My Weird Secret Life

Chapter 42: Aaron and Me

I wasn't sure I wanted to wait and explain all this,"Okay, so Agua is bad, he wants the kingdom for himself but only because he wants to control everyone, he's probably going for the all of the oceans next. You need to fix this Aaron, you can bring merpeople back to normal. Please, could you find a counteraction spell?" I started searching for the bag Kai had had before. When I spotted it, I shrieked in joy then grabbed the anger/control spell. "For this," I held the paper out to him and bit my lip anxiously. His eyes seemed to be calculating everything on the paper. He scoffed,"This is kindergartener stuff. Light work." I looked into his eyes,"But?" "But this doesn't look like this is it, this isn't everything." I pulled out the rest of the papers, and stuffed them into his arms. "Here," he looked through them. "I could work with this." I smiled then turned around,"But one other thing," I turned back around,"Yes?" "I need ingredients and everyone else is doing other things," I nodded,"Sure, what do you need?" He grabbed a piece of seaweed and a long thin piece of coral, he used it as a pen. I floated there and waited for him to be done,"All of these," I took the paper and read: seaweed poison, clam poopings, coral spices, and other stuff. The things that ran through my mind the moment I looked at that list kind of went like this: Clam poopings. The frick is that? And coral spices, is that like pepper? "Um, Aaron, I can't get the stuff on this list. I don't understand any of the things on it." Aaron studied the list like maybe my misunderstanding was on his behalf. "Oh, then come on, I'll show you." we swam outside and he held the list up to his face,"So first we have seaweed poison, come on." He led me down toward a coral reef," You know, usually merkids learn all this stuff in school." He turned around," Unless you aren't one," I chuckled extremely nervously. How was I so bad at keeping a secret! It was one secret among so many others but it was really just one! " That's silly, Aaron, where'd you get that idea?" He shrugged," Nowhere. Ok so, here is seaweed poison," he pointed to a string of seaweed he pulled out a knife and split down the middle of the seaweed, purple ooze spilled out," That's the poison, it's not actual poison but if you use it in a certain way it could be. If you don't split down the middle exactly then your not going to get anything, most humans don't know anything like this, oh, there's also different colors of poison depending on where the seaweed is, the sun affects the color. Each poison does something different," I nodded understanding. I wish Auntie A had at least told me about me being a mermaid then she could've taught me everything she knows." Here collect it in this vial," I did just that." Now what's clam poopings?" I asked," Just that, but not really," I scrunched up my face," I'm sorry, what?" He chuckled," Clam poopings are just pearls," " Oh. This is going to be easy," he turned around and stared at me," Have you never been pearl hunting? It takes extreme patience," " Ok, let's do it." We sat down by a clam and waited," I'm really sorry about your sister. What was her name?" "Freya, she was a lot like you actually. Sweet, kind, always thinking of others . . ." His voice drifted off into the currents and a wistful expression settled on his face. I couldn't imagine losing someone so close to me. Well, not yet at least. "Freya's a pretty name," I said trying to cheer him up a bit. Still with the same face he answered in a daze,"Different dads. We had different dads. She had never met hers and she was always mad about it." "So how long does it usually take for a 'clam to poop.'" " Usually one pearl every decade," I whirled my head around to look at him," But I know a trick to make it fifteen minutes. And it's already been five. I could tell this clam hasn't spouted its pearl yet." "How'd you know? What'd you do?" I asked," The way I knew was because it was too big. Clams that have spouted pearls are smaller. I also sprinkled some special sand onto it. For the clam to poop." There was silence for a few seconds," So where are your parents?" I shrugged and came up with a lie until it was time," They both took off when I was younger," " Oh, I'm sorry." I shrugged again. Now I felt even worse!" It's ok," I answered." I guess I'm lucky to have my parents," he said. I couldn't take it anymore! I liked Aaron I didn't want to have to lie to him!" Aaron, I haven't been-" I took a deep breath and closed my eyes," I haven't been completely honest with you. I have two huge things to tell you but you have to promise to never tell anyone, until I do so myself," I said," I promise." I took another deep breath," I may or may not be the princess and a human," I chuckled and then weakly whispered," Ta-da." Putting up jazz hands and waving them. Aaron swam up," You're the what? Your were a what?" He seemed caught between bowing and looking disgusted. I swam up too," I know this is a lot to take in but please understand I'm still the same Zayana. Your friend," I touched his arm and he yanked it away," You're a human!" He said still in disbelief. I saw two fish look at each other then swim off as if they knew what was about to happen." I'm supposed to stay away from them. Not even look at them! They're ugly, wicked creatures who pollute our oceans with their trash and the things they don't want anymore. They're dangerous and have no sense. They don't care about anyone but themselves." I nodded. "I know some of us are ugly and don't care about others, but I'm different. I promise I am and I have proof because you were just bonding with one. I'm still the same, I just-" " Stop! Just go away." Bubbles surrounded us," But Aaron-" I pleaded." Go away!" He yelled, the two words I hoped no one