Layla giggles. “You named your giant octopus Daisy?” “She’s a kraken! There’s a difference, dontcha know? Was a right fine golden color when we caught her. Pity what the years is done to her.” Then as if remembering why he was angry at us for being merpeople, he frowns again. “Thought it’d be funny to set it back in the wilds of the sea! Don’t care for sea folk, I don’t. Wreaking havoc all over the cove with their ships and tricksy devil girls.” Gwen scoffs and Layla sniggers at the implication.
But Reggie’s not done with the mer hate. I’m starting not to care for it, either. He looks down at my drink, which is untouched, then back at me. It’s not my fault all the other merpeople didn’t exactly behave. I’m like, “Yes?”
He picks up my drink and sets it back down. “Not good enough for you?”
I can’t handle my drink. Not even one, so I try not to do it. But I’m not about to tell Reggie the troll man that. “Just watching my carbs, dude.”
He wants to smile but he doesn’t. “Which one is you, then?” “What do you mean?” I say, imitating polite Kurt as well as I can. “Did I stutter? The champions. Which. One. Is. You?” “What makes you think I’m one of the champions?” Though I can’t help but puff out my chest and straighten my back. You better believe I’m a champion.
Now Reggie lets himself laugh. “Your ass reeks of your glittery mermaid shit.” He spits on the floor.
Layla lets out a booming laugh, which no mermaid or merdude present wholly appreciates.
“I’m all merman, Reggie.” I start to point at him but think better of it. I think I’ll need the use of my fingers in the future. “How many?” Thalia asks sweetly at the same time Kurt briskly asks, “Do you know where they’ve gone?”
The troll man smiles with surprisingly perfect teeth. He shakes his head and busies himself drying chipped glassware. “You’re all the same, you know. Mum always said the sea folk are responsible for their own downfall. Said your concern is about your secrets.
That’s what’s important to you. In the end, the secrets are what’s going to do you in.”
My temperature rises. I haven’t been a merman for very long, but no one dogs on my people. “Do you always listen to what your mom says?”
“It’s why I’m still alive,” he says proudly.
Just then we all start thinking of our mothers, or something, because we get real quiet. What did my mom say to me? She said she wasn’t going to stop me from choosing this. She didn’t exactly plead for me to stay home. Did she think I didn’t have a choice? Maybe I remind her too much of the life she was trying to get away from. I think of her kind eyes. Her lullabies that sang me to sleep until I was too cool for it, and suddenly I don’t mind this music so much.
Reggie scoffs at me and starts walking away, and I realize if my mom were here, she wouldn’t be a dick to him. She’d be his friend.
Like Gwen is doing now. Minus the flirting. I hope.
“Wait. I’m sorry.” I reach over the bar to touch his hand. Note: Trolls don’t want their hands touched.
I retract it immediately.
“What is it, then?”
I push the drink away. “If I drink this, I’ll pass out. Got any orange juice?”
That sends him rolling back with laughter. It booms above the hushed conversations, the makeshift piano, and the chorus of dogs barking outside. Reggie digs in a bin of ice and pours me a pulpy glass, which I chug thirstily. I wipe my sticky mouth with the back of my hand and set the glass on the bar top.
“So you’re the mutt, then,” Reggie says. “Shoulda guessed it.
Human spirits dehydrate the sea folk. And sea spirits make humans hallucinate. I predict a life of weak beer ahead of you, Mermutt.” I shrug, not denying it. “I guess I am a mutt.”
“So am I.” He shoves a fat thumb into his chest, all you bet I am.
“Got a special place in all three of me hearts for our kind.” Kurt’s eyebrow cocks all the way up to his hairline. “Our kind?” “Mutts. Halfsies. Neither here nor there, but everywhere. Call us what you will.”
Kurt puts his hand on my shoulder, friendly. “He’s not like the other champions, that’s for sure.”