as he presses his forehead to mine, another moment of hesitation passing before he completely presses his lips down.

And that was all it took. My heart lunged into a frenzy, and my breathing estatic, causing violent ripples of the water around us to form as I tried to control my outburst of excitement and shock.

He kissed me again, then once more, before taking a step backwards, holding me close to his frozen, silent chest, and we fell...

We fell off the edge of the sand, decending quickly into the darkness. I took a sharp breath before my head went under the water, and the murky darkness filled my ears. I opened my eyes immediately to find it was much brighter under the surface than I imagined. The water appeared as a bright indigo under the moon, and I could see much more around me than I thought.

Andy’s lips moved in a murmur, air bubbles slipping from his lips, racing to the surface. His words lost in the water around us.

We were suspended in the water, maybe twelve feet beneath the surface, hands interlocked, floating impossibly close to one another.

He spoke again, and this time I heard him.

“Breathe.”

He had to be insane to think I’d let go of the last of my air this far under the surface.

“It’ll be fine.” He said, his words blurred.

I hestitated, remembering how much I trusted him, before reluctantly opening my mouth, watching the swarm of silver bubbles float away. It took another moment of bargaining with myself before I finally drew a sharp intake of breath, and to my surprise, it felt like breathing air. The water moved in and out of my lungs without a problem.

Andy grinned at me in the flickering darkness under the water, and I grinned back, pulling him closer to me so I could place another kiss on his lips. Finally having the freedom to do so felt intoxicating.

My hair spread out above me like dark tendrils of sea grass. The green color bleached black underwater.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, and rested my head on his collarbone, wiggling my toes to feel nothing beneath them.

It almost felt like flying, if it weren’t for the pressure of the water around us, making the experience feel clausterphobic. Just suspended aimlessly in the darkness.

His arms tightened in reassurance. And we just floated. Lingering in the water like deadweight.

I don’t know how long we floated before he finally pulled back enough to point at the surface. I nodded, and we swam back up.

The second we rose out of the murky sound, and I took a deep breath of real air, it felt like nothing had changed - aside from my skin covered with goosebumps from the colder air hitting my wet skin.

“How was that?!” He asked excitedly. “I’ve been playing around with the idea forever.”

“That was incredible!” I breathed, looking around us at the endless darkness. Beads of water dripping down my forehead, off my nose and chin. “How? What?... That’s easily one of the best things I’ve ever gotten to do.”

He grinned proudly. “Glad you liked it.”

“Liked it?!” I laughed, shivering. “We have to come back and do it again. Can we come tomorrow?”

“Hold up, don’t you have something going on tomorrow?” He wondered skeptically, still wearing his pleasant smile.

“Nope! Tomorrow’s an off day.” I laughed, thrilled with the idea of experiencing it again. Except I could hardly imagine what the water looked like during the day time. What it was like to swim with the fish, and looking at all the plant life.

“Well...” He paused, clearly he hadn’t been expecting my reaction. “All you have to do is convince your parents to let you go to the beach. And we’ll swim all day, if you want.”

I shivered again before I could answer.

“That’s probably not a good thing.” He guessed. “Let’s get you dried off. I’ve got one more festivity planned.”

Notes

Inspired by Llovera by Mia Maestro
WOOO IT HAS HAPPENED, BROS!
I know y'allve been waiting a long time for this, and well, it tis finally here!

Shoutouts!

- anathema
- smutty pariah

Comments

I just want to say, I am here to support you no matter what you do <3

Mezzy18 Mezzy18
4/12/20

Oh gosh, I'm getting weird vibes towards this "sketchy" part of town.

Mezzy18 Mezzy18
5/8/19

I am absolutely in love with this book!

Mezzy18 Mezzy18
4/30/19

Poor Ashley. Poor Andy. Poor Asheen. Wow, what a story! :)

Merelan Merelan
4/29/19

I am conspiring so many theories about this book my head hurts... lol... anyway, great chapter as usual! Can't wait to read what happens next

Mezzy18 Mezzy18
4/25/19