Christen laughed, “Feeling a little peckish, are we?”

Seirina smiled, “Sorry, hadn’t eaten since yesterday.”

“You fasting?”

“N-no, just didn’t get the chance.”

“We can ditch this place and get something.”

“That’s okay.  Let’s chill here a bit.”

Christen frowned, “C’mon.  You’re starving.  Let’s just go-”

“No!  Uh, no… Let’s stay a bit longer.”

Christen sighed.

“Look, you’ve been weird this whole day when we’re supposed to be relaxing.  I won’t push you on it but we’re both clearly not relaxed.  I had my swim, you had the sun, so let’s just jump in the car and get out before some weirdo says we’re on their property.”

Seirina looked scared.  Genuinely scared.

“We… I…”

She downed the last of her drink, chugging at least a fourth of a bottle of flavored vodka she had poured before coming back up for air.  She hacked for a second from the burn before squeezing out her words.

“Shit… Okay.  I’m sorry Christen.”

Seirina sighed.

“I’ve been super weird and ‘oooh, mysterious’ today and I didn’t mean to but-”

Her words were getting faster and faster as she spoke.

“The truth is, you found this secluded spot and I thought it was the perfect time because I-I need to tell you something and it’s super important, something about me that also affects us.”

Now it was Christen turn to look scared.  Does she know how I feel?  Is… Is she wanting to… but the way she phrased it.  Oh shit.  Oh no.  Is she turning me down before I can even say it?

Seirina caught the look on Christen face.

“It’s not- well, okay, it’s big, but we can be super cool about this, okay?”

Dread started filling Christen.  I have to say it now.  Before she has a chance, I have to say something now or I’ll never be able to.

Seirina took a deep breath as she fanned her flushing face.

“Whew, okay…  Christen, uh…”

All of sudden, Christen blurted out at the same time that Seirina spoke.

“I love you as more than a friend.” “I’m not actually afraid of the ocean!”

“Wait, what?” “Wait, what?”

Christen gestured toward Seirina.

“You… What did you say?”

Seirina was wide-eyed.

“No!  Nu-uh!  We’re starting with you, Christen.  Let’s get into that topic before we deal with this.  You… You love me?”

Christen felt trapped.

“I… Why would you lie about being afraid of water?!  You’ve been telling me that since we met.”

“Oh, no you don’t.  CHRISTEN!!!  You can’t just say that and then pretend like you didn’t!”

“Well, it may matter if the person I l-like has been weirdly lying to me for years!”

“I… It’s not entirely a lie… I just… I have this thing when I touch salt water…”

“You… what?  The hell kinda thing is that?”

“Christen, please.  What you said is important.  I need to hear about how you really-”

Suddenly, there was a shout from up the beach.

“The HELL are you two doing on my property?!”

Christen and Seirina looked up the beach and saw a man in swimming trunks and a muscle shirt marching his way down the beach toward them.

“This is private property, assholes!  You think this is just for your personal use?”

Seirina was the first to call out.

“Okay, dude.  Sorry, but there were no signs up.  We had no idea.”

“Fat lot some reading would do you two bimbos.”

“Excuse me?!”

The man was much closer now.  He seemed extremely young, maybe barely out of high school, and while obviously someone who loves his own muscles, there was a distinct early balding going on that seemed to make the muscles more of a compensation.  Either that, or Christen was currently very biased from the total dick of a personality he was displaying.

“This is mine and my family’s, and not some lover’s retreat.  My father owns half the damn town, you know?”

Seirina started to boil.

“Okay.  Okay.  ignoring the immature insults, I’ll try to be the better person here.  No signs.  No indication.  Honest mistake.  We’ll take our stuff and get out of your hair…”

Serina, please don’t say it.  I know you downed that vodka but-

“Or lack thereof.”

The man scowled.

“What did you just say to me?”

Christen tried to put out a hand to calm down Seirina but she’s always been quick to anger with obvious assholes.

“I said we’ll fucking leave, you massive douche clearly mooching off your parents’ money.”

Oh shit, Seirina.

The manchild kicked the sand onto us.

“Okay, THAT’S IT!!!”

He quickly lunged and grabbed Seirina by her hair while she was distracted by the sand.  She yelped as the sudden pull on her scalp shot immense pain through her.

“I was just going to sue you and get you on trespassing, but now I’m fucking pissed.”

She struggled as he pulled her down the beach by her hair.  Christen immediately jumped up to follow, but the sand in her eyes started to burn, causing her to close her eyes.  She tried to wipe it out as fast as she could.

“What’s that, you were talking about before I shouted?  Something about not liking salt water?  Well, today’s your lucky day, bitch.”

