Chapter 26

Friday 15th January 1999

I’d like to think I’d never forget the moment Dakota proposed “let’s go swimming tomorrow!” Partially because of the adorable glee with which she said it, and partially because of the uniquely elated feeling that struck me.

No, I’m not an avid swimmer. I enjoy it, but I don’t turn into an excited dog the moment someone mentions the word “swimming”.

But seeing my girlfriend in nothing but a bikini – and the sense that she was suggesting this in no small part to grant me that sight – was a prospect so alluring that I couldn’t shake the mental image for the rest of the day.

I mean, can you blame me? I’m a teenage boy in a new relationship, with the sort of sexual appetite you’d expect of a teenager (okay, putting aside the fetish).

And the next morning, when I was certain it was out of the forefront of my mind, the first thing Dakota said at the school gates was “hope you’ve got your trunks ready for later… I’m actually wearing my bikini under my uniform.”

“You-”

I stepped closer, within whispering distance of her playful, blushing face.

“Really?”

“Yep,” she smirked back.

“You’re doing this to get me hot and bothered, aren’t you?” I smiled at her, awestruck. After all, we’d surely all do our homework before going swimming, so even if she wanted to wear her bikini under her clothes to the pool, she could have simply changed into it before we left her place.

“And it’s working.”

That look on her face. That way she teased me, toyed with me, so effortlessly. It did things unexplainable to me.

“But shhhh… it’s our little secret, okay?”

“I’ll try not to tell anyone…” I teased back.

“You tell anyone and we’ll see what secrets of yours I happen to spill,” was her triumphant, if underplayed, comeback.

“Man, you can’t even let me hold the cards for two seconds, can you?”

“You know me. I play to win.”

“Well then,” I leant right in, my lips beside her ear. “Enjoy spending a whole day of school with a bikini instead of underwear, loser.”

Okay, maybe deeming her the loser was overegging things and hitting her square in her competitive nature… and I was overlooking the effect her hidden bikini was having on me… but the awkward, flustered little exhalation she made in response was more than worth it.

I think I may’ve found a kink of hers.

…

“So, you’re looking forward to seeing Dakota in a bikini, right?”

It was shortly after 5pm, and Bao, Zahid and I were in the men’s changing rooms at the local leisure centre. We’d all taken the easy option of putting on our swimwear below our school uniforms before we left Dakota’s – Dakota herself had gone to her room under the pretence of swapping out her underwear for her bikini – and Bao was stood with only his school trousers left to remove when he posed that question to me.

“Gee, what gave you that idea?” I laughed, perhaps a little nervously.

“Right?” he enthused. “I can’t wait to see Harriet in hers!”

“… Bao…”

Zahid, already in only his trunks, exhaled through his nose.

“You’ve already seen her naked.”

“I know, but this is a bikini!” he insisted. “A whole different ballgame!”

“I…” Zahid trailed off, before shaking his head as if it would free him of the conversation.

“You’re just grumpy cos Kayleigh didn’t want to come,” Bao asserted as if it were a decisive blow.

“Not really,” Zahid grunted dismissively.

“We ready to go, then?” I checked, now likewise wearing only swimming trunks; I took my goggles and slipped them onto my head, ready to go over my eyes when necessary.

Bao looked at me, perplexed.

“What are those for?”

“Swimming underwater…” I replied. Surely he knew that much?

“You know you can do that without goggles?”

“Hey, Bao, leave him alone,” Zahid interrupted, a hand raised up to our shorter friend. “If he thinks Dakota’s gonna find them sexy, that’s his business.”

“That’s fair,” Bao nodded with an amused smile.

“Huh?” I uttered while my friends headed off in the direction of the pool. I’d honestly not given a single thought to Dakota anticipating me in my swimwear (the idea of being found in any way sexy was completely foreign to me). I whipped the goggles back off of my head, but kept them in my hand. At least the first impression wouldn’t be completely dweeby, even if I’d be putting them back on immediately after…

The sounds of splashing and of excited kids had already echoed out from nearby while we were in the changing room, but as I headed after my friends, the scent of chlorine and the humidity struck me too. Along with the frolicking families, a few older people were doing lengths of the pool. Not too bad for an early Friday evening, I suppose.

