The tingly feeling was still there when I hoisted Peter's unconscious body through my window and onto my bed. I don't know how I did it, but I managed to get him back to the house, up the ladder, through the window, and laying on my bed with a cold cloth on his face without make enough noice for anyone to notice. It would have been great if Peter was slightly awake, but that didn't dim my excitement and relief when he finally came to.
"Peter!" I squealed, wrapping my arms around him.
"Ugh, Ellie. I just had the wierdest dream..." I prepared for the cliche realization when I needed to tell him it wasn't a dream and that what he thought was fake really happened. "Wait! No! It wasn't a dream, because I felt your tail. And it blew up and everything. And my eyes hurt from the light. And I thought it was a dream, but it happened! It did happen, right? Or am I going crazy?"
"Yes. I mean, no. I mean, yes. I mean - yes it did happen, but know you're not going crazy." I was as flustered as Peter was, but for different reasons. Had he really thought it was all a dream?
"So it all really happened?" He searched my eyes for the truth.
"Yeah." I didn't look away.
"And your legs actually did that?" He questioned.
"Yeah." I answered.
"And you heard everything I said?" His eyes fluttered away awkwardly.
"Yeah." Mine did the same.
"Everything?" He smiled, probably hoping I hadn't heard the 'girl I like' part.
"Everything" I felt uncomfortable, bringing that secret out into the open like that. But I needed to be honest with Peter, even if I didn't know how old the secret was. Or if I shared it too.
"Oh" He said, looking down at my legs while scratching his strawberry blonde haircut back out of place. "So we have a lot to talk about, I guess"
"I guess" I said, wanting to and not wanting to talk about everything that had happened in the last hour and a half, it was only 9:30.
"So, um...a mermaid?" he looked like he could burst out laughing any second.
"Um, yeah. Tail and all." I was relieved he wasn't talking about the 'girl I like' part.
"It was like blue and green and stuff." He tried to recall back.
"Yeah, a mixed of both I think. Then the fin was rainbow sparkles." I was the first to laugh, actually.
He looked at me and smiled. "It was the same color as your eyes."
"And my toe nails" I lifted my feet to show him.
"Yeah. So?" Nail polish didn't make a difference to Peter.
"My nails weren't painted before." I wondered if it would register with him as much as it did me. It did.
"So, that's proof that it did happened." He looked completely creeped out.
"Well, you saw it. And I saw it. And the light was there. And - " I began to rant, the nervousness of the situation taking me by storm. Peter nodded understandingly, one sentence not making much of a difference to him as the next. "- And I felt it too." That registered with him.
"What do you mean 'felt it'" He looked concerned.
"Like, there was this tingly feeling that spread further and stronger each time you touched the tail. And after the last time you did, the feeling lingered for while. You know? I couldn't shake it off." As I said this, Peter looked down at his hand.
"Yeah, yeah. I felt it too. The first time it just stayed in my hand. Then the second time it spread up my arm and towards my shoulder, but the third time, it got worse. It spread so strong it almost hurt. It spread to my chest and stuff." He put his hand where his heart was. "I think that's why I blacked out."
"So you felt it too?" Maybe I wasn't the only wierd one.
"Yeah, it felt like that sparkling pins and needles feeling you get when your foot falls asleep because you've been sitting for too long, only three times stronger." He shook his hand for good measure.
"Sparkling." I nodded. "Definetly sparkling."
"Yeah, sparkling. It sort of hurt. Maybe we should tell someone. I don't know about you, but this doesn't really happen all that often." Peter looked a bit more nervous now.
"But how are they going to react. Like you said, these things don't happen all that often, how will they know what to do?"
I had a feeling any sane person would go insane if I told I had just grown a tail.
"What happens if they see you, when...you know...it happens again?" He questioned.
"Then we explain it to them then, but up until then, we should try to figured it out for ourselves before we tell anyone." I pictured that thought of someone seeing me and getting scared to go near me.
"What about Annabelle and Walker? Or your mom?" Peter had a serious tone to his voice.
"Not right away, please, I have a feeling it would create problems if we just told them." We were both nervous about what was going to happen, but I was more nervous about what was going to happen if I told someone. They would probably be scared for me and for themselves, almost like how Peter was feeling, but I didn't need that from multiple people. If other people were scared for you, it's hard not to be scared for yourself, and I had had enough of that since my dad disappeared.
"Okay, but we have to tell someone at some point." He said, looking concerned for my safety. Why would he be so concerned for me? He had never had to protect me before. I tried not to smile at the thought that he felt protective of me. "I guess its our secret." He frowned. "But if something happens we need to tell someone. Everything."
"Everything." I reassured him. He started to get up and walk towards the window. He looked back at me, then my feet, the floor, and then stole another glance at me. I didn't think he wanted to leave and I didn't want him to.
"See you tomorrow?" He smiled.
"Yeah, see you then." I matched the smile as he pulled the window shut behind him. I looked at the digital clock on my beside table that read 10:00. I was so exhausted from what had just happened that I just pulled the covers right over myself and turn off the light. The blanket was dry and warm, but it felt like the waves that ran over my legs not too long ago. The waves that changed my legs into a five and a half foot long fin. The waves that had changed everything.
