Day 7 wrap-up
I had a bad day and nothing was working and a plot bunny tried to happen but yeah I don’t think I pulled it off AT ALL so.
ughhhhhhhh I hate today.
I don’t hate the idea of the direction I was headed in, but yeah the beginning of this is amazingly awful.
MORE NEGATIVITY HERE OKAY ENJOY
Shane comes back from the bathroom and settles down on the far end of the couch. Not two seconds later, Matt’s whips his head around to look at her, making a face.
“Seriously? You couldn’t wait to the movie to jerk off, Shane?”
“Is it even called jerking off when girls do it?” Matt’s friend says from the floor. “I mean, it’s not like they have anything to jerk.”
“Excuse me?” says Greta.
“A penis, because—“
“Not you,” says Greta cutting him off. She can see how red Shane is, but she’s staying silent. “Leave her alone, Matt.”
“You know, Shane,” says Matt, ignoring Greta, “If you’d stop being so weird and just go find a guy, you wouldn’t so damned horny all the time.”
“Wow, okay, really, what’s even your problem? ” Greta gets up, grabbing Shane’s wrist and pulling her off the couch on the way past.
Greta wants to kick Matt on her way past him, but she keeps her feet to herself as she leads Shane out of the living room and upstairs to her bedroom. She closes the door behind them and starts pacing.
“Um,” says Shane.
Greta looks at her, but Shane doesn’t say anything more from where she’s sitting on the bed. Greta continues pacing. It’s pacing or punching things. Greta knows she looks ridiculous punching things, too small to appear intimidating.
“Your hair is angry,” says Shane.
And apparently she might as well punch things if her hair is going to make her look ridiculous anyways.
“I’m not mad at you.”
“Oh, good.” Shane looks like she’s going to be sick.
Greta stops and takes a calming breath before coming to sit down beside Shane.
“Why do you let him talk to you like that?” And it wasn’t what Greta meant to ask, she meant to say something like, “Your brother’s a dick, don’t listen to him.”
“It’s not like he’s wrong. We get um… stupidly horny before the full moon and uh… it’s better if you just have sex. If you don’t, it’s like, like a permaboner or something.”
“Oh. Seriously, have your parents not told you kid that girls don’t have penises? Jerking off, permaboners.”
Shane rolls her eyes, but she smiles a little too. “Whatever.”
“So, uh, you can say it’s personal and I’ll drop it, but why don’t you date someone?”
“Matt so was not talking about dating.”
“Right, you are doing that then?”
“Fucking around? No.”
“Why not?”
Shane groans and falls back onto her bed, hand coming up to cover her face.
“Hey, no. I said you could tell me it’s personal and I’d stop.”
“No, it’s fine. Just, uh. You know.”
Greta shrugs even though Shane can’t see her. “Not really.”
Shane sits back up. “It’s… I’m not interested in any of the guys.”
“Okay?”
“And if I had sex with the girls, then my mom would find out.”
“Oh! I thought you meant just the boys in the pack. But like?”
“Any and all.”
“Okay.”
Shane tips back once more, but this time she puts her hand behind her head and stares at the ceiling.
“Is there, uh.”
Shane cranes her neck to look at Greta and Greta shuts up.
“What?”
Greta considers the ramification of asking if there is a particular girl in the pack Shane wants to date or have sex with or whatever and decides she needs to come up with a different question. “Do you really think your mom would care?”
“Pack leaders set the example for their pack and it’s their duty to make sure the pack is left with a good leader when they step down. I don’t see how Mom would think a girlfriend filled either of those requirements.”
“That doesn’t really make sense, Shane,” says Greta. “Your pack already has a gay couple.”
“Tony and Jackson aren’t pack leaders. Besides, they came to our pack as strays. They were kicked out of their old pack for being together and Mom took them in because it’s bad to have strays running so close to your territory.”
“But they’re totally active in your pack,” Greta protests. “Your mom doesn’t treat them like they were strays she had to take in.”
Shane waves her hand impatiently. “They proved themselves or whatever. It just wouldn’t work, okay? She can’t find out and she won’t because I’m just not going to do anything ever.”
“That sounds healthy.”
Shane growls, but Greta is getting better at reading her growls, and this one has a definite whine in the undertones.
“What if I…” Shane is doing that thing again where she cranes her neck and looks right at Greta. It’s kind of terrifying. “I go to an all-girl school on the other side of town and no one there knows you or anyone in your pack. What if I found you someone there?”
“What, you’d just put up a notice saying ‘horny best friend needs a fuck buddy outside her school district’ on the bulletin board with little tear-away strips that have my number on them? I’m sure the Sisters would love that.”
“Okay, for as much as I bitched and moaned about having to go all the way across town to go to Catholic school, it’s actually a pretty cool place. I mean, we’d need to revise your sales pitch and I’d maybe be better off just talking to some of the girls at the next GSA meeting about hanging out sometime, but yeah. If you wanted me to, I could try to find someone for you.”
Shane is quiet for a minute and Greta lets her be. For as rarely as her friend is quiet or thoughtful, she knows it’s vital to give her space to follow through on that good behavior. Greta is completely supportive and encouraging of Shane thinking before doing things.
“How would it work?” Shane asks at last.
“I think there are some girls you’d get along with, so I’ll talk to them about you and if they’re interested we can all hang out at the mall or something. If you guys hit it off, next time you can hang out without me.”
Shane nods. “That might work.”
Greta ignores the way her stomach twists and smiles instead. “Cool.”
“I—thanks, Greta,” says Shane, sitting up. “You really are the best.”
Greta’s smile goes soft and it’s real this time. “Hey, if I can’t beat your brother up, I can at least set you up.”
Shane laughs and pulls Greta into a hug. “You look ridiculous when you try to punch people.”
“Ugh, I know,” Greta says, squeezing Shane.
