"IS IT JUST me, or does everything we do somehow always relate to food?" I ask Hunter, as we walk on to the next aisle. I sidle past him to read the next items on the list.
Today is proper grocery shopping day, so unlike the days when we would go to Mrs Crossbury's corner store for food, we are currently in an actual supermarket. In a way, I prefer them to the smaller shops. It usually lowers the chance of us bumping into someone that we know. Or at least, know well enough to care.
"That's probably because it is," Hunter replies nonchalantly as he tucks the list in his pocket. He leans over and picks up two apples. "Red or green?"
"Red," I decide after a moment of consideration. Hunter nods accordingly, filling the rest of the basket under his arm with them. "I still don't know why you had to bring the basket, I already had a shopping cart."
Hunter observes my shopping cart for a moment with a cryptic look on his face. "I like carrying my own weight. Plus shopping carts and I have bad history together."
I open my mouth to question what he meant but immediately shut it again. "I... don't even want to know."
"No, you don't," Hunter agrees. He changes the subject by pulling out the list again. "The next item on the list is milk. Really, Harv? You could've at least made sure the items were written in order of where they are in the store. The milk aisle is like five aisles down."
I roll my eyes when he shakes his head in mock disappointment.
"Just pass me the list instead of whining like such a big drama queen," I tell him, snatching it away from him. "Okay. How about I go get the milk and you stay here and get the next item?"
"I'm okay with that," Hunter shrugs. He manoeuvres around me, subtly pushing the shopping cart in the opposite direction. "Go on Harvey, your cart is waiting."
I take a moment to glare at him (but seeing as this is Hunter, he simply replies with an unfazed smirk) before running after the cart.
Within a few seconds I was situated by the diary aisle when I am faced with an impossible choice: 1% or 2%.
"Or maybe, I should just get whole milk..." I muse aloud to myself. "Harry never shuts up about that healthy bones presentation they did in kindergarten."
After another few minutes of scanning the aisle, I finally giving up and take one of each, heading back to Hunter to ask him for his opinion.
"Hey, Hunt. Which do you th-" I stop short when I realise Hunter isn't in the same place where I'd left him. In his place are a surprised looking Asian couple I identified as Ethan and Kian's parents. They send me questioning looks as we make eye contact, forcing me to acknowledge their presence.
"Hey, Mr and Mrs Yakamura," I say in an awkwardly enthusiastic voice. "Did Ethan and Kian go to the camp thing too?"
"Y-"
"Duh, of course they did, unless Hollis wouldn't have wanted to go. But then again, our parents had already paid so I guess he didn't really have a choice..."
They blink at me.
"Anywho," I continue idiotically, "I better get going. Stuff to see, food to buy... Bye!"
I hurry out the aisle before they can get a word in.
I don't release my tight grip on the cart until I am safely away at the other side of the grocery store.
After giving myself a moment to breathe and take in the silence, I realise the voice in the aisle next to mine sounded awfully familiar.
Like Hunter familiar.
A second later, it's followed by another more feminine, slightly flustered sounding voice.
"Look, Hunt. I'm just trying to do my jo—" she tries to say.
Before she can finish, she is interrupted by the automated sounding voice of an overhead speaker.
"Will the sales clerk on aisle 9 please go back to her till."
I groan in defeat, making my way to aisle 9 (also know as the one less than 5 feet away from me) knowing Hunter was most likely involved in this somehow.
Sure enough, as I appeared round the corner I could make out Hunter and a red haired girl, who I guess is probably somewhere around Hunter's age, though I couldn't tell as her face was obscured by Hunter who was looming over her while her back was pressed against the shelf behind her.
I sigh heavily, right before marching towards the pair and dragging Hunter off her.
"Hunt, leave the poor girl alo—" I begin to chide before I realise I recognised the 'poor girl'. "Delaney? Delaney Johnson?"
"Hi, Harvey," she greets with an awkward, yet kind smile. She completely avoids Hunter's gaze as she straightens herself out, standing upright. "I better get going if I don't want to get fired."
