NINETEEN

A Way Out

Gemma had gone to swim practice because she’d decided to try at this life. Spending the afternoon with Alex yesterday had cemented her belief that she couldn’t walk away from all this yet. She had to at least try to find a way to make it work.

Sleep had been difficult, though. She lay awake, tossing and turning all night. The ocean called to her, almost like a song. The waves beckoned her, and it took all her energy to ignore their pull.

In the morning, Coach Levi had been hard on her about missing practice this week, but her times were so amazing, he couldn’t fault her too much. Now, though, swimming in the pool wasn’t as much fun as it used to be.

The chlorine irritated her skin. Not that it gave her a rash, but she could almost feel it chafing her flesh, like itchy burlap rubbing against her. She couldn’t wait for practice to be over.

Thanks to her fantastic speed, she was actually able to convince the coach to let her go early. Since Harper had dropped her off in the morning, she probably planned on picking Gemma up, too. But Gemma didn’t want that. She needed to go see the sirens.

The problem was that she didn’t exactly know where the sirens hung out. Gemma imagined that the sea called to them the same way it did to her, so they probably weren’t that far from the bay.

Harper was off today, and Gemma had no idea what she might be up to, so she had to sneak around town. It was hard to be inconspicuous, but she tried to avoid Harper’s usual haunts, like the library and the docks.

On her way to the water, Gemma stumbled upon the sirens. She’d planned on going by the cypress trees to the rocky coast, where there weren’t very many people, so she could swim out to the cove. But she only made it as far as the beach.

It was hot, so the beach was crowded, both with tourists and the locals. Still, the sirens weren’t that hard to spot. Gemma was on the grassy hill behind the beach, looking down toward the bay, and she could easily see the three girls in the crowd.

All of them wore bikinis, showing off their ample assets. Penn lay on a beach towel on her belly. Lexi was sitting propped on her elbows, flirting with an older guy standing next to her. In her usual fashion, Thea seemed bored by it all and read a dog-eared copy of Salem’s Lot while lounging in a beach chair.

Gemma had to push through the people on the beach to get to them, although she realized that she didn’t have to push that hard. People actually started parting for her, the way they always seemed to for Penn and her friends.

People were already starting to treat her like one of the sirens, like she belonged with them.

“You’re blocking the light,” Penn said without looking up. Gemma stood in front of her, casting a shadow across her back.

“I need to talk to you.” Gemma crossed her arms and stared down at them.

“Hey, Gemma.” Lexi turned to look back at her and used her hand as a visor from the sun. “You look great today.”

“Thanks, Lexi,” Gemma said offhandedly but kept her focus on Penn. “Did you hear me?”

“Yeah, you need to talk.” Penn still hadn’t moved on the towel. “So go ahead. Talk.”

Gemma glanced around. People were involved in their activities, like tanning or reading or building sand castles, so it wasn’t like they were just sitting and staring at the sirens. Yet the people were too close, too crowded together, to ignore the sirens for any amount of time, and they kept looking over.

“Not here,” Gemma said, lowering her voice.

“Then I guess we’ll talk later,” Penn told her.

“No. I need to talk now.”

“Well, I’m busy now.” Penn finally lifted her head to glare at her. “So it will have to wait, won’t it?”

“No.” Gemma shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere unless you go with me.”

Thea sighed loudly. “Penn, just go talk to her. We won’t get any rest until you do.”

“If I’m going, we’re all going.” Penn cast a look to Thea, who scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“Fine. I guess we’re done here, then.” Thea closed her book and shoved it roughly into her beach bag. “Come on, Lexi, let’s pack up.”

“What?” Lexi looked confused. “Aren’t we coming back?” When Thea started to get up, she waved her hand. “No, we’ll come back. Somebody can just watch our stuff.” She turned to the older man, who was now sitting next to her. “Will you be a sweetheart and watch our stuff until we return? We shouldn’t be gone that long.”

“Yeah, sure, no problem.” He smiled eagerly at Lexi and nodded.

“Thank you.” Lexi returned his smile, then stood up and brushed sand off her legs. “Okay. I’m ready.”

Penn and Thea got up more slowly than Lexi, and Penn led the way off the beach. Half a dozen guys said hello to them as they walked away, but only Lexi responded. Gemma, who garnered some male attention of her own, wasn’t used to quite this much ogling, and she found that she didn’t enjoy it.

They went to a rocky area that jutted out into the bay, not quite to the cypress trees, but far enough to be out of sight of the crowd on the beach.

As soon as they got there, Thea slipped off her bikini bottom and waded out into the water. From where she stood, Gemma couldn’t see her legs turn into a tail, but she knew it had happened just the same.

“Shall we go for a swim?” Lexi suggested, slipping down her own bikini bottom.