Quickly dragging the mermaid away from the door as soon as it slammed shut. I marched with her in tow to the bedroom, before she could resist me I pushed her towards the bed. I made sure to stand in the way of the door in case she decided to make a run for it.
I guess I may have pushed too hard because she lost her balance and landed on the bed with a thud. The pose that resulted from this was less than graceful. But I decided to ignore it.
"Stay here. I'll be right back." I ordered heading towards one of the spare bedrooms. Approaching a stack of boxes, I was sure that it was in here somewhere. While it would bring back some bad memories to see it again. I couldn't let her go nude and I didn't even want to try to fight her into the clothes that I wear. Aside from the size difference, my much more practical clothing took a bit more effort to get on.
Moving some boxes around and checking inside a couple, I finally found what I was looking for under a mess of... Her things. Looking at old gifts of stuffed animals, poetry, and jewelry I winced when I saw her picture.
Biting my lip in frustration I closed my eyes. Taking a deep breath I reminded myself, she wasn't here. I never had to see her again. My hand clasped a bit of my shirt over my chest. Despite knowing all that, despite everything... It still hurt like hell.
Another deep breath and then I stuck my hand down into the box, finding the prize: a mess of light-colored fabric crumbled up in the corner. I pulled it free and quickly slammed the box back shut. As I pushed the box away from me across the floor, I made a silent note to myself to get rid of some that stuff.
Even though I knew deep down I wasn't quite ready for that yet.
Ignoring that thought, I held out the fruit of my labor in front of me. It was a simple sundress, a ruffled front to the blouse, and puffy sleeves. The top was pure white, but as it moved down towards the skirt, it slowly turned into an ocean blue.
I laughed softly at this, at the time when I bought this, I had thought it looked like the sky. But now, all I saw was the ocean. Shaking my head, and reminding myself that there was a mermaid with a very short attention span naked in my room. Allowing myself for a momentary pause for that thought. I then got up and turned around to leave the room.
However, when I turned around I saw a mess of orange hair and a pair of curious eyes peeking around the corner.
An airy snort made its way out of my nose, "Come here." I called to her, as soon as those words came out of my mouth she was in the room. She smiled at me before looking at the dress draped over my arm. She tilted her head at the sight before looking up back at me.
Getting the hint I unfolded it and held it out to her. "This used to belong to someone else, but I think you would fit it better," I explained to her. Her curious eyes flickered from me then to the dress and then back to me. It was almost as if she was trying to ask me what exactly I had in my hands.
Feeling a little stupid for assuming she'd know what human clothes where. Or even how to put them on. I gave her a smile before saying, "it's a dress. You're going to have to wear it if you want to come with me." I explained, her eyes lit up at the idea of going somewhere with me.
"You didn't seriously think I'd leave you home alone?" I asked cocking an amused eyebrow, "I already saw what you did to the window." I snarkily added a pouty look was my reply. Leading her from the room, I caught the mermaid shoot a lingering gaze towards the room. Chalking it up to her natural curiosity, I ignored it and guided her towards my bedroom.
After a bit of fussing, I finally managed to help get the mermaid dressed. She pulled at the bra around her chest under the dress. "You have to wear it," I reminded her, she shot me a disgusted look at the prospect. "You can take it off when we get back." I offered up as a compromise. Her face lit up at that idea and I smiled pleased to strike a deal with her.
Grabbing some sandals from my closet, I helped her slip them on. She wiggled her feet around in them, not entirely sure as to how she felt about having her feet restricted. "This is so you don't hurt your feet outside," I explained standing up.
Suddenly it hit me that Veronica and Sam might still be outside. Looking from the bedroom into the living room where I could see the door. I saw shadows dance underneath the door frame. Making my way to the living room over to the door, with the mermaid not two steps behind me. I opened the door to see Veronica and Sam still standing there.
"You guys have been standing here the whole time?" I asked, surprised at their patience. Veronica smiled, "Well you said you'd be right back." She replied with a sheepish smile.
I let out a shallow laugh feeling terrible for taking so long. "I'm sorry it took so long." I apologized, "She really doesn't like clothes." I added unsure if I was oversharing, but it slipped out before I could stop myself.
