Page 96 of Drawn Together
“So, uh, the book clubs worked then, bunny socks and all.” Fletcher leans back on his couch and I collapse next to him, my stomach churning at my response.
“I guess there’s not much of a need for us to have bi-weekly meetups, then.”
We both soak in my words for a moment—I don’t like it—like a warm bath turned cold that you’re ready to jump out of.
“Or, maybe if we stopped meeting it would stop our creativity.”
I jump on the off chance he’s right. “Yes.” My head is nodding like a madman. “It could shut off the flow.”
“We can’t have that.”
“It would be horrible.”
“Detrimental.”
“What would Cedric Brooks say?”
“Probably the word detrimental.”
“I bet he wears sweater vests.” I smile at the thought of my squishy old friend.
“I bet he likes tuna salad,” Fletcher counters.
“I bet he named himself Cedric Brooks after a man he fought in World War Two with.”
“I…don’t think he’s that old.”
“Fine, a more recent war, then.”
“I bet he pays for things in quarters because he thinks it’s good for young cashiers to know the importance of hard work.”
“I bet he readsWar and Peacefor fun.”
By the time we have named off every impossible thing that Cedric Brooks does on a daily basis—involving denture cream and yelling at kids playing hopscotch on his street—we are wheezing with laughter, keeled over with stretched cheeks and sore abdomens. Lennon and Stephan pop in on us laughing,which somehow makes us both laugh harder, tears pricking Fletcher’s eyes behind his glasses.
“Is it something we did?” Stephan asks Lennon.
She shakes her head. “No, it’s probably some weird line they read in their erotic novels, like succulent belly buttons or something.”
“Gross.”
They both walk off with their grocery bags into the kitchen, meanwhile Fletcher and I are heads down on the floor gasping the word ‘succulent.’
Fletcher smiled to himself as his friend happily blew up balloons and set up banners for her very own party. I bet he thinks of your smile when he can’t sleep at night. He thought to say on the topic of ‘Cedric Brooks.’ Then, he really thought to himself, I’ve seen Flora Anderson share a thousand smiles, but I like to think she saves the best ones for me. And he tucks every one she gives him into his back pocket for safe keeping.
Twenty-eight
Wordoftheday:mamihlapinatapai
Definition: a Yaghan wordthat describes the look shared by two people, each wishing the other would initiate something they both desire, but neither wants to be the first to do so.
The last party I attended was the one that changed the trajectory of my entire life. Ironically, also on Halloween. Which is—also ironically—my birthday, in case you forgot.
I still can hear the words leaving Austin's mouth, the acid creeping up my stomach.
Coming around the corner of the frat house to see him in his Men in Black costume, one that I matched as well in my own perfectly tailored suit and sunglasses, sitting right beside our other friend, Michelle Wilkins, dressed as Tinkerbell. A perfect match, really, with her five-foot stature and the bright blonde hair in an effortless bun on her head that leaned against his shoulder.
I can still feel the dirt under my shoes. The sound of soft waves in the distance, taunting me. And, when I heard my name slip from his lips, everything else around me just drifted off. It was only the two of them and me.
