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Their Siren
Daughters of Olympus
Before
Love is part beast, part saint, part hope, part hell.
Love hurts and heals, promising nothing. Taking all.
Love is not for the easily bruised, for it leaves you with a multitude of scars.
It’s a fragile, breakable thing, that can’t be mended overnight.
Or even seven thousand, six hundred, and sixty-five nights.
For, in the end, love is a jealous ruse.
They call me the villain in this story.
But the trick was on me.
They say I held all the love in the world, yet tossed it aside in vain.
But I know the truth.
I’ve waited long enough.
Now it’s time to take back what should have been ours all along.
Be ready, daughters of Olympus.
I’m coming for you.
1
Harlow
I can’t stop staring at it. The fact I have it at all is kind of insane considering my aversion to needles. My mom will flip out, but then her face will break into a big grin once she realizes what kind of tattoo I chose.
A seal surrounded by blue crashing waves.
It’s pretty much perfection.
The tattoo covers most of my right thigh—big for my first one, but I didn’t want to half-ass it. Mostly because my resolution for my twenty-first birthday is to stop being scared and to start going all in. With my life, with relationships, with my job. I’ve been living in shallow water and I’m tired of it.
I want to dive. Deep.
I look up at the white moon, full and swollen and casting a glow over the dark ocean. My feet sink into the sand at the shoreline, and I know being here, at this moment, is no coincidence. The smell of the saltwater feels like home.
My mom always told stories about how I was born from the sea... literally. No one knew who my biological parents were; they found me on the beach—this very beach—and her stories eased the worry in my heart of not belonging. My mom always whispered You belong to the ocean, but you’re growing up on dry land.
As a child, it comforted me... but now I’m all grown up and I just wonder, where do I come from?
It’s that pit in my belly that’s always empty. That hollow in my heart that never seems to fill.
My phone buzzes in the back pocket of my cut-offs. Pulling it out, I see that it’s Chloe.
Smiling, I answer the call. “Should I come? Are you all checked in?” I ask.
“No,” she groans. “It was false labor. I’m on my way home now. Sorry, I ruined your birthday.”
“Oh, shut up,” I tease my best friend. Never in a million years would I expect her to apologize. “That’s ridiculous.”
“You were supposed to have my moral support tonight. Did you cry the whole time?”
I hear Enzo in the background asking me to send them a photo, and the other guys are shouting as well, asking to see. Chloe has four men who she’s in a committed relationship with, and she’s pretty much my hero when it comes to following her heart and not giving a damn what the rest of the world might think.
“No,” I tell her. “I was badass.”
She snorts. “I’m not saying I don’t believe your badassery, but Harlow--,”
I cut her off. “I was. I’m turning a new leaf, Chloe. This new me is totally hardcore.”
“Send me a photo. We’re dying to see.”
I put her on speakerphone and try to get a good photo of my thigh.
“Are you sad that you aren’t in labor?” I ask as I snap a few pictures.
“I think the guys are more disappointed than I am. Once Pearl is born everything will change, you know?”
“I know, sweetie,” I say. “But you are going to be an amazing mom.” Chloe has voiced her nerves a lot recently, and even though she has a rock-solid support system, change is hard. I can’t even imagine being a mother. “Okay, I sent one. Did you get it?”
“Uh, just a sec. Oh, Harlow!” she screeches. “It’s amazing. The waves look so perfect. And the seal’s eyes are seriously haunting. Your artist did amazing work.”
“I know. It’s better than I expected.”
“Now I guess you have to be badass this year with your little spirit animal always with you.”
“Exactly.”
“Hey,” she says, her voice full of irritation. “Where are you, Harlow?”
“Just headed home.”
“Liar. I see the sand in this photo. Are you okay?”
“It’s just the beach.”
“Not just any beach. Harlow, it’s the beach.”
I sigh, my heart constricting. Chloe is the first friend I’ve ever been so vulnerable with; so honest. Everyone else thinks I’m just the outgoing, fun one. Truth is, overcompensating for what I’m not is my greatest accomplishment.
Not exactly something to brag about.
Someone left me here, not knowing who would find me.
I swallow, not wanting to cry. But the truth of my beginning always makes my eyes well up with salty tears. It makes my belly ache and reminds me how empty I feel inside.
