Read Online Lunatic Fringe by Allison Moon - Free Book Online

candles, already devoured nearly to their limits
when Sharmalee snatched them from the pantry in the darkness, had
melted to the tabletop. The flames shrank in their puddles of wax,
conserving their remaining fuel, holding out.
    Corwin’s round face was aglow in the
blue light of her laptop. “It’s a storm,” she announced, to no one
in particular.
    “ No shit, Corwin,” Renee
said from the kitchen. “Look outside.”
    “ Well,” said Corwin,
snapping her computer closed. “Now we know for sure.”
    “ I’m killing the wine,”
Renee called to the living room. Lexie frowned, wishing for the
taste of something juicy. Renee walked back to the living room,
barefoot and wearing a fresh pair of denim shorts. Lexie couldn’t
imagine how Renee wasn’t cold. The night had brought with it the
first chill of the season, and Lexie shivered inside her hoodie,
wishing the meager fireplace would cast more heat through the room.
Lexie stared longingly at a pile of throw blankets shuffled into
the corner.
    “ Here,” Renee said,
snatching a blanket and two floor pillows. “Share with me.” She
eased herself cross-legged onto the carpet beside Lexie as she
poured the wine. “I don’t want a whole glass, anyway.”
    Lexie took the proffered blanket and
curled up inside it resting her chin on her knee.
    “ Cheers, then,” Renee said,
lifting the glass to her lips.
    Renee tipped her head back to let the
wine run down her throat. She offered the glass to Lexie, who took
a sip for herself. The wine tasted tart and brazen, as though it
had been sitting out all day. In all likelihood, it had.
    A blanket of quiet descended on the
room. Blythe and Mitch engaged in a grooming ritual of mutual
caresses and eye-gazing. Hazel and Sharmalee had taken a break from
their earlier hushed exchange about the ambiguous sexual
orientation of a cute underclassmen in attendance earlier that day,
mulling over each other’s points as they both rested on Corwin’s
chest, their heads buoyed with the even rise and fall of her rib
cage. Jenna added two logs to the cramped hearth, though Lexie
still shivered in her hoodie and blanket.
    Renee whispered, “I can hear your brain
working.”
    Lexie shrugged.
    Renee laughed aloud, the sound rising
above the valley of low voices in the room. “What are you
thinking?”
    Lexie hesitated. She hated to dispel
the quiet. “Doesn’t seem like there’s much of anything to
say.”
    “ There’s always something
that needs to be said,” Renee said, taking another sip of wine.
“This world conspires to take away women’s voices at every turn.
May as well use your voice when you can.”
    “ I’ve never had a hard time
speaking up.”
    “ Oh, yeah?” Renee
challenged. “When was the last time you did?”
    Lexie bit her lip, thinking hard but
coming up empty.
    Renee set her wineglass on the table.
“May I kiss you?” she asked.
    Lexie gaped. The question sounded
foreign, absurd. She wanted to laugh at the improbability at
hearing it, ever. She furrowed her brow even as she fought off a
timid smile.
    “ What?” Lexie
asked.
    “ Can I kiss
you?”
    “ Uh . . . I mean, it’s just
that--” Lexie struggled to right her brain.
    “ Say ‘no’.”
    “ What?”
    “ Say ‘no’!” Renee laughed
with frustration.
    “ But I--”
    “‘ No’ is a complete
sentence. Say it,” Renee demanded.
    “ No, it’s not that . .
.”
    “ Just the word!”
    “ No,” Lexie
said.
    “ Thank you.”
    “ For what?” she
asked.
    “ For using your voice,”
Renee said.
    “ Oh.”
    “ See?”
    “ I guess.”
    Lexie reached for the wineglass and
took a long sip, trying to puzzle out what the hell had just
happened. Saying “no” wasn’t a problem for her; it was “yes” she
could use some practice with. She wished Renee would give her a
chance to try that word on for size.
    “ Good thing you didn’t want
to kiss me,” Renee said with a wink.
    “ Good thing,” Lexie
replied.
    Renee smiled. “I