Pretty in Pearls: A Forgive My Fins Novella (HarperTeen Impulse) Read Online Free PDF Page A

actually on my side.
    Then he turns around.
    Looks up.
    I know the exact moment he sees and recognizes me. His eyes widen for a moment and then narrow into an angry scowl. Even across the distance between us I can feel his fury.
    Jeez, I know it’s a little weird—in a crazy, psycho, stalker-chick way—that I’ve followed him out here to the edge of the forest. But does he really have to—
    “Oh boy.”
    Riatus pushes off from the floor and swims for me. I’m not sure what makes me turn and flee. It could be the look on his face. It could be natural preservation instinct. It could be I’m totally humiliated and horrified to be caught following a merboy I barely know into the most dangerous part of our kingdom.
    Whatever the reason, I turn around and swim for home as fast as I can.
    Riatus is faster.
    If I thought he was hightailing it on the way here, he is a freaking speed demon now. Before I am five fin flicks away, he zooms past me, whips around, and swirls himself to a stop in my path. I react instantly, altering my course to swim off to my right. I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m going there fast.
    “Peri!” He’s not far behind me.
    I spot a little grove of lacelike sea fans ahead of me, and I streamline. Kicking as hard as I can, I make it to the grove ahead of him. Maybe the sea fans will give me some cover. Their thick trunks and intricately branching limbs make it almost impossible to see inside. Maybe he’ll be so focused on chasing after me he won’t realize I’ve diverted.
    With my back up against the tallest, thickest sea fan in the bunch, I try to slow my panting so he can’t hear me. I’m not scared—it wasn’t that kind of chase. It’s not like I think Riatus is going to hurt me. I’m embarrassed. I’m horrifically, hysterically embarrassed.
    Why did I think I should—
    “What in the seven seas are you doing?”
    Riatus appears in front of me. It’s only a small concession that he is panting as hard as I am.
    “What are you doing here?” he demands. “Were you following me?”
    “No!” Stupid answer. “Yes. I mean, I didn’t mean to.”
    “Didn’t mean to?”
    I shake my head. “I just wanted to talk to you.”
    He throws his head back and stares up toward the surface, like he’ll find some kind of answer there.
    “I was waiting for you to finish closing down for the night. I didn’t want to interrupt,” I say, trying to fill the silence and explain my actions. “Then you read some note and took off, and I—”
    His gaze swings back to me. Those pale gray eyes spear me with intensity.
    “You have no idea what you’re getting into,” he says.
    His brows are furrowed so deeply there are twin lines in the center of his forehead. He looks . . . scared.
    For the first time I realize I might have gotten myself into a really bad situation. Okay, not for the first time, because I knew this was a stupid thing to do from the beginning, but now the danger seems real.
    “I—I’m sorry,” I stammer, trying to back away—only to realize I’m pressed up against a huge sea-fan trunk. Brilliant plan. “I shouldn’t have come, shouldn’t have followed you.”
    “No,” he says, floating closer into my personal space. “You shouldn’t have.”
    “I should go.”
    He kicks closer still, and braces his hands on the sea fan at either side of my shoulders. He’s so close I can make out the specks of sky blue at the centers of his eyes. I can see the faint freckles that dust his cheeks and forehead. I can feel his heat and I can’t suppress a shiver.
    “Forget you ever followed me,” he says. He hesitates, scowls like he’s thinking about saying something more, but doesn’t.
    Instead, he floats back, giving me enough space to get away. That more than anything gives me the courage to ask, “Is it something illegal?”
    I could forgive a lot of things. If it’s something stupid or risky or totally-innocuous-and-I’m-overreacting, then that’s fine. But as