Page 44 of Drawn Together
Judging by how he‘s looking at it right now—with a tiny glint in his hazel eyes—for the first time ever, I think I might like it too.
Fletcher didn’t hate exclamation marks. He enjoyed them in any form she used them in their texts. ‘I got the little yogurt cups with M&M’s today!!” Or ‘Did you hear about the newest Marvel movie?! Wild!’ He did, however, hate nothing more in this moment than three little letters: NDA.
Fifteen
Wordoftheday:Ludiosis
Definition: The sense that you’re making it up as you go along
The incoming Facetime from Sloane has me throwing myself out of bed on Saturday morning, attempting to calm my mane down to a reasonable volume. I set the phone on my windowsill where she has a waist up view of me and can’t see the orange flannel pajamas I'm sporting.
Good morning, I sign, and she smiles.
Good morning, she follows with my sign name. A little sign for an artist with an F around it. It breaks down more like F-Draw-Person. My parents always use their own sign name for me—a flower sign with an F—but Sloane has this one just for me.
Fun plans for the day?
Just sleep.I stick out my tongue and hang my head to exaggerate it, and she rolls her eyes with a smile.
I finally got somewhere with that Cedric guy. I’m exhausted from work.
She signs Cedric followed bydirtbagand I laugh with a nod.
Yeah, him.
She tells me about her new boyfriend, Tristan—a blonde ‘cutie’ with tight muscles and a big brain.
Have you gone on any dates recently?
Not even close.
She frowns.
Don’t tell Mom or Dad that. They’ll tie it back to Austin.
Sloane rolls her eyes.They would never.
I give a skeptical look, and she shrugs.
Her hands move rapidly.Mom talks a lot when the wine comes out at dinners.
I nod.That sounds right.
She catches me up on school and social life. She tells me about the senior prank—disassembling and reassembling the principal's car from the parking lot to the gym. And she and Tristan went on a double date with Rachel and ‘Doobie’—no clue who that is. She tells me of her newest lip shade, Teddy Rose—a burnt red/brown that is lovely against her skin tone but would give me butthole lips if I dared to try it—and I tell her about Backside, Fletcher, and my book clubs. I tell her that she has to readFrankenstein, and I swear her eyes roll out of her head and onto the floor.
Lennon throws the door open behind me and is smiling when she comes in, a rare and lovely sight.
“Hi.”
I sign and reply at once, “Hey.”
She looks from me to the phone propped on the window. “Oh, you’re busy?”
“My sister.” I move away from the screen so she can see.
Sloane tries to sign to my roommate and Lennon waits for me to translate. I roll my eyes, knowing I could fake what she said,but then she would read my lips and know I'm lying, so no point in hiding it.
“She said to set me up with one of your friends so she can tell my ex-boyfriend back home that I’m not a ‘total loser.’”
