I'm a Mermaid, Not a Merman

Chapter 19

"There's no way that actually happened."

Liam laughed, swinging his tail beneath him in the water. "I'm telling you, my family, living down in Florida, we went to Disneyworld a lot - so if there's anyone who would've had a chance to go on space mountain when it broke down, it would've been us."

"Breakdown yes," Dani laughed, "but actually them going so far as to turn on the lights... this seems more of a tall tale to me."

"I assure you," Liam said, "that the only tall tale on that trip was when we went to the Pecos Bill Tall Tale Cafe."

"Sure...," Dani said, still skeptical.

They'd just gotten home from their trip, and Dani had been talking to Liam about it for the past hour or so. Because no one else in the group had been up for swimming today, Liam was more than happy to just chill with Dani.

"So were you able to get your tail on the Little Mermaid ride?" he laughed.

"No I'm afraid," Dani laughed, "it turns out monofins are kind of unwieldy... but there was a girl at the hotel pool that thought I was a real mermaid."

Liam laughed hard. "On one hand, that's hilarious, on the other, I am ashamed you did not tell her about tail-swimming."

"Oh," Dani laughed, "I'm sure that she'll be asking for something like that."

"Ohhh," Liam groaned, "But then there's the chance that her mom will get her some sort of bad Walmart tail. I also was introduced to the idea of tail swimming from seeing someone at a pool, and I'm super glad, cause the girl told me that I needed to get a Fin Fun, unless I wanted to drown."

"Oh, you're being dramatic," Dani waved off - "and about a hypothetical scenario where the girl doesn't just completely forget about this."

"Hmph," Liam said. "I suppose. But my kids when I start them on tails they're gonna do it right."

"Oh I'm sure," Dani laughed. "The question is, since you want to go into bio engineering, are you going to make them into real merpeople?"

Liam laughed. "If I do that... very carefully. After a lot of testing."

"Well I'd sure hope so," Dani said. 

Especially if those kids are also mine...

Kids that would need to be adopted - because she was trans.

Something she had not told Liam.

"Well it's getting a bit late," Liam said, "and you probably want to sleep all day long tomorrow. I'm just glad though for your sake that I wasn't there, because then we'd've been running at a full sprint because I got some tip that a closed ride just opened."

Dani laughed. "No, I would've loved if you'd been there. I... "

She'd wanted to say something about going with him to Disneyland in the future. But that pressing feeling on her mind interrupted her train of thought.

"What?" Liam asked as he started pulling off his tail.

"Oh...," Dani said, doing the same, "I just... nothing."

"Okay," Liam said.

She would need to tell him eventually. She couldn't just put it off.

"Liam?"

"Yeah?"

Dani swallowed, pulling her tail off, and dangling her feet into the pool. "I... I need to talk about something."

"Okay," he said, moving up next to her.

"I have something that... I.... well I need to..."

Liam looked confused.

Dani sighed. "There's... there's something... personal, that I need to tell you."

"Okay," Liam asked. "What?"

There was no going back now. All there was to do was rip the band-aid off.

"Liam, I'm transgender."

His expression didn't change - not at first at least. He blinked a few times, like some thoughts were going through his head. Then he looked over her - she knew that it was about her body.

"I... I had a condition called gynecomastia," she began explaining, feeling a growing nervousness wash through her. "It... it's where there's a hormone imbalance, or some other problem in the male body, that causes breasts, and other characteristics to develop. I... I was very ashamed of it, but as time passed, and I looked more and more like a girl... and I eventually accepted that I was a girl."

Liam continued just looking very perplexed. "But... your voice..."

"Another symptom of my problem."

"And just... everything... I never would've thought... that you weren't... gosh."

"I just hope," Dani swallowed, "that this doesn't change things between us."

Silence.

No. Please not that.

Silence.

"Liam?"

Liam slowly put his face in his hands. "Oh gosh...," he muttered silently.

"I'm... I'm sorry Liam that I wasn't up front honest with you," Dani said. "I'm sorry... I just... wasn't ready then."

"No...," Liam said. She realized that he was crying slightly. "I just..." He wheezed, his whole body appearing to be under immense stress.

With the tense atmosphere, Dani started to feel goosebumps forming all over her skin, and she felt her eyes watering.

Liam eventually raised his face up, blinking away tears.

".... Dani... I... I think that you are an amazing person. I think you are really nice..."

No... no please no....

"... but... I don't... I don't feel comfortable continuing to date you."

And that's when Dani started to really cry. "Why?"

"I... I -"

"Why??" she cried out.

Liam hung his head. "I... it would be dishonest... for me to lie. I don't... my family and I... we do not really... we do not believe that transgender stuff is right. I... don't feel sexuality wise... like I'm into people who weren't born women..."

Dani found herself growing hot in anger. "What do you mean? So you think that all the pain that I felt when I lived as a boy, that I was just making that up?"

"Dani can I -"

"You think that I'm doing something wrong? Living happily the way I want to? You're religious aren't you, and that's why! You think I'm some horrible sinner don't you?"

Liam just continued crying. "I do not think that Dani. I... I disagree -"

"Disagree. What a stupid word," she said, "you're using it because 'wrong' or 'incorrect,' or something like that is too harsh. So what do you think is the correct path I should take? Should I put that stupid binder back on my chest and nearly suffocate myself? Shave my head and still look no less feminine? Is that what your religion says I should do?"

"No," Liam cried, "I just... I don't believe that we know what causes these feelings, if they're right or wrong... but I don't believe that God puts us in the wrong body. I think he wants us to cherish what we've been given."

"Oh so does that also mean that if I'd gotten my breasts removed," Dani exclaimed, "that would be wrong too?"

"I don't, no I don't think so..."

"Then why is it so horrible letting me choose what superficial clothes I wear on my body?" Dani said, "Why is that so evil?"

Liam sobbed, putting his hand to his head. "Please Dani, I don't... I don't think you're evil, or a sinner... but I have to reconcile this to what I believe... I just... I don't know what to do right now."

"Well I know what to do. Message received. Goodbye."

Dani grabbed her towel and put on her flip flops, and left. She never, ever wanted to go to this house again.