Lunatic Fringe by Allison Moon Read Free Book Online Page A

things,
good versus bad, and you have conflict. White is good, black is
bad. Straight is good, gay is bad. Male is good, female is bad. And
on and on. That shit serves no one but the people who deem
themselves the good ones, i.e. White, Straight, Men.” Blythe’s
white teeth glinted as she sneered through those words.
    “ You see what I’m saying?”
she asked.
    Lexie nodded. “Yeah, I do.” Which was
true for Lexie in fact, if not in vitriol.
    A soft and heavy quiet sank between
them. “I don’t have a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend. No ‘friend’ of
any kind, really,” Lexie said.
    “ Alright.” Blythe’s tongue
skimmed along the crests of her incisors. “But I don’t care about
your relationship status, Lexie. Though I’m happy to hear you’re
unencumbered by such exhaustions as love. I should be so
clever.”
    Lexie let another silent, weighty
moment pass between them before asking, “So, are all of you, like
lesbians? Or whatever?”
    It was obvious to Lexie that Mitch was,
and that Blythe had to be by transitivity. But the rest . . . it
was confusing.
    “ Again with the labels.
Female sexuality is so terrifying to men that they need to
designate those women they can sleep with, and those they can’t. It
places women in a hierarchy: If you’re available for sex, you have
meaning to men. If you’re not, well, what good are you, right?
That’s the beauty myth, plain and simple. A woman’s worth in this
society is only how attractive and sexually available she is to
men.”
    “ But,” Blythe said with a
wink. “To answer your question, I am.”
    Lexie sighed. Whatever nerve she had
when Blythe had first joined her here, she was losing. She wanted
to run home and leave this day behind. Lexie opened her mouth to
put this plan in action when she spied Renee wandering toward them.
Lexie felt doomed by the sway of Renee’s hips as she strode
barefoot through the grass. Her blue cotton shorts rode so high on
her thighs that they may has well have been underwear. Yet she
strode so calmly, Lexie could have been fooled into believing she
was on a beach in the height of summer.
    Blythe smiled, “Speak of the
devil.”
    “ And here she is,” Renee
said, raising her fresh beer.
    “ How about you?” Blythe
said with a sly smile. “You a lesbian, Renee?”
    “ Not at all,” Renee
replied. “That’s just a vicious rumor spread by all the women I’ve
slept with.” The two chuckled as Lexie tried to bury her face
between her knees.“We were just talking about you,” Blythe said as
Renee lowered herself to the ground, her legs folding up like tent
poles beneath her. “Lexie was saying how beautiful you
are.”
    Lexie prayed for the sky gods to crack
open the clouds and drench them in a great, cold rain, to create
lightning and thunder and mass chaos, so she could flee in peace.
But no rain came, only Renee’s voice, “Likewise, ladies.
Likewise.”
    Renee rested her head on Blythe’s
blue-jeaned thighs. Blythe peered over her, their faces in reverse,
and leaned down for a kiss. Their chins grazed each others’ noses.
It was a sensual kiss, moist and soft, and Renee uttered a nearly
imperceptible sound of pleasure. Lexie’s eyes rested on Renee’s
lips, as soft and inviting as an overstuffed sofa upholstered in
satin.
    The two women separated and turned to
Lexie, her face scrunched up with pitiable confusion.
    “ Yes?” Renee drew out the
word, turning the syllable into a bemused question. Lexie shook her
head, hoping they’d drop the subject.
    Renee picked at the label of her beer
bottle as Blythe tangled her fingers in her thick, fluffy
hair.
    “ It’s okay to be confused,
Lexie,” said Blythe, “but there’s no dignity in self-censorship.
The rest of the world is all too willing to silence you. Don’t make
it any easier for them.”
    “ What about Mitch?” Lexie
blurted, then lowered her voice, worried she might summon yet
another one of them to her lawn chair refuge. “I just