"We noticed," Sam remarked side eying the mermaid who was standing behind me. There were a couple of beats of silence after that before Veronica spoke up. "Well it's close enough to lunch right now, would you like to come to the house with us?" She offered to motion to her white convertible.
I wasn't sure, but I was pretty sure that was a different car than what I saw her driving the other day. Vaguely I wondered to myself how much more disgustingly rich can she get?
I looked over at the mermaid who seemed just happy to be there. "Uh..." Taking a second to weigh my options. I considered the fact that if we didn't go right away, the mermaid would probably strip all her clothing off before it was time for lunch. And after all that hard work getting her into those damn things, I wasn't about to let it get wasted.
"Sure." I responded after thinking about it, "Just let me get my things." I added turning and going to grab my cellphone, wallet, and keys. For good measure, I grabbed my multitool as well. I wasn't sure if I needed it, but it always came in handy when I did have it.
Heading back to the door, I heard Veronica explaining to the mermaid where we were going to be having lunch with them.
"Oh, you are going to love it! My hubby and I bought this darling new boat! I don't know a thing about them, but it's got the most adorable name!" Veronica rambled, Sam then took this chance to interject. I assume it was to get some attention from the slightly overwhelmed mermaid on to her. "It's called the Siren's Call," Sam remarked with a smile. "Pretty cool name isn't it?"
The mermaid's eyes widened at hearing the name, taking this as a chance to interject myself into the conversation I spoke up. "Ready to go?" I asked everyone, the mermaid seemed relieved at my returning and quickly attached herself to my side.
I caught an exchanged look between Veronica and Sam. I wondered if they were concerned that the mermaid hadn't spoken a word since they met her. Or if they had even noticed? My gaze fell onto Sam first, if I remembered being her age properly. I probably would've noticed pretty quickly.
I glanced at the mermaid out of the corner of my eye. Then again... I would've probably been so stupidly attracted to her I wouldn't have noticed her lack of speech until later.
"Of course! I hope you don't mind riding with us! As Sammy would say, carpooling is better for the planet!" Veronica chirped happily, my eyes fell onto Veronica when her voice got my attention.
I knew that her little Stepford wife act was just that, an act. I'm sure she had already picked up on the mermaid's lack of speech. I struggled in my mind to figure out a way to explain it. The last thing I wanted them to think was that I had forbidden her from speaking like an abusive partner.
I knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of that kind of treatment. The last thing I would ever want was to treat another person that way. I took another glance at the mermaid. Especially not her.
A tug at my heartstrings was felt in my chest thinking of someone ever treating her so poorly. It was then I realized that the mermaid's hand was interlocked with mine. Relaxing after a reassuring squeeze from her. I understood that I had worried her.
"Yeah, that's fine," I responded to Veronica, giving a quick squeeze to the mermaid's hand as well. She smiled at this and bumped her shoulder against mine. I wondered if this was a sign of affection. The warm feeling in my chest sure made me think it was.
After I locked my door, we all made our way over to Veronica's convertible. When I got a better look at it I realized what the car was. The car was the latest model of the Ferrari spider. I had a few friends overseas that I had met during some of my trips to write. If I remembered correctly, Veronica's car was well over the two hundred thousand price range.
My stomach churned more at the thought of that much money being used on a damn car. While Veronica was nice. I couldn't help but think it was stupid to spend that money on a car when it could be used for something better.
But I guess we were from two different worlds, and I shouldn't really judge.
Helping the mermaid buckle herself in and then sliding in next to her in the back seat. Making sure to buckle myself in as well. Veronica turned on the car and slipped on some sunglasses.
"So," She said beginning to back up in my driveway, "How'd you two meet?" She asked, I opened my mouth to answer but before I could get a word out Veronica peeled out of my gravel driveway with reckless abandon knicking the car on my trashcan.
"Sorry!" She exclaimed as we sped down the highway, "It's fine." I waved her off, thankful that I opted to keep the town's plastic cans. There was no telling what kind of damage a metal one would've done to this car.
Additionally, I thanked myself for being too lazy and caught up with everything else to take out the trash. So when the trashcan was knocked over, I didn't have to worry about cleaning up my yard after we got back.
