At the house, Lena was waiting for me in ambush. She sat at the kitchen counter next to her best friend, Tess, both of them holding boba to-go cups with the big colorful plastic straws. 

“Oh, hey Tess, hey Lena.” I nodded at both of them as I headed for the fridge to find leftovers or maybe sandwich ingredients. I was exhausted after the swim and wanted something warm, something to relieve the feeling of something sunken within my bones. 

“Hey, Mika.” Tess grinned as she tugged on the edges of her tie-dyed bucket hat. 

Where Lena was glamorous, Tess was more relaxed. She wore pastel tourist shirts she picked up off the stores scattered along the shoreline, complimentary short-shorts that Mom referred to as “Daisy Dukes” and a pair of flip-flops, her auburn hair tied into loose braids that framed her narrow tanned face. 

Their personalities were just as different too. Where Lena was daring and bold and high-strung, Tess was more laid-back and easygoing. Both of them got along where it mattered, and for them that was flirting with boys and finding fun things to do in downtown Wilmington. 

“Stopping by here before heading back out?” I continued as I found the sandwich bread and pulled it out of the fridge.

At this, Tess and Lena exchanged a look and giggled. 

“Of sorts,” Lena answered ominously. 

I decided to put the sandwich bread back. “What do you mean?”

“We’re going to get ready for a beach bonfire at sunset,” Tess said. 

“And you’re coming with us!” Lena added, her dark eyes glimmering. 

“Oh, no, I’m okay, really—“

“Come on, Mika, you told me how much you wanted a summer romance and to do that you have to do things, you have to go places.” Her eyes went wide, her bottom lip threatened to pout. “I really am sorry about the yacht party, but this won’t be like that, I promise.”

I hesitated. “Are you sure.”

“Absolutely, they’re just some of our friends here along Wrighstivlle.” Tess leaned back in her chair. “Others in our class who just graduated and want to have some fun before orientations and other boring college stuff pulls us all away.”

I considered this. “Fine.”

Lena clapped her hands together. “You won’t regret this, promise!”

By the time the first hint of sunset rolled around, the three of us left the house looking significantly more dolled-up. Even Tess was wearing makeup and borrowing one of Lena’s dresses for the occasion. This time, I went for a shimmery turquoise blue dress with spaghetti straps, a halter neck, and flared at the hips in layers of mesh with glittery blue platform sandals and cream-colored flower clips among my loose curls. Maybe a little fancy for the venue—but Lena assured me that there was no such thing, with all her golden jewelry and dramatic purple dress with the low neckline that highlighted her tan she’d been working on.

We arrived at the access point to see the embers of a bonfire beginning at the center of the beach and some of the former seniors from our high school gathered around it. There were even some faces I recognized among them, one of which I admit surprised me.

“I didn’t know Max was coming!” I noticed him at the edge of the group as he had his journal out. He was scribbling down something furiously, so deep in concentration that he seemed to be unaware of the party happening around him.

“Mom told me about your little rendezvous.” Lena wiggled her shoulders and Tess laughed, covering her mouth with her hand. 

I felt my face heat up, as if I were standing right by the heart of the fire. “It wasn’t like that! He’s a friend, that’s all.”

“Oh, Mika,” Tess sighed, although she couldn’t wipe the grin off of her face. “No wonder you haven’t ever had a boyfriend yet.”

I didn’t trust myself to speak. It was cruel, to drag Max into this just because they had ideas of what we should be. 

“I’m going to go get a soda,” I managed to say in a cool tone before I stormed away. 

I found the drinks cooler and avoided Max, not that it was hard with how hyper-focused he was on something or another to do with his journal. The last thing he needed was for me to rub it in his face that he’d been invited under false pretenses. After all, knowing my sister, if it didn’t amuse her she wouldn’t have done it at all. She’d never liked Max, and the dislike had intensified to disgust when he became obsessed with mermaids. 

Already, I was beginning to regret coming. 

I searched the faces in the crowd—most of them were familiar, even if I couldn’t put a name to the face. Already Tess and Lena were in the thick of it, twirling their hair and making sparkly eyes at the boys they were talking to. But there were a few faces that were new to me.

In particular, there was a pair that kept drawing my attention.

The most striking was the boy with hair and skin as pale as moonlight. His eyes were round and dark, like a baby seal’s. The rest of his features were more rounded and delicate, not angular or particularly strong. 

What was most striking about him though was the silvery lines like scars on his skin, emerging from the short sleeves of the open button-down he had on over this tank top. They stretched like lightning down his arms, and there was so many of them. 

His friend had dark hair and a sun-tanned face, with wide-set, ethereal features that were more feminine than you usually saw on a guy, but with a sharp jawline and a stronger nose that counter-balanced the whole thing. The way he moved was like a dancer, or like he was perpetually underwater.

