Page 33 of Make Out With A Merman

At dinner,I sit at the far end of the table.

Far from the junior counselors and their chaos.

Far from her.

But it doesn’t matter.

My eyes find her anyway.

Callie’s laughing, knees up on the bench, swiping frosting from her nose after Jason surprise-attacked her with a cupcake ambush. She’s got one of the kids braiding yarn into her hair and another trying to paint her arm like a jungle cat.

And sheglows.

Not like fire.

Like something wilder.

Something that shouldn’t be caged.

When she glances over just once, barely a flick of her gaze, I pretend not to notice.

But the air shifts. Like she feels it too.

I shove another bite of food in my mouth to block the ache.

This isn’t the time.

Not with the rift shifting.

Not with magic coiling under the lake like it’s dreaming about storms.

Not when distraction could cost someone their life.

Later that night,I walk the perimeter of the north path.

The water’s calm again. But it’s the kind of calm that comes before something breaks.

The reeds shiver when there’s no wind.

The dock creaks like it’s breathing.

And in the dark, I swear I hear her voice.

Nother.

But the thing in the lake.

The thing that remembers me.

That wants something I can’t name.

I stand there until my muscles lock, jaw clenched so tight I could bite through steel.

Then a sound behind me.

Footsteps.

I don’t have to turn to know.

---