Below the Surface

Chapter Four: Dysfunctional System

Dedicated to tessa-x because I downright love her and her story Currents. Although I haven't read all her stories, I know they're really good. She is an amazing writer and such a great and wonderful person!

Chapter Four: Dysfunctional System

When I open my eyes, I'm face to face with Bella, who has a hesitant smile on her face.

"Gaby, how are you feeling?" she asks gently.

I look around me to see I'm in one of the rooms Rita has for studying purposes. Bella and I are both alone. And I'm dead. Deadly embarrassed. I try to speak or move, but I'm still not functioning properly. He's here. He's back. Why didn't I hear about this? He's here -

"Where is he?" the words come tumbling out and I'm on high alert, I sit up and look around, but it really is just us. "We need to go."

"What? No, we can't just leave." She hisses through her teeth and then puts a finger to her lips telling me to quiet down.

"Then it's all for one and one for all." I yell in a hushed tone.

"Gaby, everyone was a little worried. You kind of fainted. Luckily, Liam grabbed you in time." Holy shit. The fact that he has already touched me makes my skin crawl, and I hug my body. Bella notices my reaction and winces at her words. I plop back down on the black, leather couch. I breathe in deeply and rest my chin on my hand and think. "Gaby." I look up at Bella.

"I want to go home." I whine, suddenly feeling very emotional.

"Gaby, I promise you everything will be fine -"

"- I'm going to cry." I whine again and breathe in deeply to avoid any unwanted emotional outburst.

"Oh, shush. Stop saying you're going to cry 'cause you can't." she snaps as kindly as she can at me and I huff out pouting my lips. Ever since we became mermaids we haven't been able to shed a single tear, let alone have our eyes water. Not even the Notebook or the Titanic can bring us to tears, and trust me, before becoming a mermaid I could easily bawl my eyes out. I look up at her, begging to leave. She just stares me down, holding up the fort. I let out a moan of defeat and stand up. She smiles and loops her arm in mine and begins to drag me to the door, but my legs refuse to move.

"I need a drink." I mumble as she drags me out the door where it suddenly becomes too loud.

"Okay, let's go get you a drink." She coos, patting my hand. My heart is pounding and I feel very shaky as we head towards the party. I might just die today.

To say that I feel much better once I have my second drink in my hands is an understatement. I feel great. It's not true though, because having him here in the same room joking with his old friends and having a good time and acting as if I don't exist, is not great at all. I watch him carefully and have come to the conclusion that he has changed a lot since the last time I've seen him. He chopped off his light brown curls and now sports a shorter cut that doesn't hold a single curl on his head, but it does seem to angle his light, tan face perfectly. He has grown a few inches and looks really fit, not body builder fit, but a lean athletic fit. I internally groan and slap my face multiple times as my eyes start to travel up and down his body. His style hasn't changed the least. He still dresses nicely like how he's wearing navy shorts with a plain, white shirt and white converse.

"Gaby, you're staring." Bella mutters through her teeth at me as we stand leaning against a dining table, a room away from where he is. "Gaby, can you relax?" I look at her to see her point her eyes down at my hand. I'm gripping my beer bottle like I'm hanging on for my dear life. I take a quick sip before loosening my grip and scoff in disgust as I see him bark out laughing at something Carter said, a classmate of ours from high school. I growl in irritation.