Page 6 of Drawn Together
He shrugs, which says more than I think most words would.
“You stole her muffin?” Noah, my knight in navy armor, asks.
“I paid for it.”
“Then stole it, only ate half, and threw the rest away.”
“I was full.”
All chins at the table are bouncing back and forth between us, like they’re witnessing a tennis match and have to keep their eyes on the ball.
“Fletcher,” Stephan sighs. “I really don’t think that’s the best approach to—”
“Why?” my roommate asks, finally adding something to this.
“Why, what?”
“Why did you eat only half of the muffin?”
Fletcher—I note his name this time—lifts one shoulder in a half shrug. “I felt like it.”
And that was that. I was right earlier that first impressions are important, because mine of Fletcher is that he is a narcissist who has no ability to think of anyone but himself.
And in the span of the next hour, I am proven that tenfold.
With some coaxing, mostly from Lennon’s boyfriend and the lovely fireman, I am convinced to squish my butt into the tail-end of the circle booth, leaving me directly across from that guy over there.
Handheld whiteboards and multi-color expo markers have been passed to all participating tables, an announcer standing at the front of the bar while doing a little ‘tap, tap’ on the microphone.
“Welcome to trivia night, everyone!” he shouts, with the energy and command of a cruise director, his shoulder-length hair swinging with his frantic waving. The surrounding crowd of tables gives a collective ‘whoop, whoop.’
“We are back tonight with an oldie but a goodie—Literary night!” There is another ‘whoop, whoop,’ though a tad less enthusiastic.
Literary night? As in the one topic where I had a possibility of adding something to this table?
I leaned to my right, where Lennon sits. “You didn’t mention it was literary themed.”
When she lifted her eyes up to mine, they looked right through me. “Why do you think I invited you?”
It was equally off-putting and flattering that she knew I loved to read. Or, maybe she saw my printed schedule at the bookstore on the fridge and took note of the part-time job. I took it as a stepping stone in our inevitable friendship, either way.
We have since gone through the first ten rounds of questions, bumping us up to the next ‘level.’ I’ve lost track of the other tables’ wins and losses, but I have fully kept up with mine and Fletcher’s.
We’re tied: five for him, five for me.
I like to think it would be ten for me if some of these questions weren’t totally futile.
“In which 1920 play did the word “robot” first appear, and what language does the word originate from?”
Who knows that? Fletcher, apparently.
Then, “Which 50,000-word novel, written in 1939, contains no instances of the letter ‘E’?”
Also, Fletcher.
But, they weren’t all questions he knew the answers to. I think if he had, I might have gotten up and left the table. His hand never even flinched when the surfer-looking announcer asked, “Which Regency-era romance novel was written by Georgette Heyer and is credited with creating the blueprint for modern historical romance?” Or, when my fingers already itched for the board at the words, “Which romance author was inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame for having three of her books win RITA Awards?”
A picked-at boat of bacon cheese fries and several ‘deconstructed chili dogs’—which are just hot dogs with chili on the side in a fancy ramekin—sit on the table. The rising smell ofleather seats and fried food surrounds me, and the little slices of foam resting on top of our beer glasses lower with each sip we all take, condensation dripping down the side. Lennon’s still tucked under Stephan’s arm with her blue eyes closed, chest drifting into a steady rhythm—like a child whose parents took them out for dinner too late. Stephan is deathly still, like the thought of waking his girlfriend is unfathomable. Noah and Margot both challenge each other to which is the faster way to eat deconstructed chili dogs—she swears it’s by dumping the chili on the hot dog like a normal person, and he swears by drinking the chili out of the ramekin then eating the hot dog in two bites.
