Submerge| ✓

{08} M E E T I N G

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED COPYRIGHTED 2015

{08} M E E T I N G

Waking up with a throbbing pain her forehead, Quinn found herself sitting in her bed and couldn't believe that she had passed out after hearing her mom tell her that she was in deed a mermaid and that she wasn't a normal teenager. The bright lights that were radiating throughout the room sent her scrunching her features before she closed her eyes and tried to take a deep breath of air to calm herself down, yet she knew that she couldn't deal with this alone. She had to tell Nita—the only person other than her mom that she felt as though was family. And it was true, Nita was like a sister to her and would be upset if she found out about Quinn being a mermaid and not being told as soon as Quinn, herself, found out.

Fishing out her phone, Quinn sent a quick text to Nita—telling her that she needed to meet her at the local bookstore downtown. She jumped out of bed and ran over to her closet—knowing that she couldn't go out in public with winkled clothing. She pulled out another sweater and some jeans (that weren't skin tight so that she could show Nita the scales if she needed to in the end) before changing into them and throwing her winkled clothing into the hamper to get washed later.

Grabbing her car keys, Quinn left the house before she got into her car and turned on her mix tape that she had made the summer before. It was an Indie Folk CD, one of unknown artists that had voices more beautiful than she could describe. The raspy voices, and the acoustic guitars playing in the background as the singers would describe stories more inspiring than popular songs she heard was much more appealing than listening to the local radio station playing artists that she had grown tired of.

Pulling out of the driveway, Quinn drove in the direction of the only bookstore in her small coastal town. Since it didn't get that much tourism and not many people were known to move into Quinn's home town there wasn't a lot of options when it came to stores that she could go to, or places that teenagers would hang out in. There were no Starbucks, and the closest Target or Wal-Mart was two towns over.

As usual, when she pulled up to the small two story bookstore—Quinn was greeted with the cluster of the usual bookworms that were entering the bookstore. A few people stood leaned up against the bricked exterior of the bookstore with their cigarettes clasped loosely in their hands as they chatted about anything and everything. They barely batted their eyes at her as she got out of her car and headed towards the doors of the bookstore, knowing that the warm tone in the November air would disperse before long and she'd be greeted with the cold air when winter would hit.

Opening one of the oak front doors to the bookstore, Quinn slowly entered and glanced around the front floor layout in front of her. Worn wooden floors that creaked when she walked across their surface, brick walls that were white washed, and floor to ceiling black bookshelves that held all different book genres on either side of the first floor. The check-out counter was off to the right side of the room, in the middle, along with pastries and tea for some bookworms to order to drink and eat while reading their novels. The black chalkboards sat proudly in the background with pastel chalk etched across them that described the different food and drinks that were for sale. Three ladies stood behind the counters, all three of them wearing green aprons with the store's logo printed proudly against the chests of their aprons.

In the middle of the first floor sat a spiral iron staircase that led upstairs to the children's section along with the young adult and teen novels. Clustered around the staircase were different assortment of tables with chairs along with sofas and lights hung above them. Sitting at one of those tables was Nita—who was currently holding a book in her hands and was scanning the contents of them until she glanced up with the bell from the door jingled and she found her bewildered friend standing in front of her.