HAZEL FINE SINGS ALONG (WATTYS 2022 Winner!)

Chapter 14: Surf's Up

Hazel watched the rest of the show with her stomach in knots. Whether someone did well or not barely registered. She just wanted it to be over so she could go back to her room and crawl into bed. She should've left with Zoey and Brooke, but she'd promised Benji earlier that she'd watch him sing, and so long as she was sitting in an audience full of people, she'd be safe from Martin.

The trick was getting out of the auditorium before he could approach her. Was he bold enough to come to her room? It wouldn't be hard for him to find out which one she was in, and at this point she wouldn't put it past him.

What had she done to deserve this? All she wanted to do was sing.

Benji took the stage with a ukulele and did a version of "Rainbow Connection," which could've been cheesy as hell, but somehow wasn't. It was one of the best performances of the night, and Hazel clapped for him enthusiastically. He was sailing through to the live rounds. Hazel quashed a moment of resentment that he didn't have to contemplate sleeping with Georgia to do it. It wasn't Benji's fault this was the way the world worked.

Before the lights went up, Hazel was up and out of her seat. She almost ran through the lobby, catching a look from one of the bellboys. When the elevator doors closed in front of her, she leaned back against the wall in relief. She just had to avoid Martin tonight. He might argue against her in the voting room tomorrow, but Georgia could outvote him—they were each allowed to put five people through on their own to eliminate ties. If she made it to the live rounds, Martin's influence was diminished. He could criticize her, but the audience at home were the ones who decided who made it and who didn't after this.

She got back to her room and peeled off her clothes. She stepped into the shower, hoping to wash the day away. When she got out, she fed Checkers and cleaned up after him. She'd smuggled him back into the room after her interaction with Martin under a bundle of clothes she'd pulled from a garbage bag in the back of her car.

She changed into a pair of comfortable cotton shorts and a ratty T-shirt, washing the makeup off her face. She was about to crawl into bed when there was a knock at her door.

Martin. He'd come to her room! What was she going to do now?

Wait. He didn't know she was in here. If she stayed silent maybe he'd go away.

"Hazel? It's Benji, you there?"

Hazel opened the door with gratitude. "Oh, hi. Sorry about that."

Benji grinned. He'd changed out of his stage clothes and was back in his surfer attire. "It's fine. Where'd you go?"

"Nowhere. I just wanted to freshen up. Long day."

"You were great."

"You too."

"We should celebrate."

"I don't know, I'm—" Hazel's phone dinged. "Give me a minute?"

"Sure."

Hazel went to check it. It was from an unknown number and said simply, Bungalow 10, 30 minutes?

Martin hadn't forgotten about her after all. She put her phone down and turned to Benji.

"What did you have in mind?"

***

When they got to Santa Monica beach with their Whole Foods bags in tow, families were packing it in for the day and surfers were popping their boards into hard cases. People on bikes rolled along the concrete boardwalk and a few stragglers were doing pull ups on one of the rusty metal structures that made up muscle beach.

The nearly white sand was sparkly in the dusky sunset and Hazel inhaled the salty air gratefully. The ocean always made her feel calmer, she didn't know why she kept forgetting that.