Free Memories of Mermaids by RaeLynn Blue

Chapter One: The Fish
     
    “One more lap, come on, Triton!” Ram shouted. “Move your ass!”
    Triton grinned as he casually rotated through the heated water of the Olympic-sized pool and floated on his back, his backstroke slow and relaxed. He didn’t bother answering his friend’s insistent barks, because he didn’t swim competitively anymore. Not since the accident at the last Olympic trials. The car accident broke his leg and kept him from competing. Yeah, Michael Phelps wouldn’t be the golden boy, he would’ve been except for a drunk driver. He, Triton Tidwell would be all the rave and the envy of every swimmer on the planet.
    That wasn’t his fate as his coach had said.
    “Are you daft?” Ram bellowed, the vein snaking down the center of his forehead threatening to explode at any moment. “I said to move it!”
    “Keep your trunks on!” Triton rotated around in the water and forced himself to push through the currents, driving himself faster and faster, and for just a few moments, racing against the naysayers and the stopwatch in Ram’s oversized fist.
    He’d dreamed again last night of a golden palace under the sea, and him, a merman darting through the waters, surrounded by mermaids and other merfolk. He’d awakened when he realized he hadn’t been breathing and his very real body bucked to snatch in air to his starved lungs.
    As a swimmer, he’d been called the Fish. Once his feet hit the water, people used to say he became something else, something that belonged in the water…a fish.
    It was always the same dream. It started about six years ago, but had become more frequent as of late.
    Smack!
    His hand touched the concrete and, out of habit, he shot upward to see Ram’s smiling face.
    “Wow!” Ram barked out, running his hair through his sandy brown hair. He held the stopwatch up. “You almost beat your fastest time! And you got started late. Think, Tri, if you would’ve started out strong!”
    Triton placed both hands flat against the top layer of the pool’s edge and lifted himself out.
    A burst of giggles met his ears as he took the towel from Ram’s outstretched hand. He spied the source of the noise. A flock of women had come into the community pool and as women tended to do, were all clustered in a huddle. They watched him, but he tried to ignore the attention. Wrapping the towel around his scarlet-hued Speedos, he slipped on his flip-flops and headed to the men’s locker-room.
    “Wait!” Ram bellowed from behind him.
    Really, the man had only one voice level—loud.
    “What?”
    “Those chicks were checking you out! I mean, come on, you got like six hot chicks preening and posing for you. Damn, the one in the middle was smokin’.”
    Triton spun around, and met his friend’s wild blue eyes.
    How did he explain this and not sound like an ass?
    He waited until the locker-room door closed behind them.
    “What’s out there, Ram, is a bunch of women who see me as a meal ticket.” Triton hated the way it sounded, but sometimes the truth wasn’t pretty. It was ugly. Downright hideous.
    “A meal ticket?”
    “Well, yeah. I’m a famous swimmer, and those women see cha-ching . They aren’t interested in me, but in photo ops and whatnot.”
    Ram smirked at him.
    “You haven’t swum professionally in nearly four years. Those women aren’t checking you out because of who you were , genius.”
    Triton frowned at him.
    “Yeah. Whatever.” Triton sat down on the bench outside of his locker. He toweled off his legs and his feet. He’d shower when he got home.
    Ram stood in front of him, blocking a bit of the harsh overhead fluorescent lighting from Triton’s face. At nearly six feet four inches and over two hundred pounds, Ram had played college football and trained him like a football coach does his minions. They’d been best buds forever, but Ram had no respect for competitive swimming’s popularity. He only trained Triton to see him be successful and because they were