Below the Surface

Chapter One: Home Sweet Home

Dedicated to JessGirl93 because she's a fabulous writer and I love her story The Bad Boy's Girl she was able to tear my heart apart and then mend it back together. If you love cliche, sappy, happy, love stories with a young man named Cole Stone then I highly suggest you go and read her story. Trust me, you won't regret it. 

Chapter One:

Home Sweet Home

Five Years Later

The scenery in Maui never seemed to get old when I was younger, but now that I fly back and forth from the peacefulness of the small town of Lahaina to the populated city of Honolulu from time to time to go back to school, has some how become unappealing. However, for the first time in three years, as I'm coming back home, I can't help but have a good feeling about this summer. After picking me up from the airport, Bella drives us back to our house. It's a forty-five to an hour drive in which I knock out until Bella jerks the car to a stop in front of our little house in front of the beach. Bella's parents were kind enough to buy us this tiny, little shack for our twentieth birthday, and we couldn't have been more grateful.  It's simple yet beautiful, and with the beach as our front yard, you can say it's perfect. I step out of her rusty blue truck and take a look at the one-floor house standing before me, with the light green wooden boards, a brown roof, and a light faded yellow door. Home sweet home. 

I'm sitting behind the counter of our small kitchen with wooden cabinets, and old looking appliances such as the stove, oven, and sink. The only thing shiny and new would be our stainless steel refrigerator and dishwasher, our prize possessions. While Bella is preparing to cook God knows what, I watch her carefully with my chin resting on my hand wondering if something is different with her. 

"Ah!" Bella backs away after the fire from the stove backfires at her and I throw my head back laughing. 

"I see you've been doing just fine without my cooking." I comment with a smile on my face and she laughs along while toning down the flame. I tap my fingers on my face softly, Bella is never one to have a dramatic change but this time, right now she looks oddly different. She's still 5'6 with a toned tan body and with light wavy hair - 

I open my mouth before even thinking, "Did you cut your hair?"

She whips her head to face me and her bright, ocean eyes widen within seconds along with her smile, "I did." she exclaims and holds both of her hands to her head, "Do you like it?" I sit up and take a good look at he. She did cut her hair. 

Her hair used to be long, wavy, and blonde, but now it's just a couple inches below her shoulders unlike my long, curly dirty blonde hair that is floating over the middle of my stomach. 

"Yeah, in fact I do like it. You look very sophisticated." I wag my eyebrows at her and pop a grape into my mouth. "But when you go into the water and you transform –"

"Actually I don't know. I haven't tried it yet. I got it cut today. So I was thinking after lunch we can go for a swim." She sends me a playful wink.

I exhale a light laugh and lean back in my chair, "Of course, I haven't had a good swim in a while." And it's true, I really haven't had a good swim because it's hard being a mermaid when you live in a city where it is always crowded and there is never a secluded area on the beach. Bella grins and just as she is about to go back to her cooking she looks at me.

"Are you alright?" she asks and I raise an eyebrow at her.

"Yeah...? Why?" 

"I don't know...you seem a bit gloomy."