would ever say if I told them about me. I raced back home and curled up on the bed. I couldn't believe he would ever say something like that, I trusted him too much just like Kylie and now he was probably ratting me out to Leviathan! Or worse, the queen. I helped cool down Kai and tended to his hurt stomach while I waited for the soldiers to come pick me up to take me to the queen's creepy lab and take tests on me. It never came, instead Aaron came through the door and dropped everything off in the kitchen, he swam out of it slowly and I sat down on the bed holding my tail close to my chest," Zayana-" " Stop, go away," I mimicked." Zayana, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that, I was mean and-" he sat down on the bed," I'm truly honestly sorry." I sat up and looked at him," You hurt my feelings by not embracing the true me then you told me to leave. You even called me ugly and wicked. And you said I don't care about anyone, if I didn't care about anyone why would I be here?" I questioned, voice rising. He really did look sorry. "I know I was being an idiot, and I was reckless with my words. I recited the things I had heard people telling me about humans since I was first in my mom's arms. Can you forgive me, or find a place deep, deep down to not beat me up?" I turned away,"Ok," " Can you please look at me?" Look at him? In those mesmerizing eyes? Adorable dimples? Into his chestnut hair?! Uh-uh, no way. His hand gently dropped onto my arm and my body burned with fire. "Zayana?" I glanced up and just as I suspected, his face melted my tender easy-to-move heart. My eyes darted down and I mumbled something similar and recognizable as,"Ok." "I don't know how to explain my . . . how to say . . . I really am . . . " He groaned in frustration and his chin slammed into his chest. "I'm not good with words when I-" "Really mean them?" I asked softly. He looked up surprised and nodded giving me a small smile then dropping it not sure if it was the right moment for it. "And yeah, I forgive you. I get it, a freak of nature you probably think." I looked at him this time and he was smiling. His adorable dimples made me smile back as he brushed back a string of loose black hair dropping into my face. I buried my face deep into my arms attempting to hide the flush and failing terribly. "Freak of nature? Didn't know they could be so brave and beautiful and . . ." I gazed into his eyes urging him to finish. Please finish, I thought. Aaron shook his head as if stopping all thoughts of what he was going to say. "Anyway," he said looking away,"everyone who has a heart can tell that you're quite the opposite of wicked and you are one of the most caring merpeople I've ever met." Slowly Aaron swiveled back to me letting his eyes wander over my face, and I didn't blush. In fact I felt, more than I had on this whole journey, certain everything would be ok. Did Aaron have a secret power too? I dropped my arms and my tail flopped to the side of the bed. My lips parted and Aaron's eyes flicked down to them for a quick moment before looking back into my eyes. I thought of doing something crazy for a moment. Something I would never do if in my right mind. Maybe? No, I shouldn't. I didn't. I changed my mind at the last second and wrapped my arms around Aaron for a deep consoling hug, burying my face into the crook of his shoulder and neck. He, fortunately, hugged me back and we stayed like that for a bit. I sighed falling into him. He felt so warm and . . . safe at that moment. He felt like my new refuge. I knew I eventually had to pull away I just didn't know it would be so soon. "I'm sorry, that was probably awkward for you." He stared at me for a second and I peered around the room feeling a bit uncomfortable. Suddenly Aaron snapped out of it and said way louder than I think he meant,"No! I mean, yes. I mean-" Rylie swam in and Aaron looked grateful for the intrusion. "We need to leave now before-" she saw Aaron and me inches from each other and put the pieces together. "I'm sorry, was I interrupting something?" She said smugly. Aaron and me both blushed even more and jumped up. Aaron swam out,"You were saying?" I asked,"I was saying, that we need to go now, the Night Terrors are coming." The image of what I imagined was a Night Terror came to mind and I shivered. "We need to go, also while you were gone with Aaron I took Kai to the hospital and the nurses said he's in incredible pain but that they couldn't do anything about it. They don't have the supplies," I nodded, wiped my eye then swam out the door but Rylie didn't follow. I looked back at her and a tear escaped her eye. I didn't realize how hard it would be for Rylie and Kai to leave their home to come to mine. I started swimming back to console her but, what would I say? I had left my home so I understood but she was leaving hers willingly. I was kind of pushed into it. More or so literally. I sat in the car and waited for Rylie to come in five minutes later. We had been upgraded to a big van that I usually saw people driving in when it was break at school. I sat in the back and let my mind wander as I stared out the window. Aaron joined me,"Saving this seat for anyone?" he asked. I looked up and grinned,"Please do," I said scooting over. Kai was in the front with Rylie, Atlantic was sitting by herself giggling about something on her phone and the two hostages sat together between everyone mumbling to each other through their gags. Vlad yelled 'Boom!' which I guess was supposed to be shotgun because he sat in the passenger seat while Island was driving. I beamed at Aaron, I could think of no one better to sit next to. I still thought about Kai every second but Aaron helped me not to worry so much. I'm coming Auntie A. I'm coming home to kick butt. I couldn't wait. I was finally going to be home.