David Thomas,

Come home…?

***

It was light. The sun had burst through the clouds some time ago, and it was a warm sunny Sunday morning. The sand felt grainy on my face.

I was lying on the sand by the water. After the swimming incident of last night, I had not been able to make the walk back home due to absolute laziness. I remembered watching a mysterious boy dive into the water, and then feeling suddenly extremely sleep, and curling up in a ball on the sand, and slowly drifting into a peaceful slumber.

But he had disappeared last night. Then why was he here, now, keeping me warm?

"Ahh! Where'd you go last night?" I prodded him in the back and he opened his eyes with a small smile.

"Hello to you too." He sat up, and rubbed some sleep out of his eyes, "I came back, straight away, remember?"

"Um, no. You didn't. You dived into the water, and I fell asleep." I insisted.

"I can assure you I came back straight away" he replied, frowning slightly.

I decided to drop it. Something was up though. Something… not right and slightly fishy. Very fishy indeed.

"So, um, do you live around here?" I made conversation.

"My family is looking for a more permanent place at the moment. Do you?" he questioned back.

"Yeah, I live with my mum, and my broth- I mean, my mum just up the road" I looked at my feet. I always made that mistake.

"Your brother?"

"No. No brother. Slip of the tongue." I grimaced, and changed the topic, "How old are you?"

"About 17." He replied, casually running his hand through his hair. When he did that it made his tanned muscles stand out, and made me want to run my hands through his hair. Oh shit.

"About? How can you be about 17? I'm 17 too." I laughed.

"I meant 17, obviously…" there was something off about Ezra. Just ever so slyly.

My phone then and there decided to ring, caller ID informing me that it was Drew calling. Better late then never, I reckon!

"Hey sorry, Ezra, I'll be one minute." I picked up my phone, and pressed talk, walking away from where we had been lying, and said "what?"

"Ouch, Lol, there's no need to be rude…"came the laughing voice of Drew.

"Oh fuck you, just go and hook up with Kali again," I teased. His fault for having bad taste in hook ups.

"You know it was an accident, no need to be jealous. I know you want to kiss me too-" he broke off, suddenly embarrassed. I felt myself blushing about the little dream that I had last night, realizing his words were true.

"Anyways, Casanova, what do you want?"

"Your mum gave me a ring asking where you were. I told her you were at Marisa's, so yeah, just in case she asks or anything. I just thought, well, yeah…" he trailed off.

"Wow. You actually did something nice for me. It still doesn't make up for all the sandcastles you ruined when we were kids though."

The sound of his laughter was heard on the phone. For such a muscled guy, he sure had a laugh like a child.

"Yeah yeah, we all know how you feel about those sandcastles!" he continued, "but if you're not at home or at Marissa's house, then where are you?"

I contemplated telling him the truth about where I was.

"I'm at Kara's" He doesn't deserve to know about our- my secret place. Well, not yet.

"Ok, cool, I guess I'll see you tomorrow?" he said.

"Tomorrow?"

"Yeah, my first day of school." He finished, 'Well, bye then…"

"Yeah, see ya." I clicked the phone off, and turned around to go back to talk to Ezra.

But that was kind of impossible.

Because he wasn't there anymore.

I hope this isn't going to be a recurring trait in him!

***

"Hey Kara, thanks for letting me stay the night" I kissed her quickly on the cheek.

"Anytime, Drew. But where did Lola go last night?" she asked, putting her bra back on.

"How should I know?" I questioned.

"Well, weren't you talking on the phone with her?" I looked blank.

"But you do have a thing for her… I know you do. But don't worry, no one will find out about last night." She winked, and ran her hands down my bare chest.

"Good, because I hope it's something we can continue" I rasped back, and pushed her down onto the bed again, kissing her, all the time, thinking of beautiful Lola.

***

"So what happened after I left?" I looked around the group. You got to love lunchtime.

"Well, Marissa and Will got together, ohmagee, finally!" Ben clapped his hands together. Will had been Dave's best friend.

He continued, "Kali and Dylan had sex in his bathroom, apparently, and lads only stole the decoy phones we left out. Overall a huge success, well, except for Dylan getting with kali. He was smashed off his face, apparently!"

"And what about you, Benny, find a hot guy to get with?" I winked, changing the topic. Anything to do with Kali would make me vomit.

