The Irish Sea Caves | H2O

Chapter VII: Golden Scales

"Will, wait!," I run up to him on the beach, loading his boat. "I was worried about you."

He looks at me with disbelief, hurt in his eyes, he knew I was lying but he didn't know why. I had to lie, I couldn't have him finding out I was a mermaid, let alone Rikki or Cleo. I couldn't betray my new friends trust. The only problem was, he thought I was lying about believing his stories. I knew what it felt like to have no one believe in you.

"I must be crazy, coming all the way out here for something magical," he explains as he tosses his wet hiking boots on board. "What a psycho."
"You are not," I attempt to sound reassuring but it comes out half-heartedly.
He looks to the water, then to me, "Did I really imagine all that stuff?"

I sigh, here comes more lies and letting him down.

"Look, the truth is when- when we found you, you were pretty out of it. You were muttering all sorts of things that didn't really make sense." I smile and shrug. He sighs and I can tell he was hurt. "I guess you hit your head pretty hard."

He puts the anchor back into the boat and takes a few steps towards me.

"I'm sorry for dragging you all the way out here, there's nothing in that cave," he says, not making eye contact.
"Don't be. I- I had a good day."

He starts to push the boat away from the shore, but stops and turns to me. He seems shocked that I enjoyed spending time with him, guess I forgot to act like I was having fun while I was distracting him. "Did you?"

I nod and I can hear him sigh with relief as he looks out to the ocean again.

"I can take you back to the mainland?" he offers.
"Um- I should probably get back to the guys but... Look, if I fall in a hole again I'll be sure to call you," I say.
"Yeah. I'll see you later."

He pushes his boat out to sea and I watch for a few minutes as he gets smaller. I felt myself smiling, was I catching feelings? Nope, nope, nope. Definitely not. I couldn't fall for a boy who spends so much time around water, especially him, I'd lied to him enough. Beside it'd be pointless, he's so good looking, his cute smile and his muscles and his cute messy hair-ugh!! He'd never like you back.

I force myself to walk away and begin my long hike up the hill to the cave, hoping I wouldn't get lost on the way, or fall in a stream. I couldn't stop thinking about him as I walked, it frustrated me, like I don't want to think about him, but I was and I couldn't stop myself.

I ease my way into the cave through the bumpy hole in the floor and walk in on Cleo forcing Rikki into some sort of experiment. She stood by the waterfall in the wall and appeared to want Rikki next to her. Lewis seemed to be doing his own thing.

"Well, Will's not coming back," I say.
"Good job," Cleo replies. "Bella, come here."
I walk forward to the small space left between Cleo and Rikki. "Closer," she orders.

I do so and the water starts bubbling and slowly grows into a tiny tentacle. It curls upwards then lunges itself at us and the three of us rush backwards in shock. I'd never seen this sort of thing before and from the looks of Cleo, Rikki and Lewis's faces, neither had they.

"It's takes all of us to attract it," Cleo states.
"It's gotta be related to the tentacle," Rikki says.
"I agree," Cleo replies.
Lewis butts in, "You might be onto something."
"Might?" I add.
"I think you guys should stay away from here."

We all glance at Lewis like he was crazy, we couldn't stay away from here. Moon pools were mermaid safe places, through all my traveling, they were the only places I could fully relax. He couldn't ask us to stay away from our second home.

"No!" Cleo retorts. "This is our place and we're not gonna be chased out of here by a leaky wall, right?"

Rikki and I nod as Cleo continues arguing with Lewis over what causes the tentacle and how we could remain safe. Through all the chaos of being chased by a freaking water tentacle that kidnaps mermaids right off their feet and smashes mirrors and attacks people, I still couldn't get that dreamy boy out of my head.

A/N Yikes. It's been so long since I've updated but this story is getting so much support (even though I put the least effort into it like come on guys, I'm just typing on the freaking script to the actual episodes, this isn't creative) but anyway, I won't rant. Thank you thank you thank you for the support, more updates soon (hopefully but let's be real), as always it would be really REALLY appreciated if you could give my other stories some love, I do have another H2O fan fiction, it's entirely my own called Mermaids and Mysteries. I'm writing the last chapters now so let it go out with a bang. Check it out ;) Be sure to comment and tell me what you think and leave a vote if you want to make me feel less like a piece of crap who wastes their time writing mermaid fan fiction. Thanks again.
- Myah xox