UNEDITED: Our Forbidden Love

4: Starley

My seaweed bed is actually very comfy. I look over at Bubbles who is still sound asleep and I assume that hers is just as comfy. I only just woke up and my vision is still a tiny bit fuzzy, like I'm still half asleep. I rub my eyes a bit and my vision significantly improves. I swim out of bed and sit at my dressing table. I run a comb through my hair, one that I found at the surface once made from some sort of plastic in a tortoiseshell pattern. Then I take my faded-orange starfish hair clip and secure it into the top of my curly, blonde hair, well away from the purple coloured ends. I look at myself in the mirror in front of me. The clip really does match my blonde hair, which is why Mummy gave it to me and not Bubbles who has black hair that reminds me of a contaminated waterfall. I wear the clip everyday, just like Mummy did which is probably why it's faded so much.

I know that Daddy is still asleep and I hope I'll be able to sneak up to the surface for a little bit and quickly swim back down to act like nothing happened. I get up from my dressing table and make my way to the gates. They're closed, as always, but I just talk to the water to move them a bit so I can squeeze through. Once I'm through, my spy movie starts and I'm watching for anyone or anything that could see me. 
Finally I make it to the surface and I just love the feeling of my head popping up and breaking through the layer of water separating me from the outside world. I swim forward a bit more until I can see the red and yellow coloured things that flap in the wind. They're only just floating today, there isn't much wind.
Then I see him again. I've seen him everyday for the past week but he hasn't seen me. Thank goodness, I don't know what I'd do if he ever found out I had a massive crush on him and I'm part fish! He is very attractive which is probably why I've come to this same spot for the past seven days, just so I can see him. I duck my head under the water again and just swim forward a tiny bit more. Then I stop moving, Daddy wouldn't approve. At all. I should just stay here at this spot, then I might be able to justify my placement. Then I pop my head above the water and my heart stops. He's looking straight in my direction, sitting on his surfboard. He seems confused at first. He looks back at the sand and then back to me. Okay, this is too much for me. He's actually looking at me and he looks so attractive I feel like I might pop.
Under the water I sweep my hand upwards in one swift motion and a wave conjures right in-front of him smacking him in the face and toppling him off his board into the water.

As soon as I do it, I regret it. He actually noticed me. He knows that I exist now. Again, I don't know if that's good or bad. In a way it's good because I have a massive crush on him and now that he's noticed me, it might not be one-sided crush anymore. But it's also bad because I'm part fish and I don't know how it would work if we were to date.
I consider using my water-controlling talent to pick him up from the water and sit him back on his board, but I feel that might freak him out a bit, so I just wistfully watch him wade back to shore and then make his way up the sand.

I look at the inside of my left wrist for my digital screen embedded in my wrist to tell me the time. Every time I look at it I realise how truly amazing it is: I was born with a square-shaped digital screen on the underside of my left wrist that contains a map of our city that can project a three-dimensional interactive image of any particular area, the whereabouts of all family members, and of course basic things like the time and date. The time read six-thirty-seven. Daddy always wakes up between six forty and six forty-five.
"Crap!" I quickly dive under the water and make my way back to the city gates.

