We Do What We Do in the Dark by Michelle Hart

Author:Michelle Hart [Hart, Michelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2022-05-03T00:00:00+00:00

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By the end of seventh grade, Hannah started to obsess over losing weight. Pot made her hungry, so she stopped smoking it. She replaced weed with an occasional cigarette, which curbed her appetite, and which she smoked in secret; only Mallory knew.

By eighth grade, she became bulimic. Puking up her food allowed her to shed the shell of childhood. Protruding cheekbones reduced her face’s roundness, and the kinks in her tawny hair unfurled into brownish-blond tufts that caught light like kindling. She was, more than ever, the pretty one.

Whenever they went to the mall now, Hannah would be catcalled. Once, after Mallory had stolen a Yankee Candle from the Hallmark Store—the candle was scented like a McIntosh apple, Hannah’s favorite smell—a man rushed up from behind the two of them. Mallory thought it was a Hallmark employee and panicked, but it was just some guy. He grinned at Hannah and said, “I had to see if the front looked as good as the back.”

It was the first time either of them had been the object of obvious predation. Past the immediate fear of being followed and raped, Mallory felt jealous. That she was not subjected to something heinous meant that she was so unremarkably unpretty as to not even be preyed upon. Hannah gave a nervous laugh, while Mallory looked for the nearest exit. Neither of them knew what time it was, and whether Hannah’s mother was waiting for them in the car; Mallory imagined them being chased but narrowly escaping in Mrs. Allard’s Jeep. Instead, they walked into Old Navy, where the man didn’t follow them.

“Oh my god,” Mallory said.

“I know,” said Hannah. She looked down at her chest and adjusted her breasts. “Do you think he was disappointed?”

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