"That's okay. Hunter and I need to be going to anyway, don't we?" I say pointedly, mostly aiming it at Hunter who's arm I am still tugging at.
"Fine..." Hunter sighs as he finally concedes, letting me pull him away. "See you later, Dell."
"Yeah, bye and what not," I say quickly as we go our separate ways.
I drag Hunter down an aisle in the opposite direction. Once we're safely out of sight, I come to an abrupt stop and turn around to hiss at Hunter.
"Why on earth did you do that? Sure she had a crush on you in high school, but I'm pretty sure that still counts as a form of sexual harassment."
"She used to have a crush on me?" is Hunter's only reply.
I send him a look that I hope he read as 'you're hopeless'. Because he really is.
"Why else do you think she volunteered to be my freshman helper? It was to get closer to you."
"They still do freshman helpers?" he asks again, with another incredulous look.
I swallow back my instinctive response and rephrase my words. "Just go apologise."
"I was just saying hi!" he protests.
"Well you have a really sucky way of saying hi."
"Did you just say sucky?"
I ignore the amused smile creeping on his face.
"Just go do it."
"Okay..." Hunter relents. He ponders on something for the next couple minutes before speaking again. "She looked different."
"What?"
"She looked different. I guess that's why I approached her. Does that make me sound like a jerk?"
"Yes."
"I should go apologise, shouldn't I?"
"Yes."
"Or even better," he says, perking up. "Throw a party and invite her to it."
"Ye—wait, what? No! That's an awful idea. What kind of apology is that?!"
"Aw, Harv, stop being such a downer," Hunter tells me. "C'mon, we only have a few more stuff left on the list. Let's go quickly before her shift ends."
><{{{(•>
I am glaring at Hunter.
Hunter is staring at Dell.
Dell is avoiding direct eye contact with either of us, pretending to be overly interested in the items she was scanning.
While scavenging the store for final few items on our shopping list, I complained to Hunter about how he's making things awkward and how we'll have to shop at a different store from now on, but of course, he had just ignored my warnings and made a beeline straight to Delaney's till when we got to the checkout.
And unfortunately, as Hunter is paying, I am forced to follow him in order to not create yet another scene. Bringing us to our current predicament.
"So," Hunter says to Dell. "How long are you in town for?"
Delaney looks up, a hesitant look appearing on her face, as if she is deciding whether or not to say the truth. "Just for the summer," she admits. "My college is up in the north."
"Cool, that means you'll be here for awhile," Hunter nods, obviously not acknowledging the rest of her sentence. "So how do you feel like going to a Mackler party, for old times sake."
"I don't know..."
"Please?" He gives her the signature Hunter pout-beg combo. "Think of it as my apology for being such a jerk. I haven't seen you since graduation. I just want to say hi properly."
Delaney doesn't reply at first. "That will be 198 dollars, 53 cents," she says instead.
Hunter pulls out 200 dollars and hands it over. "Keep the change," he says. "So will you?"
Dell sighs. "I'll think about it."
"Great!" Hunter sends her wide grin before walking out the store with grocery bags in his hands, and me trailing behind with a scowl.
"Next time, I'm leaving you with Hayden," I huff once we're outside.
"What? It's a great idea!" Hunter protests, to which I respond by shaking my head.
"Just unlock the car already."
"Okay, okay," Hunter says, doing as I say. "And besides, you wouldn't leave me alone with Hayd. You like being in control too much."
I send him a warning glare, even though I know he's pretty much right. "Shut up, and drive."
"Okie dokie, Little Miss Grumpy Pants," Hunter replies with a grin.
"Which one of us is supposed to be the adult, again?" Hunter looks like he's about to make some witty retort, so I cut him off. "You know what, never mind."
I choose to ignore him for the rest of the ride, instead taking the moment as an opportunity to practice self control. That is, controlling my urge to slap the amused look off his face. As much as I would very much like to do so, it would be a bad thing. Mostly because it would likely end up with us crashing and dying.
