Read Online The Cranberry Hush: A Novel by Ben Monopoli - Free Book Online Page B

to be examining his balls. Was it the book for class? I
shifted in my chair and used the motion to disguise a glance. The book had a
flying saucer on its cover.
    “She running late?” I said.
    “A little, yeah.”
    “Figures— I thought I was going to be late.”
    He smiled and returned to his book. I stared at the bulletin
board on the wall opposite the chairs. A flyer announced auditions for the
spring musical. Think of something else
to say , I screamed in my head. This chance of a lifetime took weeks to
arrive and likely would never come again.
    “Good book?”
    He stopped reading and marked his place with his thumb.
“Yeah, but it’s not really spacey enough.”
    Not spacey enough. I didn’t know what that meant, so I just
agreed.
    “I’m reading this amazing book about dogs,” I added. “I
mean, it’s called Dogwalker . About
mutant puppies. Or—well some of them are. And this mole who hides under
the couch and sings but turns out to be a tiny man.”
    “A tiny man, huh?”
    “He hides and sings. And there’s another one about a
mattress. He has to find a mattress.”
    “The tiny man?”
    “No, the narrator.”
    I heard the scrape of chairs moving inside the office and
then the door opened. Fuck. Not yet! I hadn’t had enough time with Griffin yet. Take
longer, damn you! But a girl pulling on a Shuster Tennis jacket came out
with the professor following her.
    “Griffin, hi—I’m sorry—about the time,” Nicole
said. She had a red pen behind her ear. The cap was chewed.
    “No problem,” he said.
    “Eliza was giving me loads of great feedback. I’ll be with you in a minute, Vince. Thanks for waiting.”
    Eliza nodded at us and walked away toward the elevators.
Griffin stuffed his book in his backpack, got up and went into the office. Just
before he closed the door he turned around and winked at me.

 
    *
    “I think I just meant, you know, about Eliza giving
the teacher feedback . They were both
pretty foxy.”
    “I probably knew that and chose to ignore it.”
    “Man. I had no idea I was such a charmer. I can go around
seducing people with just a mere bat of the eyelash, huh? I’ll have to keep
that in mind. So what happened next?”
    “It drove me insane.”

 
    ***
    I had to know what the wink meant. Was it a secret
signal from one closeted dude to another? It could be! I waited for more
signals. In class I watched Griffin’s hands and sneakers for discreet taps, for
a queer Morse code. Tap tap I think I love
you tap tap tap ask me out tap tap.
    When I figured I wasn’t picking up anything I decided to
send out signals of my own. I made tiny attempts to copy his movements: I
crossed my arms when he crossed his, sat on my leg when he sat on his. I hoped
he would see this synchronicity and know I’d noticed him. It was never blatant, though. It wouldn’t do just to
attract his attention. He had to be watching for it. Closely.
    But nothing happened. Not that class or the next or the next
or the next. And I began to realize that my whole semester was unraveling
waiting for something that wasn’t ever going to come. Never unless I did more
than scratch my nose when he scratched his. Never unless I just grew a pair and
asked him out.
    But not only did I not know whether he was
interested—I didn’t know whether he even could be interested.
    How could I find out whether Griffin Dean liked guys?

 
    *
    “My turn,” Griff said. He returned to the chair and
curled up with his legs under him. “So you were a lovesick swain trying to
figure out what to do. Finally you came up with both an idea and the nerve to put
it in action, so you’d know whether to expect to get smacked if you asked me
out. Although why you thought that was a possibility is beyond me. But anyway,
anyway— You made a special screen name and sent me a nice and, I must
say, well-written but extremely anonymous email asking me if I dated guys. Am I
right so far?”
    “Yes.” I pulled the blanket down tighter on