Not A Temporary Love | Finley & Harlyn #1

Chapter 34

Harlyn

"Why did I procrastinate this, Finley? Why?" Max whines from his bed. Finley, lounging against the side of Max's bed next to me, tilts his head back.

"Because you procrastinate everything," he says. "Sometimes, you even procrastinate procrastinating."

Max sticks his tongue out at him, but goes back to typing away on his laptop. We decided to write papers together tonight, but for once, Finley isn't working on school work. He's simply scrolling through Instagram, listening to music in his other earbud. He still has half of a paper left, but he told us when he got here earlier that he's far enough ahead he doesn't need to rush to finish it and that this is his attempt at not making his entire life about school. Max gave him a high five.

I, unfortunately, am working on a paper, but I'm so close to finishing. I just want it over. It's my last paper, and then I have one exam next week. And then I'm done for the summer. I plow on through my last three hundred words, knowing I'll definitely need to edit them when I'm more energized, and close my laptop.

"Finley, will you look over this last paragraph?" Max asks, lowering his laptop in front of Finley's face. "It's not sounding right."

"You really think that's a good idea?" Finley asks, but he takes it anyway.

"You literally helped students with their papers as a job," Max reminds him.

Finley scrolls back a bit. "I mean, after the last time you asked for help with your English assignment. And I told you used 'and' too much. And you told me I didn't know what I was talking about."

"Oh. Yeah." Max bites his lip. "I forgot about that. I was stressed. I -" Finley waves his hand at him, now deep in reading, and Max goes quiet.

The front door opens and closes, and Dad's voice rumbles, low and warm, up the stairs. Mum's voice answers. I can't make out what either of them are saying, but it's usually the same. 'I'm home, love.' 'How was work, darling?' That sort of thing. I take a deep breath and unbury myself from my notebook, copies of book pages, and laptop and stand to stretch. I've been sitting in one position for too long.

"I'm going to, erm, go talk to my parents," I say. Finley's head snaps up, and Max raises his eyebrows.

"About," Finley murmurs. "Um, you? And me? And...all that?"

I nod. "Yeah." I'm somehow remarkably calm about this. Nervous, sure. But after everything, after seeing Finley stand up to his parents, after getting through everything with Elly, after finally feeling like I have an actual word, after talking to Marley, it doesn't seem as daunting.

Finley nods slowly. "Do you...want me there?"

"No, I -" I pause. "I think I want to do it with just me."

He nods again. "Ok. We'll be right here if you need anything."

I crouch to kiss him before slipping out the door and down the stairs. Mum and Dad are at the table with their nightly cup of tea. They both smile at me when I walk in but look just a little surprised when I slide into the chair across from them.

"Hello, darling," Mum greets. "How's your paper coming along?"

"I finished," I say. "Well, I have it all written. I need to go back through and edit it so it all makes a bit more sense. But it's all written."

"That's wonderful," she says. "I can't believe you're already almost in your third year. It's all too fast."

I smile. "I know. It's wild." I fidget with my hands under the table, something I've noticed I picked up from Finley. "Can I, er, talk to you guys about something?"