Under the Ocean Waves

The day was about half over, but Vic felt like almost no time had been spent there at all. But that was because he and Kellin had just been… talking. About anything and everything to pass the time. They walked along the beach together, learning about each other. Vic realized that Kellin was quiet, and mysterious - and very strange. He tried to learn about where he lived and maybe hinted at them hanging out outside the beach, but it seemed to make the paler boy uncomfortable, so Vic dropped the subject. Every time he gazed at Kellin, if he wasn’t looking back at the Hispanic boy, he was staring wistfully at the ocean as if he were looking for for someone. Every so often his hand would curl around the little pendant hanging from his neck and Vic realized he just wanted to know more about this boy.

“So, you wanna like… hang out back at my place or something?” Vic asked suddenly, kicking over an abandoned sand castle.

Kellin frowned at the question. “Uh, I don’t know if I can today…” he said, his voice trailing off. Truthfully he wanted desperately to take Vic up on his offer. He wanted to get to know the boy he’d spent so much time observing and see what made him tick… but no, he was anchored to the ocean; unable to leave even with the legs he wasn’t exactly accustomed to.

“Oh, are you busy or something?” asked Vic, trying to keep the conversation going at this point. The boy was interesting but he barely spoke. It was as if he was trying to learn as much as he could about everything that Vic said, as strange as that may sound.

Kellin bit his lip, thinking deeply. He turned his eyes to the ground and stared at the sand. “I just like to stay at the beach, you know?” he said quietly. Vic cocked his head to the side; wondering what was going on behind those shockingly blue eyes, but not having the courage to ask. “Its okay if you want to go home or whatever though.”

“No, I’ll stay. Hey, you know what would be fun?” A smirk crept up Vic’s face as he faced Kellin with his whole body, excitement pumping through him.

Kellin looked up at him and shrugged; Honestly a little nervous. He so desperately wanted to come off as normal that he was terrified of doing something that Vic would consider weird. “Let’s build a sand castle!” The Mexican yelled, dropping to his knees in the sand and immediately scooping up the soft piles from the rubble of one of the ones he’d purposely destroyed earlier.

Kellin stared at him as if it were the most bizarre thing he’d ever seen in his life. What the fuck was a ‘sand castle’? Under the ocean sand was just… there. They built with rocks or coral. There were caves and pockets… How did Vic thing they would build anything out of sand? Humans were stranger that he though and once again a trickle of anxiety made its way to the pit of his stomach. Still, he knelt beside his friend, feeling the sun warm his back. It was a strange feeling - he wasn’t used to warmth. Everything was so cold in the water. “Um…” Kellin said under his breath, wanting to ask Vic how on Earth they were supposed to construct something out of sand, of all things. But as he watched he noticed that Vic meant one of the little things children built on the shoreline - completely different from what he’d thought at first.

“I used to make these all the time when I was little,” said Vic, rubbing his hand on one side of the little mound he’d scraped together. “Me and my little brother would have little contests. Sometimes I let him win; but that was only when I was feeling lazy.”

“I’ve never actually built one of these,” Kellin admitted cautiously. No point in lying if he didn’t have to.

“You haven’t?” said Vic, turning his wide eyes to look at Kellin as an aghast look crossed his face. “How?! You seem to come to the beach all the time! Oh man, you didn’t have a childhood, dude,” he said, cracking an encouraging smile.

Kellin frowned, a little freaked out by his reaction. Was that the wrong thing to say? “I just… never did,” he said a little defensively, trying to copy what Vic was doing with his hands.

They both worked at the sand for a while like that, next to each other. They sat in more comfortable positions, chatting away as they worked at the sand. Kellin had to admit there was something kind of relaxing about the activity. It was peaceful, and there was hardly anyone here and they could hear the sounds of the sea behind them from the waves coming in and the seagulls squawking overhead. Every so often Vic would say something or comment on a beach goer (however few there were), or stop to say something comical about their work. Kellin just listened to his friend talking, sometimes adding in something where he could. For the most part, he wanted to hear Vic’s voice. With each phrase that came from his mouth Kellin learned something new - about humans, about Vic, about life above the waves in general.

