“What was that song you were singing earlier?” Mikayla asked as they took a break on a small uncharted island miles off the coast. 

It was beautiful, untouched by man and all the industrial destruction that would have followed. Not even a quarter of a mile in diameter, there was forest in the center surrounded by sandy beaches and a short rocky cliff that would be perfect to dive off of. 

As the sun set on the horizon, gold light shone down on everything, turning it into a forest of treasure. 

“Jolly Sailor Bold,” Beau responded, flipping his long cyan tail and creating ripples in the water. “My mother taught it to me.” 

“Really? Can I… hear it again?” Mikayla asked. 

It was silent for a moment. Mikayla wondered if she had asked the wrong thing, worrying the hoop piercing in the corner of her lip. But before she could reopen her mouth to retract her request, Beau closed his eyes and began to sing. 

Mikayla sat there, staring, just as transfixed as she had been when she had first been drawn to the glorious merman beside her. 

She could hear the emotion bubbling beneath the timbres of Beau’s voice, in the heaviness in which the merman breathed, as the motion of his tail shrank to a slight side-to-side swishing. 

And it all made Mikayla cry, quiet tears streaming down her face in rivers as Beau wove pure magic into the human’s heart with just his voice. 

When Beau finally finished, the last few notes still ringing through the air, he slowly blinked his eyes open and turned to Mikayla. 

“My mom was… speared by a few humans,” he said quietly, his eyes studying Mikayla’s as if they held all the answers. “They thought she was a shark and shot her clean through. She didn’t last an hour after that. I was seven.” 

“I’m… so sorry,” Mikayla said, her voice hitching. 

“It’s not your fault,” Beau said with a sad smile. “That song was the last thing she taught me. It’s a human song, she said, something her mom taught her. And she told me to never be afraid, to never hold hate in my heart, and to just keep singing.” 

Mikayla’s breath caught in her throat as she threw his arms around Beau and crushed their chests together. 

“I’m still so sorry,” she whispered. 

“Me, too,” Beau agreed, wrapping his arms back around Mikayla. “But at least I have you.” 

“And I have you,” Mikayla answered. 

But the sun was truly beginning to set and the temperature of the air slowly lowered. Mikayla sighed as she stared at the nearly-vanished sun and drew back from Beau, their arms loosening around each other. 

“I-I need to go,” she said, her voice melancholy as she thought about everything that had happened together with Beau that afternoon. 

“Oh,” Beau replied simply, his face falling. “Oh. Right. I-I’ll bring you to shore.” 

“I liked spending time with you,” Mikayla said as they linked hands and began to make their way towards the beach, concerned that Beau might take this the wrong way. “And I want to be here with you. But…” 

“But?” Beau prodded as they neared the shore where a discarded red bike was visible. 

Gently, he led them to the edge of some tide pools, lifting Mikayla onto the edge of one particularly large pool. Mikayla barely batted an eyelash at the astounding display of strength Beau had. 

“Humans have a weird… system,” Mikayla tried, mulling over how to explain college to Beau. “And I need to finish it. It’s just until the summer and then I’ll gradu– er, be free.” 

“Summer…” Beau repeated, his eyes settling on a middle distance as he thought. A few moments later, his gaze locked back onto Mikayla’s as he hoisted himself up beside the soaked human. “I can wait until summer.” 

“I-I’ll still visit you, whenever I can,” Mikayla said. “I’ll try to come every day! B-but sometimes…” 

“It’s okay, I understand,” Beau said, leaning close and resting a hand on Mikayla’s shoulder. “I can wait for you. Every day, here, I’ll wait for you. Until you’re ready.” 

Mikayla’s eyes misted over as she thought about the weight Beau’s words held. The thought of being together, of seeing Beau every day, of… of having to hide this from her friends because in what world would they ever believe her? In what world would they just let her leave? 

“Just… just a few months,” Mikayla said, wrapping a hand to cradle the scarred side of Beau’s face. “I promise.” 

Right then, from a few feet away, music blasted from Mikayla’s motorbike. Beau, startled by the noise, gave no hesitation as he dove into the water and vanished from Mikayla’s sight. Mikayla glanced at the ripples Beau’s tail left before he turned and stood. 

She walked, barefoot, over to where her bike was. Bending over, she pulled her phone out the side pocket on her school bag. 

The glowing name on his vibrating phone read the name of one of her best friends, Parker. 

“Hey, girl. What’s up?” Mikayla said when she answered the phone. 

“Dude, the fuck you at?” Parker’s voice asked. “You up and vanished after class. We still on for the skate park today?” 

