I'm a Mermaid, Not a Merman

11

"That's - all - you - had - to - do," Sammy said, pounding her hand against the table, rattling their drink cups. "You just had to say, 'I'm a guy, I'm sorry I confused you.' It would've been horrible and awkward, but it would've ended then and there. You never would've seen him again."

Danny leaned back in his chair, trying to focus on the background noise of everyone in the mall's food court, rather than on the thoughts in his head.

"It's just...," he said, "he looked so heartbroken. Like I'd straight up told him he was ugly."

"Danny," Mom said, pinching the bridge of her nose, "sometimes... sometimes you have to hurt people's feelings to prevent things from getting worse."

"I know," he said with leaky eyes, "but... it's just so hard to hurt people. I hate it. So many people have hurt my feelings, and I don't want to hurt theirs."

"All you're doing is delaying those hurt feelings though," Mom said. "How is he going to feel when you don't answer your phone, or reply to his texts?"

Danny looked forlornly down at his partially eaten Subway sandwhich.

"I don't have to do that though," Danny said.

"Danny," Sammy asked in shock, "what are you going to do, go on a date with him?"

Danny didn't respond, he just sat there, unable to really think. What had he done? He'd really screwed up this time.

He took a sollemn bite of his sandwich, but couldn't enjoy it with everything going on.

"You could've also said something like, 'I'm sorry, I'm not really comfortable giving my number to strangers,'" Sammy said.

That would have been wise. Dang it! He'd already done something like that when messaging Lucy, why couldn't he have thought of that there?"

"Aughh," he groaned, "I was put on the spot. He just seemed so upset."

"It didn't help that you were talking with him the way you were," Sammy said.

"I was chatting!" Danny said. "We were waiting in the line, and I didn't think it was a big deal."

"Well Danny," Sammy said, "you obviously show your hand here, because you don't appear to have a clue what it looks like when a girl is flirting with you."

"Sammy," Mom scolded, "that's not very nice. And what's done is done. The question is Danny, what are you planning on doing about this?"

Danny swallowed a bite of food. "I really have no idea."

His pocket buzzed. He pulled out his phone to find a text from a number he didn't know.

>Hi, it's Matt :)

"That's that boy isn't it?" Sammy asked. She leaned over to see the text.

He stared down at his phone. His vision swam as he stared at the blank whiteness of the screen.

"So?" Sammy asked, "what are you going to do?"

"You can just be honest," Mom said. "Just tell him that you're a boy, and that it was a misunderstanding, and that you didn't want to embarrass him or yourself."

But Danny didn't have that kind of backbone.

>Hi Matt :)

"That definitely wasn't a confession," Sammy remarked.

"I can't tell Matt that he was...," Danny winced, "flirting with a guy. That'd make him feel really bad too."

"But what about your feelings Danny?" Mom asked. "You obviously aren't comfortable with it either."