There was something familiar about him, too, I decided the longer I watched him. But I couldn’t recall where I’d seen him before. 

Then his eyes locked onto mine—the prettiest eyes I’d ever seen. They almost glowed aquamarine, the same color as the ocean in the height of the day. They left me breathless—so much so that I didn’t realize at first that he’d started walking, that he was getting closer. His friend wasn’t far to follow. 

Other partygoers unconsciously parted for him, the sheer aura rolling off of him was enough for them to move. 

I’d been staring too long, I’d been rude. I turned away, to make my escape, maybe go home early, when I heard him speak.

“Wait, don’t go—“

I whirled around to find myself face-to-face with him. I knew that voice. 

He was staring back at me with those aquamarine eyes, leaning forward slightly. There was an earnestness to him, the kind that left me transfixed.

“Talu?” I managed to ask. I then frowned. “Where’s your markings? And your hair—it’s not—“

“Green?” He finished, eyebrow raised. 

“I didn’t recognize you at first,” I admitted. 

By then his friend had caught up to us. “Is this the new friend you were telling me about?”

“Yeah.” Talu didn’t take his eyes off me. Which was kind of weird. “Mika, this is my friend—“

“Kei.” The other boy smiled and extended his hand. He had a soft, gentle voice that flowed like a brook over stone, with clipped consonants and refined vowels. He sounded almost like a prince when he spoke out of a fairytale movie. “I couldn’t help but notice you.”

I laughed, more of a nervous titter than anything else. “I mean, I was staring—“

I stopped myself before I could ramble and straightened my posture, then tilted my head. “Have we met before?”

There was something familiar about him, too. But it wasn’t the same as with Talu, intuition racing ahead of my brain. This was something deeper—like that magic that had emerged out of me the night I’d come into contact with the monster. 

“I don’t think so.” He glanced away and shoved his hands into the pockets of his dark blue swim trunks. “I don’t live around here. But I noticed there was a party and I couldn’t resist.”

“You like parties, then?” I crossed one arm over my chest. 

He shrugged—a small blush showed easily on his pale face. “I like watching the people at them. Humans are fascinating.”

“That we are,” I couldn’t help but agree as we both looked over the party-goers. Lena somehow now had a sea of boys surrounding her, watching her with adoring eyes as she chattered with all of them. I couldn’t help but feel a small pang of envy. I didn’t know how to command a crowd like that, to have so many watching her.

I glanced back at the boys, only to be startled at realizing Talu was watching me with those beautiful aquamarine eyes.

“You said you don’t live around here.” I rummaged around my brain for what sufficed for good conversation. “Where are you from, Kei?”

“Not too far.” Mischief gleamed in his eyes. “Here and there.”

“A man of mystery, I see.” I looked him up and down. “You must be a high school senior, or close to it?”

He blinked and tilted his head, quiet for a moment before he formed the words. “Are you trying to ask about my age?”

Talu coughed into a closed fist, which sounded a little too close to a laugh. 

“More or less.” I looked to my shoes, hoping it would hide my face turning red.

He visibly relaxed. “I’m seventeen, you?”

He was pretty much my age! “Sixteen.” 

I had a new question now though. I looked back up. “How do you know about our school systems?”

Something flashed on Kei’s face. “I’m—“

“Getting going, I’m sure.”

I whirled around to see that Max had gotten up behind me without me knowing. “Where did you come from?”

“I hadn’t realized you were here.” He wasn’t looking at me—in fact, he was glaring straight at Kei. “Who’s this guy?”

“My new friend, his name is Kei.” I glanced around his shoulder. “And this is—“

“It’s okay.” Talu raised his hands in surrender as he stepped back. “Your friend is right, we should be leaving.”

They made to leave, but then Kei paused. “I hope to see you again.”

“Me too, I’ll keep an eye out for you!” I waved as he walked down the beach, until Max placed a hand on my shoulder.

“What is up with you?” I wrenched myself free. “You were being a jerk!”

“Am I?” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I only came to this stupid party because your sister—“

He stopped, turning red in the face. “I’m so stupid.”

“Look, I’m sorry about whatever Lena told you, she and my mom are being so weird nowadays.” I really didn’t want him to feel bad. “But we can hang out now, if you want to.”

“No, it’s okay,” he said in the kind of tone of voice that said he really wasn’t. “I’ve got a shift tomorrow anyway. You should meet me when I’m on my break, we can talk then.”

With that, he stormed away, leaving me standing alone on the beach and wondering what had just happened. As the sun sank lower into the sky, it seemed a pity that the night felt already ruined by the strangeness of three boys.