'Unfortunately not" he looked a trifle sad, and then thought of something which made him spontaneously smile, unknown to me.

He was so rugged, and mysterious, and beautiful.

There was something about him that made me want to get to know him so much more. And, he looked so good in those shorts…

"Lolly? Lollllyyyy? Earth to Lola?"

"Huh?"

Kara was trying to get my attention, "What's that look on your face for?"

"What look?"

"You know, the dreamy eyed 'I want him' look… Are you thinking of Drew?" she hounded.

"Yeah because my world revolves around him. Not. Nah thinking of Dave.'

That shut her up. Always does. Even though I was thinking of those damn eyes. And lips. And arms, wrapped around me. Oh gawd!

"Hey guys" Drew had approached the table, and was walking over to sit with us, after coming from front office to get all the paperwork sorted out.

"Ew" I joked, and everyone laughed. Not Kara though, I noticed…

***

See, I don't know what I was thinking, or why I was going to do it, I just had gotten the idea lodged in my brain, and there was no getting it out of my head after that.

I walked down to Shell Cove, donned in my little black bikini. It was a warm sunset on a Tuesday after school. It was the perfect time and place.

I think, also, part of me wanted to be down there, with that small chance of getting caught by the only one person alive that knew about the cove.

But he wasn't very consistent, was he?

I marched down through the secret entrance, and dropped my little gray soft material backpack on the rock at the base of the entrance, and loped down the sand to the waters edge. No one was there. Half disappointed, I began to take off my clothes. Yes. I was going skinny-dipping.

Back on Monday at lunch, after a certain blonde newcomer had sat with us at the table, we started randomly making up bucket lists. In the tragic light of my dearest brother- Anyways, I thought now was as good as any time to go skinny-dipping in a public (sort of) place. Besides, a part of me, kind of did want to get caught, but by a certain mysterious boy.

I waded, naked into the cool water. It was cold enough for goose bumps, but not to leave the water. I felt beautiful, if that's not a weird way to describe you, naked.

I sunk my body into the water, and floated. It was so peaceful and lovely.

The sun sunk beneath the ocean, and the last rays of heat left, and it became a cool night. Just my luck. I stood upright and waded out of the water, feeling deflated by the act instead of happy and adventurous.

"What are you doing?" I knew that voice. Fuck, I was naked. I turned around so he couldn't see me.

"Um, I felt like going for a swim."

"With nothing on?"

"Yeah, I forgot my bikini"

"But it's just here."

Shit.

"Ok, ok, you caught me. I was skinny-dipping."

"Oh really? Why?" he casually laughed.

"It's on my bucket list. That's not the point, can I just have my bikini back please?" I said, still facing away from him.

"Come and get it from me" he joked. If I could see his face, I bet he would have been laughing.

"I can't… You'll see" I hung my head. This was a bad idea.

"You know how I feel about water" he said, with a hint of… something I just can't touch on in his voice.

"Come on, cut me some slack, I'm fucking naked here!" I got slightly angry. Water is water. End of!

"Okay fine, I'm going to reach out, and you reach back, okay?"

"Fine"

It was only a couple of metres between us, but it felt like a mad stretch, and I stuck my hand out, and grabbed the material quite hastily, and then I was falling, my bikini flew out of my hand, and I landed in the shallows of the beach, Ezra's body landing on top of mine, again, both of us drenched. The sensation of naked body against body was quite nice, surprisingly, and this time, he was too shocked, and didn't move away, something strange and weird happened.

I couldn't feel his legs any more. Instead, I felt a cold scaly sensation on my legs, weighing heavily on my lower half. I looked into Ezra's eyes, and saw pure fear concealed. I knew something was up. I know it was all too fishy. Literally.

Now I'm not one that is big on mythology and utter shit like that, but in that moment I truly believed in mermaids. Purely based on the fact that an absolutely gorgeous one was crushing me, naked (oh no, I hadn't forgotten about that!), into the sand. And I was enjoying it.

I should have run. I should have screamed. I was utterly transfixed by the transformation; I just lay there, feeling all kinds of strange sensations (not dirty) about what was happening.

He was looking me straight in the eyes, inches away from mine, with a look of utter shock on his face.

I cleared my throat.

"Um" I said, in a small voice, "Your tail is hurting my foot…"

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