The Bad Boy And The Mermaid

Chapter 17

Blue

When I touched Tyler’s hand, I could see snippets of his life. His tragic past, bits of his childhood, so much pain and the face of a beautiful woman. I pulled away abruptly and he stared at me in confusion. I took a step back, then another. He had his hand raised towards me. “Are you alright?”

I was panting. If I had kept the connection much longer, it probably would have taken a toll on me. That is one reason why I tried to block away people’s memories when they touched me.

“Blue?” Hannah asked, she was clearly anxious. “What happened?”

I plastered a fake smile and turned to him. “Can...Can I start with my work?”

“Of course. I’m sure Max briefed you about what you’re supposed to do. I’ll be out of your way.”

I just smiled, not sure how else to respond.

“Great.” Tyler said and then turned his attention to Hannah, “You and I need to have a serious talk.”

Hannah rolled her eyes. Tyler kept the door open for the both of us. I walked out followed by Hannah right behind me. She took my hand in hers, a reassuring smile on her lips. “I’ll be in the lounge if you need me. If in case you didn’t enjoy working, you can let me know, okay? No pressure. You’re doing it for fun.”

I smiled back at her. “Kay.”

“One more thing. Max knows you’re my friend but the others don’t, if anyone else asks, I’m going to tell them you’re my cousin okay? You gotta tell them the same, and no talking about being in Hunter’s bed.”

“Got it.” I said.

I had a warm fuzzy feeling inside, Hannah was so nice I could feel her energy. I knew if I was a man, I would have asked Hannah to marry me.

But I was a girl...a woman as Hunter put it and I was so completely attracted to him, it was hard to ignore this feeling. I had never felt this way towards mer-men and I wondered why.

I tried to concentrate towards the work at hand. I had a job now even if it meant just for one day and I needed to be really good at it, good enough for Maximus to hire me for a long time, at least as long as I stayed on the land.

I straightened up my appearance and walked towards the bar where the bartender was preparing drinks.

“Hi!” I said.

He was an angry looking man with a facial expression that said ‘be gone’ but I kept the smile on my face plastered. He was tall too, and silky black hair, and his nose was too pointed. Both his arms were covered in tattoos, from his biceps, all down to his fingers. Overall he was nice looking. Kind of reminded me of my mermaid best friend Adrian, the only difference was Adrian had silver hair and no tattoos.

“Can I get you any drinks?” He asked me politely but his face was still the same. No smile. Stoic.

“I would have loved too, but I’m not allowed.” I said cheerfully. “You see, I’m working as the waitress here tonight.”

“Oh, I see.” He said, pouring drinks in a tall glass and then shaking it.

I leaned against the counter. “I’m Blue.”

He nodded. “Yeah. I guess we all are feeling a little blue today, what with I had to cancel my weekly off just to cover that jackass.” He also had a round silver metal in his tongue. Didn’t that hurt?

I laughed. “No silly, I mean my name is Blue. What’s yours?”

That’s when his lips cracked into a smile. A real smile. “God, I’m so stupid. Sorry. I’m Alec.” He raised his hand towards me for a handshake.

I didn’t want to shake his hand and look into his past, I’ve had enough of that for today but not shaking his hand would also be rude right?

I slid my hand in his and before I could have any visions, I pulled my hand away.

He stared at me in surprise. “Uh-okay.”

“They said Max’s friends are here and I need to be their host.” I informed Alec.

“Yeah, well, that’s the whole point of you covering for Holly.” He muttered. “Just give me a minute, I’ll make a few drinks for you to serve them.”

“Uh..hmm. Say Alec, did it hurt when you got that metal in your tongue?”

“A little, but nothing I can’t handle.”

I thought for a moment. I had another question in my mind and it was bad that I couldn’t get rid of it until I asked the person. I decided to ask him.

“What does it feel like when you put that tongue in a girl’s mouth? Does she feel the metal?” I asked.

