The Bad Boy And The Mermaid

Chapter 19

Hunter

An impish glee was settling inside me as I packed Blue’s things from my older room where she stayed for the entire week. I was happy because I was finally bringing her back where she belonged. With me.

The entire time that I packed her things, she hadn’t said a word to me. Just remained by my side, helping me pack her bag. I didn’t miss how she kept sneaking glances at me and when I smiled at her she would just look away.

Strange.

I tried not to feel wounded with the fact that I had said I loved her and she hadn’t said that she loved me back. Then again, what had I expected? If it was going to remain a one-sided unrequited love, so be it. I was going to love her nevertheless. It wasn’t everyday that you fell madly in love with a mermaid.

I zipped up her bag, “Is there anything else that I forgot to put inside?”

She nodded and scrambled towards the large oak dresser that I had used half my life when I lived with my parents. I saw as she pulled something out of one drawer and slid it inside her little handbag. A handbag that was the shape and color of a watermelon, clearly picked up from the kids section. But the water melon wasn’t the thing that picked my attention. It was the way Blue popped the items in as if she didn’t want me to see it.

Smooth.

I smiled at her. “What was that you put inside your bag?”

She shrugged. “It’s nothing.”

I narrowed my eyes at her, “C’mon. You can tell me.”

She sighed and unzipped the little bag. She pulled out a few pictures out of it and showed them to me. She was definitely shy. I looked at the pictures which were of me when I was four, dressed for Halloween as Peter Pan. I wasn’t smiling into the picture; I guess I was just emo since the day I was born. The second picture was of me in High school when I played Basket Ball, the time I’d been Captain of the team and had my arm slung around Fred. I was grinning into the camera. When I saw the third picture I noticed there was something wrong with it. Senior year prom, I was dressed in a tux and the photo looked like it had been cut from the center.

Then I remembered. There was a girl I dated briefly in High School, Gracie Hall, Captain of Cheerleader team. Strawberry blonde hair, green eyes. Miss. Popular, also the girl I’d lost my virginity to, if I should admit. She was my prom date that year. We’d broken up the day she decided to move to France to join some modeling agency. It had been a really ugly break up with her trying to make me look like a bad guy. I recalled Gracie being in this prom picture and now she wasn’t.

Blue looked at me guiltily. “I…I hope you wouldn’t mind. I was just having fun with the scissors that I found in Hannah’s room and I happened to see this picture. I just thought I wanted to try cutting it.”

I looked at her for a whole minute, and then burst out laughing.

Of course. Blue wasn’t jealous or anything. This was Blue. She saw a picture, wanted to see how to work a pair of scissors and tried cutting it like kids who keep cutting papers if you handed them scissors. How stupid of me to try and find a different meaning to it.

“Can I keep these pictures with me?” She asked, unsure if I would say no.

“Um, yeah. Of course you can.” I said.

Something told me she would have kept it nonetheless if I had argued and told her she couldn’t.

I pulled another something out of the bag. My Jockey underwear.

Huh. I wanted to see the mermaid try and come up with an excuse for this one.

Now Blue’s face had turned red. She started explaining even before I asked her. “I liked the blue color of it and thought I’d wear it as a pair of shorts at home. It would go well with my…hair color.”

“Uh…Okay.”

I had to give it to her for coming up with these outrageous excuses in five seconds straight, maybe we could make a game out of it.

“Hey Blue, did you—” Hannah barged into the room, her eyes trailed to the luggage I was packing and didn’t complete the sentence, instead she asked, “What are you doing, Hunter?”

“Well, what does it look like?” I snapped.

“Oh my god. Blue are you leaving?” There was the obvious distress on my sister’s face.

“Yes, she’s coming back home with me because it seems to me like you’re having a hard time taking care of her.” I said.

“I didn’t ask you. I was talking to Blue.” Hannah retorted. “Blue, is that what you want, to go back to Hunters? Or stay here with me?”

It was the second time I saw Blue shrugging her shoulders. “I like staying here, Hannah, but I want to go back to Hunter’s place. I’m sorry.”

And then Hannah’s lower lip began trembling. She was obviously going to brawl her eyes out but managed to swallow that snot forming in her nose. She always did that when she didn’t want me to see her cry like a baby. “I understand.” She said in a shaky voice.

She took a step back and ran out of the room, closing the door behind her. Blue looked guilty. “Maybe I should apologize?”

I shook my head. “I’ll talk to her.”

Hannah was in her room, her face buried in the tower of pillows. Her body was shaking with sobs. I walked over to her bed and sat down on the edge of it. I touched her hair affectionately; I hated making my little sister cry.

“Hey, I’m sorry. If I knew you were going to be so hurt, I wouldn’t have asked Blue to move in with me again.” That was actually a lie.

But I didn’t know how to make this situation better. I just knew that Blue belonged with me. I wanted her to be in a place where I could constantly see her, talk to her, make her laugh, hell, laugh at her silly questions and jokes and it wasn’t until she’d moved into this place and out of mine that I realized I couldn’t live without her. It was almost like someone as soiled as me was too damn attracted to the innocence of Blue.

She turned her tear stained face towards me. “youdon nee tobesowee…”

“Uhm…what language is that?”

* * *

Hannah pulled a few tissues, blew her nose into it. I was glad she hadn’t swallowed the snot this time. Still wondered how Fred thought she was a ‘goddess’ literally quoting my best friend. “I said you don’t need to be sorry. I knew this would happen one day. I just didn’t know it was going to be today. She was my only really friend, Hunt.”

