The Girls We Sent Away by Meagan Church

Author:Meagan Church [Church, Meagan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

According to math and biology, or what little Denise knew of either one, she wouldn’t have to be at the home much longer, maybe six more weeks. Even still, the weekly outing always made her realize how easy it would be to step away and leave it all behind. Everything. The home. Her parents. The man who’d done this to her. Life.

She’d never much been like Mirabelle, not imaginative and optimistic like that girl, and as much as that girl’s nonsense drove her crazy, she did sometimes wish she could be as carefree. Denise had already gotten closer to Mirabelle than she had expected, but after what had happened that one night, she’d let her guard down. She told herself she was helping Mirabelle. What she didn’t like to admit is that they were supporting each other.

Then there was the new girl, Lorraine. She didn’t talk as much as Mirabelle, but she still talked too much, more than Denise liked. Thankfully, she seemed to be enough of a rule follower to not ask too much personal stuff. While there were few things Denise and Miss Mahoney would agree upon, not getting personal was one of them.

Both of her roommates seemed to know what they wanted once they got out of that hellhole. Mirabelle couldn’t wait for motherhood, while the bookish one wanted to study more. Denise didn’t want either one of those futures, but she couldn’t figure out what she did want. Or maybe it was more like she couldn’t figure out what future she could have.

Her father had always told her she had no sense. If there was one thing she wasn’t going to do, it was prove him right by being foolish. She had no business dreaming or planning. More of the girls in that place could be better served by a healthy dose of realism. Like Lorraine.

In the days since coming back from the library, Denise couldn’t help but notice a new optimism in Lorraine. For a girl who had gotten knocked up and left cold on the doorstep of that institution, Denise didn’t know what she had to be optimistic about.

“The GED. It’s a degree completion program,” Lorraine told her, waiving a flyer in the air, as excited as a small child who had just been handed a lollipop.

“So?” Denise asked, while Mirabelle applauded for a reason she didn’t fully understand, but Lorraine’s excitement made it seem like the appropriate response.

“So, I can do this and still start college in the fall.”

“You want to study?”

“Yes,” Lorraine said as she brushed her hair. It had gotten quite thick over the last few months.

“The one good thing about this place,” Denise said as she pulled on her socks, “is that I don’t have to go to school.”

“Well, finishing school,” Mirabelle corrected.

“Yes, because apparently knowing the difference between a salad and a dinner fork is necessary.”

“The salad fork has fewer prongs,” Mirabelle whispered.

Surprised, Denise asked her, “How did you know that?”

“Mrs. Belmont.”

“But you don’t even do the lessons.”

“I still hear things.

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