Pretty in Pearls Page 5

  “Personally,” I reply, “I would choose the more delicate strand.”

  His face scrunches up like he’s surprised by my response. “Not what I expected,” he say. “But you are obviously a mergirl of impeccable taste.”

  He winks at me and then swims off to put the larger strand back.

  When I turn back to the register, Riatus looks annoyed. What did I do?

  Then I realize he’s not looking at me; he’s looking at the other customer. Okay, what did he do? You know what, I don’t even care. I just want to get out of here before my luck flows south again.

  “What’s my total?”

  He ignores the cash register. “Peri, we need to talk.”

  I don’t think so. He did plenty of talking the other night. I’m pretty much all talked out right now.

  “Sorry,” I say, even though I’m not. “I’m in a hurry.”

  He scowls. “It will only take a minute.”

  “No matter how much I might want to”—how does he like hearing those words?— “right now I just can’t.”

  His jaw muscles tighten and his gaze intensifies. Clearly he didn’t enjoy getting his own words thrown back at him. Too bad.

  I’m done playing doormat Peri.

  “You know what?” I say, grabbing the bag of pearls off the counter. “Send my mother the bill.”

  With a flourish of current, I spin away and sweep out of the stall. Score one for good luck. Finally.

  “Mom, I’ve got the pearls,” I shout into the house when I get home.

  “She’s not here,” Lily says. “She had to go do an on-site fitting for Astria.”

  I whirl around to see my best friend floating in the doorway to the kitchen.

  “That is so typical,” I complain. “Astria knows my mom is swamped getting ready for the dance. She shouldn’t have to make house calls so late in the process.”

  “I know, right?”

  Lily has a weird smile on her face, like it’s spread a little too wide to be natural. My spine stiffens. Lily only gets that weird smile on her face if she’s up to something. And judging from the way her eyes are widening as I study her, I think she’s definitely planning something that she knows I won’t like.

  “What’s going on?” I ask cautiously as I swim toward her.

  “I didn’t find any baggies,” an unfamiliar male voice says, “so I used a kitchen towel to hold the ice.”

  I scowl at Lily. What is going on here?

  A merman—a merboy, really—floats up behind Lily, with one of our kitchen towels—apparently full of ice—held against his forehead. He looks about eighteen, with blond hair, a lopsided smile, and thick, black-framed glasses.

  “That’s great, Lom,” Lily says, not breaking eye contact with me. “Peri, this is Lomanotus. He works for my dad. He’s an intern. Lom, this is my best friend, Periwinkle Wentletrap.”

  He swims forward and offers me his free hand—the other still holding the ice pack in place. “Nice to meet you, Miss Wentletrap.”

  Everything about him is formal. His short blond hair is perfectly groomed. He’s wearing a shirt and tie. When I take his hand, he shakes mine like I’m a new business acquaintance.

  And, oh yeah, he called me Miss Wentletrap. No one under the age of sixty calls me Miss Wentletrap. It’s Peri or, at most, Periwinkle. Who is this guy?

  “Um, sure,” I say, frowning at Lily as subtly as I can without being rude. “Nice to meet you too.”

  His smile lops to the other side and my stomach sinks. I have a feeling I know exactly what he’s doing here.

  “Lily, can I, um”—I give her an emphatic look—“see you in the kitchen for a second?”

  “Okay,” she says as I grab her hand and drag her after me at full force. She calls out over her shoulder, “We’ll be right back.”

  The moment we’re out of earshot, I demand, “What are you doing?”

  “Helping Lom find an ice pack,” she replies, as if she doesn’t know what I’m really asking. “He hit his head on the doorframe.”

  “Lily . . . ”

  “Funny story, actually.” She looks around the room, at the ceiling, the counters—anywhere but at me. “Apparently he’s really clumsy when he’s nervous.”

  “Lily . . . ”

  “And apparently,” she continues, “he’s nervous a lot.”

  “Lily!”

  She stops and looks me in the eye.

  I kick forward and whisper, “Why is there a boy with an ice pack and a pocket protector in my front hall? What are you planning?”

