The trip was starting to drain my allowances, but it was worth it. I strode through the exhibit tunnel that was starting to wear on me. I casted my gaze down just as I had yesterday and hurried through the tunnel with my fists clenched. My parents had called me nut for coming for the third time, but I, of course, had lied. I thought about saying it was for school homework but that wouldn't work since it summer vacation. So I settled by saying it was for an art project - a personal project.
I shook my head and snorted lightly. Maybe I am nuts. I couldn't wait a week to see Tristen again. I stepped into the mer globe. My eyes flitted around. It was empty and my echoing footsteps proved it. I checked my watch that read 8:34 am. Nobody would in their right mind be awake at the time on a Sunday. It was strange to see it empty, not filled with the usual thousands of tourists that it was eerily surreal. It was just me and...
That's it.
There was not even a mer in sight â not even Tristen. I tried not to be disappointed, maybe he'll come later. Restless, I moved toward the only wall in the globe. The squared wall took up a small section of round, glass globe. The wall was littered with mers' info and artifacts. I walked up to it, killing time and taking the chance of the lack of people to shoulder out of the way to read it. They had a large colored image of the mer's skeletal systems. I look at it closely. Their spine is elongated into their tail and what would considered to be humans' legs, are shrunken to their waist and it's toe bones is elongated - which would be the fins of the either side of their tails.
One of the huge frame contained their most repetitive fact, 'Mers can't talk.' They even had their brain scanned display with a bunch of other science babble of why they can't talk. One of the theories popped out to me was that perhaps they don't accommodate the same level as human's intelligence and that they're not intellectually advance, they are more biologically advanced than humans - such as swift healing time and stronger - but their brains is being compared to a dolphin's.
I snorted. That is, if dolphins can secretly read and write english.
I checked my watch once again. Only ten minutes had passed. I searched around the mer globe again. No Tristen. He and the rest of the mer must be resting behind the wall of corals and vines that surrounded the globe. I sighed disappointedly. It's okay, I tell myself. I can just wait. I took of my backpack as I walked out away from the wall of facts. I walked the short distance to my left, to the same spot where I've met Tristen and learned his name.
I sat on the black, marble floor and rested my heated back on the cool glass. I opened my leather backpack and took out my sketchpad. I slipped to clean page and whipped out my used charcoal pencil. Hmmm.... I pondered. What to draw? Soon my eyes rested across the globe where a thick vine wove itself on the contours of a large sapphire coral. My fingers twitched to draw the planes and the crevices. I never ignore my urge to draw. I cradled my pencil and begun to draw. My hand guided me through the supple lines, outlining the coral and the vines. The world seemed to fade away and felt that familiar buzz that happens when I'm in the zone. I soon lost myself to the contours, shadings and lines. I gave immense focused on the blank paper, pouring life into it. Finally, the coral with vine appeared on the paper. It was almost the exact replica, as usual, by my drawing was always seem to be missing something. It just fell flat, non-attention grabbing.
I twisted my lips in frustration as I ran my eyes, trying to find the ever so missing ingredient in all my drawings. I tossed the pencil aside and groan in frustration. It drove me insane when I don't know something in general. I stood up and my cramped bones cried softly as I stretched. I checked my watch. 9:23am. I turned to the aquarium I was resting on and -
I yelped in surprise and stumbled back. My ankle gave out and I fell on my bottom.
Tristen immediately swam to the glass pane and pressed on it with his hands. With his wide green eyes, he mouthed, "Are you ok?"
My face burned as I stood up with very little dignity. I nodded in utter embarrassment. At least I'm not pale enough for me to blush evidently. I bit my lips as I turned my back on him as I shut my eyes. I can't believe I fell on my friggin' butt in front of him. My cheeks flamed even more so as I quickly composed myself and turned to him with a smile. Tristen searched me, possibly of an injury, I guess.
Then a smirk begun to etched on his beautiful face that made his sea green eyes lit. His shoulders shook with laughter as bubble trailed from his mouth.
Great... He was laughing at me.
