Page 20 of The Make-Up Test
“Three: I play the banjo.”
Truth.It took all of Allison’s self-control not to addbadlyto the end of his sentence. He used to practice in her dorm room while shewas trying to study, strumming louder every time she’d beg him to stop.
Kara pointed to Windbag. “Guess.” The demand in her voice made this whole thing feel less like a game and more like classroom drills.
Ethan stared at Colin, his face screwed up in thought, his stupidly attractive biceps curling as he tapped a finger to his lips. “Obviously the musical theater one is the lie. Musicals are insipid.”
“Oh my god,” Allison blurted out. Those two martinis had obliterated her sense of etiquette. “Who was mean to you as a child?”
Ethan’s head snapped toward her. “What?”
“How can you not like musicals?Hamilton. Hadestown. Waitress. Mean Girls. LES MIS.”
Ethan tipped his chin up. “Hugo’s book is far superior.”
Allison rolled her eyes (a bad move considering all the alcohol), and the world tipped a little. She braced a hand against the couch. “Hugo’s book is overwritten, misogynistic tragedy porn.”
“YES.” Mandy fist-bumped Allison again, and they broke into a raucous (and riotously off-key) chorus of “Do You Hear the People Sing?”
Allison’s heart banged out its own chaotic rhythm, and alcohol pulsed through her veins, draping everything in a hazy gauze. She was having fun, weird throwbacks to junior high and all.
Take that, Mom,she thought smugly.Look at me enjoying people who aren’t my roommate. And with fucking Colin Benjamin right here.
Colin pulled open his black cardigan to point at the shirt beneath, like Superman revealing theSon his suit. But he was the antithesis of Superman, so this display exposed only a black T-shirt with a white silhouette of the Schuyler sisters fromHamilton.“I love musical theater,” Colin said. “And concerts.”
“There’s the lie!” Her tan face beaming, Kara pointed to Ethan. “Your turn. Cartoons.”
Ethan’s brow furrowed. “I have never once watched a cartoon.”
Allison dropped her head back against the sofa. This guy was the worst.
“Not even as a kid?” Link asked. He cracked open another of his artisan beers. His dark brown skin had the same dewy brightness from drinking that must be dusting Allison’s temples.
“I preferred documentaries.”
Allison pondered whether she could make her empty plastic flute into a proper projectile. If only she’d paid more attention in high-school physics…
Kara pursed her lips and pulled a sheet of paper out of her pocket. “Hmmm. Okay, how about hobbies?”
Ethan nodded solemnly. As he thought hard about his answers (even strikingThe Thinkerpose), Allison made her own list in her head.
Mansplaining women’s rights to women.
Publicly hating everything popular.
Kicking puppies.
The real answers turned out to be so much better.
“One,” he said dramatically, holding up a finger like they didn’t know how to count. “Grammar.”
“Wait.” Mandy shook her head. “How is grammar a hobby?”
“I like to help people learn it,” Ethan replied.
“Like tutoring?” Allison admired Link’s attempt to give Ethan the benefit of the doubt.
“Of a kind.” He folded his arms over his chest. “I like to help people make their social media posts clearer by pointing out issues with the writing.”
