𝐈'𝐋𝐋 𝐁𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐃 || 𝐙𝐚𝐧𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐭

Chapter 25 - Harsh Words

This was the worst thing that could happen. Everything had been going so great for us - Emma was seeing Byron, Cleo and Lewis had finally admitted their feelings for each other, even Rikki had began to date a guy she'd yet to introduce us to, and I, of course, was very happy dating Zane. Things were perfect. Until she had to come back and ruin it all, that is. The woman I'm speaking of? Dr. Denman. AKA the woman who'd almost took off with our cell samples.

So let's just say it didn't give me a warm, fuzzy feeling to see her chatting up my boyfriend outside the juice bar. In fact, it made my blood boil just thinking about it. I sighed, shaking away the thoughts as I let myself into Zane's backyard. He was dripping wet, having just hopped out of the pool. I smiled, greeting him as I walked over.

"I saw you talking to that marine biologist today," I remarked.

In return, I got a cocky smirk from Zane, "Jealous?"

"No...yes, no. Maybe. No," I shook my head as his smirk only grew wider.

"There's nothing going on, I promise," he assured me before winking, "But you're cute when you're jealous,"

I rolled my cocoa-brown eyes, blushing scarlet as he continued.

"She's conducting research. Counting fish, that sort of thing. Nothing interesting,"

"Really? I heard she was onto something big," I said, trying to be nonchalant with my words.

But judging from Zane's face, I'd missed that by a long shot.

"What? She told me she didn't find anything. She told me she was just counting boring fish. What have you heard?"

"I-I could be wrong. In fact, I probably am. Forget about it,"

"I knew it. She's trying to rip me off. She knows something about the mermaid,"

"Oh, Zane, why can't you just let that go?" I complained, so tired of this.

"Because it's real, Leona. That's why," he shot back at me.

"Well, it's getting old and I'm sick of hearing about it," I pressed him.

His brown eyes hardened, body stiffening.

"I think you should go," he said coldly.

"Zane-" I tried again, feeling a bit guilty for saying what I did.

"Just leave... I don't want to see you right now." he told me, turning away.

His stinging words let a mark, making me frown as slowly, I made my way back to my abandoned apartment. I crawled onto the broken-down mattress once I got there, covering up with an old, tattered purple blanket. His words resounded in my head as tears filled my eyes.

We'd just had our first fight.