zacblakelyXcammitchell

is it me you or the moon

Zac puts an arm around him, as noble and perfect as ever. "Don't worry. You're still my best mate. Me dating Evie isn't going to change anything. Maybe you can get your first girlfriend this year too if that would make you feel better?" Okay, maybe not perfect. Maybe a bit oblivious sometimes.

But he's perfect to Cam anyway, because he's Zac. And there, tucked under Zac's arm, looking out to the hazy shapes of the city skyline across the water, Cam very dearly wants to kiss Zac. He's near close enough to, all he'd have to do is lean in a few inches and there– a proper first kiss worthy of the diary that Cam didn't keep. That is, if Zac weren't so clueless and apparently heterosexual. He ducks out of Zac's embrace instead. "Let's get out of here," he says. "I'm starving. All that jealousy really made me work up an appetite."

So, they're fifteen, and Zac's a fish now. A merman, Cam thinks to himself, but Zac refuses to call himself that. The whole thing is so weird to him still, and it's weird to Cam too. Maybe it's just as weird as hopelessly pining after a childhood best friend and letting it quietly ruin you.

Zac's still dating Evie, but Evie doesn't know about the merman secret. The fact that it was Cam he ran to immediately after it happened, and Cam he still trusts to help him keep it under wraps and not Evie– well, that's got to count for something. It's dumb reasoning, but Cam's big embarrassing crush has really gotten so much worse now that Zac is also literally a fairytale creature.

Really though, Zac's always had a great deal of specialness about him; always been the main character in some grand and epic story, even before he became a merman. And Cam? He's always been nobody, he can feel it in his bones. Just the sidekick, the accomplice, the spare. Better than not having a place in the story at all, but still, he's starting to wish he'd fallen into the cave on Mako with Zac, or perhaps by himself. So that he'd have to be the one everything revolves around for once.

Zac gets moodier now that he's a merman. His usually easygoing and kind personality's gone unpredictable and turbulent as the sea he swims so effortlessly through. If Cam's being honest, it grates on him sometimes. The two have had their squabbles here and there like all long time friends have, but this is getting to be a real pain. It makes Cam act like a dick to Zac in return sometimes, and acting like a dick is a hard habit to break, so now he's always snapping at his parents and siblings and friends.

On top of that, there's the thing Zac may or may not have with Lyla, who Cam has never trusted for even a second. He's kind of got a soft spot for the other mermaids, Nixie and Sirena, but everything about Lyla just screams bad news. Cam doesn't like the way she and Zac make eyes at each other and sneak off to go on little swims together, for both Evie's sake and his own.

And on top of that, people think Cam and Nixie dated or at least hooked up. Maybe that's a good thing, because it's been years since he took Zac's ill-advised suggestion to heart and attempted to get a girlfriend, and there was a good chance those same people had been starting to notice his subsequent avoidance of any other possible girlfriends. After their dramatic fake breakup in the café (a stroke of genius on Nixie's part, Cam has to admit), she stops him outside to talk.

"Thanks for playing along back there. With the argument," Nixie says. It sounds awkward on her tongue, as if she hardly ever thanks people.

Cam raises an eyebrow. "That was playing?"

Nixie frowns. "Of course. You knew that."

Cam snickers. "Yeah. I knew that. It was a brilliant idea you had. And so well-executed, too. Definitely Oscars material."

"Oscars?"

Oh yeah. A mermaid would barely know what movies are. It's strange, because he feels like he needs to clear the air with her. He feels like he needs to tell her the truth. It just seems easier to tell her than to tell his friends– he hasn't known her as long as he's known them. There wouldn't be the same consequence of having everyone think of him differently all of a sudden. Besides, Nixie clearly has some experience in secret-keeping. His heart starts jackhammering in his chest and he takes a shaky breath. "Nixie? I-" He stares at the ground, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Don't worry. I don't- uh- I never liked you like that. Really. But it's not because you're you, or even because you're a mermaid."