Seirina’s eyes went wide.  She turned her head and saw that they were only feet away from the water.  Seirina screamed as she still struggled, punching his arms to try and loosen their grasp.

Christen was horrified at the sounds.  She blindly stepped forward toward them as she wiped desperately at her eyes.  She tried for what seemed like ages as she listened to Seirina scream as the water got closer.  Finally she managed to crack her eyes open just as she witnessed this asshole of a person grab her best friend by the shoulders, lift her up, and toss her into the surf.  Christen was mortified and pissed beyond anything she had felt.  She ran down the beach toward them, almost making it, before the dickbag stepped toward Seirina again.

However, he suddenly stopped.  As did Christen.

As the waves receded, there, on the sand, was a beautiful creature.  Her skin was shades of turquoise and blue in an intricate pattern.  Her face was that of Seirina but the skin had become scales that coated her from head to toe.  Her normally brown hair seemed tinged with a bit of blue, as did her lips.  Her neck had large slots that gasped to try and filter as the water that had covered them receded.  She still wore the upper part of her swimwear but her lower half was merged into a long and powerful looking tail that slapped the wet sand as she struggled to catch her breath from the sudden change.  Even her gasping was different, as if there was a song in every sound she made from her throat.

Christen stared in awe.  There was no doubt in her mind.  The facial features, the body type.  This was Seirina but… but not how she knew her.  Seirina finally found air or filtered air or whatever.  She turned to look over at her friend.  The shock in Christen’s face caused Seirina to have one of horror on her own.  The truth was finally out and there was no going back.  Seirina stared at her friend in horror and sorrow before a flare of wrath replaced it.  She turned to look up to the guy that had done all of this.  He was dumbfounded, just staring at Seirina.

All of a sudden, Seirina’s stomach let out a massive sound.  Seirina’s eyes looked from her friend and then back to the douche.

“Fuck it.  I’m so sorry, Christen.  I’m hungry and pissed.”

Christen heard the growl and in a matter of seconds, it was over.

Seirina lunged forward, her jaws widening slightly to show rows of sharp teeth.  She immediately closed down on the man’s wrist, easily ripping through the flesh and severing his hand.  The man fell backwards and could hardly react until a second later when the pain finally kicked in.  He howled and screamed loud.

After a few seconds of leaving him like that, Seirina spat out the man’s hand and growled again.  Dread filled the man as he desperately back-pedaled away from Seirina.  He finally stood up as he turned around, running back to his car.  On the way, he took Seirina’s towel, wrapping it around his stub before fumbling with his keys to unlock the car.  He never stopped screaming.

Christen watched as the man sped off, letting the speed and gravity of the climb back up slam the door for him as he sped away.  Christen stared at the road for a second while her brain attempted processing.  Finally, she realized there was still someone else there and she turned.  There, still on the sand as another wave enveloped her, Seirina laid on the ground, her eyes cast down with a look of extreme pain on her face.

“S-Seirina?”

Seirina’s words came out pained, as if holding back tears.  However, the undercurrent of that musical sound to her voice made each syllable sound as if it was a soft elegy sung in two distinct voices.

“I… I didn’t lie.  Though, I’m not exactly afraid of water.  I’m... “ she looked up at her friend.  Her closest friend. “I’m afraid of what others think when I get into the water.  Afraid of what they’ll think about what I am.  Christen, I’m so sorry.  I didn’t want to lie but we’ve been so close, and that just made it harder to say something after so long, even though we’d promised to always share.  I just… I needed you to know.  But not like this…”

Christen’s brain was still stuck.  She couldn’t believe the image in front of her and on top of everything else, each saccharin syllable Seirina said had a hypnotic effect on Christen.  However, seeing the pain in her friend snapped her out of everything.  She shook her head.

“Seirina… I-”

“And not after you admitted your feelings to me.  I-I’d understand,” Seirina spasmed as she held back the tears that were building up, “I’d understand if you want to take those words back now.  But they made me happy.  I know that’s selfish after lying to you but it felt so nice to hear you felt the same way as me...”

“...Same.”

Seirina looked up, puzzled.

“What?”

Christen’s face was wide-eyed.  However, it wasn’t in fear, like Seirina had thought.  No, Christen had her jaw dropping to the floor, an explosion of excitement slowly rising up her body to reanimate her face into a massive smile.

“Girl, same!”  You… You said it back… You said you love me!”

Christen put her hands over her mouth.  However, they could not sit still, constantly gesturing before she quickly decided to ball each one like a giddy child, white knuckled, in front of her.

“Holy shit holy shit holy shit.  So we both like- and then we could-  I mean, would you like… Can we date?!”

