Submerged in Water

For the entire five months that I've been in school, Scott has talked to me once. Which has to be a miracle because I have a locker next to him, I'm in four of his five classes and to top it all off, my sister Aubrey has been his girlfriend since the beginning of the school year. He's over at our house all the time and I've caught them making out twice, once fully clothed and one well... the only thing they were wearing was a pair of socks each.

Was it so much to ask that he not ignore me at school? I mean, just a Hi or something would be nice. I have seen him naked, after all, I thought we could be on a first-name basis. Even now, I was staring at his gorgeous healthy thick dark brown hair and his muscular back. My sister and him were both captains of the swim team and athletic. He was hairless, I remember from... well. You know.

He slammed his locker shut and went to go see my sister down the hall. When he met up with her, they kissed, even though it was against the school rules to display your affection publicly.

"That is so wrong."

I turned around to see my best friend, Layla. Her dirty blonde hair was up today and it looked wet. I figured she must've just had a shower before coming to school. She had the longest hair I've ever seen, it reached down to her hips when she let it down.

"Huh?"

"I can't believe you have the hots for your sister's boyfriend."

"I... I don't have the hots for him." I stammered. "I idolize him..." A dreamy smile came on my face. "He's captain of the swim team. He gets straight A's. He's cute, hot and... and... so sexy." I sighed out the last word.

"I know, I remember from the two hour skype call we had last month when you saw him and your sister naked. Normally that would turn people off sex, but for you it just makes you hornier."

I bit my lip. "Oh come on, I'm a teen, I have hormones."

"If it was hormones, it wouldn't just be Scott that flips your switch."

"It isn't just him! I like other guys too." I objected.

"Oh yeah? Who else?"

"Um..." I looked around the halls to find someone and that's when I saw him.

I remembered his figure from last night. He was in the clearing, the one that I had guessed was around my age. He was better looking up close. He had the same dark brown hair that Scott had and a muscular figure to match. He immediately raised some hormones in me and I didn't feel the least bit guilty when I pointed my finger in his direction.

"Him?" She pursed her lips. "Yeah he's pretty cute."

"Cute?" I whispered. "More than cute."

She shrugged. "I guess."

"I saw him this morning."

"What?"

"I was..." I realized I couldn't tell her I snuck out every night to go swim in a river near our house. That would be a little creepy. "I was going for a walk with my sister and I saw him this morning in a clearing near our house." That seemed legit.

"Oh. Did you talk to him?"

"No." I shook my head.

Just as we were about to walk away, I turned my head back to look at him again, but this time he was watching me also. I was slightly uncomfortable.

"Is he new?" I asked.

"He moved here a week ago. He's a year older than us though."

"Oh." I sighed. Scott and Aubrey were a year older too.

I decided there that I was doomed to be forever alone considering every guy I've ever had any interest in was out of my league. Not to mention the whole half-fish thing.

When I turned to look at him again. He was two inches away from my face. I jumped back.

"Sorry." He smiled at me politely.

Layla turned around to see the encounter.

His smile was perfect. His teeth were a straight row of white, his eyes were framed with the darkest lashes and were an intense gray-blue color. I was immediately breathless, not just from his looks but his entire presence. He had to be at least two inches taller than me, since I was a tall girl, but he might as well had been two feet taller than me for aura of dominance he was radiating.

I felt a lot of eyes on me.

"Hi." He started, leaning his body against the locker beside me, Scott's locker. "My name is Rune."

"Emele. Nice to meet you."

He looked intensely at me for a second. "I like your eyes. What colour are they?"

"I... um..." I felt my cheeks heat up and I had to look away and break eye contact for fear that I would pass out. "They're blue."

"They don't look blue." His tone was playful with a hint of truth.

"Then what do you think they are?"

"I think they're purple."

"I think they're pink." I joked.

He chuckled. "I heard you talking..."

"About?"

"The clearing, I didn't see you or your sister..." He went on.

I swallowed. Crap. "Yeah we were heading home, we didn't want to bug you guys."

His eyes cringed slightly, like he was trying to examine me, then he bit his lip and said, "do you usually go on five in the morning walks?"

"It's how we get our exercise." I was quick.

"I see."

I nodded. "Well." I walked backwards until I hit Layla. "I'll see you later."

I pushed Layla until we got around the corner, then Layla said, "what the hell was that?!"

"I don't know!" I tried to keep my voice down.

"He was totally creeping on you. I mean, we all know you have weird eyes, but he was so up front about it."

I put my hand in my face and sighed. "That was intense."

The bell rung.

"We should get to class."

"Yeah, I guess."

I looked around to make sure that Rune wasn't anywhere near me and then headed towards first period. I was kind of shell-shocked from the entire experience. Not a lot of people talk to me. I'm a social outcast and usually by around the middle of the school year, everyone has retreated to their cliques and don't step outside the boundaries unless mandatory. No wonder everyone was looking at me when he started talking to me. I mean, who would talk to an acne-blanket overweight kid? I have been getting better lately, my body has been healing, but I'm still strange-looking. There were other hotter girls he could've hit on in the school. He was attractive and I'm sure he could date anyone he wanted. So, why was he talking to me? I was pretty sure he was hitting on me. Me.

The rest of the day was a complete mental disaster.