Lie to Me: A Mermaid Tail

Chapter 13- F.I.N.E

"Hey! Hey, you alright?" Nate came hurrying up to me after creative writing class. "You were upset in there," he said, gesturing to the classroom's open door. 

"Fine," I said, my throat still tight from crying. At least I didn't sound stuffed up anymore. 

"C'mere," he said, pulling me in closer. I allowed to draw me in closer. "It's just writing," he said. "Did you get a little emotional?" 

I nodded and he released me, holding on to both my shoulders and staring into my eyes. His were so blue. So, so blue. 

"I'm fine," I said, mustering what probably looked like a pathetic excuse for a smile. 

"You sure?"

"Yeah," I told him earnestly. I wasn't sure why l got so emotional in class, I'm not a very creative writer. Seriously. I'm fine. Yeah, a little voice in my head said. If 'fine' stands for F-fucked up, I- insecure, N-neurotic and E-emotional. Then yeah, you're fine. 

I cursed the little voice in my head and continued walking down the hall, breaking away from Nate. School was done now, and I needed to escape these hallways. I couldn't think straight, couldn't breathe. There was no air in the hallways for me to breathe, and no water to breathe either. It felt like there was nothing. Nothing to see, no one to be with, nothing to touch, nothing. 

I burst outside into the parking lot, desperate for some sunshine and air to cleanse my brain and get all of these tangled thoughts out of my head. They were all intertwined like a big bowl of spaghetti. Have you ever tried to untangle spaghetti? It's impossible, and so was extracting a single thought. 

So I ran. 

I saw Nate gesturing to his car, and Aidan waving to me from his truck, even Paisley pointing to her Subaru. I kept running, my bag thudding against my back. The ever present breeze tousled my dark chestnut hair and stung my eyes as I fought to keep them open to see. Even with my eyes open, I really couldn't see anything. I wasn't paying attention.

I was out of the parking lot and half way to my house already. I heard the rhythmic thud of my feet against the pavement. I bent down, still running, and pulled my ballet flats of my feet and ran with them in my hand. My heart thud gently and my hair whipped wildly in the wind. The cloudless sky was blue and bold. 

My house was a short distance away. I could see the golden sun pouring on the brown shingled roof. I saw the beige cedar shake siding and the turquoise front door with the white shutters. I pushed myself to run faster, and I tossed my brown leather bag and shoes onto the turquoise painted porch, never stopping to get a drink. I was running barefoot to the sea. I could feel small grains of sand working their way, one at a time, in between my toes. As I drew closer to my beach, my feet were squishing in sand. 

There were maybe four families on the beach, but I didn't care. I ignored them, my feet digging into the sand, making their way mindlessly to the dock. The damp wood felt breakable beneath my feet, as though I was about to fall through into the sand.

At the end of the dock, I didn't hesitate to dive straight in. I could feel the families watching me as I submerged myself in sea water. I waited under, in a crouching position, then sprung like a leapfrog as far away from the sand bar as possible. Then I turned to water, feeling boiling hot. Seconds later, I had a tail, and the ice cold tingles were beginning to fade. The water was still only four feet deep, but I kept to the bottom, running my fingers through the sand as the sun got farther away. I looked up to see it blurry and swaying side to side, shining yellow through the mint green waters. 

I was about seven feet deep now, the water a pure, royal blue. No people were allowed out this far, but I kept pushing on. I had no time to stop and think yet, I needed to get to my coral reef. As I swam slowly, I felt the ocean water course over every strand of hair on my head, separating them into thick strands. The water pushed into my eyes, but I kept going. I moved my hips up and down, my tail plowing through the water, treading water with my hands, bobbing my head up and down. I felt the current stop pulling me to shore. Instead, it helped me out to sea.