Seirina was fully in ‘what the fuck’ mode as she tried to take stock of this.

“Um… maybe there’s something you’re not understanding.  I’m half fish?!  Ancestry of Poseidon?  A Siren?!”

Christen jabbed her finger at Seirina.

“Oh, no you don’t.  SEIRINA!!!  You can’t just say that and then pretend like you didn’t!  Yes, the mermaid thing is freaking off the wall bonkers but I just heard you say something that I’ve been secretly waiting so long to hear.  You love me!”

“I…” Seirina gestured toward herself.  “How are you not freaking out about this?!

“I just… I can’t!  My whole brain is on fire knowing that one thing that I don’t think I’m really picking up anything else.  I think when I finally process it, it’ll be mind-blowing, but Serina, I’m on the verge of a panic attack over this!  Wait-”

Christen closed her eyes and held out her hands to stop herself.

“Okay, okay.”  She took a breath.  “So you’re a Mer-”

“Siren.”

“Sorry, Siren.”  Christen looked at the bitten off hand floating in the water, animated by the waves.  “Do… Do you often-”

Seirina blurted out.  “Fish!  Mostly fish. Occasionally a jellyfish...  little bit of eel.  But, uh, yeah.  Mostly… Mostly fish.  Could, heh, could probably call me pescatarian- Dah, um...” She looked at the hand.  “Ninety-nine percent of the time.”

“And you always have been.  Okay, whew.  Fuck.  There are a lot of existential questions I’m going to have about that but lemme stop.  I think… I get why you would hide this, but it does still hurt that you felt like you had to hide it from me for so long so… I think I’m more upset about that.”

Seirina annoyance on her face switched to sadness.  Christen stopped her, though.

“But I understand.  I forgive you because this is a hell of a situation to try and bring up, even to me.  I think it’ll be hard to fully trust you like we used to for a bit, but Seirina.  You’re still my closest and best friend.  You always will be.  So I’m willing to work out those kinks.”

Seirina smiled at Christen.  “Thank you.”

Christen smiled back before a coy look appeared.

“Which is why I’m so happy to hear the other big news!  Please say it again.”

The usually more coy Seirina was now blushing, causing a deeper green-blue to appear across her face.

“I-I love you too, Christen.”

“Oh, that is more music to my ears than whatever happened to your voice box.”

Seirina seemed shocked.

“It’s not affecting you?!”

“It was, but… Hearing the other aspect to it, it’s still your voice.”  Christen smiled. “I don’t know, maybe I’ve gotten a bit of immunity from your particular brand after all these years.”

Seirina grinned.

“I guess I’ll have to try harder, then.”

Christen laughed.  “Why?  You’ve already won me over, hun.”

Seirina scowled but there was a smile in it.

“Gah, you’re such a dick!”

They laughed together, getting out all of the nervousness and stress that had been building up this entire trip.  This was how they were, how they were supposed to be with each other.  More or less.  After finally calming down, Christen noticed the hand that was still floating each time the waves lapped at the shore.

“Sooooo, we should probably get out of here before the police arrive to arrest the ‘crazy fish lady’.”

“Yeah, about that.  Um,“ Seirina sheepishly looked at her friend. “I don’t exactly change back… quickly?  Uh, you may have to carry me back to the car.  The legs don’t really… not till I get completely dry again.”

Christen stared at her for a second before bursting out into laughter.  Seirina’s embarrassment added onto the darkening color change on her face.

“Hey, look, alright.  Don’t make fun of me ‘cause of this condition, asshole!”

Christen smiled at the wonderful and beautiful girl in front of her before finally walking over.  She  went into a squat to pick her friend up, slowly standing up again with the siren in her arms.  After adjusting her hands to account for Seirina’s slickness on her scales, Christen slowly began to walk up the beach.

After the first few steps, Seirina smiled at Christen and leaned her head against Christen’s shoulder.”

“We should probably grab the towels and beach stuff once you get me in the car.”

“We?  What’s this ‘we’ thing, Princess Ariel?  I’m doing the heavy lifting.”

“Oh, excuse you.  Heavy?  Bitch, I weigh half as much as your butch-ass.”

Seirina lifted her head up in realization.

“I... also may need a new bottom to this swimsuit.  The change kinda… decimated the old one.”

Christina laughed, “My!  It’s only the first date and you’re getting kinky.”

“You laugh but that suit was $70.  I went all out for you!  And just so you know…”

A part fish girl and her very best friend continued to banter like they always did as they made their way up the beach, finally free of the burdens of secrets they felt they had to keep from each other.  They had never been closer.