Below the Surface

Chapter Fourteen: The Story of Us

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Chapter Fourteen: The Story of Us

Laughing softly, I smile as I feel him hold me closer to his side, I look up to see him smiling down at me. His light green eyes stare at me with adoration and I send him a cheesy grin.

"In all honesty, our feelings became quite real our junior year - like there was no denying it. It wasn't until senior year when we began to make plans to attend the same college and we knew we wanted to be together in the future." I tell a few of the swimmers and surfers the story of Liam and I falling in love.

"Ah, skinny love at its finest." Kaiko states with a knowing smile. Liam drops his arm from my shoulder and reaches for my hand entwining our fingers together.

"You two are just too cute! Honestly when you and Liam won Prom king and queen, I knew you guys would be tied together for good." Jess gushes.

"Seriously, you two were goo goo eyes from day one. It's been what nine years? When is the damn wedding?" Kaiko grins, elbowing Liam's side and my heart jumps at the thought of Liam proposing and then getting married and having kids. Holy shit.

That's how it would have been though, exactly how it would have been. At least, that's how I imagined it in my mind if the fallout we had back in high school didn't happen. The only real thing was that we both won Prom queen and king, which turned out to be a horrible night, but that's whole different story. Now I'm standing alone in the back of the room fiddling with the sides of my dress while watching everyone talk about how it's been the past year and how their summer has been, and then there's Liam, telling everyone about how his life has been for the past three years. I used to be such a big part of his life to the point that I knew everything about him and now here I am, not knowing where he is in his life. All because of the damn, stupid fall out in high school.

Long story short on the swim and surf reunion. It's been going on since my generation of swimming and it all started with play dates, mind the fact that I started swimming when I was five and began swimming competitively at the age of seven when I was torn between swimming and surfing. I wanted to surf because I loved being on the beach all day with the smell and taste of salt air all around me, I wasn't too bad as well, but swimming was my calling because I had the discipline and talent for it. Of course, I could have enjoyed swimming if it wasn't for the snobby kids on the team. Anyways, play dates turned into these fancy, nice reunions that we have once a year, especially since everyone went their separate ways after high school. I, for one, have avoided coming for the past four years...well, you'll see why.

Suddenly, our eyes catch each other and I almost have whiplash when I try to look somewhere else. Abort! Abort! Abort! I turn my body to flee the room.

"Gaby, is that you?" I whip my head into the living room where I see the one person I have not seen in forever. She may not have been my best friend or anything, but she was the one person I liked on the swim team. She took my spot as captain because everyone voted for her instead of me. One, she was prettier than me. Two, she was in second place behind me. Three, they would actually listen to her.

"Malie?" A real grin spreads across my face as we meet in the center of the room and embrace each other in a hug. As we extend in arm's length I take a quick look at her. Her black hair has grown down to her torso and she's glowing.

"I almost didn't recognize you. You look incredible." She grins at me. That's right, she moved to Texas the year before I had all my glamour changes in becoming a mermaid. "Not saying you weren't beautiful back then."