Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 78466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Hannah: Got it. Okay, so—
Kola: Why are you rushing?
Hannah: I’m not.
Sam: You are. And what’s with the face?
Hannah: Nothing.
Kola: Like we don’t know you? Like we just met you?
Hannah: …
Sam: Don’t shake your head. Explain.
Hannah: …
Sam: Don’t bite your lip. Talk. Now.
Hannah: Okay. So a week ago I was at Damien’s house because we’re partners for our big biology project.
Kola: Yeah.
Hannah: After a while I had to go to the bathroom, and the one downstairs is broken, so I had to go to the one upstairs. And he was getting another book from his room when his father came home.
Sam: This is the kid who was here yesterday when I got home?
Hannah: Yeah.
Sam: Sorry. Go on.
Hannah: Well, when his dad came in, we were both on the stairs, and so he thought we were coming downstairs because we’d been in his room.
Kola: Oh. I see.
Sam: And when you explained that you hadn’t been?
Hannah: He told me that good girls don’t spread their legs for boys just because they’re on the football team.
Kola: Are you kidding?
Sam: Continue.
Hannah: And then he told Damien that knocking up some high school slut would ruin all their dreams for his future.
Sam: I see.
Hannah: Are you okay? Your voice sounds funny.
Sam: Where—where does this kid live?
Hannah: No, you don’t get it.
Sam: Oh, I think I do.
Hannah: No, Dad. I was upset—and I’m still mad—because I didn’t stick up for myself. I should have told him that someday when I find the one I want to have sex with, I will, but not because he’s on the football team or something but because of how I feel.
Sam: …
Hannah: But I just couldn’t believe what he was saying to me and I just went blank, you know?
Kola: You weren’t scared of him hitting you?
Hannah: No. Oh my God, no. In fact, if he had slapped me or something, I would have put him on the ground, and then I probably would have been able to talk. That would’ve been better.
Sam: Not for him
Hannah: Oh, Dad, no. Don’t be all mad. Mr. Chambers was just confused, but I should have cleared it up. As it was, I just went all girly and cried and got my stuff and left. I’m so horrified that I wasn’t strong.
Kola: You didn’t expect a grown-up to treat you that way.
Hannah: No, I didn’t.
Sam: Honey, if you don’t think I’m going to go talk to that—
Hannah: Oh no, Uncle Dane did already.
Sam: I’m sorry?
Hannah: I was on my way home, but I was crying and I took the wrong train and I wound up down by his office, so I went to see him.
Sam: And?
Hannah: He took me to this really weird restaurant, and it was kinda dark inside, but there was a fortune-teller, and by the bar all the booze was on shelves to the ceiling.
Sam: Hannah—
Hannah: And we had grilled cheese and spicy tomato soup, and I had, like, five Shirley Temples, and he had an Old Fashioned and a Manhattan, and then we—
Sam: B—
Hannah: I didn’t know Uncle Dane even liked grilled cheese, but—
Kola: Your father’s head is going to explode if you don’t explain what happened.
Hannah: Oh, okay, so then me and Uncle Dane took a cab back over to Damien’s house, and did you know that when he’s mad, he yells?
Sam: Yes.
Hannah: I thought only you yelled.
Sam: No. Even your uncle Dane yells on occasion.
Hannah: Well, so Uncle Dane yelled at Damien’s father, first about what he called me and then about what he thought about me and that I was one of the best people he’d ever had the good fortune to meet and he should consider his son blessed to have me as a friend. Isn’t that nice?
Sam: It is nice. It’s also true.
Hannah: Thanks, Dad.
Sam: What else?
Hannah: Then Uncle Dane told him that if he didn’t want people upstairs, maybe he should fix the damn bathroom downstairs.
Sam: Him using the word damn surprised you.
Hannah: Ohmygod, it really did.
Sam: I bet. Continue.
Hannah: After that Damien’s dad got really embarrassed about what he said, and Damien was on the porch too, and he apologized to both of us and told me how really super sorry he was.
Sam: Good.
Hannah: And then Uncle Dane and him went into the kitchen and talked for a bit while I showed Damien my TikTok profile.
Sam: What is TikTok?
Kola: Think about what you’re asking.
Sam: Good point. Never mind.
Hannah: The point is that next time—if there is a next time—I want to be able to stick up for myself. I don’t want to just go mute.
Sam: That takes practice, but just remember that no one has a right to attack you. No one.
Hannah: I will.
Sam: And you could have called me, and I would have been there as fast as I could.
Hannah: I know. I just wanted to think about it and I wasn’t mad. I was just hurt.