Lunatic Fringe by Allison Moon Page B

been
anywhere?” Renee asked between cigarette drags.
    “ Well, Milton, if that
counts. And Wolf Creek, where I’m from, about fifty miles down the
road. That makes two. And I went to the Oregon Zoo with my mom
once, when I was kid. So there’s three.” She nodded once, more
self-mockery than self-satisfaction.
    Renee exhaled a gray cloud of smoke.
“Seriously?”
    Lexie nodded.
    “ Is it a good zoo?” Renee
asked.
    “ Meh,” Lexie replied,
shrugging.
    They stared at the sky, squinting at
the sun’s curtain call. The fierce orange light set Renee’s face
aglow.
    “ Would you mind rubbing my
head?” Renee asked, scooting over and dropping her head onto
Lexie’s lap.
    “ Uh . . .” Lexie drew her
hands up to her shoulders, then relented and lowered them into the
soft suds of Renee’s hair.
    “ Wow,” Lexie
said.
    “‘ Wow’ what?”
    “ Your hair. It looks soft
but it’s so . . .” Lexie flinched before she even finished the
sentence.
    Renee raised an eyebrow. “‘So,’
what?”
    “ Um . . . oily.”
    Renee chuckled. “That, my dear, is
because I put oil in it.”
    “ Wow.”
    “ What?”
    “ You put in your hair what
I wash out.”
    Renee snorted. “That’s us black girls
for you. Always scrambling for what the white girls are throwing
away.”
    “ I didn’t
mean--”
    Renee waved away her protests. “It’s
cool.”
    Lexie bit her lip, her heart leaping
against her throat. If Renee’s head weren’t in her lap, she’d be
inclined to run.
    “ That Bajan sunset is
making me a little nervous. I should probably head home before the
weather hits.” Lexie cringed, realizing how much she sounded like
her father. She wanted to shake the voice out of her head like
water stuck in her ears.
    “ Screw that. You’re staying
here. Why be cooped up in a dorm room when you can be chilling with
some of the finest ladies on campus, storms be damned?” Renee
flicked her cigarette onto the grass and rose to her feet. She
smiled as Lexie watched the cherry of the cigarette fade to black.
“I’ll get it later,” Renee said.
    “ No. I should go,” Lexie
mumbled.
    “ Girl, relax. Have a beer
with me. If we’re lucky, Blythe will tell us more about the
patriarchy.” Like everything, she said it with a knowing grin. To
Lexie’s naive eyes, it looked like Renee was flirting with her.
Lexie’s heart seized. Was she?Renee presented her arm for Lexie to
grasp. “Madame,” she said, drawing out the word between her lips.
Her arm was so long the negative space formed at its crux could
have circled Lexie’s torso. Yes, Lexie decided, taking her arm,
Renee was definitely flirting with her. And to Lexie’s surprise,
she liked it.
     
     

Chapter 5
     
    Outside the Den, rain clattered on the
roof and leaves fell like early sacrifices to the impending winter.
Branches like witch fingers clawed at the windows, drawing tiny
squeals with each gust. The night sky was on a rampage, but inside
the Den, it was cozy and calm. When the storm broke an hour before,
Jenna and Mitch made a noble dash to cover the hot tub and rescue
the rest of the beer. Now Jenna lay on the living room carpet in a
bra and panties, her dress drying by the fireplace. Mitch had
changed into a fresh pair of khakis and a plain white t-shirt, and
he rubbed his hair with a dry towel while the rest of the girls
sprawled out around the living room in a loose circle. Candlelight
reflected off their faces in the otherwise darkened
room.
    As was the norm in small Oregon towns
like Milton, the late summer storm had managed to knock out the
power. A half-hour into the tempest, the whole west side of town
was blacked out.
    Blythe reclined on a pile of pillows.
Mitch finished with his towel and stretched out to rest his head on
her lap. She caressed his face with the back of her hand, staring
into the candle flames. Her glasses reflected the flames in each
lens, her irises like two uninhabited blue planets orbited by four
burning moons. The