Nothing particularly interesting happens for another week. Calum continues to swim down in the ocean during school hours, Ashton continues to blatantly ignore Calum, and Michael continues to ask Calum if he wants to surfing, the latter results in Calum letting Michael down day after day. Honestly, the entire routine had begun to bring Calum down a little.
It's not that he doesn't enjoy either one of his two vastly different and complicated lives. He does. He loves being down in the ocean and having the water on his skin, but he also loves being on land and hanging out with his cheerful best friend. And he knows, eventually, he's not going to have both.
But even so, after this uninteresting week passes, Calum is swimming down in the ocean to meet with his under-the-sea friends and mother, and he is greeted with the warm welcome of Ashton's hard and angry eyes. The merman has his arms crosses, absentmindedly pacing around a nervous huddle of other mermaids, and Calum stops in his tracks when he sees them. Everyone looks on the verge of crying, as though their favorite goldfish had died or something, and Calum's not sure how to handle it. He wonders subconsciously if when mermaid's cry, their tears just mix in with the water and no one can see them.
"You," Ashton practically growls. "I've already told you that you don't belong down here."
"Oh, Ashton," Calum's mother protests. "Calm down."
Ashton ignores her, which gets on Calum's nerves, but he stays quiet. "I'm stressed, okay? Because Luke got caught in a net last week and it's only a matter of time before someone else does, too. Nets are bad news. You wouldn't understand, because you're fucking human."
Each time Ashton over-enunciated his words, Calum flinched a little. But at the same time, Calum also really couldn't give a fuck about how Ashton apparently hated his human guts because frankly, Calum was going to keep coming down here regardless of whether Ashton approved or not. If he didn't, he would die. So it doesn't leave him much of a choice.
But under all that not-giving-a-fuck, Calum also worried a little about his mother getting caught in a net, or blissfully oblivious Luke getting caught again. So he said, "Maybe I can go on land and talk to a few fisherman about clearing any nets?"
Calum was pretty proud of the idea. He thought it over a second during the brief silence that followed and smiled a little, figuring he could actually maybe help.
So he wasn't prepared when Ashton snapped.
"No! No, you will not. Can't you wrap your ignorant human mind around the fact that that would just cause more destruction? Wouldn't they be curious as to why they can't have nets over here?"
Calum shrunk back a little as Ashton yelled. Everyone behind him watched silently. You could hear a pin drop. Or, a shell.
"They can't find out about us. You have no idea how awful that would be for us, and it would be your fault!"
Calum curls his hands into fists, growing angry. "Why can't you just trust me already? It's been an entire month since I found out about all this and nothing bad has happened! What the hell is your problem?"
Calum is red in the face, almost quivering with anger. He wants so badly for Ashton to say something else just so he could have a reason to yell again, but Ashton just turns and storms off, disappearing behind one of the thick rock walls. Calum frowns. The obnoxiously beautiful corals decorating the rock wall seem to mock him.
Luke and Joy rush over, spilling apologies for Ashton as fast as their mermaid mouths can muster, but Calum isn't listening. He's still mad as hell, and he wants badly to go and punch the judgemental dude in the face. But judging how Ashton revealed to him his terrifyingly advanced set of weapons just a few days before, Calum knew better than to chase him down.
"It's fine, I'm fine," Calum mumbles, swimming away a little from Luke and Joy's worried gazes. One look tells Calum they don't believe him, but he can't find it in him to care. He sinks a little and crosses his arms unhappily, closing his eyes for a moment. The first thing Ashton said was that he "didn't belong". Calum knows it's true. He can see it in the eyes of all the other mermaids and mermen who glance at him cautiously every so once and awhile. He knows Ashton isn't really overreacting. It's just that Joy is his mother and Luke loves everyone. That's the only reason they are on his side.
"I'm just gonna... go on a walk, or something," Calum mumbles. Luke tilts his blonde head quite adorably.
"Walk?"
"Swim. I meant swim," Calum corrects himself absentmindedly before swimming away from the group of people, heading mindlessly into the blue. He passes everyone watching, passes the area where the clan lives, passes the very frightening cave where Ashton attempted to teach him how to fight, and eventually made it out past all the shallow waters, all the coral decorations, and into the open sea.
He's not sure where he's going. A little piece of him knows he shouldn't go out into unknown territory, especially because of Ashton's warning about the whole bottom-of-the-ocean-food-chain thing. But he does anyway, because honestly, Calum is done caring.
Calum swims for a little while, feeling good and as strong as a slightly scrawny seventeen year old boy can be, and he admires the freedom and utter silence of an open ocean. He can see dark shadows of animal creatures somewhere far in the distance, so he makes sure to stray away from all those. He stops to rest every once and awhile when he finds a place to sit, considering his tail doesn't seem to have the strength as everyone else's does. He goes up to the surface for some more oxygen, even though his lungs weren't straining. And, he thinks.
