Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 125117 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125117 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Greta took a deep breath before she opened the door, steeling herself not to give an inch. She couldn’t give them a chance to explain, because there was no acceptable explanation. She couldn’t hear them out, because no motivation could justify it. She just had to storm in there, set her jaw, and start yelling. It was the only way to be heard over six other people.
Tillie was just inside the door.
“Are you mad? You’re mad. Okay, listen, I can talk to Mom. I think Sadie told her you’d think it was funny, and—”
“Sadie told her that?”
“Well, I don’t know exactly. I just think—”
“Duuuude,” Maggie said, skipping down the stairs. “You looked like you were about to turn into a flock of crows and peck out everyone’s eyes up there! Did you see Sadie yet? I bet—”
But she fell silent as their mother walked in from the kitchen, drying her hands on her apron.
“Hi, honey,” her mom said with a smile.
“That’s what you have to say to me after earlier?” Greta demanded.
“Well, what do you want me to say? That I’m happy my daughter stood up in front of the whole town and glared at everyone?”
“I glared because you and Sadie put me in a position where I’d have to do something I hate or publicly offend the whole town. What, did you think I’d be, like, excited about it?”
“Don’t be such a baby, Grotto. It was just a joke,” Sadie said as she walked in from the kitchen. She took a loud, crunching bite of an apple and cuffed Greta on the shoulder.
“It’s not a joke!” Greta seethed with a deep, trembling kind of anger that made her voice come out thin and reedy. “That’s what shitty incels and rapey frat boys say when they realize whoever they’re talking to isn’t going to let them say horrible things. Don’t tell me it’s a joke to put your sister on a fucking auction block for someone to buy the right to a dinner date.”
“Pshh, it’s for fun. It’s a holiday tradition,” Sadie said.
“Fun for who? Not for me, certainly. And I’m not going out with Nicholas Martens.”
“What do you mean?” their mother broke in, frowning. “You can’t not go. It’s for charity.”
Greta spluttered.
“And you’re cool with this,” she said to Sadie finally. “I know we fuck around, but you actually think that I should go on a date with a man who bought time with me. Come on.”
“Not like you’ve got any other dates,” Sadie muttered. “Whatever, take the free dinner. Nicholas isn’t that bad.” She waved her hand in dismissal.
Greta took a step toward her. Sadie was only two inches taller than Greta but around ninth grade had decided that she would never lower her chin, so she seemed even taller.
“Fuck you,” Greta said. “I know you don’t think this is cool. You would never do it to anyone but me.”
Something flickered in Sadie’s eyes, but she just sniffed and the moment was past.
“Now, girls,” their mother said. “Stop this. Greta, I’m sorry you’re upset. We just thought it might be nice if you gave someone a chance who you ordinarily wouldn’t look at twice.”
Greta goggled.
“Someone I ordinarily wouldn’t…do you mean, like, a guy?”
Nell shrugged. “Love is love, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Greta said. “It is. And if I happen to fall in love with a man, then fine. I mean, I probably won’t, because I’m a lesbian. But you don’t get to throw those words around like a flotation device to redeem you from doing something shitty. You knew I would hate that. You knew I would’ve hated it even if it was all women who were bidding on me! I can’t believe you!”
Unlike with Sadie, where all strong feeling eventually got expressed as anger, with her mother Greta finally felt tears threaten. It was a betrayal, plain and simple, and while the sisters all messed with one another from time to time, the thought that her mother either honestly didn’t know her well enough to understand how much this would upset her or, worse, didn’t care was enough to make her cry.
Their argument had brought her father to the living room as well. Always the last to engage, he looked at Greta with sympathy, but she’d long ago stopped thinking of him as an ally. What use was someone who agreed with you if they weren’t ever willing to risk discomfort to say so?
Tillie started to chime in with her typical placations, but Greta was done arguing. She wanted her mother to admit what she’d done—even Sadie had done that—and then she wanted to get the hell out of this house.
“Did you seriously not get that I would hate that?” she asked her mother point-blank.
Nell Russakoff’s face was the picture of aghast innocence.
“Darling, no. I would never do anything to upset you. I just thought maybe a little push… You can’t want to stay single forever. And it’s not as if there are many other lesbians on Owl Island…”