If my face was burning earlier, it must be heating up like a wildfire now. Irked, I covered my face with my hands and with defeat, I laughed. I must look so pathetic to have a gorgeous merman laugh at me. I looked up, grinning. Tristen's smiles and his unheard laugh were infectious. After our chuckles died down, well... kinda. Tristen was still grinning. That smile stole my breath. He was one of those people that smile with their whole face. When he smile, he smiles. It transformed his whole face and his eyes shined with such life. How can something so alive be bound in this glass prison? Much less smile and laugh here. I shook my head and smiled back at him in awe.
His eyes went to my drawing pad that lay abandoned on the floor, he looked back me and nodded his head towards my sketch with a questioning look. Tristen mouthed slowly, "I want to see your drawings again."
I walked closer to the glass pane. "Again?"
He smirked deviously. "I was watching you draw."
My jaw slightly dropped in disbelief but I quickly closed it. How had not noticed that someone was watching me for nearly an hour?
He chuckled at me expression and I just stuck my tongue at him like a lame five year old.
Tristen swam closer towards the the glass. Butterflies fluttered erratically in my abdomen. He gave me an undeniable sweet smile. My breath stopped. His smile were stuff of sins. He mouthed, "Please." The butterflies took shot of caffeine and were bumping into my stomach in a frenzy. I sighed, not really putting up a fight. I retrieved my sketchpad. It wasn't like I could say no to the guy who is trapped in an aquarium - I mean the mer, not guy...
A very hot mer at that.
I smiled bashfully as I moved toward him till I stood about foot from the glass. Tristen waggled his finger for me to move more closer. I stepped closer as obedient as a dog. I opened the sketchpad to the first page and turned it to him. He floated closer and studied intently of the etched waves of the sea, lapping the soft sand with blazing sunset as the gulls soar with the rays.
He moved his head to the side, flip the page, he seem to be saying. I flipped the page, revealing my pet parrot, Einstein. I grinned and turn the page to me and picked up my discarded pencil and wrote on top, my pet. I turned it back and he grinned as he read it. I continued turning the page and mouthing what they mean to me when he looked at me questioningly. Halfway through my sketchpad, we reached my latest drawing of the coral and the vines.
Tristen sinks to the sand and trailed his finger in the bland sand. It then read, "You're an amazing artist."
I snorted and shook my head. He nodded sternly and raised a finger, "Wait." He went down to the message and erased two words from his previous message. It now read, "You are amazing."
I laughed as I shook my head. I was just... me. A normal girl just trying to get through high school. I wrote in my pad, "Said the merman."
Tristen raised his brows and then rolled his eyes. Grinning, as if saying 'This ol' me?'
I chuckled.
His humorous smile sombered. His sea green eyes seared my hazel ones. I wondered for the millionth time, how in the world did I managed to befriend a merman? Me. Not just me, but a human. The very same ones that put him in a glass prison, trapped with other of his kinds. My eyes drifted to my left wrist, the watch read 10:44 p.m. My eyes widened.
"Whoa... Where did the time go?" I murmured. Something moves out of my sight and I looked up. Tristen waved his hands to captured my attention. His dark brows were scrunched with concern. He must've seen my face. I tapped my watch, "Late."
He frowned. "Stay."
My breath hitched. Should I?... Then my parents' angered face came to mind.
Nope, going home it is.
I shook my head, "I can't,"
He nodded as if he understood. Tristen raised his hand and laid it against the glass. Without hesitation, I laid it against the glass over his. He smiled sadly.
I mouthed, "I'll be here tomorrow." With that, his eyes lit up and he grinned. My chest tightened from his beauty. Would I ever get used to it? I can almost see why the humans wanted to keep them captive. I lightly shook myself and redrew to retrieve my backpack. "Bye." I gave him a small wave.
He waved back. "Bye, Meredith." He mouthed.
I smiled back one last time, then I went home.
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Model: Kaylin Amaro
Designed by me (Added filter with photoshop and typography with Illustrator)
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