My Childhood Crush is a Selkie

Sea Glass Memories

I had never allowed myself to imagine I would see Delmar Lennox again. Well maybe I had imagined it once or twice in the middle of the night or on a particularly boring day, but I had never allowed these fantasies to last for long.

As soon as he left eleven years prior, in my melodramatic teenage rage, I had taken everything he had ever given me and either burned it, donated it, or in the case of the many shells and rocks we had collected together on the shoreline, thrown them back to the sea along with all of my memories. I had never imagined that he would come back to shore, materializing out of everything I had tried to abandon.

He looked both remarkably changed and unchanged. The boy I had known had been shorter than me most of our lives and was barely an inch taller when we parted. I was quite statuesque myself, but now the young man before me was taller by about six inches. In nothing more than gray cotton shorts, I could see how strong and muscled his lean torso and limbs had grown.

Water droplets trickled down his pale skin. I remembered that during the summer, he often developed an uneven tan and a face full of freckles, but there was none of that now, like he hadn't been spending as much time outside. His short hair, however, was still black and unruly like wet, scattered rocks, and his eyes were just as clear and blue as they had always been, even in this darkness.

And something else was the same: he always wore a lot of jewelry. He had many bracelets and wristbands from various music festivals and concerts he had attended and rings he had found washed up on the beach, but around his neck, he only wore one thing. It was a simple leather cord with a very rare, small piece of turquoise sea glass in the middle.

I had given it to him for his thirteenth birthday. I had found the piece myself while we were out wandering the rocks of our hometown. I had felt like a pirate, discovering lost treasure. Red sea glass was considered more rare, but it wasn't as beautiful to me.

I tried not to stare too intently as the familiar jewel glistened in moonlight.

I couldn't tell if it was the similarities or the differences that made it all more difficult, or maybe it was just seeing them all thrown together.

I knew that he was also taking in the sight of me, and my skin flushed under his eyes, partly from anger. It took a lot of nerve to show up like this out of nowhere and look at me like that. I crossed my arms. He grinned at this and took another step forward. "Jesus, Di. I mean, you've always been pretty, but you look like a goddess."

I raised my chin a little. "True." My defiance and confidence only made him look more pleased.

I wanted to scream and run away like I'd seen some kind of monster, but his smile only deepened, and I felt pinned to the sand. "It is really good to see you," he said, stepping forward again, his voice a little lower. "What are you doing here?"

"Going for a swim, same as you," I said, trying to act unfazed as he stood only three feet in front of me. If I looked like a goddess, then he certainly resembled my male counterpart, like a masculine version of Venus rising from the sea. His handsome face was caught between youthful and rugged now, resembling some ancient Greek sculpture.

He let out his bright, confident laugh—the one that could be just a little mocking if he wanted, but it never was for me. "I meant, what are you doing here in Greyport? The swimming part is apparent."

"I live here now," I said reluctantly, and before I could try to extricate myself from this strange, humiliating situation, I heard the approaching engine of a boat and glanced over his broad shoulders to the water.

"Del!" exclaimed one of its occupants. It looked like one of the pontoons I had seen cruising around. It hovered a bit too close to the rock formation, but its passengers seemed incredibly unconcerned.