9 Chapter Eight

Bambina

After Aquarius and Aqua showed me around their little underwater town, Aqua suggested we go to their home.

Their dad was pretty nice as far as I could tell. He was shocked, as was Aquarius and Aqua, when I told them about me having legs at dusk.

I stayed there for a few hours until it was almost time for me to go on land. Aqua and Aquarius were really nice mermaids. I promised to come back in the morning when I got my tail back. Then I left.

Just like last night, Aiden was waiting for me in my usual spot. I quickly got dressed in some shorts and a tank top before closing my throat.

Aiden turned around with a smile. He looks tired tonight, like he hasn't slept in awhile or something. "Hey, Bambi."

I wave at him before walking toward the park. Aiden followed behind me until we got to the swings.

"How was your day?" I ask Aiden.

He smiles brightly, as if he was excited about something.

"Great." He shrugs nonchalantly, as if he didn't just get internally excited about something.

I would have asked, god knows I wanted to, but it isn't any of my business. So I just nodded with a smile.

I swung on the swings for a little while longer before looking over at Aiden. He was just sitting at the picnic table quietly.

I clear my throat causing him to look up at me.

"If you don't want to be here, you don't have to." I tell him.

He raises an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

I scoff. "You've barely spoken to me. And you look bored."

He chuckles as he runs his fingers through his hair. If I wasn't mistaken, he looked quite nervous.

"I actually have a surprise and I didn't want to just jump into it so fast." He admitted.

I stop the swings and smile. "What kind of surprise?"

Aiden smirks. "A big surprise."

He walks over and holds out his hand for me. I grab it and he pulls me to my feet. Nothing else is said as we walk down the beach.

Soon, we get to a few houses that were along the beach. They were very pretty, and very big. About the third house down, Aiden pulls me down the driveway and up to the front door.

"Aiden," I stop him. "I don't want to meet any more of your friends."

He chuckles and shakes his head. "You don't have to."

He pulls out his keys from his back pocket and unlocks the door. He ushers me through and I take a look around. The place was huge, that's for sure. It was nice on the inside and fully furnished.

"Why don't you take a look around?" Aiden suggests.

He doesn't say anything else as I wander around the house. I go upstairs and check out the bedrooms. There were four. All of which were huge and had a bathroom.

I turn around to see Aiden smiling really big.

"Well? What do you think?" He asks me.

"Um... It's big." I chuckle. "It's very beautiful. I love it."

"Good! Because I bought it for you." Aiden tells me.

I don't know what he was expecting. A thank you? A hug? I couldn't say.

"Why? It's not like I can actually live here. I'm a mermaid. I'm meant for the ocean." I tell him.

"But, you shouldn't wander around at night. There are some bad people. I've filled the closet with clothes and shoes. Filled the cabinets with food, which I'll teach you to cook. You have an amazing bed, very comfortable. I have the same one at home."

"I wouldn't be able to sleep in it. I have to be back in the ocean before I grow a tail." I argue.

He sighs. "I know.. But, we could watch movies or something. If you fall asleep, I'll set an alarm and make sure you're not late to get in the water."

"Why are you doing this for me? We barely know each other." I demand.

My words shock him for a second before he thinks about his answer. As much as I love the house, I couldn't accept it, regardless of what he says.

"I don't know." He sighs. "I guess I just wanted to help you out. Maybe we can figure out how to break the curse or something."

I was taken aback by his answer. I didn't expect for him to say that. He had no reason to help me. And maybe I didn't want the curse to break. I had just met some other merpeople.

"You shouldn't have done this." I tell him, shaking my head as I look down at the beautifully carpeted floor. "I'm fine with being a mermaid. Yeah, at first, I was lonely but then today, I met more merpeople. I didn't even know they existed until I ran into a merman today."

Aiden looks at me in shock. "There's more?"

I nod as I look back up. "Yeah, a whole entire underwater town."

"Are they cursed too?" I shake my head. "So, you don't want to break the curse?"

"I don't know." I admitted.

He scoffs as he runs his hand through his hair. I didn't know what else to say, so I just stayed silent. I didn't want to tell him that there wasn't any way to break the curse anyway. And if there was, well, it wasn't like it came with instructions.

I've never seen another cursed mermaid so either they are really good at hiding or I'm the only one. How would we even go about figuring out a way to break the curse?

"I need to go. I haven't slept since the other night because I thought this would make you happy. Apparently, you're an ungrateful merhuman who doesn't even know what she wants. But, like you said, we barely know each other so it shouldn't even matter to me on whether you're happy or not. Goodnight, Bambi."

And with those last words, Aiden stormed out the door. I waited a few minutes to see if maybe he would come back. I feel like a horrible person but, I can't accept a whole entire house from someone. That's just crazy.

He didn't come back.

With a deep sigh, I left as well. No point in staying here if he isn't coming back.