And no sign of the girls yet.

“Hey, did you know the Coelacanth is over 400 million years old?” Bao proclaimed out of nowhere.

“That’s a lot of birthdays,” was the first thing out of my mouth.

“Does your brain spit out the first thing you think of?” Zahid asked him right after.

“No, I- I was thinking about swimming and… it led me to the Coelacanth…” Bao shrugged, seeming perhaps a little put-out at having to explain himself.

And then.

Then.

“Awh, you beat us!”

Kendal’s voice, from somewhere behind me.

I turned, naturally, and there between the hazy shapes of Kendal and Harriet was my girlfriend, hair tied back and then slung forth over her left shoulder, bright blue bikini the only thing covering her body.

I can’t tell you what my face was doing as I gazed up and down her beautiful body, all smoothness and curves and damn perfection, but I heard her giggle a little.

“My face is up here, sweetie,” she spoke with relish as she came to a halt just far enough away that I could still see her full body without moving my head.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m well aware she’s not built like a supermodel or anything, but a thousand supermodels couldn’t draw my eyes away from her.

(And that two-piece… I am partial to a bare midriff…)

“You… wow.”

I cleared my throat a little and went for take two.

“You look incredible.”

“Thanks!” she chirped, and then quickly revolved 360 degrees on the spot, giving me a brief look at her bikini-bottoms-covered butt before facing me once more.

“You look pretty good yourself…”

And I was suddenly intensely aware of the fact that I, in all my skinny, gangly glory, was stood next to two guys with actual reasonable proportions.

“Mhm,” I replied plainly, trying to brush past the compliment. Besides, she’d seen me in my boxers a few times now and that was marginally more revealing than my swimming trunks…

“Maaaan… Harriet…!” Bao cried out next to me. I feel like his eyes popped out retro-cartoon-style and zoomed into my peripheral vision.

“Bao, you’ve seen me in… less than this…” she spoke softly, shyly, because seemingly Bao was the only person in the world who rated a bikini-clad girlfriend at least equal to a naked one…

“Okay, Zahid, now you compliment me!” Kendal declared. I was still too focused on Dakota to see how he responded, but a few seconds later, he replied:

“Nice abs.”

“So lewd!” she laughed, as if she would’ve said it no matter what his compliment was. “Now let’s go!”

It shouldn’t surprise you that she immediately went off and jumped into the water.

“I’ll be right there,” I responded all the same – or, I suppose, more to my other friends – while I remained transfixed by Dakota’s body.

A hand patted my bare back.

“Enjoy those boobs, man,” Bao said sincerely.

His words directed my eyes. I focused in on them.

Did I ever say how lucky I am? Me being me, I mean.

Aaaanyway. I assure you I wasn’t gawping for too long.

The water was a nice temperature, and thankfully it wasn’t too busy so there was space enough to frolic. I slipped my goggles on in what I hoped was a discreet fashion. Of course, Dakota noticed anyway because how could she not?

We stared at one-another for a few seconds, her slowly breaking into a smile.

“Why are you so cute?” she asked me like I even agreed with her.

“Well, I don’t like opening my eyes underwater, so…”

I explained myself instead.

“Yeah, goggles make it easier to check me out some more, huh?”

“Err-”

“Go ahead, just don’t get too close,” she advised. “Wouldn’t want to kick you by accident.”

“I wasn’t thinking of that, but if you’re offering, then…” I concluded, sinking below the surface as I trailed off for humour’s sake.

… I mean yes, I did look but I didn’t go under for that reason…

Speaking of which… you’re probably going to blame this on me being in a new relationship and seeing so much of my girlfriend’s body, like I was that distracted…

But the bottom of the pool was definitely normal when I first submerged. I’m certain of it. And yet when I looked down… well, there was no bottom of the pool. Just an endless abyss.

