Fantasy Tales Series: Rise of The Merfolk

Chapter Fifteen~Edited

For me, the whole damn car ride was awkward. There was no room in the car for an extra person so Naomi opted to sit on Kalum's lap, he wore blue beach shorts and a green and black checkered top and his hair looked slightly damp like he had just gotten out of the shower. The whole thing was gross to watch, and I was glad I chose to sit in the passengers seat so I didn't have too. One thing I noticed from listening however, was that it always seemed to be Naomi who was doing all the talking- babbling on about who knows what. Kalum nodded along and once in a while laughed politely but the smile on his face appeared to me...a bit fake? He never gave away anything about himself or offered anything of meaning to the conversation. If I were Naomi I'd be dumping his ass the last boyfriend I had would never offer any opinions of his own and would always agree with me about everything- It was horrible. Who wants a yes man all the time?

I knew it could have been my own suspicions making me paranoid and over analysing everything but there was an instinct in the back of my mind- the same one that had me paranoid about Kalum from the start- telling me to never keep my eyes off of him. Too bad I did, although I figured with all of us confined inside a car it was fine. I also noticed that Kalum seemed to have trouble with a few words in English. Perhaps that was why he didn't speak much- English was most likely not his first language. I was bad at placing accents to countries but even I knew that his accent was a strange one, I remembered asking Naomi about it but she avoided the question and turned it into a tirade of how cute he was.  

Not that it mattered. Bad English or not he was still creepy. There was a moment when we were exiting the car that I looked into the side mirror accidentally and saw Kalum's eyes staring right into my soul. Then I blinked and he was wrapping a slimy arm around my naive friend.

The sushi place was small but charming with a black and blue themed paint job. The tables were all rectangle and covered with black  silk table clothes. The seats were all blue and the floor brown hardwood. The walls were covered in various posters of the sushi they offered and chefs in white hats giving a thumbs up trying to convince us all how good the food was and the place was almost empty. It was a warmer day today so they had the fans on causing a gentle breeze to blow any lose hairs I had around my head. We walked over to one of the larger tables and sat down picking up a few menus on the way. Half of the menu was in Japanese. 

'Do you think they have any soup?' Cece pondered out loud. I stared at her blankly, although my doubts about coming here with Cece resurfaced again. 

'What?' She scoffed. 

'We're at a sushi joint and you want soup?' I really was starting to rethink this whole thing, I should have said no and protested coming here. Mermaids were real, magic was real and I didn't think Gwen was going to be wrong about this. 'Maybe we should all get Chinese instead?' I asked hurriedly. No one responded to me, instead they all continued with their conversations probably thinking I was being a picky eater.

I heard Sophia and Lila giggling at something funny  and a waitress came to our table so we all ordered. The whole time I sat there fiddling with my necklace. I had a very bad feeling. I saw Kalum staring at my necklace once or twice when he thought I wasn't looking. This only added to the tension I was feeling. 

There was just something not right about him. He ordered just plain raw fish on a plate and said he would pay extra for it if he had too. I found this a bit strange but not unheard of. I ordered enough hand rolls for the table as an 'I'm sorry I lost my temper' peace offering. I knew all was forgiven but I figured it couldn't hurt- it would ease my guilt. I did have a bit of a temper but I always felt shit about it afterwards.

'So, Kalum,' I started. If I could bug this guy enough than maybe he would break up with Naomi and leave us all alone. Was that manipulative? 

He turned towards me and dropped any smile he held previously- It was obvious he did not like me one bit. His face was neutral and all I could do was stare back just as harshly. It was unnerving how his eyes seemed to glow a little brighter. Not In a charming way either, more in the 'I can see in the dark' type of way.