AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Of course!”
“See? And I’m confident you’ve tested all the water parameters quite a few times. You’re ready for a fish. Trust me. I mean, you delivered a ba—”
“Not one more word about the baby I didn’t deliver.”
Shane grinned. “Right. Onward. We have a fish to save.”
I smacked him on the shoulder but allowed him to lead me into the store and, despite myself, couldn’t hold in a gasp of delight. There was a koi pond that stretched the length of the front windows, with lily pads and turtles sunning on rocks. The fish flopped on top of each other to greet me, and I felt ridiculously special until I realized I was standing next to the gumball machine filled with fish food.
There were tanks everywhere with different types of freshwater fish, and even though I was nervous, I was stoked that Shane had made me come. Not many people understood why I loved fish so much, especiallysince I couldn’t swim and didn’t like the water, but I just did. Fish were the coolest little creatures on the planet. Looking into a planted tank or a nano reef was a window into an entirely different world.
Meanwhile, Shane had gone straight to the front desk, where a woman in her late teens or early twenties was working. She had sky-blue hair, and almost every part of her face was pierced. “What brings you in?” she asked.
“My friend here is looking for a fish. Easy to care for, hard to kill.”
I walked up behind Shane and gave her a little wave. “I have a cycled tank at home, and I take this responsibility very seriously.” Adopting a dog or a cat from a rescue was almost as hard as adopting a child, but I guessed a pet store would give you anything you could pay for. “You don’t do home visits, do you?”
She looked at me for a beat and then laughed. “Owning fish will make you a murderer,” she said. “Happens to all of us. If you’re not comfortable with that…”
“What?” I yelped, then turned to Shane, who looking at the attendant and frantically slashing at his neck in a “be quiet” sort of way.
She ignored him. “I have four tanks at home, so I guess you could say I’m a mass murderer.” She snorted.
I backed away from the counter. “I don’t think I’m ready to be a murderer.”
“Come back,” she said, still laughing. “I’m only partly joking. Actually, I’m totally serious. You have to be prepared for them to die at any time, for no reason. They’re fish. And they freakingloveto carpet surf.”
“Do what?” I asked.
“Jump out of tanks and dry up on your carpet. Crispy little guys whenyou find them in the morning. Make sure your tank has a lid. But some of them will find a way out regardless.”
Shane put his head in his hands, and she turned and gestured to the left. “Since you’re looking for something that’ll take you a little longer to kill, I recommend a betta. They’re pretty and they breathe air, so they can live in nasty water. They don’t swim a lot, though, and they can be total dicks.”
I looked over at the wall of bettas. They really were beautiful. Some looked like blooming flowers; others, like badass dragons. I knew they had a labyrinth organ and didn’t need to use their gills, but the bettas also looked like they were struggling to swim while wearing tiny wet ball gowns. Commercial breeding hadn’t done them any favors.
“Anything else you might recommend?” I asked.
“How about a guppy?” she suggested. “They’re smaller but hardy and a lot of fun to watch.”
She led us over to the guppy tank.
“I’ve heard they have babies, though,” I said. “I don’t think I’m ready for that.”
“No babies if you get a male,” she answered.
I looked into the tank, and one immediately caught my eye. Blue, my favorite color, with a spotted tail and a chubby little belly. “I like that one,” I said. “Is that one male or female?”
She squinted into the tank. “That’s a dude,” she said. “And he looks well fed, so I think you’ll be okay with him for a while.”
“Can you not?” Shane muttered under his breath. Then, more loudly, he said, “Let’s take that one. How much?”
“Three dollars and seventy-five cents,” she said. So cheap for an entire life that would depend on me.
She netted him quickly, and Shane said, “Allow me to treat you to this little guy, since this was my idea.” He also grabbed a net and the fish food the woman recommended.
“Thank you,” I said to him.
We walked back out to the car, with Shane carrying the food and me cradling the bag with my new fish in it.
