Oscar and Mer 🍆🪼

XXI

Knowing that Mer blamed him for the plight he had ended up in broke Oscar. He didn't come to the beach house for about four summers as he got his degree. It started the summer he graduated and decided to go to art school so get better at his field. Going off of Mer's timeline, he must have gotten 'taken' in either the second or third summer he was gone. If he had just escaped now after all that time, then...

Oscar felt physically ill and ran to the bathroom, throwing up. Oscar's imagination could take him to some fascinating places but it also took him to some dark places. Mer's reactions, his screams of terror, his absolute fear... it was all Oscar needed to fuel his own scenarios about what Mer may have gone through. It was sickening and knowing he was the one that let it happen...

It had to have happened in Mer's hometown or something. From what Oscar had gathered, Mer usually hung out near the surface with him while he was there for the summer and then lived on the outskirts of his town until Oscar came back. With him not being there, Mer had no reason to leave the town...

But even after everything Oscar's absence caused, after feeling like he was left behind and forgotten, Mer still called for him. He still considered him his closest companion, still wanted to be close to him, still felt safe around him... sought shelter with him. He still tried to defend and protect him and all Oscar kept doing was pushing him away. It hurt to feel the unwavering loyalty that Mer had for him even when he was the cause of Mer's suffering. It was like a dog that got kicked by its owner and yet the dog was still loyal...

It made Oscar sick all over again for the mere fact that he was a massive piece of shit and he threw up again. He stayed up all night, thinking about all the ways he could have been there, all the things he should have done, and all the time he wasted. With his mind going a million miles an hour, he didn't sleep a wink.

***********************

"You look like you've gone through the ringer." The other cashier said at the gift shop the next day. "Did you get bitten by another snake?"

"No, I'm just... thinking about something." Oscar said with a sigh.

"Well, if you could maybe think a little faster and get the prices on the boxes quicker, that'd be grand."

"Right, sorry."

She left and he sighed again, picking up the pace on the price gun. As he moved the boxes to the other side of the store, Trent walked in. Oscar didn't even have time to care about him.

"Why are you here?" he asked a little more curt than he meant to.

"I can be in here if I want. It's a public place." Oscar just stared at him with a perturbed and tired expression. "Was that guy really the merman who tried to drown me when we were younger?"

"I'm not sure how you can miss the fact that he's the same guy." Oscar said with a frown. "He hasn't changed much..."

"He's walking; that's a change."

Oscar moved away from the display rack and turned around to look at Trent.

"People don't usually get confused about a wardrobe change." Oscar said with a roll of his eyes, He pointed out of the gift shop. "Please leave so I can continue my work."

"Not until you tell me what's going on with that guy." he said, grabbing the back of Oscar's shirt.

Oscar pulled out of his grasp and glared at him angrily. It was his fault everything went downhill and Oscar was sick of whatever game Trent seemed to be playing.

"I don't know what happened to you between the last time I saw you and now, but you had to have hit your head on something to ever think that we had any kind of friendly relationship. You were a horrible person to me and I could have died more than once if it hadn't been for Mer and his friend."