eyes would be as wide as dinner plates. ‘I’m not going to end up with any of them. I’m just friends with them all.’
‘You go on believing that then. It’s not true though. One of them will fix you, and your love will be true.’
‘Fix me?’
‘It will be a long road before either of you figure out you’re in love. Since you’re so stubborn.’
‘You don’t know me.’
She just smiles, revealing a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. I’ve been inside your head, girl. I know all about you: your past, present and future. I’d advise you get those boys up now. The sunrise will be in a few moments. I doubt you want a group of guys lying on your naked body.’ Without another word she moves and swims up to the top of the aquarium, going beyond the rock where I can’t see.
Guys,’ I say through thought. ‘Guys, get up now. I’ll be changing back soon and I don’t want you lying on me when it happens.’ Amr stirs and slides down off my front leg.
“Sorry, Avvi,” he mumbles, rubbing his eyes.
The rest of them continue to snore, not fazed at all by my voice inside their heads. They must be exhausted. It’s been a long few days, hell, weeks.
Easing onto my feet, I stand, forcing some of them off me, just in time for the transformation to start. One of them remains on my back. I’m too tall to sit back on my haunches and make him fall off. This will be awkward. I’m not sure who it is, but they can sleep through anything. I can’t be that comfortable. I shift back faster than I want to. Their heavy body lies on top of me. Maybe they died? That’s the only thing that would explain him sleeping through all of this. I push up, but I can hardly move. They stir. Why aren’t the others helping him off of me? They snicker.
The person moves enough for me to turn over and see who they are. My eyes meet with Bullock’s brown eyes. I’ve never really seen him without his glasses on. His eyes focus on my breasts and then look back into my eyes. I nearly forgot I was butt naked. His mouth falls open, as both our cheeks flush red. His eyes shift down to my breasts again. The palm of my hand goes across his face, snapping him out of his stupor. I cover myself with my other arm.
“Get off me before I kick you in the balls,” I growl.
He’s up in an instant. I roll over and grab one of the many blazers that got thrown into a pile last night. I put it on. This one isn’t as long as Maverick’s. It doesn’t even touch my knees. At least, my butt isn’t exposed. I need some real clothes. I rather not have a reunion with my parents while being practically naked.
Goodbyes
I pull the blazer tighter around me as the wooden doors slide open. Vex comes in, back in her tattooed, human form. In her hands, she carries something that’s dark pink with black flip flop sitting on top. “Agnita says you need to go soon. I brought you this, figured you need some type of clothing other than a jacket. I would have gotten you something last night, but I had my orders to keep working and then you transformed.”
She hands me the bundle of pink. Really? It had to be pink? I figured she would’ve liked a darker palette of clothing. I unfold it, revealing a medium length sundress. Surprisingly, knowing it’s a dress doesn’t bother me as much as it would’ve prior to my brainwashing. “Thank you.”
“You can change behind the door,” she says.
Bullock walks over to her as I go toward the door. “There’s something I need to talk to you about before we go. It’s about your curse.”
I move behind the heavy door and can’t hear him tell her about what she needs to do to break the curse. I slip out of the blazer and throw on the dress; it falls to just below my knees: the cotton fabric soft and nice.
I smooth it all out, making sure the hem isn’t caught anywhere.
“Are you fucking serious!” she yells as I open the door again.
“Yes. You need to find a born land dweller who’s your true
Julie Gerstenblatt
Neneh J. Gordon
Keri Arthur
April Henry
Ella Dominguez
Dana Bate
Ian M. Dudley
Ruth Hamilton
Linda Westphal
Leslie Glass