Danny was a geek and a loner - and the onset of gynecomastia only made that worse. Despite his family's words of encouragement, and efforts to get him to be more social, he's consigned himself to not having any friends.
Little did Danny realize, whe...
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A costume mermaid tail.
They were designed to be worn while swimming, with a plastic monofin in the tail that propelled the wearer forward. This tail specifically was a Candy Cove tail from the company Fin Fun.
For some reason, Danny had always been obsessed with mermaids and mermen. He'd watch The Little Mermaid over and over again, play mermaid with Sammy while swimming, and he even went as a mermaid once for Halloween when he was really little.
But that had been when he was a kid. By the time he was getting older, the other kids in his elementary school laughed at him when he drew mermaids. So he abandoned it.
Or so his family thought. In reality, in the eight or so years since then, he'd only become more obsessed. He'd watch clips online from shows like H20 Just add water. Through Junior High he'd secretly checked out the Emily Windsnap books from his school library.
And then he found out about tail swimming. In his mind, it was the closest he could get to actually become a merperson. But they were expensive - at least for him, around a hundred bucks. That wouldn't have been too crazy to ask for for Christmas... but there was no way he'd out himself to his parents.
But after saving money for a long while, having the cash set aside for months - he finally did it. He felt a frenzied mix of emotions as he looked down at the fabric tail laying out on the bed. It was the realization of his childhood dreams. Bizarre, expensive, childhood dreams.
It was weird for even girls his age to openly be obsessed with mermaids. But no, he had gone way further. He was a sixteen year old guy that had gotten a pink and blue, really girly mermaid tail. His excitement faded for a moment in deep regret.
What had he done? He had just spend more than a hundred dollars on a mermaid costume. He likely wouldn't even be able to ever use it for swimming. You were supposed to have someone there supervising you, even as an adult, for safety. But there was no way he'd ever reveal this to anyone.
People said "be yourself, being different is wonderful!" - unless what you did was actually different. He'd tested the waters online with a discord server he was part of. He'd shown a picture of a tail - and it wasn't even the one he bought, it was much more guy-friendly, and everyone had laughed at him. They'd asked if he was gay, and it was very much in the archaic negative use of the word. He didn't bring it up again.
It honestly hurt him sometimes, wondering why the universe, or God, or fate or something had cursed him with being interested in this.
But as he looked down at it again, that it was actually real.... he couldn't prevent himself from feeling a bit giddy.
HIs anxiety faded as he put the monofin in the fluke of the tail. then he scrunched down the tail around the top of the monofin, where he inserted his feet into the cuffs. Finally, his feet in the monofin, he pulled the tail fabric up his legs and around his waist.
He had a tail. A mermaid tail.
Like he'd always dreamed.
Danny let out a little giggle, waving his fin up and down. He took a picture of it in front of him, filled with glee, despite the risk of having such an incriminating photo on his phone.
He grabbed the box that it had all come in, and took a moment reading the little manual booklet. When he set it back down though, he found something else in the box. Something that he hadn't bought.
He felt a twinge of shock. He'd seen this on the fin fun website. It was a girl's aqua-blue two piece swimsuit, with wavy fabric on the bikini top. How had that gotten in his order? They'd made some kind of mistake for sure. Hopefully they hadn't charged him for it. Now he would have to go through the difficulty of returning it.
He held up the top for a moment in his hands. The sensation of his binder against his chest pressed on his mind. He quickly put the swimsuit back on the opened box, and slid the box and its contents under his bed, leaving only his tail.
And that tail did feel amazing to him. The fabric had a slight sparkle effect to it - very much not a thing for guys. But to him it made it seem all the more magical.
Rapid thumping sounded down the hallway - the warning of someone coming downstairs. Danny looked in front of him with absolute terror. He threw his bedsheets over his tail, but the rigid monofin still stuck straight up out the front, and couldn't be covered.
With rapid breaths, he quickly pulled his feet out of the cuffs, and pushed the monofin off, finally able to lay his legs flat, and covered any remaining sight of the tail fabric.
His heart beat thudded in his ears. He waited. He was safe.
Danny rested his head against the wall behind him, and took a moment to breathe. He was safe. For now. The paranoia seemed to flow through his very blood. What had he gotten himself into? He was going to have to hide this thing now, and to be cautious, that would probably mean not wearing it very often.
He sighed, and making sure that his tail was still covered, got out his phone. With pride, he went to his much kinder merpeople-centric discord server, and posted the picture of his triumph. The online friends he'd made there reacted within the next few minutes with celebratory emojis, and he grinned ear to ear. Here at least, he was accepted.
But in real life however, this dream finally realized could lead to disaster. If his family found out about this, it would be the most embarrassing moment of his entire life. Danny, a teenage boy, had bought a sparkly mermaid tail costume. No, his world wouldn't end - it wasn't as if his family would disown him for having this - but it would be extremely bizarre.
News would get out. His extended family would know him as the bizarre boy that was obsessed with mermaids. Some of his relatives may actually have legitimately insulting things to say. But as for his immediate family, he would have to walk around with the crushing feeling that they now saw him completely differently. They'd see him for what he was. And perhaps he could eventually recover. Hide it away, pretend it had never happened.
But Danny loved merpeople stuff too much.
He knew that wouldn't last. In a better scenario, hopefully, he could hide it, find some girl later in life that was into mermaids, and then see if maybe she would accept him. Even that would be very uncomfortable to get through.
But Danny had tried to deny his interest in this girl centric stuff for years, without success. He had wanted this tail, and he did not regret buying it. Now however, he was craving more. He wanted to swim in it.
That however, he knew, was a very far off thing, if it ever happened at all. You were supposed to have someone with you while tail-swimming. Public pools were out of the question. Maybe by the time he was in college, he could find some way to go to a meetup of other like minded merpeople. For now at least, he was alone. Alone.
His bedroom door swung open.
"AAH!" Danny yelped in surprise.
Sammy laughed. "You're jumpier than a caffeinated kangaroo."
"And you never knock...," Danny trailed off. He'd allowed his voice to slip into a higher tone. His natural voice pitch. Sammy laughed at it. She knew that it bothered him.
"So are you coming to my band party or what?" Sammy asked.
"No," Danny said, "I already told you."
"Oh come on," Sammy said, "I know that swimming makes you uncomfortable and stuff, but my friends are cool. No one is going to make fun of you."
"I just... I just don't feel comfortable around that many people," Danny said.
"Well don't stress out over remembering all their names and stuff," Sammy said, "just focus on having a fun time. Your problem sucks, I know, but it's not like it's a disability. You can still get up and leave this basement."
"I said no Sammy."
"Please?" Sammy asked. "You're always like this. You never wanna do anything fun. If you went out and did more than sit in your room, and had done band with me, you could have had a bunch of stuff to take your mind off your problem."
No, Danny thought, all it does is add more stress to my problem. All it is is more people to make fun of me. More situations where -
"Well," Sammy said, "if you're gonna be like this -"
She grabbed his arm, and started trying to drag him out of his bed.
"Alright!" Danny exclaimed, mortified, "I'll go!"
Sammy was taken aback by his outburst.
"I...," Danny swallowed, "I'll go."
Sammy gave a look of surprise, and then relaxed. "Okay, be ready to go in two hours."
Danny heaved a huge sigh of relief as Sammy finally left. He quickly got out of his mermaid tail, and carefully packed it away this time in its big plastic storage bag. He was not going to have a close call like that again. If he was going to keep this a secret, he was going to have to be less sloppy.
Now that the intense stress of being discovered had ended, the new stress of going to Sammy's band party made him queasy. It was not going to be a fun time. Few things were for him anymore.
