Page 10 of Blood of the Sirens
I dumped the mess from one bucket over the side of the tank, and the three seals flocked toward me immediately: Huey, Dewey, and Louie. I rolled my eyes every time I went into their enclosure. The owner of the aquarium I interned at was aDisney adult of the first degree. He donated all the money, so he got to name the animals.
I made my way to the opposite corner and dumped the second bucket. The last seal was older and rarely felt like fighting the younger ones for food. I fed him separately.
“Eat up, Donald.”
Tasks finished for the day, I gathered my empty buckets and entered the large janitorial closet. I turned the water on and started hosing the buckets down.
Oh boy, if my mother could see me now. Waist deep in fish guts and covered in blood. When I’d imagined becoming a marine biologist, doing grunt work in an aquarium hadn’t exactly been part of the overall dream.
Then again, neither had losing my scholarship.
So here I was.
Never mind that my entire life plan had smashed itself to pieces.
You’re going to have to tell them soon.
I pushed that thought away and stacked the buckets with a little more force than necessary. I’d rather think of happier things.
Like Blondie.
No. Not him. He’d apparently come to his senses after a blistering kiss that had curled my toes and he had fled. No number, no Netflix and chill, no Instagram handle.
Oh well, his loss. I was hilarious and a decent cook: a goddamn delight.
I made it to the locker room and quickly stripped out of my wetsuit. I hung it on the hook to dry overnight and made a quick change into an A-line black cocktail dress that flattered my figure. I pulled on knee-length leggings underneath, applied the barest traces of makeup, and slipped my sandals on. I’d change into my low heels once I got there.
I clocked out and burned it out of the aquarium, my fingers fumbling with the lock on the bike rack, trying to unlock it and get out of here. The lock was old and stuck often, but everything was so close in this tourist city that getting a car made little sense. As if I could afford it, anyway.
“Jesse! There you are!”
Inwardly, I groaned, but the lock popped open into my hand, freeing my bike from the rack. I spun around with a fake smile on my face.
“Archie. I thought all the interns were done,” I stammered.
Unlike the pariahIwas, Archie was still an official member of our college’s—his college’s—program. As the son of the dean, he could likely murder someone and not get kicked out. I tried not to sneer as he tugged on the collar of his embroidered polo shirt that marked him as part of the scientist division. No cleaning tanks or scooping seaweed for him.
“I have permission to stick around and watch while the scientists do some real work, and not the kid stuff they do when we’re around,” he scoffed, folding his arms and leaning back against the building, a smirk stretching his lips.
I rolled my eyes. “Great. If you don’t mind, I have less than an hour to bike over to Calash for my other job. So I’ll just—”
His hand reached out toward my bike but I grabbed it with two hands and leaned away, recoiling. His touch was so demanding, rude, and completely unwanted.
I swatted Archie’s hands away and swung a leg over my bike.
Archie’s expression soured as he backed away. “If you took me up on my offer, then you’d be back in the program like that.” He snapped his fingers for emphasis, his expression that of a benevolent god bestowing a gift upon some poor, tortured mortal.
Me being the tortured mortal, of course.
Rage flooded my body. Yeah, I knew what his little offer entailed. I tilted my head toward, smiling once more. His body relaxed at that.
Idiot.
“And here I thought you’d gotten the hint the first time I knocked out your teeth. You think I wouldn’t do it again?” I leaned toward him menacingly. To my glee, he took a step-back, half-covering his mouth with a hand. I was one of the few people that knew his pearly whites were fake veneers after the last time he’d tried to catch me alone. It was one of my proudest accomplishments to date—more so than almost qualifying for the state swim meet my senior year.
Seeing Archie’s fake teeth reminded me of Blondie’s perfect dentals. Those teeth had been the real deal.
“You’re a fat, dumb bitch,” Archie spat. “You’re lucky you didn’t get put away for assault. My father—”
