Mermaid in a Bottle

Chapter 5 ~ Hello Mother. Do you like my new tail?

(MerLissa's P.O.V.)

I held Rob's hand firmly and guided him through the town. Where could Otto have gone? I couldn't find him anywhere!

We had looked in the bakery because he loved sneaking in there and ordering pastries, although he wasn't supposed to. His mother was sort of a health freak. He wasn't there. We checked his job hall and any offices where he could have gone. He wasn't there either. Then we decided to head over to the janitor halls because if he got in a lot of trouble, they would have made him sweep his boss' office. He didn't show up there either. Finally, we checked his boss' office, but he wasn't there either.

"You know what? I'm getting tired of trying to find Otto. Let's just head to your house MerLissa," Nemo said. He cast a sidelong glance to Rob, who tried not to notice that Nemo was eyeing him up.

I gnashed my teeth together. I wanted to find Otto. I had to talk to him about this Darkness stuff. He always liked legends and myths. He was the perfect guy for this! He could fill me in on some missing details!

I shook my head no.

"We need to keep looking for Otto. He may have gotten into trouble!"

"Well if he got into trouble, he'd be long off it by now. Maybe he's waiting at your house." Nemo cleared his throat and batted his eyelashes at my brother.

Rob tried not to notice, but I could tell it was bothering him. Nemo just kept on trying to vie for my brother's attention. I turned to Nemo and slapped his tail, hard.

"For goodness sakes, Nemo, will you stop checking out my brother?! He's clearly not one interested in other guys!!" I screamed at him.

"Ow! That hurt MerLissa!" Nemo stopped swimming to examine his poor tail. A gasp emitted from his throat. "It's a slightly different shade here!" He pointed to where I had slapped him. "You bruised my tail! I need an ambulance!"

I rolled my eyes. "Just go home to your mother."

He started to pout, motioning towards Rob. "But-"

"Go! Now!"

Nemo's shoulders slouched as he swam away. I let my eyes stay on his back until a turned a corner, disabling me to see him any longer. He hadn't seemed to notice that black goo was swarming around my brother's tail, encasing it to where it wasn't even red anymore.

Rob knelt down to my ear, catching me by surprise. "He really is a cry-baby," he told me.

I shook my head. "No, sometimes he's useful. Actually, most of the time."

"Right." Rob said slowly, pointing to where Nemo was.

He must have been trying to get out a band-aid, because all of his band-aids were floating around him. He was trying to catch them, but his tail fin kept fanning them away. Then he noticed us looking at him. When had he even got back here? I could have sworn he was gone a minute ago!

"What? Did something happen?" Nemo asked, unaware that Rob was making fun of him.

"Duh! Have you not noticed the band-aids all around?!" Rob said.

I slapped him on his arm. "Stop being so mean to him, Rob!"

He didn't even flinch. Usually, if I slapped someone, they'd be down on their knees, begging for forgiveness. Not this guy!  Ughh I hate tough guys. If I needed to defend myself against him, I knew that slapping him wouldn't work. Darn.

Nemo scratched his head. "Where?" He looked at us and then at him. "Oh, these!! They were not here a second ago."

I put my head to my forehead and sighed, annoyed by how defending my friend had backfired. Why couldn't Nemo have been born with a little more brain cells?