above and beyond

Chapter 13

"Gloria! Why did you run off like that?" asks Hop, when he catches up to her on the beach. She shakes her head, unable to explain herself to him without a means of writing, but he reaches in his pocket, producing her pen and paper, before sitting next to her.

It's no use , she writes. I'm going to have to go back home soon, and I'll never be able to see any of you again. It wouldn't be easy to say goodbye, no matter when I did it, so I left.

"But you don't know that it wouldn't work out! You still have time!" Hop protests. "I can get Lee's attention again, I can tell him that it's important for him to spend the whole night by your side, I can force him to...to..."

You can't force him to fall in love with me. It was a silly idea from the start, for me to think that I could make him fall in love with me in only a month, when I didn't know the first thing about him. I didn't even know the first thing about love, but I thought if I just wanted it enough, then everything would work out. I never should have rushed things, because then I might have been able to meet you later, when I didn't have a deadline.

"What if we can fix it?" he asks, starting to sound more desperate. "I mean, you may have to go back for now, but what if Sonia keeps working on it? We need to come up with a system so we can meet up and share progress, we could even introduce Sonia to, uh...her name was Nessa, right? I bet they'd get on great, and they could fix this up in no time! It may seem hopeless now, but it might not be that way forever, and then you don't even need Lee."

We have no way of knowing that we can reverse what Nessa's magic has already done, and if failing curses me to remain a mermaid without a voice forever, then there might not be anything she or Sonia can do. It would be better if you all forgot about me, instead of keeping false hopes.

Now, Hop looks angry with her. "How can you say that? Even if there's nothing we can do at all, why would I ever want to forget about you? I would never want to forget you, and neither does anyone else! Even Lee would be sad if you just up and left and I told him he should just forget about it . No matter where you are or what you are, you're still going to be our friend!"

Gloria has tried her best not to cry in front of him, but now, she isn't able to stop the tears. Of course she wants to stay friends with them all, especially Hop, but if they are never going to be a part of the same world again, then she is sure that it would become too complicated. Things would be easier for him if he could forget her, and just go on with his life like before she came along.

"You're the best friend I've ever had, Gloria," he continues, when he sees that she is not going to write anything. He puts his hands on her shoulders, and she drops the book in her surprise, seeing that there are tears in his eyes as well. "Before you, I spent most of my time by myself, or bugging Sonia, and when you're gone, I'm just going to be by myself again. If I want to waste my time trying to figure out a way to bring you back, it'll still be better than the alternative! Gloria...I just want to help you."

She would tell him that he had already done too much for him, if he weren't still holding her shoulders, making it so that she can't easily pick up the book. Instead, she moves forward, so that she can hug him. It won't be much longer now before she has to go, and now, she is glad that Hop followed her out here. She can be close to him up until the end, and even though that may be harder on him and she may be selfish for thinking so, she is glad for that.

Hop returns her embrace, the two of them shaking a bit with their tears. "I'm going to help you," he says. "I promised that I would, so I'm not going to let you just....I'm going to figure something out, okay?"

He pulls back, waiting for her to nod, and though she knows that she shouldn't reassure him, when she knows that it's hopeless, she nods. Hop smiles through his tears then, mimicking her nod and saying, "It's going to be alright. We'll try everything, okay? We're going to try everything. I..."

He pauses for a moment, and then takes a breath. "Gloria, when you explained it to me, did you explain it exactly how it was explained to you?" The question surprises her, and she thinks about it for a moment before she nods. "So, when you said...well, you said that Leon was your reason, so he couldn't know the conditions, right? But when you said it, you said that someone who loved you had to kiss you."

She nods again, and Hop says, "You never said it had to be Lee. If you explained it exactly like it was explained to you, then it never had to be Lee. It just has to be someone who falls in love with you!"

She wants to tell him that this idea is even more ridiculous. If they were unable to make Leon fall in love with her in the amount of time that they had, then how could they find someone now ? It's far too late to consider possibilities like that, just like it's always been too late for her to consider if Leon is really the person that she wants to throw everything away for or not.

"I don't know if it's going to work, but I want to help you, and I want to try," says Hop. "I was never going to say anything about it, because...well, I didn't think I should. And I just want you to be happy, and even if you don't feel the same, that's fine! It's fine as long as you stay here with me, you can get your voice back and you can stay and take as much time with Lee as you want, and forget that I ever said it, alright? But, first...you have to let me kiss you, because I know that I love you, Gloria!"

His hands are on her shoulders again, and he gives her no time to process his confession, no time to react at all before he pulls her close and presses his lips to hers, frantic and desperate, tears rolling down his cheek. Gloria is overwhelmed by a sudden warmth, urging her to lean into the kiss, not wanting it to break, not wanting to pull away from Hop for any reason at all.

But he does pull back, hesitating as he catches his breath before he asks, "So, was that...was that enough?"

"Hop," she says, her voice sounding foreign to her after a month of silence. It's the first time that she has said his name out loud, the first time that he has ever heard her voice. "Hop, I love you too."

Soon enough, they're crying again, this time because they're overjoyed. Somehow, it worked.