Swim Away (Mermaid)

Chapter Twenty-Two

As I sat in class, I couldn't stop tapping my pencil against the table. I kept biting my nails as I wanted Noah from where I sat. There was something he was hiding from me and I couldn't take it.

Secrets were the worst, especially when it had to do with my mermaid life. My leg started shaking from my eagerness, and Ariel started staring at me. She narrowed her eyes at me and didn't know what to make of my nervous behavior. I lowered my finger from my mouth and threw the pencil on my paper, crossing my legs. But that didn't hold for long.

The second the bell rang, I ran out of the room. But Ariel caught up to me. She grabbed my arm, trying to stop me. I pulled away and slammed my back against some lockers, placing my hand over my forehead and closing my eyes.

"Whoa, Lara. What is going on?" Ariel asked, noticing the way I was acting.

I was pretty sure the whole school noticed. Or not, cause not many people paid attention to me anyway. Before I was able to answer, I saw Noah walk out of class. I pressed my lips together, keeping my eyes frozen on him. Ariel tried to follow my gaze, but couldn't exactly see what I was looking at because Noah disappeared in the crowd.

"I'm just out of it. Don't worry." Ariel wasn't buying it. She frowned.

"Did Noah do something?" She asked, immediately jumping to the conclusion that Noah was the one that had done something wrong.

He had, but I couldn't tell her about it. I shook my head, moving away from the lockers. One girl was staring at me and I realized I was blocking her locker. I apologized and walked away.

"Okay, then." Thankfully, Ariel dropped it. "So I finally found an Asher. I knew he was the one you were talking about. Somehow he knew I was your friend, which is creepy. He talked to me for a bit and asked for your number. So I gave it to him. He's pretty cute." She bumped me. "Gosh, Lara! All these guys!"

I was too busy thinking about Noah, so I didn't catch everything. "What? So that's how he got my number. Whatever."

"What did he want?" She blinked fast, giving me a cute, innocent look. Obviously, wanting to know what he and I talked about.

"He wanted to talk. We talked. It was nothing. Nothing's going on." I continued my search for Noah, since I was walking to our table. Sometimes he was there earlier than us, so hopefully he was sitting there.

"Okay," she said, stretching her reply.

I hated when she did that. She made it seem like I didn't want to tell her anything. She knew I liked Noah and I wouldn't ditch him because a new hot guy came to town.

Before I could process anything that happened, I was on the floor. Someone bumped into me in an instant. I fell palms first and they were burning from how bad I hit the ground. The girl next to me sat up, sliding her hands together.

"Sorry," Selena apologized. I stared at her, narrowing my eyes. Selena never apologized for anything. Not once had I heard that word ever come out of her mouth.

She picked up her stuff and mine as well. I continued to stare at her, stunned. My items were dangling above me, but I didn't touch them, so she placed them next to me. I started to feel the pain on my back from when she rammed into me from behind. Why was she running?

"It's fine," I said finally.

Once I grabbed my stuff, I scooted against the wall, choosing to stay put. Selena frowned when I didn't react. Just because she was a mermaid now didn't change what she did to me in the past. Being bullied by her for years for reasons unknown couldn't be forgiven and forgotten so easily.