Caught in a Net (book 4)

Chapter 8

"It must be so great to be royalty," Luke said as he plopped down on my bed.

"I don't know," I said. "I've only been it for a couple of days."

"So your mom married a human?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yeah."

"And that's not weird?"

I shrugged. "A little, I guess. Pacific doesn't seem to like me very much-"

"Yeah she's been around forever. My mom told me Queen Paleren wasn't even married at the time she had her."

"Is that why she looks so different from me?"

Luke shrugged.

"My mom doesn't seem like the kind of person to go sleeping around."

"You've only met her for a day, and you're already technically breaking the rules with me-"

I raised my hand to argue, but Luke just kept going.

"Besides," he said. "Her dad married a human too-"

"What?" I gasped. "My mom is only half mermaid?"

Luke nodded. "And Matthew is too. I heard from my mom that it was so weird seeing them just pop out of the blue. The whole kingdom was told they died after birth. It's kind of weird. I don't think a lot of people trust the kingdom today. After all, contact with humans was illegal, and the royal family went ahead and broke their own rule, twice."

"But Matthew married a mermaid?"

Luke nodded. "Yeah. Matthew controls the military, not like we really need one honestly."

I raised my eyebrow. "You seem to have a bone to pick with a lot of the royal family."

Luke shrugged. "I just want to fill you in on stuff-"

Luke kept on ranting, but I couldn't help but to focus on the fact that I'm actually talking to a merman and I'm a merman. It made me feel weird, how everyone was so normal except for the fact that we had tails instead of legs.

"Is it because Paleren won't listen to you?" I asked.

Luke turned to me. "What?"

"Is the reason why you don't like the royal family is because Paleren doesn't listen to you?"

"I don't don't like royal family, Ash," Luke said. "I just...really care about animals."

"Well I'm sure you do, but you can't bother my mom about it all the time," I said.

Luke sighed. "Listen Ash, I agreed to hang out with you to have a good time, not so you could bash me-"

"Right sorry," I said as I sat down next to him on the bed.

We were silent for sometime. I guess we really didn't have anything to talk about. Luke's thumbs twiddled as he bit his lip. Maybe I'm making him uncomfortable.

"You've been living here all your life, right?" I asked.

Luke nodded. "For 14 years."

"Do you think you could give me a tour of this city one day? I don't want to get lost or anything."

Luke nodded. "I would love that."

I leaned back on my bed. "So why do you care about animals so much?"

Luke laid down next to me. "I just do, I've always had."

"That's not giving me a straight answer."

"Do I need to give you one? I just...have always liked animals. I just feel they need protection too."

I heard a knock on my door. "Does your family know I'm here?" Luke asked.

"No," I said. "Hide in the closet."

Luke dashed to the closet as I raced to open the door. I was faced with Pacific.

"Who are you talking to?" She asked.

"Uh...uh...myself," I quickly said. "It's something humans tend to do a lot."

Pacific furrowed her eyebrows. "Okay well um...dinner is going to be ready soon, so just...I don't know, come down when you're ready..."

Pacific shut the door and Luke popped out of the closet. "Maybe I should go now," he said.

I nodded. "It was nice having you here."

Luke glanced back at me as he swam towards the window. He smiled slightly. "Yeah."