Blood Runs Thicker than Water (The Shape of Water Fanfic)

Moving

 The next few days were exhausting for me, if I'm being totally honest. Missing one night of sleep is near disastrous for me, and it made the feeling of the night I met Alpheus seem even more like a dream.

Josie stopped by at one point, and we chatted about something relatively unimportant. I barely even remembered the subject. I had premeditatively decided I wasn't going to tell her about Alpheus, at least for now. The less people knew about him, the better.

I now was looking groggily out my small apartment window, crouched in the corner of my couch, sipping milk. Sitting there in my sweats and tank top, I wished I had a companion. This was a foreign concept to me. I had always been perfectly content with being totally alone. But after a few nights ago, I found myself longing company. Excluding the company of Josie. Don't get me wrong, I love that girl to death, but I didn't know much people that were also so tiring just by existing.

Today I was going to do something I hadn't done in a long time.

I was going to call mom.

Willingly, that is. She called often enough, wanting to know how my studies were going and how I felt. The usual mom worries. She never really approved of my decision to become a marine biologist, always insisting I could use 'my big brain' to 'do great things'. Apparently marine biologist wasn't among that list.

I sighed, picking up the phone. I dialed in her number and waited with held breath for it to pick up, knowing I was going to have to put up another long ruse to make her happy.

The ringing stopped, followed by a cheerful lilting voice. "Storm, baby!" She squealed into the phone. "I'm so glad to hear from you! What's going on? How's summer break for you?"

I held in a sigh. "It's great, mom," I said, stuffing fake bubbliness into my sentences. "Josie and I are hanging out a lot, and I think my first year went super well, so that really lifts my spirits. But I actually have a question for you."

Chuckles were heard through the line. "That's my Storm," mom said knowingly. "You always have questions. Well, shoot."

This was gonna get awkward. "So you know how I'm adopted?" I began cautiously, knowing I was treading dangerous waters now. "I was just wanting to know more about my real mom, is all." Immediately I winced at how callous that sounded. "Like, you know, not that you're not my real mom to me, but like, my bio-mom."

The tone of happiness was noticeably dialed down, and I could feel her tense through the line. "What do you want to know about her?" She asked me, her voice now distinctly monotone. "You're not going to turn into one of those girls who go on a crazy search and then run off with them, are you?"

"Of course not," I insisted, and then had second thoughts. That depended, I supposed.

"I don't know anything about her," she told me. "The orphanage program that gave me to you said they found you on their doorstep. I know, I know, that's the most cliche thing ever, right? Like who even does that anymore, leaving their helpless baby on the doorstep without bothering to pay the orphanage fee? Obviously she was not able to properly care for you."

The evidence that my mom was trying to play this woman down was so obvious it was almost amusing.

"Oh, ok," I said, not really knowing where to go next with this. My mother never had even known about my scales, so she probably thought it was strange that I showed such sudden interest.

"Why did you want to know anyways?" She tried to sound upbeat, but I could clearly hear the undertone of suspicion.

"I've just been interested in DNA and ethnicity lately," I said immediately, smoothly spinning a lie. A twinge of regret sounded in my heart for lying, but there was no possible way I could tell her the truth. Who knows how she would react.