And there was a crash of a few glasses. The glasses had slipped from his hand. Heads turned to look in my direction. Alec’s face was red, as red as a tomato in Hunter’s refrigerator. He produced a broom and began cleaning the pieces of glass.

“Let me help you.” I offered.

Alec put his hand up, dismissing me. Then he ducked down near the bar and his body was shaking. I wondered if it was shaking because I had made him cry but a moment later I saw he was laughing. Laughing until there were tears in his eyes.

“Where...where did you come from?”

Should I mention him about what Hunter said about the Askanda part? Maybe not.

“Not from around here.” I said, laughing with him. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“Give me one sec.” He called out.

Later, he made another round of drinks and handed them to me in a tray to carry. His expressions were clearly amused, he leaned in close. “How could you say something with a straight face? Actually, I never asked the women I kissed about how they felt about the metal in my tongue. But the noises they made at the back of their throat, it proves they enjoyed it a lot.”

“I see. That answers my question.” I said. “Thank you.”

“What do you say, you want me to kiss you so you could check for yourself?”

I mean I was curious about that round metal, but would kissing this man be appropriate? Considering the fact that I liked kissing Hunter. For instance, if I were to see Hunter kissing other women like the way he used to kiss me, would I like it?

The answer was clear. It was a big NO. Just the fact that the Stella girl touching him had disturbed me so much that he had promised me he wouldn’t let any other woman touch him.

So surely that meant me kissing other boys would be inappropriate.

I shook my head. “No. I don’t think my boyfriend would like it.”

He chuckled. “Loosen up girl, I was just kidding. Who is your boyfriend?”

I shook my head again. “Sorry Alec. I’m not allowed to say.”

He grinned. “Are you sure you have a boyfriend or you’re just saying that because that’s what girls say nowadays to ward off flirty men.”

I thought about that for a moment. “I don’t know what you mean. Ward off flirty men? What’s a flirty man? Is that like a new species?”

He roared with laughter just like others do when I talk to them. I was afraid he would break the new set of glasses and the drinks he had prepared that I pushed them a little father away from him.

“You, lady, just turned my gloomy day into a bright sunny one. I needed a good laugh.” He flashed me a set of straight white teeth. “I hope Max keeps you around.”

“I hope he does too. It would be fun.” I said.

Alec handed me the drinks in a tray and I slowly walked towards the table filled with...I did a mental headcount, say five boys including the brother, Phoenix who was found kissing the Holly girl.

I passed the drinks around to each one of them. One of the boys smiled and one of his eye fluttered at me. I stared at him.

“I’m sorry, I can’t flutter my eye like yours.” I said to him.

“What?” He looked dumbfounded.

“What you just did. I don’t know how to do it with my eyes.” I confessed. “Is it like this...” I proceeded squinting one of my eye but decided I looked foolish doing it because the Lockhart boy was laughing.

Phoenix laughed. “She means a wink. A wink. Darn it, girl!” He pointed at the embarrassed boy who had supposedly “winked” at me and laughed. “Haven’t seen a girl call you out so blatantly on flirting before.”

There’s the word again.

Flirting.

I laughed because that’s what Hannah had told me before. They were paying me to laugh and be cheerful while I served this table. Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

Later after the boys left, I went back to Alec who was serving drinks to some people. “Hey Alec, what’s flirting?”

He flashed me a grin. “Well, flirting is exactly what you and I were doing a while back.”

“And what’s that?”

“The art of flirting is to impress someone by the way they compliment them or make em smile. You made me smile a while back so you were flirting with me.”

“Oh.” I said as realization dawned in. I made Hunter smile a lot too, that means I flirted with him. “Well, does that make us friends?”

“Yes.” He said. “Of course. We are friends. Hey listen, I have like two tickets for a movie on Saturday, you wanna come with?”

“What movie?”

“Horror. Do you like horror?” He asked.

“I don’t think I have seen horror before.” I admitted because Hunter never let me. He said I would be scared.