Luckily, the drive is short, so I am able to give him the silent treatment for the entire length of the journey back home. I visibly perk up as Hunter slowly reverses into the driveway in front of our house.
Before I can even reach for the door handle, the door swings open and I am greeted with Hayden's strangely relieved face.
"Great! You guys are back," he says, taking the grocery bags away from me and putting them on the floor directly in the house. "Got to go. Harry's in the living room. Bye!"
"Wait. Where're you goi—" I begin to exclaim. "Aaaand he's gone."
I sigh to myself as I watch Hayden push Hunter away from the car and drive off at a speed that was probably illegally fast for the old roads surrounding our home.
A few seconds later, Hunter appears on the front porch with the rest of the shopping and a confused look on his face. "Where's he gone?"
"Who knows," I shrug.
I lead the way into the house, briefly saying hi to Harry before dumping the bags in the kitchen and heading for the stairs.
"Wait," Hunter calls, realising I plan on leaving him alone with all the groceries. "Who's going to help me put away the groceries?"
"Get Harry to help you," I shout back in response. "Or do it yourself. It's character building."
"Thanks!" Hunter replies sarcastically. "I'm so grateful for your concern in my character."
"You're welcome!"
><{{{(•>
The next few hours are filled with blissful peace.
Though then again, that might be because I am watching a movie and I have the volume up to the loudest in order to block out the remainder of my family still at home.
Harry was teaching Hunter another Adventure Time song, and much to their disappointment, I didn't feel like joining the Singing Macklers group any time soon.
However that was also over two hours and I have been too engrossed in my movie and the popcorn in my lap to bother checking up on them since then.
This one is in Finnish. I can't understand a single word of what is being said, and the subtitles are going far too fast to be read properly, but I think I have sort of got the gist of what is going on. Sort of.
"What? He's her brother?" I say to myself, reaching for more popcorn. "I swear the subtitles translated veli as fiancé 10 minutes ago. What even is going on anymo—"
I stop short when I realise my hand has come in contact with an empty bowl. I'm out of food.
I sigh as I move to pause the movie. Sure, it wasn't exactly going to get on my 'Movies to Recommend to Gia Even Though She'll Probably Never Watch Them' list, but I don't like stopping it at the good bit.
Well, at least I think it was the good bit. But anyway, that's besides the point.
I grudgingly pull myself away from my bed and pick up the bowl, shaking the leftover popcorn kernels with dismay. I'll have to go all the way downstairs to get a snack refill. My throat is feeling a bit dry, so I make a mental note to also get myself a drink while I'm at it.
Now that I no longer have strange Finnish movies to obscure my hearing, I can hear a series of obnoxious male voices coming from the kitchen.
I furrow my eyes as I make my way downstairs. Except if Harry had a growth spurt within the past three hours, someone else is in the house.
"Which combo do you think is better?" Hunter asks.
"That one, definitely," Hayden replies after a moment. "Ask Fi—oh hey, Harvey."
I maintain my position stood in the doorway. An incredulous look draws on my face as I shift my gaze between the three teenagers lounging against the counter.
"Are you done with your movie?" Hunter asks me. "Can you believe it was Johan all along who–"
"I'm not done with it yet!" I say quickly, bringing a hand to my ear to block out potential spoilers. It's what I get from borrowing movies from Hunter's weird university friends. "I just—What are you guys doing?"
"We found one of the neighbours and got him to help set up the party."
I stop myself from turning to stare at said neighbour, who I recognise as Blondie the Beach Trespasser from two days ago.
"Actually," Hayden corrects, "I found him."
"Actually, you kind of saw me walking past and forced me to come in," says Blondie.
"Same thing," Hayden and Hunter reply simultaneously.
"Anyway," Hayden continues. "Harvey this is Finn, or as we like to call him, Brit Boy. Finn, meet Harvey, more commonly known to all as The Lesser Twin."
Finn's mouth twitches in a smile but he doesn't actually say anything, leaving me to do the explaining.
"Thanks, Hayd. I appreciate the very flattering introduction, but we've kind of already met."
