Breathing Water

CHAPTER 24

"Woah! Are you doing that?" Shelly takes her arm off my shoulder and reaches for the ball of water. I slowly bring my hand towards us and the water moves closer too. She touches the edge of the sphere and it bursts, spraying us with water. In the next second my middle starts to burn. Making the connection with the first time it happened, I turned my body so that my legs were no longer hanging over the side and move myself closer to the middle of the balcony. As I reach the safe location I was hoping for, steam surrounds me, then it slowly fades and a tail has replaced my legs. Shelly's eyes and mouth just gawk at the sight.
Finally she blurts out "What is happening?"
"Ummm, I'm not exactly sure but I've only had this happen once before now." I try to explain it quickly.
"What do you mean?" She sounds nervous or something.
"Well, after I fell and almost drowned, I've felt like I need to be in the water. Like it was calling me or something. I can't really explain it, but yesterday I couldn't  take it anymore so I drove to the cliff. I don't know how I knew to do it, but I dove of the side of the cliff and after being in the water for a few seconds," I motion to my legs, "this happened."
"Can you do anything else? Anything other than the ball of water?" She sounds truly curious and amazed.
"I think I can dry my tail back into legs." I think about evaporation and the steam returns. Just like before a second passes and the steam fades and my legs appear.
"Wow! That is amazing. I am so glad you trusted me with this information."
"Well, I wasn't going to tell you about the tail until I knew you better and I had figured out how to talk to Glimmer about it. But I didn't know the ball of water would explode when you touched it." I laugh at the situation a little, but immediately I realize something and become serious. "You promise you won't tell anyone?"
"Cross my heart and hope to die. If people found out, scientist would take you away for testing and research. If that happened I would never see you again and I think that could actually kill me." I smile and feel heat in my cheeks. I look away, but Shelly puts her hand on my shoulder and turns me back to face her. "You know, I was planning to bring you here all day. We need talk about you telling people who you are, or at least a few people that are close to you."
I sigh deeply and say "But your close to me and you know. Plus how do I know that this is really me? How do I know its not just the fact that someone likes me that is swaying my thoughts?" I really do want to the answers to these questions.
Shelly turns to make her whole body face me and connects her other hand with the one around my shoulders so she is hugging me. "Well, you've kissed me and a guy. So which did you like more?"
"Well, the guy was attacking me so I didn't really enjoy it much."
I quickly add with a smile, "But I did really enjoy our kiss."
Shelly smiles too and asks "Why don't you try to imagine the kiss with the guy as if he was not attacking you?"
I close my eyes and do as she asked. I think about the kiss part itself from my encounter with Mason. I remember how it felt wrong, like his lips weren't the right shape. He didn't have the right pressure, the right movement, the right facial structure. I open my eyes and Shelly's smile has grown. "His kiss was - I don't know what to call it. I guess it was wrong," I shake my head with my eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "It was like he didn't fit."
"You know, you make the cutest face when you are disgusted. I saw it as soon as you closed your eyes and imagined the kiss." She laughs a little. "Anyway, how did it feel when you kissed me?"
My cheeks start to feel warm again. "Umm, well it felt," I start to think back to last night "It felt..." Shelly looks at me expectantly. I close my eyes and state exactly how I felt about the kiss. "It felt perfect, but confusing at the same time. It was like we were two puzzle pieces that fit but we make a picture that doesn't make sense. Yet I still enjoy looking at the image."
"Okay so you enjoy looking back at the memory of us kissing, but you are disgusted by the memory of kissing that guy. What does that tell you? What does that mean to you?"
I open my eyes and make a serious face. I make a decision and turn to face Shelly. Instead of answering I lean towards her. She doesn't move away, she actually moves closer to me. Shelly blinks slowly. In the middle of a blink I close the distance between us by placing my lips against hers. When I pull away I say "Will you be there when I tell my mom and Glimmer?"
"Of course, but I have one question. What are we?"