He thinks about Michael and his pink hair and his absolute love for surfing that he now has to do alone. He thinks about his foster parents and how they are so nice and supportive, and he thinks about Joy and how wonderfully nice and supportive she is too, and how shocked and sort of in denial he is about the whole mermaid-aspect of his life, even though here he sits in the middle of the ocean with dark blue scales covering his legs. He thinks about Ashton and his sun-tanned skin and his wavy hair that looks like a models whenever an ocean current drifts by, and he thinks about how much Ashton hates his guts.
He just thinks for a little while, the water calming his nerves and letting muscles relax.
He's just about to get back up and keep swimming God-knows-where, but a voice stops him.
"You shouldn't be going out this deep alone. It's not safe," the voice says, and it's so big and powerful that Calum subconsciously wonders if it's God himself reminding him how bad he sucks at being a merman, and then Ashton appears.
Calum's not sure how to react when he sees the man move out from behind the shadows, his arms crossed over his broad chest and his hazel eyes looking almost soft.
"Did you follow me?" is all Calum can think of to say.
"You've been in the ocean barely a month. It's not to go out alone," Ashton says dismissively. Calum stares at him for a moment, and then decides to sit back down onto the rock cave he had found. Ashton slowly swims over and sits beside him, a safe distance away but close enough that Calum can feel his proximity.
"You know, you're kind of an asshole," Calum says.
Ashton furrows his eyebrows. "I'm not an asshole."
"Sounds like something an asshole would say."
Ashton rolls his eyes, not saying anything for a moment. Then he looks back up at Calum and presses his lips together. "I followed you because I didn't think it was safe, but also because I need to apologize."
Calum raises his eyebrows. He stays silent, so Ashton keeps talking. "I shouldn't have yelled at you. I know you were just trying to help. I just..."
Ashton trails off, and Calum can't help but notice how nervous Ashton seems to be, fidgeting and blinking and rubbing his eyes as though something were gnawing at his brain. Calum waits for him to finish. After a few moments, he does.
"I just don't trust humans. I never have. They absolutely terrify me." Calum glances over in surprise. Ashton looks as honest as a merman could be. He continues. "I was caught in a net when I was younger. I've been scared of them ever since. It's why I don't trust humans. They put out the nets, we get caught in them."
Ashton turns, and at first Calum has no idea what the man is doing, but then Calum sees it. A long, pale scar dragging down the length of his spine, thick and curved and looking awfully painful. Calum winces just looking at it. Ashton turns back around and glances briefly at Calum before talking again.
"I was nine. I went swimming alone, which wasn't exactly uncommon for me to do, but this time, I was swimming and I got caught in this huge, giant net. With thick net material." Ashton pauses, staring down at his hands. "I was alone in there for maybe ten minutes before the others found me, but it felt like hours. Felt like ages. And none of them knew what to do, and each person was telling me to do a different thing, and it was terrifying and I was scared and crying. Nobody had ever gotten caught in a net before. No one knew how to react.
"But there were these huge hooks on each side of the net, and it connected the material together. They were giant, and sharp as hell. I was grabbing at the net to try and get out and I turned to try and find an exit and--" Ashton shuts his eyes. "And the hook caught on my skin. And there was blood everywhere, and you know how blood travels in water. It was everywhere, and I was coughing, and everyone was screaming, and I felt weak, and a few minutes later I passed out.
"I don't remember how I got out. I just woke up and I was laying down in one of the caves, and that was it. But it was the scariest moment of my life, and that's why I hate humans so much. Because they caused all of that."
When he finishes, Calum is at a loss for words. "Ashton..."
He just stares straight ahead, a painful expression on his face, and Calum knows he's reliving it in his mind. Calum wants to apologize, but he thinks that it may sound condescending, so he doesn't.
Ashton opens his eyes a few minutes later, and turns back to Calum. He glances down at Calum's tail. "Does anyone know?"
It takes a moment for Calum to understand what he's asking. "No."
Ashton nods. "Good. Keep it that way."
Calum nods before Ashton had even finished the sentence. He feels guilty for what happened to Ashton when he was younger, despite him having nothing to do with it. He just feels guilty, because yeah, he's human. He's a merman too, but human. And by some means, Ashton is scared of what he could do to hurt him. So Calum can keep this secret if it means keeping everyone down here safe.
"Alright," Ashton pushes himself back up, and Calum joins him. "Since you're so keen on swimming off on your own, I might as well show you the good and bad places to go." After a moment of consideration, Ashton adds, "Not that I care. Just if you get hurt, it's my ass that gets yelled at."
And Calum wants to note that literally nobody would ever dare yell at Ashton for anything. But for the sake of Ashton's pride, Calum bites back his smile and stays silent, following Ashton through the blue.
---
A/N been having a major writer's block and thats why none of my books have been updated. but i'm back. i think.
alabama's in a major drought currently and all our plants are dying and we can't have a little fire because that might cause a forest fire and basically i miss the rain
also if any of you have read will grayson, will grayson hmu because i just finished it and it was so sweet and boyxboy which made my day because i didnt even realize it was boyxboy when i bought it
anyway i missed you all. my loves. hope you've been doing well.
please vote and comment and leave ur thoughts behind so i can read them and feel good about myself lol
love you to the moon, as per always