Shifting (Swans Landing) (3 page)

Before this moment, I had kissed two girls in my life. But Sailor and Mara were both finfolk. I had never kissed a human girl before. She tasted earthy, not like the salty tinge of a finfolk kiss. Her kiss made me think of sunshine on meadows, open fields of earth I had never seen except in pictures.

“Hmm,” Elizabeth said as she stepped back, breaking the kiss.

My mind reeled with the effects of her kiss. It took every bit of restraint I had not to pull her to me again. I wanted that closeness, the feel of someone next to me, the touch of her skin against mine. I wanted earth and sky and sun.

“What?” I asked, my voice cracking.

“You taste like the ocean, Fish Boy.” She ran her fingers through my ponytail again, tugging on the ends of my hair. “See you around.”

I was unable to do anything except watch as she stepped out from under the stairs, walking back toward the road in front of Moody’s, her hips swaying casually as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

The only thing I could do was stare after her and think,
What the hell was that?

Chapter Four

“So how was school?” Mom asked, smiling at my younger brother Reed and me across the table.

I shrugged. “Fine. Same as usual.”

“Soccer practice,” Reed said, as if this explained his whole day. For my twelve-year-old brother, soccer was practically his whole life. He tried much harder to fit in among the humans of Swans Landing than I did, though it didn’t always work. I had never taken an interest in land sports and Swans Landing School didn’t have a swim team. I would have been great on a swim team, though I had an unfair advantage.

Mom looked at my dad, raising her eyebrows. “And you? How was your day? Any more exciting?”

Dad chewed a bite of roasted potato and swallowed before answering. “Same as usual,” he said.

Mom rolled her eyes and sighed. “Men. It doesn’t matter if they’re finfolk or human, they still aren’t proficient at verbal communication.” She wiped her mouth and then said, “Well, my day was interesting. Harry Connors was in the office.”

I tried not to look too interested as my stomach clenched at the mention of Elizabeth’s father. Had he found out about his daughter kissing me earlier that afternoon? Even though Mara had saved Mr. Connors from drowning, he still hadn’t changed his mind about finfolk.

My dad’s lip curled slightly. “What did he want?”

Mom worked as a secretary for Kinsey Attorney at Law, which was the only law firm on the island. Her boss, Mona Kinsey, wasn’t finfolk, but she didn’t have any ill will toward us. She was one the few humans on the island who didn’t mind living alongside finfolk.

“The usual,” Mom said, sighing. “He came to talk to Mrs. Kinsey about filing suit against Lake for tampering with his crab pots.”

“Lake isn’t doing that!” I protested. “Mr. Connors is the one invading Lake’s territory. He’s destroyed some of Lake’s pots. Lake should sue
him
.”

Mom raised her eyebrows. “Does Lake have any proof that it was Mr. Connors who did this?”

I sank back in my chair, shaking my head. “No.”

Mom gave me a sympathetic smile. “That’s the issue. Both sides can blame each other all they want, but without evidence we don’t have a case against either one.”

“Did Mrs. Kinsey tell him that?” Dad asked.

“Yes,” Mom said, “though I don’t know what good it will do. Harry is holding a grudge, and he won’t be happy until he does something.” Her forehead creased in little lines. “I have a feeling this won’t go away. Harry has been getting angrier lately, like he’s determined to prove something.” She sighed heavily. “I think something bad is going to happen.”

I set my fork down on my plate and studied her. “You think Mr. Connors will do something to Lake?”

She tried to give me a reassuring smile, but it didn’t quite meet her eyes. “I don’t know, honey. It’s probably nothing. It’s this strange weather we’re having. I think it has set everyone on edge.”

“We’ve lived on this island together for years,” Dad added. “We should be able to keep coexisting as we always have.”

I returned my mom’s smile, to make her think I wasn’t worried. But I knew she wasn’t telling the truth. Because the truth was, what we had been doing for the last sixteen years wasn’t coexisting the way we always had. When Josh’s father had an affair with Sailor’s mother and then drowned one night while the finfolk were in the water, it changed the way humans and finfolk interacted. Maybe if we knew what had really happened that night, we could move on.

But it was a sixteen-year-old mystery, and it didn’t look like anyone would come forward now with the truth.

Sailor,
I thought,
if you’re out there, you need to find your mother and come home quick.
Coral Mooring, wherever she was, may have been the only person who might know what happened that night. If she was still alive.

* * *

“What exactly is this?” Mara spooned up a glob of something gray from her lunch tray and then let it plop back down into the rest of the unappetizing mass of congealed food.

“I think it’s gravy,” said her friend Claire.

My gaze roamed over their shoulders, to the table across the room where Elizabeth Connors sat with her friends. She faced me, but she had avoided looking my way ever since I’d entered the cafeteria. I’d walked right by her table on my way from the lunch line and still Elizabeth didn’t look up. Like I didn’t exist. Like she hadn’t kissed me behind Moody’s the day before.

“Does this look like gravy to you?” Mara shoved the spoonful of gray quivering glob in front of my face.

I leaned back, wrinkling my nose. “No, that’s why I didn’t get it.” I gestured to my chicken salad sandwich and bag of chips.

“I’m tired of sandwiches,” Mara said, plopping the glob back into her tray. “That’s all I eat at Lake’s house. That’s all he knows how to cook.”

“Miss Gale will bring you some food,” I said, shrugging.

Mara’s jaw twitched and a line formed between her eyebrows. “Miss Gale hasn’t exactly been in a cooking mood lately.”

Why hadn’t I thought about that before I spoke? Miss Gale was usually happy and lively, but ever since Sailor left, she’d been kind of depressed. She didn’t talk much, she didn’t even leave her house very often. She used to work a few days a week at Moody’s, but I’d noticed she was coming in less often. When was the last time I’d seen her? Maybe a week?

