Chapter 106 - Makai - Back To School Part 1

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Makai

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Ocean and I didn't exactly get out of bed for much on Sunday. We made food and ate it, took care of necessities, and then went back to bed with each other. I have to say that it was quite the pleasant way to spend our time. And Ocean seemed to agree. Plus, we had to get as much time together as we could, since he was going home tomorrow after school.

When Monday morning did finally roll in, I could tell that we were both feeling a little depressed about it. It was like we had actually been living together, now we were splitting up, and he was moving out. Why did it hurt so much just to think about him not being here with me every night?

I mean, was it so bad to want him here with me? Wasn't I allowed to be a little selfish from time to time? Dammit, why did he have to go home?

I know why. It's because he has a couple of wonderful and loving parents, and they would miss him. They have missed him and are sad that he isn't there with them. M..maybe Ocean and I could get into the same college, and we could live together then? I could hope at least.

We made breakfast together again. This was the third time that Ocean had successfully helped me make something for breakfast. It was nice, and I love eating my meals with him. Though after this morning, the only meal I could share with him was going to be lunch at school. Oh God, I just felt my heart break a little more.

We cooked together, did the dishes together, brushed our teeth together, and got dressed together. It was like we were married or something, and our routines were fully synched or something.

However, after I drove us to school, that was it for our happily little couple life. We were back to looking like just friends. I wanted to say fuck it, and let everyone know that we were together, but Ocean wanted to wait until we were out of school to be fully open about it all. I knew his reasons, but that didn't make it any easier. I mean, if we were open about it all, I could kiss him in the halls between classes. But that could earn us the ire of more of the school if we weren't careful.

The first thing that we did when we got to school was head for practice. Of course that would be the normal procession of the day. And one positive of that was me being next to Ocean in the locker room. That was a little moment of excitement for me. Though I had to keep it under wraps.

Honestly, should I even look at him? I might be caught looking at him. While I was debating what I should do, I was taking off my own clothes and preparing to get changed for practice.

"Holy shit, Kai, what the hell did you do this weekend?" I heard Ryan call out and turned to look at him. By the time I saw his face, most of the locker room was looking at me, even Ocean.

"What?" I asked him before I remembered the purple mark on my neck. Ocean's hickey that he left on me. "Oh, this? Haha, I had a good time, that was all." I left it ambiguous.

"A good time? That looks like you had more than just a 'good time'." Ryan was laughing at me.

"Seriously? You have a girl? Who?" Justin was grilling me now, it was like he was trying a little too hard to try and find out.

"I doubt you would know. They don't go to this school." I laughed off his question.

"They? Does that mean you have more than one? That is so fucking cool man. And I officially want to be like you." Alex was looking at me with reverent eyes.

"It's not that big of a deal." I shrugged it all off.

"Kai, seriously, look at yourself. You have hickeys all over your neck, chest, even your stomach. Whoever she was, she must be seriously good in bed. And you could get any girl in this school that you want. You're like my idol." I felt my ears turning red. If he didn't stop, I would be blushing full crimson all over my face.

"I bet she's some babe in one of the universities. That seems like Kai's speed. That's it, isn't it, Kai? That's why we don't know her. You got yourself a sexy older woman." Ben grinned at me, and I could tell he was just helping to deflect the attention a little more.

"Well, you know me." I smirked at him and nodded. The nod was for appreciation of what he was doing since he knew the truth, but the others took it as affirmation.

"HOLY SHIT!" That phrase was literally yelled several times before the coach poked his head into the room and yelled at them all.

"Cut the shit and get to swimming. Do you think this is some sort of gossip session at a tea party?"

"Coach, no offense, but that was lame." Ryan laughed at him.

"Shut up and get dressed Johnson, I don't need your commentary." Coach Dickson snapped at Ryan as his cheeks turned a little pink with his blush.

When I looked back at Ocean, I saw that he was looking a little stressed out. I think he thought that this whole situation was going to get out of hand. I wouldn't let that happen though. I was going to protect him as much as I could.

When we were done getting ready, it was just Ben, Ocean, and myself in the locker room. Everyone else had already left for the pool.

"Thank you." I looked at Ben and gave him a sincere look.

"No problem." He smiled at me. "Though maybe next time, you should try not to leave any of those until after the season is over." He laughed a little, this time he was looking at Ocean.

"I am certain whoever left those didn't intend to do it at the time." Ocean tried really hard not to show how embarrassed he was. He did better than usual, but I could still read him like a well worn book.

After that we went out to the pool with everyone else. I did my best to make sure that I was swimming in a different group than Ocean. I needed to keep an eye on him in case he started to change in the middle of his laps.

I kept a really close eye on him, and when I was asked why I was staring, I told them I just wanted to see if he had been practicing while he was away.

"If he slacked off all last week, then it will show in his times and his form."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Jordan, another teammate I knew, but wasn't overly close to, seemed to accept my answer like it was quite logical. That was when he and several other people started to watch Ocean run his laps.

The good thing was that he was still in good form, not to mention I didn't see any of those pearly white scales appearing anywhere. He had definitely managed to keep himself under control. And it also looked like he had gotten faster. I might need to tell him to tone it down a little bit. If he was moving too fast and broke world records left and right, then they would try to get him into the Olympics or something.

I also had to wonder for just a moment how he could swim that much faster than me in either form if he didn't have a tail to help. That was when I remembered that he had the webbing between his fingers and toes. That would help him out a lot.

Was his webbing out now? Was that even something that he could turn off? I know he could stop the change with no problem. However, perhaps it was like how we were able to glide through the water. That happened no matter what form we were in, it was just way easier in the non-human form, but it wasn't something that we could do intentionally.

"HOLY HELL! OCEAN!?" The coach was nearly jumping for joy when Ocean finished his lap.

"What's the matter, Coach?" Ocean asked, clearly bemused. He wasn't even out of breath after that swim.

"What's the matter? You want to know what's the matter? You just broke your record."

"Oh!?" There was a lopsided grin on Ocean's face. "I..I didn't try to."

Well, that started a whole slew of questions. They all wanted to know what he had done to make himself faster. They wanted to copy him and do it too. Well, I doubt that any of them could turn into a siren. So unless they could, they were out of luck.

"Really, I didn't do anything special." Ocean was trying to get them to leave him alone. If they didn't stop, I had a feeling that his embarrassment was going to make him lose his focus on his Siren form.

"You know what, I think Ocean is telling the truth. He just truly got faster because he wanted it. I mean, think about it, what could he have done? He was already the fastest on the team. Maybe being away for so long just made him want it that much faster. I bet he won't be nearly that fast again." I laughed it all off trying to draw them away from him.

"Yeah, you might be right." They all started to agree with me.

OK, I know I wanted this to happen, but that was way too easy. I mean, talk about being sheep. These people just followed the crowd or the most popular trend way too easily. 

As I pondered whether or not most of the team shared one brain to go along with their herd mentality, I saw Ocean start to mouth several words at me.

'Thank you.'

'No problem.' I nodded and mouthed my words at him as well. I think I must have been right about his control starting to wane because of their hyper focused attention on him. Later today I would tell Ocean about swimming at a little bit less than full speed. He had to do things moderately instead of all at once.

Now though, practice was over, and it was time for us all to dry off, get dressed and get to class.

I guess there was one more benefit to school. Ocean and I were in all the same classes so we would see each other all day long.. We had even taken to sitting next to each other because none of our classes were assigned seating.