  “Nothing,” she says, giving me that innocent smile.

  “You need to reexamine your definition of nothing.” I gesture toward the front entryway. “Why did you bring a boy to my house?”

  She shakes her head, like she’s going to deny what we both know she’s doing. But then she must realize that I know her better than anyone and she can’t pull one over on me.

  “I just thought,” she says, “that if Riatus is being such a jerk, you might be better off looking for someone else.”

  My eyes narrow. That sounds like too simple of an answer.

  “No,” I say. “You love that I have a crush on a bad boy who looks like a pirate. You think he and Quince will be besties and we can go on double dates.” I jam my hands on my hips. “What are you really doing?”

  She drops her head to one side and sighs. “Fine, smarty-pants. I thought it would do you both—you and Riatus—some good for him to see you as . . . desirable.”

  “Desirable?”

  “As in, desired by other mermen.” She stares at me, waiting for me to get it, but I don’t. Finally, she gives. “You should make him jealous.”

  “Jealous?” I laugh out loud. “Lily, he doesn’t like me. You can’t make someone jealous if they don’t like you.”

  “You said he can’t like you,” she argues, “not that he doesn’t. And I’m pretty sure you can. If you go out with Lom—let Riatus see you out with Lom—then maybe that will make him think twice about why he can’t go out with you.”

  I can’t believe this is the crazy scheme my best friend has cooked up. Sure, she has a point that Riatus never said he didn’t like me, just that he can’t, but is there really a difference? The end result is the same: my feelings remain unrequited.

  “I can’t believe you thought this would work.” I drop my voice to a furious whisper. “I can’t believe you involved that poor boy in this ridiculous plan.”

  “He doesn’t know anything about the plan,” she insists. “He just thinks I’m setting you two up on a date.”

  “That makes it worse,” I say with a sigh. “You’re only messing with my love life because Quince is on the mainland visiting his mom.”

  “That’s not true.”

  I cross my arms and raise my brows.

  “Okay, maybe it’s a little bit true,” she relents. “I just want you to be happy. Quince is hoping to be back in time for the dance. If I get to go with the boy of my dreams, you should too.”

  When she puts it like that, I almost want to let her try.

  She means well. She’s so ecstatically happy with Quince, I know she just wants to help me find that same happiness. But sometimes her plans are a little misguided.

  “I don’t want to play any games,” I say. “If he doesn’t like me—” When Lily opens her mouth to argue, I correct, “If he can’t like me, then he can’t like me.”

  “Fine,” she says. “I shouldn’t have interfered.”

  “I know you’re just trying to help, but this is something I have to figure out on my own.”

  “Understood.” She grins at me. “You should still go out with Lom. He’s a sweetie, and you two have a lot in common.”

  I give her a wry smile. “Not today.”

  She nods before turning and swimming out of the kitchen. “Come on, Lom. Time to go.”

  “Nice to meet you,” he says, his voice carrying through the house as Lily drags him to the door.


  Make Riatus jealous? What a ridiculous idea.

  I can’t fall asleep. My mind keeps going over everything that has happened in the past few days. From following Riatus to the edge of the kingdom to seeing him at the market today, and then Lily bringing a nerdy merboy to my house.

  I should be able to relax knowing that everything is settled. That I might as well give up on my crush on Riatus because that’s all it will ever be, and that Lily won’t try any more crazy schemes to make him jealous. I hope.

  But my mind won’t let it go.

  There is an old mer saying that goes, If you fall off the sea horse, you have to get right back on and try again. That might be just the advice I need to get past this thing about Riatus.

  If he is the sea horse I fell off of, then maybe I need to try another sea horse. Okay, that analogy went really bad very quickly, but the general meaning is sound. I need to go on a date. Not to make Riatus jealous—if that was even possible—but for me.

  I mean, there’s nothing wrong with Lom. In fact, beneath that nerdy exterior is . . . well, a nerdy interior, but he was sweet. Nerdy can be adorable sometimes.

  And Lily did say we have things in common.

