Blake had never asked what had happened to the person who had saved him, but he had his quiet theories.
“He’s the reason I became a lifeguard, actually,” he explained, opening the yellow eye of his egg and smearing the yolk over his garlic rice.“I wanted to be able to save people, like he saved me.It’s a little silly, I guess.”
Marin reached out across the table, setting his gentle fingertips on the back of Blake’s wrist.He smoothed his thumb over the side of Blake’s hand, a soothing motion.“That’s really kind of you.I don’t think it’s silly at all.”
“Thanks.”
The conversation lulled from there.Blake hesitated to speak as they continued to eat, not sure what else to say.He was immensely guilty for staying at work after passing out and wasn’t sure if a simple apology would cover it.It seemed insincere.He was about to ask what Marin had managed to unearth from the offices when the merman spoke first.
“You’re troubled,” Marin observed without looking at Blake.He set down his fork across the empty bowl.“What’s on your mind?”
“I…” Blake began, squeezing his empty Calpico bottle in his hand.
“I’m sorry,” Marin said without prompting, hanging his head.
“I—what?”Blake shook his head, taken aback.“For what?”
“For making your friend pass out.It was incredibly petty of me,” Marin admitted, running a fingernail along the length of the table.“I saw the karaoke and thought it would be fun.Later on… I didn’t mean to make you pass out, too—I was so into the song that I didn’t even realize you were there.”
Blake’s first instinct was to immediately say “it’s fine”, but he thought better of it.Instead he asked: “Why do you think it was petty?”
Marin flushed.This time his skin was tinted pink, instead of the blue and purple blush he had in his aquatic form.It struck Blake that it was still a pretty color on him.
“He’s… very physical with you.And I admit I was a little… jealous,” Marin mumbled the last word, tapping his finger on his drink.“Of your closeness.”
Blake couldn’t help but laugh.“You’re jealous ofMatt?”
Marin shrunk into himself, chastised.“Was I wrong to be?”
“Well…” Blake hesitated.Matt had dated just about every person in their friend group over the course of their lives.“He and I used to date in high school, but it didn’t end up working out.”
“What happened?”Marin blurted.A second later, he grimaced and shook his head, looking embarrassed.“Sorry, that’s insensitive.I shouldn’t have asked.”
“It’s okay,” Blake told him, holding up a hand.“It’s not a big deal.Honestly, Matt was into some pretty sketchy shit that I won’t get into, and I wanted to go to college.I ended up moving away to get my bachelor’s and we broke up a few months into the semester.While I was in school, Matt cleaned his act up.We’ve been best friends since we were kids, so we were able to patch things up, but there’s nothing romantic between us anymore.”
Marin looked relieved.Blake’s pulse fluttered hopefully in his throat at the implication.
“I really ought to apologize to him for what happened earlier,” Marin said before Blake could inquire further.
“Iamcurious about that,” Blake said, a bit disappointed at the change in subject.He’d been hoping to pick Marin’s brain about his feelings.“You seemed to know that your singing was going to put him to sleep—and when you first fell off the slide, you were able to switch to human legs.Is this stuff you know inherently, or…?”
“I…” Marin began, squinting into the distance.His mouth worked, as if he were attempting to put words to a situation he couldn’t quite describe.“I guess so.I didn’t really think about the how or why.I just kind of… did?It’s like how I knew how to sculpt with clay: it’s automatic knowledge to me.”
“Well,” Blake began.“I could pull up some karaoke on YouTube at home?Maybe if you keep singing, it’ll help you remember some more—musical memory’s supposed to be a fairly powerful thing.”
“Maybe so,” Marin said, expression indiscernible.He was almost frustrated, like he was trying to remember a word that was on the tip of his tongue.
Blake took out his phone to text Celeste about it, but there was already a text from them:
“You totally saw Marin, didn’t you?”
Blake put his phone away.
“Ah!I totally forgot,” Marin said, reaching over to his side and grabbing the tablet from where it was resting on the bench.“I took a few pictures of stuff I found in the offices.”
“Excellent!”Blake grinned as Marin passed him the iPad.“Thank you for doing this.Ireallyappreciate you going through the effort.”
“It was nothing,” Marin returned his smile.Blake opened the camera roll and began to scroll through the documents.“It was kind of fun—like an espionage mission.Unfortunately I didn’t find many relevant things.There was a manual for the pirate ship I was on, but it didn’t really say much about me other than instructions for assembly and maintenance.But I did find out it was made by a company called Splashgrounds Manufacturing and installed in 2003, the same year that the park opened as Slide Palace.”