I resurfaced hurriedly.

“Guys, the pool is deep!”

“The shallow end’s over there if you’re not comfortable…” Harriet pointed off down the pool, with such a gentle tone that I felt doubly embarrassed by her misunderstanding.

“No, that’s not what I meant! It’s deeper than it should be! Ocean deep!”

“Oooh!” Kendal beamed in boundless excitement, before taking a gigantic breath and submerging.

“Assuming this is monster-related… because let’s face it, it’s not gonna be anything else… what’s the plan?” Zahid asked, looking to Dakota.

“Dive under, look for any way to undo it,” she began, essentially thinking aloud. “But I’m not sure how we can stay under there for long…”

“I made myself a sort of… diving mask thing before, that time I was ill,” I pointed out. “So I guess we can use our weapons for that…”

“Which brings me to my other concern. What do we do with the weapons afterwards?”

“Weeeell…”

Bao didn’t get to say anymore before Kendal burst out of the water, taking another gasp of air into her lungs. For as loose as her afro was anyway, being submerged had unbound it, leaving her hair as dozens of dark coils sprouting from her head.

“That is deep! And hey, you never mentioned the mermaids, Alex!”

“I didn’t see any mermaids…” I noted, a little taken aback.

“And there’s our monster,” Zahid smirked lightly.

“You can’t kill mermaids…” Harriet whimpered, her usual tone of voice replaced by something far more childlike.

“Especially when they’re this hot!” Kendal added with a vigorous nod.

“Guys… idea…” urged Bao while twisting about desperately in the water. With that, the rest of us stopped talking, our attention now on him; in spite of this, he kept moving about with the same degree of urgency.

“With the colosseum thing last week, the weapons got sent back to Dakota’s afterwards, right? So even if we didn’t do it ourselves, they can be teleported away from us. We can just attempt that!”

“We’ll have to give it a shot…” Dakota reasoned. Her focus then turned to Harriet. “Are you going to be okay waiting up here?”

“Nothing else I can do,” the blonde replied with what I took to be a brave face. “Just be safe, okay?”

“Always, Haribo,” Bao assured her, adding a thumbs-up for good measure.

“Let’s go,” our leader commanded.

The five of us all took deep breaths and sunk down beneath the water. There was still no visible bottom of the pool, just a stretch down into darkness looming below us. Not too far away, a boy swam down and touched a random point in the water, presumably where he still perceived the bottom to be, before returning back to the surface.

At least this encounter was going to be one of those “otherwise-unperceived” ones.

With nothing more than a thought, I brought my Lokon sword into my grasp. Naturally, I felt a little more resistance than usual as I moved the weapon in front of my chest, but the familiar blast effect was completely unimpeded by the water around me.

Rather… once the blue faded away, I wasn’t in my normal Painter costume. Instead, I was wearing essentially the same trunks as before, only now in black with some blue lining and the emblem design emblazoned on one leg.

I turned to the others, and saw them likewise sporting a selection from the Painter swimwear range. Dakota and Kendal had their emblems on one breast each, instead (I say that as a purely observational thing, so we’re clear!).

And yet, no breathing apparatus. Were we expected to make our own, or… did we not need any at all…?

Something in the back of my head, some kind of impulse, urged me to breathe.

Slowly – cautiously – I exhaled. No bubbles escaped my mouth, no sign of any air.

Even slower, even more cautiously, I took a breath with no issue.

“Guys…” I spoke into the water, addressing my friends.

“This is the coolest thing…” Kendal trailed off, seemingly overwhelmed by her own awe. I figured they’d felt the same impulse.

“Mermaids ascending!” Bao alerted us, glancing downwards.

Rising up from the gloomy depths were a dozen fairy tale mermaids, with clam-shell bikini tops and glistening fish tails, doe-eyed and enticing.

“I hate to say it, but you weren’t wrong, Kendal…” Zahid said with an air (a water…?) of surprise.