“It’s alright. I think you will enjoy.”

“Is that what friends do?” I asked him. “Go out together for movies?”

Alec stared at me like he was in awe for a while. “Yeah, they do. And then we could some grab dinner, I mean, only if you’re free that is. If your boyfriend wouldn’t mind.”

I waved my hand. “I don’t think he would mind, really.”

Alec pulled out his phone. “Let’s exchange numbers.”

“Sure.” I said.

He flashed me a smile that almost melted my heart. Alec was a sweet soul.

After my shift was over, I was suddenly rich that day. My wallet couldn’t even fit all the money that the Lockhart brothers had given me. I liked Tyler and Max but I really wasn’t so sure about Phoenix. He seemed like a boy who could use a whooping from his mama.

Hannah and I celebrated my first job that night by ordering pizza. We had pizza and coke while watching the huge tv screen in her bedroom. I hadn’t felt happier in a while.

But something felt missing.

Hunter. I wish he was here so I could share everything with him. All about my job, the brothers who hired me, my new friend Alec.

I wanted to call and apologize him about yesterday but I couldn’t bring myself to call him mostly because I knew he would only get furious. I didn’t know what I would do if I asked him to take me back

home with him and if he said no. I would be completely heartbroken.

My trail of thought was interrupted by a phone call that I was getting on my phone which was quite a surprise. I always got text messages from Hunter and Hannah but I had never answered calls.

I answered the call. “Hey, this is Blue’s phone. Leave a message after the beep. Beeeeeeeeeeeeep.”

I heard laugher on the other end of the line and Hannah spurted coke onto the white mattress of the bed.

“Okay..” some more laughing and then, “I understand why Alec keeps asking me if you’re on the team for good.”

“Uh..who is this?”

“Oh, sorry. This is Max calling. Blue, I know you said you were doing this as a one time gig but I was kinda wondering if you would be interested in the position permanently or at least until we could find a replacement for Holly.”

“You mean being a waitress at your bar?” I asked.

“Yeah. We are currently short staffed and I would pay you by the hour, the same as what we did last night.”

“That would be great. Yeah. I would love to take the job.”

‘She said yes.’ I heard Max say in the background and then there was a hoot. “Awesome. See you tonight at eight. Bye sweets.”

Hannah was staring at me. “How did you do it?”

I laughed. “Do what?”

“They are so tight-assed when it comes to hiring new girls. You clearly charmed their pants off.” Hannah commented.

“I never had to take off their pants, they just said yes.”

Hannah spurted the Coke through her nose this time. “Don’t you ever say that to anyone else.”

Hunter

I was currently trying to get a report done for college, but it was hard to concentrate. I wasn’t able to put my mind into this. Period.

All I needed was a six pack of beer cans that I could keep chugging until I didn’t have to think anymore.

My mind kept wandering towards the hurtful things that Blue had said to me and the pain just continued to get worse. I couldn’t call her, Blue had to come to me on her own accord.

I realized my phone was ringing. I hadn’t even been paying attention to it.

My best friend, Fredricko’s number flashed on the screen.

“What’s up, man?” I asked. “If this is to ask me if I can hangout, bro. I don’t think it’s possible. I gotta submit this fucking report by tomorrow morning.”

“Dude, I’m not asking you to hangout.” He said in a monotone. “I just think you needed to know even though Hannah asked me to promise her not to tell you.”

“So, you gonna break my sister’s promise? You want me to punch you or what?”

“I had my fingers crossed at the back so it doesn’t count. Anyway, do you want to hear this?”

Curiosity got the better of me. “What?”

“Blue is in the club.” He said and I froze.

“What club?”

“Lucifer’s den.”

Fuck.

“What’s she doing there?” I demanded.

“Working as Max’s new waitress.”

Double Fuck.

“I don’t like this, Hunt. You should come and see.”

“I’m on my way.” I said.