As we sped down the open road to Veronica's house, I couldn't help but stiffen up when Veronica carelessly weaved across the yellow line. Sure there weren't any other cars around but I couldn't help but think what if there was...
I looked to the other passengers in the car, Sammy seemed clearly unaffected looking at her phone and the mermaid seemed obvious to Veronica's driving. She was more fascinated with feeling of wind. Letting out an airy laugh she raised her hands above her head and closed her eyes enjoying the ride.
Seeing her relaxed made me relax a bit, maybe it wasn't so bad and I was focusing on the wrong things...
Or at least that's what I thought until I saw the semi-truck on the same side as us.
"Veronica truck!" I screamed seeing the ditzy Stepford wife putting on makeup in the mirror. Hearing me scream she whipped the car back into the correct lane. "Sorry about that!" She apologized, my eye twitched as I felt a few years of my life slip away. "It's okay..." I choked out gripping to the Italian leather seats for life.
After a few more minutes we finally pulled up to Veronica and Sam's gated driveway. Stretching what looked to be another mile beyond the bars of the gate I saw Veronica's house in the distance.
At the gate, Veronica pressed a button on a pillar attached to a video-speaker system. There was a buzzing noise before the face of an older man in a security guard outfit appeared on the screen.
"Hi, Ronald!" Veronica greeted cheerfully, the tired mustached man. "Mrs. Veronica." He replied in a dull unamused voice, I assume he caught sight of Sam in the front seat because he then greeted her in the same tone. "Miss Samatha." Sam looked up from her phone for the first time since we got into the car.
"Hey, Ronald." Sam greeted in a very typical teenager way, just the right amount of apathy with a tinge of affection in her voice towards the old man. Veronica adjusted herself in the front seat. "We're back with our guests for lunch on the new boat!" Veronica nearly shouted Ronald winced at the volume.
"I see." Ronald drawled out with a wince, "I'll be sure to buzz you in then." He added hitting a button. A loud buzz was heard and the iron gates began to open. As Veronica drove past I heard Ronald say, "I hope you enjoy your evening Miss West."
My eyes widened at the mention of my name. I wondered briefly how he could've gotten that information before realizing that Veronica must have given him it.
Veronica was much more careful making her way up the long driveway. Mostly because she was pointing out things to me and the mermaid. It then occurred to me that I would need to figure out a way to find out her name or give her one.
However, that thought was put away for the time being. Veronica's loud shouts of different areas of her land were kind of distracting, to say the least. So like many thoughts, I've had over the past few days. That too had to be shelved.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity the car came to a stop in the around about driveway. It was a bit of a rough landing because Veronica ended up tapping the bumper of the car in front of her.
However, judging from the back bumper of this car from where I was sitting, this wasn't the first time she had done this. Sam let out a bit of a grunt on impact. The mermaid's arms found their way wrapped around my left arm. I looked to her seeing her look a little concerned by the dull thud that the car had made.
"It's alright." I comforted her, I patted one of her hands with my free one. "We're here!" Veronica spoke at the same time as I did, drowning out my words of comfort with her loud shout. She seemed to be excited to have guests over. I guess is that she liked just showing off the things that she had. Not that I'd blame her. I'd probably be doing it too if I lived in a place as nice as this.
Then again, I'd probably be frozen in a corner somewhere not wanting to touch anything because of how much money everything fucking costs. The sound of the thud made by the car earlier still made my own stomach sick remembering how much money this car was worth.
Managing to wiggle my arm free, at least temporarily, we all slowly made our way out of the car. Veronica was the first out letting out a shriek of excitement taking off up the steps in front of her house. I didn't pay attention to her as I was helping the mermaid out of her seatbelt and the car. It seemed that she lost her land legs a bit after being in the car for so long.
Once out, her arms wrapped around one of mine once more. I chalked this up to her feeling a bit unsteady from the drive. "What did you think of the ride?" I asked humorously, I got an uneasy look in response.
Before we could talk to each other more Veronica's voice cut in, "Gloria! This is my hubby!" Looking over at Veronica basically draped on top fo a man, the man in question smiled and then said. "It's a pleasure to finally get to meet you Miss West. I've heard so much about you."
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