“I’m sorry I snapped at you earlier.” I said. “I was a little angry, is all.”

“I think you need Blue more than I do.” Hannah said, giving me a weak smile. Did I just detect pity in that line? Like the way you’d throw an entire bag of Cinnabon rolls at a beggar due to the goodness of your heart and because you thought he needed it more than you did. “Are you still going for the anger management group therapy?”

“No. I didn’t actually. But it’s okay. It’s all under control.” I continued, “Listen; tell Max that Blue won’t be working for him starting tomorrow.”

She stared at me in disbelief. “Says who?”

All that pity she had for me had just evaporated into thin air, now she looked like she wanted to claw my face with her glittery long nails.

“Says me.” I answered.

“You’re not Blue’s husband and nor her father.” Hannah said it like she was stating facts.

“I know I’m not. Your point?”

“My point is, Blue is old enough to make her own decisions. She enjoys working in the club for the Lockharts’ and so you can’t make decisions for her. Is she the one who said she didn’t want to work there?”

I opened my mouth to answer and then closed it.

Riiiighhhhttt.

“Blue will do what I tell her to do. If I ask her to quit the job, she will.”

Forget about clawing my face, Hannah was ready to throttle me. “Don’t you think you’re sounding like a male chauvinist pig?”

“What are you? The queen of the feminist club?” I asked. “I take care of her; which directly puts me in a position to make decisions for her. Blue, as you may have noticed, doesn’t exactly understand the difference between right or wrong. You tell her that taking off all her clothes and walking on the streets naked with Banana leafs to cover her privates is completely normal and friendly, she will do it right this second without giving it a thought.”

Hannah clammed her lips shut, I knew her smart brain was trying to come up with something more. And she didn’t disappoint me. “The way I see it, Hunter, is this. And please feel free to be offended because the truth needs to be out.”

“Go on.” I said. I was ready to let it all in from one ear and out from the other.

“You’re making up excuses because she’s so innocent and you know she won’t second guess you making decisions for her. It’s like you’re scared.”

“Excuse me?”

She cleared her throat, kinda reminded me of that teacher who was making herself ready to dish out a long boring speech. “You’re scared that if you let her be free in the wild, she’ll find another mate to..

“Hold up. We’re not talking about an animal here.” novelbin

“Okay, so I was saying, it’s just like a story I read somewhere, about a lion trying to cage a lioness in his den and wouldn’t let her out in the jungle because he was threatened by the lioness going and finding other prospects so he starts telling her lies about the outside world.”

“You’re talking complete gibberish now. You should stop watching the Discovery channel.” I said, although I knew what she was talking about. I thought feigning innocence was the best way out of this, if there was any way out that is.

“Or maybe you should try watching Reality Tv?” She taunted me. “I hate when men do that, trying and surprising us women. She wants to do the job, you’re no one to stop her unless of course you feel really insecure about yourself and think that she would choose someone else over you.”

Damn right, she would.

I’d seen the way Alec and Phoenix were looking at her, especially Alec. He had the predatory glint in his eyes, which men recognized from a mile away. And Blue was literally laughing at his jokes or whatever he was talking about. I thought about her working there eight hours a day and my mind conjured up some really fucked up ‘R rated’ scenes. I didn’t want to go to that dark place. I didn’t think I could concentrate on what I was doing if I had to think of her continuously when she was away working. Plus, Alec was very popular with the ladies. Heck, he could be popular with men too, it’s just the way he was.

So fucking sue me for acting like a possessive alpha male.

Finally, I decided to stop acting and tell Hannah the truth. “Yeah, I’m insecure alright. I’ve just gone too far when it comes to Blue, and now there’s no turning back. If Blue decides she likes someone else, I wouldn’t be able to live with it. I’d probably just…I don’t know. Die, maybe.”

“I know what you’re feeling, but don’t you think she deserves this chance to explore and see the world for herself through her own eyes. Be a real man, Hunter. Do what’s right by her. Ask her if she really wants to do the job or not, if she doesn’t then it’s her decision but you can’t manipulate her the way you want and take advantage because she’s innocent.”

I sighed. I guess she was right. “Alright.”

“Promise me you will treat my best friend right.” Hannah said.

“I will.” I promised.

“Great.”

I loaded Blue’s stuff in the backseat of my car, helped her climb inside the Jeep and then slid behind the wheel after saying good-bye. Even Nana was sad that Blue was leaving their nest. Blue was humming throughout the car ride and I hated to disrupt her singing.

I looked at her. “Blue, do you like working at the club?”

That stopped her humming. “Yeah, it’s so much fun, and Max gave me good money for it.”

“Would you like to quit the job?” I asked.

Please say yes.

Her expressions were crestfallen. “Did Max say that I should quit?”

My jaw hardened. “No. He didn’t.”

She beamed. “Then I would love to keep working there. Alec is so funny. But what’s even funnier is that he says I’m funnier than him.” She giggled. “Did that make sense?”

I continued to stare straight forward. I was too fucking pissed to talk or answer. Hannah was right. Blue was excited about this job, and I didn’t have a right to take away something she enjoyed.

She placed a hand on mine. “Hunter?”

“Oh…uh…yeah. It makes sense.”

I needed to talk to Alec, man to man and make some ground rules such as; no touching Blue inappropriately, or not at all and no flirting.

Right now, I didn’t want to think of all this and spoil my mood. Blue was back home with me and I wanted to celebrate that. I parked the car outside in the designated parking space. “We’re home, Sweetheart.”