“Uh, well…” Mikayla turned on the spot, searching the oceanic horizon for a sign of Beau. “I…” 

“Mikayla, you good?” Parker asked. Mikayla could tell that her friend was frowning on the other end of the call. “You sound… off…” 

“No, yeah, it’s just…” Mikayla trailed off as Beau resurfaced, peeking his head over the edge of the rocks and peered curiously at Mikayla. “I-I… Would it be possible if I… tell you… later? In person?” 

“Well, yeah, sure,” Parker agreed, sounding absolutely flabbergasted. “See you then, I guess?” 

“Yeah, thanks, see you then!” Mikayla said, brightening as Beau pulled himself onto the rocks. 

“Bye?” Parker said, but Mikayla had already hung up. On the other end, Parker held her phone away from her, staring at it incredulously. “The fuck is up with Mikayla?” 

Rae, the two girls’ other best friend, lifted her glasses and glanced at the phone. “I dunno,” she said with a nonchalant shrug. “Probs stressed or some shit.” 

On the other end, Mikayla shoved her phone into her back pocket and twisted around to rejoin Beau by his side. 

“I need to go,” she told the merman, brushing her fingers through the tangled, salty locks that framed Beau’s bright turquoise eyes. 

“What was that?” Beau asked, straining his neck to look back over Mikayla’s shoulder. “That… thingy that was screaming music. What was it?” 

“That’s my phone, and it was doing that because my friend was calling me,” Mikayla explained. At Beau’s confused expression, Mikayla clarified, “It’s another weird human thing.” 

“Ah,” Beau said. “You humans have a lot of weird things.” 

As she nodded, thought popped into Mikayla’s head. “I could… show you, sometime?” she offered, not even knowing whether that was even possible. With all the mermaid myths and lore that society had conjured up, she knew nothing true about merfolk. “Is that… can you do that?” 

“I’m not sure,” Beau said, lifting his chin into the palms of his hands. “But I can try.” 

“Alright, cool! I-” But another phone call cut him off, this time from Parker’s girlfriend. “Sorry, uh, one sec,” she told Beau before answering the call. “Hello–” 

“Mikayla, I don’t know what’s going on, but something you’ve said has gotten the girls as worried as clams.” 

Mikayla frowned at Amy’s riddle-like way of speaking, but didn’t interrupt her. She proceeded to lecture Mikayla with confusing anecdotes. Moral of the story—‘get your ass back here, now.’ 

She had no choice but to agree, clicking her phone off with a sigh. 

“I really do need to go,” she told Beau, who was staring curiously at Mikayla’s phone as she replaced it into its designated pocket. “But I’ll be here tomorrow. Will… will you?” 

Beau’s gaze snapped back to Mikayla’s as he nodded solemnly. “I’ll be here. I’ll… see you tomorrow?” 

“Tomorrow,” Mikayla said as she leaned down and pressed their lips together. 

The entire ride back to her dorm, Mikayla was lost in thought. 

In one singular thought. 

Beau. 

Well, it was more like a long, long train of thought, all centered around Beau. 

Beau’s smile, Beau’s voice, Beau’s eyes, Beau’s tail, Beau everything. 

Mikayla was so lost in thoughts of Beau that she hadn’t even noticed that she had driven her bike right back to the lot at the college. She blinked, still in a daze, as she parked her bike, grabbed her bag, and made her way up to the third floor. 

Using her key attached to her still-wet jeans, she unlocked the door and stepped inside. 

“Dude, where’ve you been?” Parker asked the moment Mikayla stepped into their shared dorm. 

“And… why’re you soaking wet?” Rae commented, lowering her glasses down the bridge of her nose to squint at Mikayla. 

Mikayla didn’t answer them as she dumped her bag on the floor and sat heavily on the edge of her bed. 

“And where’re your shoes?” Parker asked, frowning worriedly at Mikayla’s bare, sand-coated feet. 

“Aw, man,” Rae groaned as she stood up and walked to the track of sand Mikayla had left. “You brought in sand!” 

“Dude, seriously,” Parker said, cautiously stepping up to sit beside Mikayla on the bed. “You good?” 

Mikayla numbly shook her head, no. No, she wasn’t ‘good’, because all she could think about was Beau. Just Beau, everything Beau, only Beau. 

She was in love, wasn’t she? 

Oh, fuck… 

But as she let that thought consume her, a smile pulled at the corner of her lips. She finally raised her gaze to look at her worried friends, both of whom were staring at Mikayla like she had just wordlessly walked into their dorm soaking wet (which she had done) and then proceeded to smile like an insane, hypnotized doofus (which she had also done). 

And there was nothing keeping Mikayla from telling her friends, so she just opened the mouth that had been kissing Beau just half an hour before and announced her revelation. 

“I’m in love.”