“Hottest mermaids this side of Ariel…” she replied unashamedly, swimming down to greet them. On the mermaids’ part, they showed absolutely no signs of hostility; instead, like dolphins, they curiously approached Kendal in kind, reaching out and touching her.

“Kendal, that’s probably not a good idea…” Dakota called out, only for her caution to fall on deaf ears.

“It’s all good… I’ll go get her…”

There was little focus in Zahid’s words. He almost sounded entranced.

He’d barely moved when half of the mermaids turned to him, breaking off from Kendal and outstretching their arms to welcome him. He swam down to them, quickly encircled, allowing them to feel his chest.

“This is bad…” Dakota observed. “They’re wooing us.”

“Wooing those two, maybe. They do look good… like, really super damn good…”

It took Bao a moment to continue, seemingly losing his train of thought for a moment.

“… but I have Harriet!”

“Mhm…” I agreed lowly. Those creatures – monsters – were enthralling. In the same way that I couldn’t tear my eyes from Dakota before, I couldn’t help but look at the mermaids as they fawned over Kendal and Zahid…

No. Not the same way. The same on the surface, but underneath…

I’d been taking in every inch of Dakota’s body, the gorgeous form of the love of my life. I didn’t want to look away.

But here, these temptresses… I felt compelled to. As though looking anywhere else was the wrong thing to do. As though they demanded my attention, rather than naturally having it.

Not that recognising this distinction made any difference. It made it no easier for me to stop looking at them.

Bao must have felt the same, as he waded forwards slightly, further into my peripheral vision.

“Oh for… would you two quit gawking at them?” Dakota shouted in frustration.

Only then did a few of the mermaids look up at Bao and me, sexy smiles glowing up at us from within their long, waving hair. Kendal and Zahid were utterly oblivious all the while, entirely fixated on their new entourages.

“Yeah… just… gimme a minute…” Bao muttered, swimming downwards to join the mermaids.

“No! Think of Harriet, Bao!” Dakota called after him, actually managing to bring him to a halt. Sadly, it was futile, as the mermaids swam up to my friend and eased him along the rest of the way. I felt a pang of jealousy at seeing him be taken away with them.

“Alex…”

“I know… I’m trying…” I assured her, while fighting back every urge to swim down and join my friends. “Isn’t there anything we can do?”

“Err, maybe killing the sea-floozies?” my girlfriend replied, agitated. “Except now the others are down there, so it’s not gonna be an easy fight.”

“Yeah…”

“Alex, stay with me!”

Something about the tone of my voice must have startled her, like I too was about to swim off and join the mermaids. A few of them were still looking up at me, those faces beckoning me with a mere expression. My capacity to resist was waning. They were beginning to seem like perfection.

“Dakota… show me your body.”

“Is now the time?! No, wait,” she added hurriedly, “I just got it!”

It took her only a moment to swim into my line of sight, blocking my view of the mermaids. My eyes settled on Dakota’s chest, midriff, legs, and a wave of liberating relief washed over me.

All the while, she shook her head, smiling in amusement.

“Say when you’re feeling better, lust-meister.”

“They obviously swim faster than us,” I considered, “so we need to attack quicker than they can get away.”

“… Alex…”

“Maybe we can fire off pointed blasts like homing missiles, to hit the mermaids and avoid the others? We’ll have to try that and see what happens. Six blasts each, you take right and I’ll take left.”

“Are you just delaying so you can stare at me longer?” she accused me.

“We need to plan while I’m not being attracted by them. Getting to stare is just a nice side-effect,” I insisted.

“Heh. Ready then?”

She took a better hold of her spear.

“Let’s do this,” I nodded back, taking hold of my confidence in much the same way.

From there, everything happened in a flash. Dakota peeled off to my right, turning to face the same direction as me, looking down at the mermaids and our willingly-captive friends below. We pointed the tips of our weapons at our foes, and triggered half-a-dozen arrowhead-like blasts each.

The mermaids immediately panicked, but rather than abandoning Bao, Kendal and Zahid to flee, they took a tighter hold of them and began to swim down into the depths.