  She had the motive wrong, but maybe she had the right idea.

  I flip out of bed and kick over to my desk. I pull out my old bubble machine, the one Lily and I used to use to send messages back and forth between my bedroom and hers when we were little. I scribble a quick message to Lily on a little sheet of stationery.

  I need to move on. Do you think Lom still wants to go out?

  A few seconds later, I’ve popped the message into the pale blue bubble and I’m shooting it across the open water toward the palace.

  This could be some kind of stupid rebound reaction. Or it could be exactly what I need to get over Riatus.

  A few minutes later, a bright pink bubble floats in my window and lands on the center of my bed. I swim over, pop it, and pull out the message inside.

  Of course he does! I’ll talk to him tomorrow.

  Okay, the plan is in action. Now I just need to get my mind—and my heart—to follow through.

  6

  I don’t know why I set up this date. I don’t know why I ever possibly even considered that this might be a good idea.

  But I did and now, in less than two minutes, Lom is going to show up at my door and take me out. On a date.

  Some people might think it’s pathetic that after more than seventeen years of life under the ocean, I’ve never gone out with a boy before, and maybe it is. It’s not that I haven’t had offers before. A few merboys have asked me out over the years, but I never really wanted to say yes. When your parents had a true love match and you can see what that’s really like—when you see your mom still loyal to him even years after he’s gone—then that makes your standards really high, I guess.

  And then there’s the little matter of being in love—or believing myself to be in love—with Riatus since forever. What ordinary merboy stands a chance against a pirate?

  The fact that I am now, at seventeen, about to go on my first date isn’t all that awful. The horrible part is that I still wish I were going with someone else.

  “It’s wrong,” I say to Lily. “I’m using him. It’s not fair.”

  “It’s one date, Peri.” She fusses with my hair. “Not a bonding ceremony. You’re allowed to go on a date.”

  “I guess, but it still feels—”

  Ding, gong, ding.

  My eyes widen. “He’s here.”

  “Relax,” Lily says, swimming to the door. “Just have a good time. Don’t think of it as a date.”

  “Then what?”

  “I don’t know.” She grins as she grabs the handle. “A not date.”

  I frown at her.

  My heart is racing as she opens the door and lets Lom inside. He is wearing—I am not joking—a suit jacket and a tie. I glance down at the fluttery top Lily helped me pick out. I look like I’m going on a picnic. He looks like he’s going to the opera.

  Oh yeah, totally a not date.

  If I were the kind of mergirl who went for nerdy cute, he would probably be my type.

  “You look very pretty, Miss Wentletrap,” he says, his head bowed a little.

  “You look, um, nice too, Lom. And please”—I give Lily a this-is-so-wrong look—“call me Peri.”

  It’s a good thing Mom is busy in her studio. She would find this absolutely hilarious. Or horrifying. Either way, I just want to get out of here and get this over with.

  “Come on, Lom,” I say, grabbing his arm and swimming for the door. “Let’s go.”

  “Bye,” Lily calls after us. “You kids have fun.”

  I throw one last angry-worried look over my shoulder and see Lily waving at me with a dreamy look on her face. She thinks this is so romantic. I think it’s going to be a nightmare.

  “I have our date all planned,” Lom says, seemingly oblivious to the fact that I’m dragging him away from my house at breakneck speed.

  See, he’s thinking of it as a date.

  “Oh yeah?” I ask absently.

  Lily promised she would tell Lom this was just a casual thing. So he wouldn’t think this was anything more than new friends hanging out.

  She and I are going to have a serious conversation about promises and meddling in other mergirls’ personal lives.

  “It’s a perfect plan,” he says. “But it’s a secret. You’ll have to wait and see.”

  “Great,” I say, because I think I have to.

  But as we swim toward downtown, the rock in the pit of my stomach gets heavier and heavier. It’s obvious that Lom is really excited and he’s just going to end up getting his feelings hurt. But he seems like a nice guy and, who knows, maybe I’ll have fun. I need to stop being so worried about this and just have a good time.

