<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #4080FF">"Mermaid, ghost bustah, undahcovah spy posing as waitress..."</span><br/><br/>Strange, really, how kisses from certain people were both so forgettable and so memorable. Alannah never really knew exactly <span style="font-style: italic">why</span> she liked them so much, only that she did. It just felt safe and nice and comfortable being around Dimitri, even if she did not know specifically why. She liked precise, short answers, and was, deep down, a little unsettled that there did not seem to be one here.<br/><br/>She let go of the rock and allowed Dimitri to hold her up. She threw a quick glance down. Through the almost still water, she could see his feet resting on nothing. Once again, she wondered exactly what had happened to allow certain beings to bend the laws of physics to their will. <span style="color: #4080FF">"It'd be terrible if ya ma thought we were having a quick roll in the hay, wouldn't it?"</span> She chuckled as she drew a finger down his cheek. <span style="color: #4080FF">"Just go when ya have to. I know it gets boring in the watah. But yeah, staying here would be easiah than going up and doing it all again tomorrow. Thanks."<br/></span><br/>They fell silent. She never wanted to stop floating quietly in the water, the sinking sun caressing her bare back wherever Dimitri wasn't. But stop, it did. His voice was no louder than a whisper, and yet it felt like he had screamed into her face. Alannah was already holding still, but now she froze completely. <span style="color: #4080FF">"It's..."</span> She began, and then had to stop herself because her voice was dangerously close to breaking. <span style="color: #4080FF">"It's nothing. Just a bad memory. I had a really good friend once, like, a <span style="font-style: italic">really</span> good friend, and then she - she found out, and then we..."</span> Her eyes closed of their own accord, as if it would stop the flood of old memories that threatened to overwhelm her. <span style="color: #4080FF">"...we weren't friends anymore."</span><br/><br/>A deep, shuddering sigh escaped in place of the tears she could not cry. <span style="color: #4080FF">"Stupid, I know. People stop being friends all the time."</span> She mumbled into his shoulder. She did not think she could bear looking him in the eyes right now.</div>