“No. It’s not that I don’t love where I came from. It’s not that I don’t think about certain mer and wonder what they’re doing now. But I feel so much more free than I did back then. I always felt like the whole system was made to force my hand. Only one month on land and I was supposed to know where my place on this earth is? How could I know that without seeing the earth first? So I chose the path that let me see it. And I knew I’d have Avani by my side. Go with the flow, right? I had to have felt so much love for her for a reason. I had to have had so much curiosity about the planet for a reason. I stayed so I could find what those reasons were.”

“And have you found them yet?”

Coraline’s smile never wavers while she shakes her head. “But I’ve loved the journey.”

I’ve loved mine too. But I know deep down, through every last scale of my fin if it were here, that the curiosity Coraline felt to see the planet isn’t in me. I can’t give up my home.

“I’m not supposed to be here,” I say. “Not like you.”

Coraline places a gentle finger over my heart. “There is no wrong answer if you listen to this.”

We sit there for hours, all the way to sunset. We talk about everything: what places she’s seen, the kinds of people she’s met, how Elder Kelp was in her generation and was such a stickler for rules then too. We talk about how difficult human life can be without mer magic. But Coraline shares with me the types of human magic she’s seen. People helping people, communities coming together, the type of magic I saw in the shorts at Sean’s film showcase. Even if my life doesn’t have a place in it, humanity is better than I thought. Much better.

Kavya finally pads over to us when the beach club closes. “So,” she starts. “You staying or going?”

“Going,” I say, solid in my answer. “I just wish Sean would let me see him again. One last time to let him know that I love him. But I don’t want to force myself on him if he doesn’t want to see me. I tried that dumb Say Anything scene from my phone, but that didn’t work out so well.”

Kavya rolls her eyes. “Come on, you know Sean. That whole love declaration scene he goes on about has to be bigger than that.”

“Have you got any ideas?”

Kavya grins wickedly, and I don’t know whether I should be excited or scared.

“I thought you’d never ask.”

     Sean