It was all foreign to him, but the more he listened, the more he loved the sound of it. It was difficult not to look as interested as he would like to and his eyes flew open at some parts, but for the most part Kellin kept himself fixated on the sand castle that had grown quite large by now. Vic made little walls connecting the lop-sided mounds and Kellin couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride at their work. “Have we really spent nearly an hour doing this?” he asked Vic wit ha smirk on his face.

Vic pulled out what Kellin assumed was a cell phone out of his bag. It was shiny and complicated looking; although to Vic it was practically a dinosaur. “Nope. We actually spent an hour and a half on this. And look at how fabulous it is… I hope no one knocks it over like I usually do,” he mentioned with a lop-sided smile.

Kellin stood and nearly cried out - the bones in his back and his knees produced a strange cracking noise that oddly felt a little pleasurable. He straightened and bent his knee to see if it would produce the same sound. “Wanna go towards the rocks or something?” Kellin asked, arching his back to make it crack more.

The Hispanic boy nodded, cocking an eyebrow at the blue-eyed weirdo who seemed to only just be discovering that yes, human bodies have the ability to move. But hey, it was cute. They began walking towards the spot they’d first met, side by side. Kellin matched Vic’s pace as they went and copied his stance - arms folded together. Vic turned his head to examine the paler boy a little more thoroughly. There was no doubting he was attractive; it mystified him that he seemed to be single, except for the fact that he came off so socially awkward. “Hey,” he said, capturing his attention, “Who are you?”

A frown tugged at the corner of the boy’s lips. “Um… I told you, my name is Kellin?”

“No like… I dunno. I don’t know much about you, but you’re fascinating. You don’t say much.”

Anxiety and butterflies both mixed in Kellin’s tummy. Vic wanted to know about him? That wasn’t something he was used to. He wanted to tell him about his life miles out in the ocean, but…. that could land him in a bit of trouble. “I don’t really have much to say,” Kellin answered. It was true; he didn’t… not much that wouldn’t come off as strange. “I just… really like the beach. I don’t have a lot of friends. Where I’m from there’s Matty, Alaina and Devin… and that’s about it.”

“What do you like to do? Just… go to the beach?” Vic asked. They were getting closer to the rocks now.

“I guess. Or I talk to them. Um, I really like singing too. Fun fact right there,” Kellin giggled, copying a phrase he’d heard Vic use earlier. His companion smiled and nodded.

“I wanna hear you sing some time then,” he said, looking on the rocks, mentally picking which one they would climb on.

The Siren didn’t think that was actually a good idea. According to legend humans were lured in by the voices of Sirens and the last thing Kellin wanted to do was drown the boy.

“Oh, and by the way,” Vic continued suddenly. “I’m your friend too!”

A smile formed on Kellin’s face at his words, although he didn’t say anything back. Together they began to climb up on the rocks, hoisting their bodies up until they were up as high as they could go. Kellin didn’t exactly feel comfortable up so high when he was used to being under the sea, but he wasn’t about to complain. It was nice, sitting up there with Vic.

Vic on the other hand was glad he was able to meet someone that seemed to interested in him. As they climbed he realized that he was maybe beginning to feel just an ounce of protectiveness over the strange boy that he’d only just met; but that was as he became familiar with just how socially crippled he was. Terrible with people and not used to being around many of them it was a wonder as to why he even started to Vic that first day in the first place. Regardless, the Mexican was happy that he did. They talked and sat, watching the sky for the rest of the day, learning about each other. Vic shared that he was twenty-one, and wasn’t surprised to learn that Kellin was a few years younger, age eighteen. They hit it off well even though there was a bit of an age gap.

As they sat, the sun just beginning to set, they were sharing memories again - mostly Vic, however, until he said something. “Tell me a story,” he said. “About yourself.”

“I don’t have any,” said Kellin swiftly. Vic frowned, turning his eyes to him. He had discovered that if he looked at Kellin, willing him to speak, normally, he would. Even if it took a while for the words to come out. “No, really. I dunno. My childhood is hard to explain I guess. I can tell you a story that um, my mom always used to tell me though.”

“Go for it,” encouraged Vic, stretching a little on the cooling rock they were laying on.

