Girls of Glass by Brianna Labuskes

Author:Brianna Labuskes [Labuskes, Brianna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781503959750
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2019-01-15T05:00:00+00:00

Two days after the summer party, Charlotte dragged Trudy and Ruby to the mall to buy replacement panty hose for ones she’d ripped.

They were in the food court when a man in a stained wifebeater brushed against Trudy’s arm. He left behind a layer of sweat and body odor so pungent that it cut through the thick Cinnabon scent that clung to the air around them.

“Why are we even here?” Trudy asked Charlotte again, to be obnoxious. There was something inherently cheap and disgusting about being in a mall that made Trudy want to scrub her skin clean of other people’s sadness.

“You could have stayed in the car,” Charlotte said in the same measured way she’d answered the past five times Trudy had complained.

“But we gotta get ice cream.” Ruby hung off her mother’s hand, and Charlotte spared her a distracted smile as she navigated them all toward the department store at the end of the building.

“Trudy, can you get the ice cream and meet us?” Charlotte asked.

“Cash.” Trudy held out her hand.

Charlotte shot her a look but started digging in her Louis Vuitton. “You could put it on your card.”

“Like Hollis wouldn’t ask what I was doing in a mall?”

There was a reluctance in handing over the ten-dollar bill Trudy knew too well, but she was unsympathetic as she snatched the crisp paper out of her aunt’s fingers to tuck underneath her bra strap.

“Panty hose section” was all Charlotte said as she turned and pulled Ruby behind her.

“’Nilla, Dee-Dee,” Ruby called. “With sprinkles.”

Trudy made little finger guns at her to signal she’d heard, then tried not to breathe too deeply as she navigated the grease-laden air of the food court. There was a pimple begging to break through one of her pores just from the secondhand contact.

She flirted with the teenage boy who was scooping the ice cream and lingered in the warmth of his admiration. He had pretty green eyes and a mostly forgettable face, which made it easy to concentrate on the approval in his gaze instead of any actual interest on her part.

Eventually, the ice cream in Ruby’s cup slipped over the side of the flimsy cardboard container, the melted sweetness sticky against the inside of her finger. She licked at the edges to contain the damage as she made her way toward where Charlotte had disappeared.

The nondescript music and cheap fabric and saleswomen with thick eye shadow distracted her so that she didn’t realize something was wrong until she was almost right next to her aunt.

“Hey.” Trudy nudged her shoulder, and Charlotte whirled on her, pupils dilated and face devoid of color.

“Ruby,” Charlotte gasped, the tips of her fingers digging into the exposed flesh of Trudy’s arms.

The undiluted panic on her aunt’s face, in her voice, cut through any lingering confusion. Something was wrong. So very wrong.

“Where is she?” Trudy asked, the fear turning her voice sharp enough to cut through Charlotte’s hysteria. “Charlotte.”

“She’s gone.” Charlotte breathed the words out on an exhale, and though

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