The Uneventful Life of Harvey Mackler

c h a p t e r | t w e n t y

I momentarily turn to shoot him a dirty look. He is acting like he did something wrong.

"What the hell, Hunter," I hiss. "How long have you been standing there?"

"You said you might need my help setting up something."

Right. Fifteen minutes ago when Finn texted me to come out to see his 'surprise', aka his brand new, half-assembled GoPro gifted to him by his parents. I wasn't sure exactly what Finn needed help with then, so I'd asked Hunter to be on standby just in case.

"I thought you went back in!" I protest.

Hunter shrugs. I narrow my eyes at him.

Finding excuses to hang around during Finn's surfing practice has become Hunter's new favourite hobby. He's been like this since yesterday and it's already driving me insane.

I get off Finn's surfboard, sparing a glance back at its owner. "How long has it been since you attached the adhesive mounts?" I ask.

"I did it around four or five yesterday, so about twenty hours? Give or take."

I nod. "We should give it a couple more hours before you take it in the water. We'll try surfing this evening instead."

"Alright," Finn replies apprehensively, eyes drifting to Hunter behind me.

"I'll go get my laptop so we can try linking them up," I say, prompting Finn to snap his attention back to me. "You... read through the user manual again, or whatever."

Without waiting for Finn's reply, I latch my hand onto Hunter's, tugging him towards our house and as far away from Finn as possible.

"I thought you were happy with me training Finn," I say once we're out of hearing distance. "Why are you here playing crazed stalker chaperone?"

"Well, I didn't think you'd need any sort of chaperone before — considering how much you seemed to hate Finn," Hunter replies. "I didn't realise when you two got so... pally."

"Pally," I repeat flatly.

"Pally enough to find him sleeping in your room."

I freeze, turning back to make sure Finn hadn't overhead, even though it should be almost impossible at this distance. To Hunter, I say, "You're blowing this out of proportion."

And he really is. The real story is a lot less lecherous than whatever Hunter is imagining. But to explain, I'd have to go back to two days ago, the evening of Finn's competition.

<•)}}}><

Two Days Ago...

Hunter's compromise to Finn not wanting a big celebration was a small pizza party back at ours. Beside my siblings and Finn, the other attendees are Jay and Gia and far too many boxes of pizza than the seven of us could eat in one night.

Within an hour of arriving back home, the living room is filled with the sound of music, chatter and Harry glued to Finn, eagerly asking for details of the surf competition.

After the day I've had, the thought of being around a large group of people for any longer exhausts me, and soon I find myself making excuses to leave and go upstairs early.