The paler boy took a deep breath before starting. “Well, I guess it was kind of a bed time story. It goes like this: Once upon a time, there was a.. um, there was a clown fish, and an angel fish. The Clown fish’s name was… Jack. And the Angel fish’s name was Nat. Every day Jack would look for Nat, because he admired Nat’s beauty. But he was just a clown fish… he had nothing on the beautiful angel fish. He was a joke compared to Nat.”

Vic giggled a little, trying to hold it in. “Nemo,” he said in hushed, high-pitched voice. Kellin laughed for lack of a better reaction because had no idea what a fucking ‘nemo’ was.

“One day, Nat was in trouble. The first person that the little fish ran in to happened to be Jack. The angel fish told him about how he was being chased by a shark that followed him every where he went and how he was dying to get away from him. He begged Jack to help him. Jack was obviously shocked and happy, but he didn’t see the shark anywhere…”

“Oh, they’re both boys?” asked Vic, staring up at the darkening sky. He wondered if Kellin was getting cold, considering he was still in just a pair of shorts. “Nothing wrong with it, just thought I’d clarify.”

The paler boy frowned a bit. Was there something wrong with the two fish being boys? In the original his mother had never specified a gender for them because well, no one really seemed to care under the ocean. Apparently it was different up here. “Yeah… they’re both male I guess… Is that strange?”

Vic shook his head, wanting to hear the rest of the story. “It’s my kind of story, actually,” he said with a little wink. Not exactly how he’d planned on telling him that he was gay (even though they’d barely become friends), but he figured there was no time like the present, right?

“Well, anyways,” Kellin continued, feeling relieved that Vic wasn’t finding it weird, “So Jack and Nat were together always and eventually, they grew to know each other. Nat was good at making Jack laugh, and Jack knew how to make Nat smile as they swam through the sea together. One day Jack finally fessed up to Nat that he truly believed he’d fallen in love with him. And Nat just grinned at Jack, his fins flowing around in the water beautifully, catching the light that drifted down in the depths. Nat told Jack that he loved him to, and then Jack finally asked Nat about the shark that had been supposedly chasing him every where he went. The angelfish had nearly forgotten about the shark…”

“They don’t die, do they?” Vic interrupted suddenly. “I don’t want one of them to die…”

“Aw, are you getting attached?” Kellin chuckled. Vic just shrugged and motioned for him to keep going with the story. “Well, Nat nearly forgot about the shark. He told Jack that he almost forgot about it - that it went away as soon as they found each other, because Jack scared it away. Jack was still confused, but he didn’t ask again. Now, can you guess what the shark actually was?” Kellin asked, smiling at Vic.

“It wasn’t a shark, was it?” He concluded. “It symbolizes something else.”

A smile formed on Kellin’s lips and he nodded happily. “It symbolizes loneliness. Nat was lonely till he found Jack. They lived happily ever after, swimming all over the ocean together.”

The Mexican boy sat up, stretching his back and looking at the sun setting over the water. “That was a really nice story,” he said, looking at Kellin, who copied him and sat up straight. The sun was already sinking below the horizon and it was starting to get cooler, although Kellin didn’t mind the change in temperature. He was much more used to the cold than the warmth of the sun above the ocean. He smiled, knowing that he had basically spent the entire day in Vic’s company. It was a nice feeling, especially talking so much with the boy that he was so eager to learn about. “Do you wanna hang out again tomorrow?” Vic asked suddenly, much to Kellin’s happiness. “We can go to my house or something. And meet up here, if you want,” he said.

Anxiety built up in Kellin’s tummy all over again. He wanted to, but he could never leave the beach. He had no idea how to survive so far from his home and he didn’t know what to expect… no one he knew had gone beyond the sand dunes that they stared at from afar, under the waves that crashed over them above their permanent place of residence. Nothing could prepare him for what he would experience up there. “Uhm… well.. I guess I’d like- oh my God!” He was promptly cut off mid sentence as he felt a strong pull towards the water crashing up against the rock he and Vic had sat upon. His legs felt like they were binding together again, which was strange - He still had the necklace on, why wasn’t it working? The pale boy looked up with wide eyes that shined bright with fear, looking around for Vic, but his first sight was the last sliver of sun before it slipped under the horizon. With the blink of an eye, his legs were gone - in their place, a large, scaly tail that shimmered in the darkening light, matching in brightness only by the frightened eyes of the Siren himself.