I made a mental note to go by and check on her soon. Miss Gale was like a grandmother to me and I hated to think of her sitting alone in her house.

My gaze wandered over to Elizabeth’s table again. She was sitting next to a guy in our class, Gabe. Kyle sat at the other end of the table, sending glares their way. As I watched, Elizabeth laughed and then leaned over to bump her shoulder against Gabe’s. I gritted my teeth together, my eyes narrowing.

“Yoohoo, Dylan!” Mara waved at me, scowling a little.

I blinked. Mara and Claire gave me the same confused look. “What?” I asked.

“Are you okay?” Mara asked, furrowing her brow as she studied me. “You seem a little out of it today.”

I bent over my tray and tore my sandwich in half, stuffing one piece in my mouth all at once. “I’m fine,” I said through a mouthful of sandwich.

Mara didn’t look like she believed me, but she didn’t press further. “Claire and I are going to the lighthouse this afternoon to take some pictures,” she said. “You want to come?”

I didn’t have anything planned for the afternoon. I wasn’t working at Moody’s that day, and Lake had said he didn’t need me that afternoon. So I was free to do whatever I wanted.

My gaze flicked back to Elizabeth, who was now whispering in her friend Jackie’s ear. My stomach twisted. Was she telling Jackie what had happened between us? A part of me still believed it was all a joke, something Elizabeth had done so she could laugh about it with her friends later. Like, let’s see how far we can push Fish Boy before he explodes.

But when they broke apart, neither of them glanced my way. Jackie didn’t seem extremely shocked or anything out of the ordinary. But if Elizabeth hadn’t told her what had happened, what exactly did that mean it was?

“Dylan?” Mara asked, raising her eyebrows.

“Um,” I said, “no, I...I have something I have to do.”

Mara shrugged. “Okay.” She turned back to Claire and they talked about some pictures Mara wanted to take.

I didn’t know why I hadn’t told Mara about Elizabeth’s kiss. If I talked about it, would I realize it had all been a hallucination?

But it had felt real. And it had felt good.

Across the room, Elizabeth stood up from her table. Jackie started to stand too, but then Elizabeth said something to her and Jackie sat back down. I watched as Elizabeth walked over to the trash cans, dumping the remains of her lunch, and then headed across the room toward the door. My heart raced into overtime. She would have to walk right by me to leave. She’d have to acknowledge my presence, at least look at me as she passed.

But she kept her gaze focused on the door behind me as she drew closer. My hands gripped the edge of the table and I didn’t dare breathe as she continued across the room. A roaring sound had filled my ears so I couldn’t hear any of the conversations around me.

Just as I thought she’d ignore me completely as she passed, Elizabeth’s eyes flicked my way. She raised one eyebrow, the corners of her lips curling slightly, as if in a dare. A dare to do what—follow her? Kiss her in front of everyone? Or let her keep going, playing this game that there was nothing going on between us?

As Elizabeth stepped through the doors of the cafeteria, I pushed my chair back with a sudden screech. Claire and Mara broke off in mid-conversation to look at me as I stood quickly.

“I have to go,” I said, grabbing my backpack. “To the library. I forgot. See you later.”

The words tumbled out as I turned, almost tripping over my chair leg. I hurried down the corridor away from the cafeteria. Elizabeth walked a few feet ahead, her hips swaying. She didn’t look back, and I wasn’t sure if it was because she knew I’d follow or because she didn’t care.

She turned a corner, then another, leading me farther away from my friends and everyone else in our normal lives. At last, she slipped into an empty classroom, leaving the door partially open behind her.

I paused in the doorway, peeking into the room. Elizabeth sat on a desk in the back of the room, away from the windows. I slipped inside, shutting the door behind me.

“Well,” she said, looking at me as I stood in place, “what do you want?”

I couldn’t answer that question. I didn’t know why I had followed her, except that I was unable to stop myself.

“I’m not comfortable with long silences, Fish Boy,” she said, rolling her eyes.

It was that name, Fish Boy, that made me move. I dropped my bag on the floor and closed the distance between us, maneuvering myself in between her knees. She leaned back on the palms of her hands, looking up at me as her hair fell away from her face like a dark waterfall.

Her lips were pink and full. I tried to stop my hand from shaking as I reached around the back of her neck, cradling her head in my fingers. Then I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers, absorbing that earthy taste of faraway places once again.

Chapter Five

The distinct sound of a door closing and footsteps moving across the tiled kitchen floor broke through the fog that had invaded my brain.

“You have to go.” I sat up and reached for my T-shirt, which had been tossed onto the floor in a crumpled heap fifteen minutes before. I pulled it on, forcing myself not to think about what might have happened, could have happened if my brother hadn’t come home.

Elizabeth rolled across my bed toward me, still fully dressed, though the clothes hadn’t stopped me from exploring the curves underneath. She slipped her hand under the hem of my shirt, pressing her warm palm against my back.

“Do you really want me to go?” she asked in that low, purring tone that made my pulse race.

I didn’t want her to leave. It was the last thing I wanted. I wanted her pressed against me again, my hands on her skin. I wanted her lips on mine. I wanted more.

But I could hear the sounds of Reed rummaging for a snack down the hall. “My brother is home,” I said. “You have to go.”

Elizabeth sat up, her hair wild and messed up in just the right way. The way that made me think of touching her again. I stood and moved toward the mirror over my dresser, trying to press the top of my hair back down.

I could see Elizabeth pouting at me in the mirror’s reflection. “You’re a tease, Dylan Waverly.”