Hunter
I was in the midst of gobbling down a toast when I saw Blue’s towel lying on the chaise. I sighed.
It was her habit of forgetting things and having me to bring it back to her. I contemplated walking into the bathroom while she was having a bath, surely she’d drawn the curtain, right?
I tossed the toast back on the plate, picked up the towel and padded into the bathroom. When I walked inside, I heard her singing. A melodious tune, and her voice was a sweet, peaceful to the ears.
I stood there, listening to her hum.
“You have a beautiful voice, Blue. I didn’t know you could sing.”
She stopped singing at once, and I had the feeling like she was going to be shy about it. “Did you like it?” I heard her ask me from behind the curtain.
“Yeah. I did. You should sing more often, mostly outside of the bathroom.” I laughed, hanging the towel on the hook.
I heard her giggle. “If you like my singing that much, maybe I’d sing just for you.”
The bathroom curtain was a thin fabric, almost see through. I could see her blue hair and instead of her legs, I saw a tail. My heart started beating. That night when I’d seen her full mermaid form, it had been dark so I couldn’t get a clear view.
Now was my chance.
Cautiously, I approached the bathtub, caught one end of the thin material and pushed it aside revealing a very confused Blue. Of course she didn’t scream or try to cover herself like any other normal girl.
She just smiled shyly at me. “What are you doing?” And suddenly the tail plopped beneath the water into the bubbles.
Blue looked even more gorgeous in water. Her aqua blue hair glowed, her expression was gleeful and carefree. Her skin was flawless without having used any cosmetics in her life. She was just beyond perfect. I could see why they said mermaids were the reason for some ship wrecks and even storms. If this girl asked me to jump off a high building, it would be hard to say no. The next thing, I’d probably be making poetry about her.
Fuck!
I pointed at the end of the tub. “I want to see it.”
“See what?” She asked.
“Your fishtail. Show it to me.”
Blue shook her head. “You’re going to be disgusted again like last time.”
I stared at her incredulously, and laughed. “You are the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever met. Nothing about you will ever remotely disgust me. Now, I want to see it.”
Hesitantly, she brought the tail up from the bubble filled water. And for a minute I just froze, wondering if I was still dreaming. What if this was all a figment of my imagination? Maybe Blue was a normal woman, and my mind made her up. I could be a schizophrenic imagining things that didn’t exist.
But no, this was reality.
A long fishtail with blue and silver lines on it, scales covering beneath it. I didn’t know how long I’d been staring, she said. “Well? What do you think?”
“You are still beautiful, sweetheart, and this is a part of you. I like it.” I grinned.
She smiled back, the one that I was so used to getting. “Really?” She looked relieved. “That makes me so happy, Hunter. I thought you didn’t like seeing it at all. I mean that other day when we were at the shore and I was going home, you seemed disturbed after seeing it.”
I shook my head. “Surprised, that’s all.” I started walking out of the bathroom. “Breakfast is ready when you are.” I winked at her, closed the door behind me.
Blue walked out of the bathroom wearing my t-shirt like a dress which she merely floated in. I passed a pair of shorts towards her that was lying around. curtsy of my sister Hannah, who crashed at my place when she was too drunk to go home.
I brought Blue close to me, she smelled of the strawberry shampoo that I’d bought her. Carefully, I tucked the t-shirt into the shorts and helped Blue blow-dry her hair.
“Would you like me to braid your hair?” I asked.
“Do you know how to? Coral used to do that for me.”
“Well, I may not be as good as your mermaid friend, but I used to do it for my sister.”
She settled down on the mattress and I began to braid her long hair. In the end, I was glad that she was happy with the results.
Twenty minutes later, I was driving Blue to the mall where I was supposed to meet my sister. It had been a difficult task to keep Leslie from trying to tag along with us. He was under the impression that I was leaving Blue again. Blue explained where we were going and only then did he retire in his little doggie bed.
I parked the car in the parking lot empty space. Hannah was late as usual. The word “Punctuality” didn’t exist in her dictionary, and I was going to be late again for college.
That little shit!
While we waited, I noticed Blue was acting strange. In the few days that I’d known her, I knew the was always anxious when she had something on her mind.
I placed my hand over hers. “Are you worried about Hannah?”
She shook her head vigorously.
“Then are you upset that I’m not going with you?”
She turned from the window to look at me. “Hunter, you’re not leaving me, are you?”
“What do you mean?”
She dug her fingers into my palm, a worried expression on her face. “You will come back for me, right?”
“Of course, I will, sweetheart.” I assured her. “You think that I wouldn’t?”
“Because I cause you a lot of trouble.” She admitted.
I cupped her face in both of my hands, looking into her soulful blue eyes, I said. “You are not a burden and will never be. Don’t you ever think like that, okay?”
Still uncertain, she gave a nod. I was amazed that there was still someone who cared about my thoughts, who wasn’t selfish enough to care about me only because I came from a wealthy family.
“Do you remember what I told you this morning?” I asked her.
“If your sister asks me where I came from, I should tell her that I’m from a small country in Europe called Askada. Since Hannah’s intelligence is similar to that of a carrot eating rabbit, she won’t know where to pin Askada on a world’s map. If she asks me about my age, I’m to tell her that I’m twenty years old even though I’m a little over two hundred. If she asks how we met, I should mention that we were online buddies and since I had a huge crush on you, I packed my bags and decided to take a plane to meet you.”
Like a parent who was proud of its child for learning everything they taught her, I patted her head. “Very good, Blue. You remember everything. I’m so proud of you. Now, what if she asked you why you need to do shopping?”
“Then I will tell her that when my plane landed, all my baggage was lost.”
“Good. And you are my friend, okay? We are just friends, you and I”
“Just Friends.” Blue repeated.
I saw a red sports Porsche circling around the parking lot, hunting for a parking space. After a few minutes she spotted an open space and parked it. Hannah’s parking was bad. Her car was literally touching the next car but she didn’t care. She climbed out and banged the door shut, taking off her shades in style like she was a lead in a Fast & Furious movie.
“My sister’s here. Be a good girl, Blue.” I kissed the top of her head.
“Can I kiss you too?” She asked me eagerly.
“Sure.” I gave her my cheek and she kissed it.
* * *
Blue
Hunter’s sister Hannah was tall and beautiful. She had really nice hair and her eyes were green and looked like gems. I was worried if she would like me, I wanted Hunter’s sister to like me.
A lot.
When I’d asked Hunter if I could kiss him, I’d meant his lips and not his cheeks. Hunter was a dummy, he thought I didn’t understand things. I’d watched on television last time in a movie where the boy and girl kissed and I wanted to try that because it looked so nice but I didn’t have the courage to ask Hunter.
What if he doesn’t like being kissed at all?
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