Still, piranha-like, our blue and green projectiles pierced through the water, hot on the monsters’ tailfins. They reached, and struck, their targets swiftly; the mermaids recoiled in pain, finally releasing the trio, screaming silently as they smudged out of existence.

Like a lightbulb switching on – or perhaps off – Bao, Kendal and Zahid suddenly came to their senses. All three of them looked up at us at once.

“Can we forget this happened…?” Zahid proposed awkwardly.

“Woohoo! It worked!” I cheered, grinning in a unique mix of pride, relief and excitement, while the others swam back up to us.

“It did…”

By contrast, Dakota sounded more uneasy. She brought her spear forth, looking at its emblem port.

“How much are we capable of with these things?”

“Aaaand the bottom of the pool is back,” Kendal pointed out; a quick glance down confirmed that, as inconspicuously as it had vanished, the white-tiled floor had returned.

“So… we have to power-down underwater so we don’t look like the blurry-faced Painters in front of everyone else up there, right?” Bao checked with us.

“Let’s hope we don’t drown from the water we’ve been breathing in…” I noted, suddenly concerned by the prospect.

“Breathe out, then,” Zahid advised before doing so, and then double-tapping the emblem on his axe, restoring his normal trunks and visibly not drowning.

The rest of us followed in kind, making sure to exhale heavily before depowering.

As soon as we resurfaced, Harriet grabbed Bao into a hug.

“Oh my goodness, you had me so worried!”

“Sorry, sorry… it’s all good,” he told her warmly, hugging back.

“And that’s my spear sent back.”

I turned to Dakota, surprised, and she raised both empty hands as proof.

“We sent homing blasts at six monsters each, why would teleporting it back where it spends most of the time be so hard?” she asked rhetorically.

“Let’s try…”

Still holding my sword below the surface, I urged it out of my hand, picturing it reappearing in the loft conversion with Dakota’s spear. It took a few seconds, but the sword promptly vanished from my grasp.

“… well then.”

“Easy-peasy, right?” she smiled at me through her caution.

“Guess so,” I smiled back, right before she splashed me.

“Gotta stay alert, Mr Matthews!” she giggled.

“Oh man… you’ve done it now…!” I smirked now.

The six of us maaaay have spent most of our time in the pool having a full-on splash war…

…

“Hey, Dakota…”

It still felt weird for the two of us to be the only ones in her house on certain nights… not like it was any busier when I wasn’t staying over. She was sat in her pyjamas, combing her hair in front of a mirror while I sat on the bed in my dressing gown.

“What?” she asked softly.

“You know I love you, right…?”

A great start…

“Alex, you flew to Ireland on Christmas Eve just to tell me, I think I got the message,” she chuckled.

“I mean… I love you. Not just your body. So… y’know…” I struggled for words, looking at her reflection over her shoulder all the while.

She stopped combing, and turned to look at me.

“If you’re about to apologise for gawking over me, you don’t have to,” she assured me. “We’re a couple. You’re allowed. And to be honest, it’s cute.”

“It… it is…?”

“You can’t see the faces you pull,” my girlfriend chuckled again.

“All I mean is… never forget how amazing I think you are…”

“Like right now,” she added to her previous comment. “You’re scarlet.”

Of course I was…

She put her comb down, crossing the bedroom to sit next to me.

“I know, Alex. I know. Don’t feel guilty for looking at me in a bikini. Oooor…”

“What? ‘Or’ what?” I asked, panicking a little now.

“Or I won’t let you see me in a bikini,” she concluded.

“Wait! That’s not fair! I want to see you like that!”

“Is that right?”

“Yeah! You’re sexy and-!”

She cut me off with a kiss, pulling me close; I embraced her, returning the favour until she broke off.

“You’re sexy too. And I love you, silly.”

She ruffled my hair, like it made a difference, and she gazed tenderly into my eyes.

“Now let’s get some shut-eye. I’m knackered.”

… lying in the same bed as her, with the image of her near-naked body seared into my mind, was a complicated experience…