"You have?"
"Oh, was he the one on the beach?" Hunter recalls.
"Yeah," Finn confirms. "Did she tell you what happened?"
"No, actually, she didn't," Hunter says. Hayden meanwhile exaggeratedly leans over the counter in a gesture that suggested 'tell me more'.
"Well-" Finn begins.
"Story time can come later," I interrupt. "First, what happened to your party and why is there ...straw all over the kitchen table?"
"Because, Harvey," Hayden taunts. "Because."
"Can we get this over with already?" I whine, knowing I'm not going to get a straight answer out of them at this point. "I just want to get some food then go back to watching my Finn-"
"Your Finn?" Hayden interrupts. "Jeez Harv, don't you think that's just a bit stalker-y." Hayden snickers at his own joke.
"I mean, you only met the guy two days ago," Hunter joins in.
"Finnish. You know I was going to say Finnish movie."
Hunter and Hayden keep on laughing. Finn looks like he is holding back a chuckle himself.
"Look, can one of you just answer already? Is your dumb party even still on?"
Cue more laughter.
"I'm going to go then. Seeing as I'm getting bullied by my own brothers," I say pointedly, turning to walk out the kitchen.
"No, no, wait," Hunter says, grabbing my arm and pulling me back into the kitchen. He wipes the tears out of his eyes before speaking to me properly. "Yes, I am still throwing a party. It's a beach party."
"With tiki hats," Hayden supplies.
"I thought it was a college party."
"I don't discriminate against age," Hunter says. I roll my eyes at that. "Everyone's invited."
"What? So you're letting Harry go as well?" I ask, crossing my arms. It's obvious I am still against the party. Just because our parents occasionally love to compete over the title of Most Laid Back Parents on Earth, doesn't mean I have to be okay with it.
"No," Hunter replies with an eye roll. "He has a sleepover this Saturday."
"And before that, Jay's being paid to babysit Eva. He says he doesn't mind having Harry along as well," Hayden adds.
"Okay then," I agree. I move further into the kitchen when I remember my initial goal for being here in the first place. "You guys can go back to planning your party with tiki- wait. Did you guys say tiki hats?"
"Yes," Hunter and Hayden say in unison, while Finn looks up from whatever little project they'd set him.
"You mean, tiki huts? Or a tiki bar, right?" I reply slowly, fully turning around when I am satisfied with the stash of food in my arms.
"No. Tiki hats," Hunter says in a duh voice. "It's a Hawaiian themed beach party."
"You've got to be kidding me," I groan. "Hunt, just because Mom's ancestors are Hawaiian doesn't mean you have a Hawaiian themed party."
"Of course it does," Hayden responds, as if it's a matter of fact.
"Insane. You're all insane," I conclude. "Even you, Blondie, or Brit Boy or whatever you're called."
"I haven't even said anything!" Finn protests, registering my accusing tone.
"You're insane by association," I explain. "Besides, you're there helping them make their weird tiki hats."
"Come on, Harv," Hunter objects. "You know Hayden is crap at art!"
"Hey!" Hayden exclaims.
I shake my head at all of them as I slowly exit the room. Hunter and Hayden are arguing over Hayden's questionable art skills, whereas Finn looks conflicted about whether to keep on working on his hat, break up the fight, or to leave while he has the chance.
Personally, I would have done the last, but by the sound of a more neutral voice being added to the chaos, it seems he has chosen to the second option.
I am halfway up the stairs when I realise I forgot my drink, so I retreat back into the kitchen.
"Still insane!" I remind them while getting a bottle out the fridge and walking directly out again.
________________________________
A/N:
I've come to realise that my first author's notes will always be apologising about incredibly late chapters.
How many months has it been? Anyone remember? Anyone still read this??
Comment, Vote, Share, whatnot if you like. On the other hand, if this book repulses you so much that you are unable to do so and you're only reading this because you're into a weird form of self torture, tell me how I can improve it. I appreciate it either ways :)
~ Carmen ♥︎