Double Digit by Annabel Monaghan Read Free Book Online Page A

night. “I definitely miss you guys, but it’s been pretty amazing being here. I mean, it’s how I imagine coming out is for gay people: it’s like I am finally allowed to talk about all this stuff that’s been floating around in my head all these years. And there’s so much stuff I don’t know that I sometimes can’t sleep just thinking about it.”
    Danny was smiling. “Nerd sanctuary. Awesome.” He ran his finger over Tiki’s Adam Ranks poster. “You keep a kidnapped guy’s artwork just to remind you of the good old days?”
    Uh, yeah, hello, other subject that keeps me up at night.
“No, and I am thinking I may accidentally destroy that poster.”
    Danny was shaking his head but still staring at the poster. “Don’t destroy it. This 3-D overlay thing he does—it looks like it’s alive.”
    Danny and I decided to go for a walk around campus, figuring it was probably just as cold outside as it was in my room. I took him around the Brain and Cognitive Science building and past the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab. I showed him where Professor Halsey’s office was. I told him about my dream job and how I knew that it was just a matter of time and patient stalking before it was mine.
    “Digit, you are one nutty squirrel.” He pulled off my hat and messed up my hair like he used to do when I was seven. Ahead of us, we saw a couple kissing on a bench, feverishly and without any regard for the dropping temperature. Danny whispered to me, “Get a room. And an electric blanket.” I started to laugh, but then saw that it was Howard. And that blonde he was with was not, I repeat not, Tiki.
    I didn’t say anything to Danny, just shuffled him ahead and looped back around to my dorm. I took his arm to steady myself. My first reaction was rage. I felt as if my hair could have spontaneously turned red and stood straight up on its own. Then I felt sad, so sad and disappointed for Tiki, who was completely committed to their relationship and had gone to MIT just to be with him. And then panic. I couldn’t tell her. There was no way that the words would come out of my mouth, no way. I was not going to be the messenger, the one to break her heart with an offhanded
Guess what I saw on my walk this weekend?
No way.
    Looking back, which I’m really going to have to start doing a lot less of, telling Tiki the truth about Howard would have been a lot easier than the mess I got into for keeping my mouth shut. And by “mess,” I mean stuff like assault, abduction, and felony treason. You know, a mess.

I BRAKE FOR HACKERS
    I LOGGED EXACTLY NINETY MINUTES AT THE Copley Place mall with my mom, less than I’d promised but more than she expected. I got an army green midweight jacket, a brown sweater (my choice), and a gray sweater with navy blue cuffs (her choice). I swear sweaters are getting more complicated every year.
    Tiki got back the next day right as my family was leaving for the airport. My mom threw her arms around her. “Darling, how is your great-grandmother?”
    “She’s a goner.” Tiki looked around and laughed. “No, sorry, not dead. But she’s gonna be. She’s ninety-eight, and everything’s starting to go, so I’m pretty sure she’ll be done this week.”
    Danny gasped. “Done? Like a turkey?”
    “Sorry, I know it sounds crass, but we’ve got a lot of people on this planet. She’s been here almost ninety-nine years and has done a lot of great stuff. But I mean, let’s keep this system moving, you know? Out with the old, in with the new.” She started unpacking and talking about how much better the weather was in Virginia until my family left.
    “Tiki, are you okay?”
    “I am. I mean, honestly, I love my great-grandmother, but she can’t go on like that with a machine breathing for her. I really hope she goes soon.”
    “I read that ventilators can keep a person alive as long as their . . .” She wasn’t listening to me at all. “Is there something else?”
    She