The light was rapidly fading as Lindsay sat outside of her apartment/house, in truth it wasn’t hers it wasn’t even her parents or even a hotel room, or a friend’s house it belonged to the New Atlantis Council. Everything was just weird, she had become a mermaid, her sister, her friends, her friend’s boyfriend and her own crush had all become merfolks and now they were living in New Atlantis. It was just a lot to deal with.
“Your new right?” inquired a passing guard as Lindsay looked up.
“Yes.” Confirmed Lindsay
“I thought so.” Said the guard, there was only a 103 merfolks living in the city so unless she had just been born, she had to be new, the guard was just being nice. “While you are allowed to be out after dark, I recommend you aren’t that is when the machines activate so best you go inside and make sure your blackout curtains are drawn.”
Everyone building had either blackout curtains or full shutters, while some of the ancient magical lights still worked across the entire city of Atlantis and enough light up the streets here to make seeing ok, there was no reason to draw extra attention to this area.
“Alright…thanks.” Said Lindsay as the guard nodded his head and swam on.
For some reason Lindsay didn’t go back to her place, she needed to talk to someone she needed to talk with someone whom she knew. If she was in this mood back on the surface she would have sent out a message or if desperate called someone on the phone, more likely one of her friends from high school. She couldn’t do that now, the only people she really knew where her sister, her roommates and the two boys who had come with them.
She looked at the larger house her sister and Stacy had been given, she was temped to go there but she knew what was likely going on there, passionate love making. Her sister and her girlfriend of almost 3 years where perfect for each other in her view, the only issue they had outside of the normal couple stuff was that Stacy had some trauma she had been working through with a therapist. Her ex-boyfriend, Stacy is bi-sexual same as Barbara had been abusive to the point of attempting to a murder suicide after she left him. Lindsay did not know how she was doing in therapy, but she seamed ok but now she wondered if there was a therapist here in New Atlantis. If they did not, they were missing the boat there.
She turned her attention across the street to Elizabeth’s and James’s place. She threw that idea out the window as well, if it wasn’t late she would of course be welcomes and treated with respect and kindness as Elizabeth talked and acted like the high society lady she was and James was kind to a fault. Elizabeth was kind as well, but in a more reserved high society way, while James was born middle class was more open in his emotions then Elizabeth. She knew they where the perfect country club young couple, the young daughter of a business leader studying business herself and her boyfriend a fit young respectable young man who was studying to a doctor. They made the picture perfect up tight Wasp couple.
That caused a little bit of a laugh from Lindsay as she remembered her first time getting drunk at a college party, she walked home stumbling a bit and she accidentally opened the wrong door. What she saw was Elizabeth dressed in white BDSM gear holding a whip while riding a tied up and blind folded James on her bed. That got her sober fast as she closed the door, neither of them noticed her. The straight lace couple was not so straight lace. No, she wasn’t going to go over there right now, she didn’t want to find out what they were doing.
That left only one person she really knew here and she didn’t really want to talk to him, not because she didn’t like him but because she really…really liked him. She just had to talk to someone, and she enjoyed talking to him about D&D the other night so maybe they could just talk about that. She swam over toward his house, it was a matching pair to hers, smaller then the larger houses given to their friends who where couples. She paused in front of the door not sure what to do….her heart was pounding in her chest but she knocked on the door.
It took a few minutes, but the door opened as Oscar appeared in the doorway, he was shirtless which was common enough for merman but it still caused her to blush as she looked at his muscles. She did not notice that Oscar was blushing as well as he eyed Lindsay. Her looks had improved just like his looks had improved from transforming.
“Do you have some time to talk, everyone else is busy?” said Lindsay
“Sure…I had just started making some fish.” Said Oscar as he stepped aside and let her in. It was a mirror version of the apartment they had given her, a couch and chair made of stone with seaweed cushions, an open dinning room with an attached kitchen which had one of those geothermal vents for cooking. She knew a bedroom was down the hall with a large bed made of seaweed beds and a different type of seaweed serving for blankets. A bathroom sat in between both rooms.
“So what is up?” inquired Oscar
“I just need someone to talk to and aside from you everyone is busy.” explained Lindsay as Oscar nodded his head in understanding.
What followed was actually a nice evening as the two of them talked and relaxed and drank. It was strange you still had to drink as a merperson but instead of water it was a thicker alga like thing which acted like a liquid under water, and of course someone had found that mixing certain algae made basically wine or beer and there was no legal drinking age here. In the end both of them were sitting on the couch laughing and talking but only about their lives of as humans avoiding everything they had left behind.
It was getting late; in truth it was pass midnight.
“Oscar…can I ask you a question?” inquired Lindsay as Oscar nodded. “You said last night that you wanted to get dragged into this?”
“Well not this per say.” said Oscar “But to your place.”
“Go on?” inquired Lindsay as Oscar blushed a bit and looked down at the floor and his tail.
“I knew James is dating Elizabeth and I knew Elizabeth shared a house with you, so I tagged along to see you.” admitted Oscar with a blush which Lindsay did notice. He was spying on her, just like she had been spying on him trying to figure out where they could accidentally run into each other. “I have a crush on you and I just wanted to get to know you…”
He did not get a chance to answer as Lindsay wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled him into a kiss. She had never kissed a boy before, she had always been too shy for that, she never even had a boyfriend, she had spent her prom and every high school dance as a wall flower yet now she had just kissed a boy who was just looking at her wide eyed.
“Sorry….I didn’t…Sorry I didn’t.” stutter Lindsay as it was Oscar’s turn to kiss her, this time she returned it.
Then….