*****
We reached the beach without any problems. Annessa had been true to her word and I knew that at least here, we were safe. My parents were in denial about it all, they didn’t want to believe that their King could be so corrupt. But the crawled onto the beach and I watched as their fins returned to human legs and they collapsed in the sand.
“I guess that this is goodbye,” Vander said quietly, bobbing in the surf next to me.
“Vander… I’m sorry,” I told him. “I should have trusted you.”
He smiled. “You had no reason to trust me.” He blushed. “Besides… I lied to you.”
I frowned. “When?”
He looked deeply into my eyes. “When I gave you the seaweed and told you I didn’t see anything.”
I laughed and hit him playfully in the arm. “That’s the least of my worries.” I turned and looked toward the ocean. “Please be safe.”
When I turned back to him, he was closer to me than he had been before. “I will,” he promised.
His head bent toward me and as much as I wanted him to kiss me, I knew that I wasn’t that girl. I had a boyfriend. I put my finger against his lips and watched his open sadly. “It’s not our time, is it?”
I shook my head, a tear sliding from my eye. “No.”
He nodded. “You better get out there,” he pointed to my parents and then grinned. “And I promise I won’t look.”
I laughed and then swam to the beach, hoisting myself in the sand. The tingling began; fire shooting through my body and tearing my fin into two pieces. When I was fully human, I turned back to the ocean, hoping to get once last glimpse of Vander… but he was gone.
My Life Would Suck Without You Page 6