In Too Deep by D C Grant Page A

a few hours yet so he pulled the blankets over his head and dozed off. He woke to someone knocking at his bedroom door. He lifted his head from the pillow, thinking that it was Gina, but instead Hayden came into the room.
    “Hi,” he said. “Your dad let me in. He said I should wake you up.”
    “What do you want?” Josh said as he let his head fall back to the pillow.
    Hayden looked at the surfing posters on the walls. “Wow, do you really get waves like that?”
    “That’s Hawaii. Now what do you want?’
    “Oh, I wanted to know if you were going surfing?”
    “Is it still raining?”
    “Yes.”
    “Have you had a look at the surf?”
    “Yes,” Hayden said and sat down on the corner of Josh’s bed. It made Josh feel uncomfortable.
    “Well, what’s it like?”
    “I don’t know really. It doesn’t look as good as yesterday. The waves are all over the place.”
    “Sounds messy.”
    “Yes, it looks messy.”
    Hayden looked at Josh and said, “So, are we going?”
    “No,” Josh said. He wanted Hayden to leave.
    “Why not?” Hayden said.
    “You can go if you want. I’m going to wait for Gina.”
    “Gina?” Hayden repeated.
    “She’s coming here this morning, and then we’ll do something together.”
    “What will you do?”
    “I don’t know yet. We’ll see when she gets here. It depends on the weather.”
    “So you’ll do what she tells you?”
    “No, we’ll decide together.” Josh sat up in bed and faced Hayden. “What is your problem anyway?”
    “I don’t have a problem,” Hayden said. “I just thought you were going to help me and now you’re going off with this girl.”
    “I’m sorry, Hayden, but I’m not going to waste my entire holiday teaching someone how to surf. I’ll do what I want to do, and today I want to spend time with Gina.”
    Hayden stared back at Josh for what seemed like ages. Josh tried to hold his gaze steady, but he could see the hurt in Hayden’s eyes. Looking away, he broke the contact and wondered why he felt so guilty.
    Hayden got up from the bed and left without saying anything. Josh almost got up to go after him then fell back on the bed with a sigh. Why did people have to be so complicated?
    He got up, showered, changed and went to the kitchen for breakfast. His father was at the table, hunched over his cup of coffee like the morning before, and seemingly lost in his own thoughts.
    “What are you doing today?” his father asked.
    “Nothing much.”
    “You’re not surfing with Hayden?”
    “No, not in the rain.”
    “It’ll stop by lunchtime.”
    Josh didn’t know how his father did it, but he could always accurately predict the weather at Piha.
    “What’s the weather doing anyway?” Josh asked.
    “At the moment a small front is going over and there’s a high pressure system following it. There’s a very deep low pressure system developing in the Tasman. I reckon it’ll make its way up the South Island and reach us by New Year’s Day.”
    “That could mean big surf,” Josh commented.
    “Yes, especially if the high pressure cell blocks it and it stalls in the Tasman. It could push up a big swell from the south.”
    “Great,” Josh said.
    “You’d best be careful if the surf gets too big.”
    “I can handle it. I know what I’m doing,” Josh said.
    “You’re not invincible, Josh,” his father replied.
    Josh remembered the dream. He hadn’t had it this morning, but the memory of it made him unsettled. Was it a premonition? Was he going to get into trouble? It was impossible. He knew Piha too well.
    “I’ll be careful, Dad. Have you heard from Mum?”
    “No, I’ll leave her alone. She needs her space.”
    “I miss her,” Josh said quietly, almost to himself.
    “Me too,” his father said as he sipped at the coffee. “Besides, neither of us can cook.” He smiled as he said this and Josh knew that he was trying to relieve the situation, but it wasn’t working.
    They both heard a footfall on the deck and looked up.