  “The first stop,” he says, “is the Thalassinian Marketplace. Have you ever been?”

  The rock in my stomach turns into a boulder.

  “Yeah,” I reply. “I’ve been.”

  “It’s one of my favorite places in the kingdom,” he says. “Do you have a favorite stall?”

  I used to. But now even the thought of going near Paru’s Pearls makes me nauseous. What was I thinking going out on this date? Clearly I am emotionally imbalanced.

  “No,” I say, “I like them all.”

  “Well, I do,” Lom says. “And that will be our final stop at the end of the tour.”

  I force a smile. “Sounds good.”

  I can do this. I can be just a girl out on a date having fun. I don’t have to be tied up in knots about some complicated boy who doesn’t know what he wants or doesn’t want. I can swim through the market without freaking out. Besides, we might not even go anywhere near his stall. It is a really big market, after all.

  It turns out that Lom and I do have a lot in common—more than Lily knew. We both love kelpberry cakes. We both think tentacles are the most disgusting things in the sea. And we are both interested in the law, although he will probably go directly to law school after his internship with the king, and I’m content to work on the diplomatic side for a while.

  The only problem is that after two hours of floating around the market, tasting samples and window-shopping, I know we’ll never be more than friends. It’s not that I don’t like him—I just don’t like him that way. Mom always says she knew Dad was the one from the first moment she saw him. I know just as surely that Lom isn’t the one.

  Besides, as much as I want to say I’m done with Riatus, that I’m over him and I’ll never think of him again, I know that’s not true. Some part of me—probably a larger part than I want to admit—is still hung up on him.

  As Lom and I drift away from the stall full of giant conch shells, I know I need to tell him that there’s no romantic future for us.

  “Hey, Lom,” I say as we swim down the aisle, “I’m having a really good time.”

  He turns and smiles so big that his cheeks push his gla
sses up. “Me too.”

  “I think you should know—”

  “Hey, we’re down to the last stop on my itinerary.” He takes my hand and starts swimming faster. “It’s my favorite stall in the whole market.”

  I have to start kicking just to keep up. He seems really excited, which makes it all the more urgent I tell him.

  “Listen, Lom—”

  “It’s just down this aisle,” he says. “And I’m going to buy you a souvenir from our first date.”

  Oh no. That’s exactly what I’m worried about. That he thinks this is a first date, not an only date. Not a hanging-out-with-a-new-friend thing.

  But as I open my mouth to tell him, he turns to face me and says, “I hope you like pearls.”

  My mouth snaps shut.

  Oh no. Worst idea ever. Worst. Idea. Ever.

  I should say something. I should tell him I hate pearls or I’m allergic or my obsessive ex-boyfriend works the stall. I should say something.

  But my tongue is frozen to the roof of my mouth and I let Lom lead us toward doom.

  I’m tempted to close my eyes. Maybe if I imagine I’m somewhere else, some previously unknown mermaid magic will pop me there.

  Unfortunately, the first thing that comes to mind is the Black Kelpforest, and there is no way I want to end up there again—even if it means discovering some new magical power. So my eyes pop open and I brace myself.

  I scan the stall, looking for the telltale scarf and black hair. I don’t see it.

  Riatus isn’t there.

  But Coral is.

  Her dark curls bounce as she swims over. “Peri,” she cries, pulling me into a tight hug. “It’s been a few days.”

  “Hi, Coral,” Lom says from behind me.

  “Lom?” She releases me and gives me a questioning look. “Do you two know each other?”

  “We do now,” he says. “It’s our first date.”

  Coral’s jaw drops. “Date?”

  I shake my head, but Lom speaks before I have a chance to say anything, to explain anything.

  “The princess set us up.” He gives me a toothy grin and I have to fight the urge to roll my eyes.

  Coral glances from me to Lom and back again. She might be young, but she’s not stupid. I can see in her eyes—a familiar pale gray—that she understands exactly what’s going on here. I start to give her a pleading look, but then I stop myself. What do I have to explain? What do I have to apologize for? Riatus pushed me away, not the other way around.