Fish Out of Water

Chapter 5~ We Don't Get to Choose

Sean kept glancing at me as we headed toward the beach. The seven-minute walk stretched into some kind of purgatory.

"I know your mom made you come out." he finally said

"It's not like that-"

"It's fine." he waved me off but barely held my eyes. "Thanks anyway." he offered a half-smile and tucked his hands into his pockets.

I took a breath touching the patches on my side to check their fullness. "You don't have to hang out with me you know. I appreciate it but you don't have to keep putting yourself out for me. I'm sure you've got other things you'd rather be doing, hanging out with friends or something"

He scoffed. "Nah. I'm one of the most human kids at this school so they're all off diving two hundred feet into the ocean," he shook his head. "I can't keep up."

"Oh..." I scratched a non-existent itch on my wrist and chanced a look at him, but he just looked ahead like he knew exactly where he was heading. "And you're cool with it?"

"Got a choice?" he laughed. "Besides. I'd rather hang out with my brother and mom when I got to the beach. I only get to see them in the water now."

"Right, mom and brother stay in the sea, yeah?"

He nodded. "What about you?" he glanced down at my sides again. "Bet you can dive deeper than most of them having gills and all." he held out his hand, spreading his fingers out. "You got webbing too?"

I held up my hand spreading my fingers wide exposing webbing only a little smaller than his reaching just under my knuckles. "On my toes too."

"Cool." he puffed his cheeks out. "So you're really built for water life huh?"

"Looks like it." I rubbed at my chest, my ribs pinching into a knot.

"Huh..." he glanced ahead toward the ocean. "Why do you hate the ocean so much?"

Irritation claws up my throat. "I don't hate it. I just don't want to be tied to it like this." My foot sank into the sand as we crossed from dirt to beach. I plopped onto the ground and pulled my shoes off wiggling my webbed toes, just a little too wide for most sneakers to feel comfortable. "I wanted a choice, that's it."

Sean sat beside me and pulled his shoes off too. "Me too." his shoulders slumped forward, "but we're hybrids." he offered a stiff smile. "We don't get to choose which genetics we want and which ones we don't." He grabbed my sneakers and his and stashed them between a pile of rocks with his shirt. I peeled off my t-shirt but kept the tank on to hide my gills. I stuffed my shirt into the hole Sean stashed our shoes and peeled off my patches.

"So cool," Sean whispered staring at my gills. I yanked my shirt down and he took a step back as if he didn't notice he was leaning so close.

"They itch and hurt." I snapped.

He shoved my arm and offered a smile. "Quit being a baby, let's go." he raced ahead of me. I took off after him without deciding to, chasing him into the water, diving under the frigid surface the single time I was glad for my skin was in the water. I could handle the cooler temperatures even if it did make me a bit on the fluffy side. My gills opened the stinging sensation fading. I wasn't sure if it was the cold water numbing it or the ocean itself, but my gills finally felt right. I took deep breaths the discomfort that made my skin feel too tight on land completely gone. I sank under, my gills filtered the water through, and the ocean cradled me recognizing me as one of it's own. After a few minutes, I swam back to the surface and gulped in a lungful of air. My gills were almost all the way in. Times running out.

Sean stared at the water as if he could see my gills through the surface even though the sun wasn't out and the water was dark and I still had my tank on.