Under the Sea *Book One* Water Trilogy

~Eleven~

So there I stood, a stolen pair of Tyler's navy sweats, white shirt at my feet, and one of my purple towels spread out in my hands like a curtain. Connor had gone up to distract my family as Finn pulled himself out of the water. I heard the water dripping off of him, back into the ocean. My head was turned as far as it could go from him, my faces was the color of a fire truck, as I held out the towel to him. I couldn't help but focus on the fact that this mysterious guy, who I had only known for a week, was turning from a merman into a human.

I sat there for a minute. Finn groaned but took the towel from my hands. I waited until he told me turn around.

"Are you covered?" I asked. I had my hands balled into fists at my sides as I went from balancing on my heels to my toes repetitively.

"As covered as I'm getting."

I looked down to see Finn sitting on the ground, wrapped in a towel, and shivering in front of me and only hidden from the waist down by a flimsy piece of cotton.

"Are you okay?" I nearly threw myself on top of him, trying to protect him from whatever was causing the pain, but stopped when I remembered he was practically naked.

"No one ever told me that turning would hurt that bad," he explained while slowly standing up. Reaching down he picked up the sweats and put them on. After that he dropped the towel, it wasn't like I hadn't seen his bare chest already, and picked up the shirt. My breath hitched as he lifted it above his head and I saw all the muscles in his upper body flex. What was wrong with me? Why couldn't I just relax?

I quickly looked over my shoulder to see no one was in the dining room, because of my wonderful brother, and I looked back to see Finn completely dressed.

"Okay, I'm going to go get my keys. I want you to head up to the street and hop in my car before anyone sees you. The last thing I need are questions."

He shook his head and handed me the towel. I didn't realize he was handing it to me at first because I was too busy staring at him. Blushing, I took it and he gave me a shy smile. My heart kicked up. Something about him made me that way.

"We should probably do that now," he pointed at my house. My eyes widened. I had stood there staring at him, forgetting what it was I said we were supposed to be doing.

"Oh, yeah," I cleared my throat and hurried away. I couldn't help it.

"Hey, mom?" I called as I shut the slider door.

"We're in here!" she called from the living room. I waked in to see exactly what my brother had been doing to distract them. In his hands he held a deck of cards, which he was attempting to do what looked like a magic trick, and he focused on them really hard. "Your brother was showing us a magic trick." Everyone chuckled except Tyler.

"Oh, well I'm going somewhere so I'll be back in a little-" I started to say.

"Where?" I don't know why Ty was questioning me but he was.

I struggled to come up with an excuse. "Uh, Heidi..." I blurted. "Invited me and some friends out for lunch."

"Where?" This time my dad was the one asking.

"I'm not sure. Somewhere down town." The lies were coming a little smoother. "I can't think of the name, but it's a little burger joint."

"Sammie's?" My mom chimed in.

"Yeah, that one." I headed to my room, scooped up my purse and keys and took off. Connor asked if he could come as I rushed out the door but I told him no and hurried out. Not very well hidden was a shaky legged Finn, clinging to the side like his life depended on it. I hit the unlock button and gestured for him to climb in, which he did with difficulty, while I practically jumped into the Jeep, overly excited and pushed on adrenalin. I was technically sneaking around with a guy, even if that guy was technically not human who I was not actually dating. It was still a rush.