Again, I manipulate the water to let me inside the gates. Once I'm inside I place my hands around the metal bars and glance out into the ocean's abyss. There's a whole ocean out there that our people are forbidden to explore. Suddenly, someone calls my name: "Starley!" I turn around in the direction of the voice, it's my mum's old best friend:
Coral. Coral's tail is the same colour as my star-fish clip in the same style as Bubble's. She has dark black hair that complements it perfectly. Her defence bow is held in her right hand and her quiver belt is hanging around her waist.
I can't help but sigh in relief. Had she been any earlier she would've seen me re-entering the perimeters and I'd be spending some time in the trench dungeons and probably grounded by my dad once I got out of there.
"Hey Coral," I reply. "How's work been?"
"Yeah, pretty good, not very busy at this time of year. I'm sorry that you can't go out there," she says, gesturing outside the gate, "I can tell you want to." I shrug as if I have no choice about whether I wanted to go or not. "You're wearing her clip." I nod.
"Everyday," She smiles and I smile back. "Anyway, sorry, I should probably be getting home." She nods in approval. I wave and begin to swim away when she says, "Starley, please look after your dad for me. He's never been the same since..." I shiver and she stops. "Since then." I nod and swim away from Coral and the gates, memories of my mum flooding my brain.
Swimming through our city I realise it is actually very pretty. There's an aisle of space that runs from the gates all the way to the Government House at the end. On either side of the aisle there are shops that sell anything and everything you could imagine; except for human items. Believe me, I've asked. The owners of the stores and their families live in the apartments that are located on the upper floor. I dive down a bit more so I'm no longer looking at the apartments; instead I can see all the different shops.
The first shop on my right is the Tailor. The Tailor is where you can get a temporary tail shell to wear if you're not happy with your permanent tail. It doesn't last long and it certainly isn't permanent, but for some people it seems to be exactly what they need. I glance inside the windows. There's only one person inside today. Normally, the store is a lot busier, full of people wanting to change their tail.
The store on my left is the Fin-ovations Store. Mer-people who visit this store are looking to redesign their living quarters. This shop isn't usually very busy because most mermaids learn to live with what they already have.
Along with Fin-ovations and the Tailor there are many other stores each with a different purpose and selling rate. Once I reach the end of the shopping aisle I face the Government House. It's very beautiful and I suppose it has to be, because it's like our equivalent of a castle. It's made of an ancient marble with five pillars standing on either side of the doors. Above the pillars is a row of friezes and a pointed roof, meeting in the middle. A few steps lead you onto the landing and into its doors. All the jobs that take place in this building are generational, meaning they stay within the family and are passed down through generations. Altogether there are ten positions in Government House. Every position is a 'keeper' of something in the city and it's their job to make sure it is well looked after. There is; the peace-keeper, the rule-keeper, the key-keeper, the scout-keeper, the data-keeper, the criminal-keeper, the commodity-keeper, the job-keeper, the health-keeper and the government-keeper.

I absolutely dread for the day that Daddy has to make a decision about who to pass his Rule-keeper job down to when he passes: me or Bubbles. I pray to god that it's not me he chooses otherwise I'll have no choice but to never see the boy with the bleached blonde hair again.
***
In the afternoon, when Daddy is in an important work meeting and Bubbles is distracted with her best friend at the finema; I decide to go up to the surface again and look for the handsome boy who hasn't left my thoughts since this morning. Once I'm outside the gates I quickly swim away from them, that way no one will see me and I won't be spending my night tonight sleeping in one of the dungeons in the deepest, darkest trench in the ocean. Just like this morning, it doesn't take me long to get to the surface and find the yellow hut with a blue twenty-nine painted on it, sitting far up on the sand. Then I see him, as always his surfboard tucked under one arm. I knew that he would come back, gives me more time to admire his beauty. He runs at the water and then throws himself onto his surfboard, his arms circling up into the air before moving through the water, propelling him forward. I watch how graceful and talented he is diving under the waves and holding onto the board at the same time. I'm praying that he doesn't see me like this morning, but at the same time I'm praying he does. It's complicated, I don't know how I feel about the whole situation really, the only thing I'm sure about is how I feel about him - I love him. Love is a really strong word and I'm kind of shocked at myself for using it; but I think I do, I think I love him. I love the way his hair drips with a mixture of salt water and sweat. I love the way he rides the waves by standing on a board. I love the way his stomach is lined with muscles much like the way my dad's is. I love everything about him.
He's sitting on his board now but he doesn't look like he's looking for a wave, he looks like he's looking for something else. His eyes brush over me several times, clearly not aware of my presence, until they stop moving. He's looking directly at me. Butterflies suddenly enter my stomach and flap their wings a million miles an hour. He seems to smile though its hard to see because he's so far away. I put my head under the water and swim closer towards him. I'm breaking Daddy's rule even more now, but its not like he would ever find out, and I guess once I already broke the rule, it doesn't matter. I popped out of the water and he was a lot closer than I thought. He was about two arm lengths away - had I swum any closer I would've run into his legs, hanging in the water and he would've fallen on top of me. Then he spoke and I nearly died at the sound of it. "Hey. I saw you this morning, right?" I nodded. I was just completely lost in the handsomeness of his voice. "I was hoping you might be here again." I felt my eyes widen and a smile spread across my face. He hoped to see me! He wanted to see me!
Suddenly, I say, "I'm not actually a human, I'm a mermaid." What the actual hell? Where did that even come from? I'd had no intention to tell him unless he asked and that's literally the first thing I've said to him. Ever. To my surprise when I look at his face, he doesn't look that shocked.
"To be honest, that's what I was assuming," he says and I breathe out a breath I hadn't known I was holding. "You were really far out this morning and you didn't walk up the beach you just disappeared into the ocean. I'm Alex. Alex Stonal," he says, holding out his hand for me to shake. I extend my arm too and take his offered hand in mine.