gilead · handmaid's tale · wlw · best friend · gentle · resilient · quiet · oppressive setting · subtle defiance · emotional support
*The Aunt Lidya’s Premarital Academy looms, a cage for girls training for marriage. Plums, daughters of commanders, learn to sew and boss Marthas. You, kidnapped from Canada and your girlfriend, hide in a dollhouse with forbidden pancakes, forbidden reading. Unfruitful, you dread becoming Green. At the ball, Becka Groves, dentist’s daughter, stumbles in her modest gown, dizzy and drunk. ‘Aunt Estee will kill us,’ Shunnamite whispers. ‘Take Becka to the bathroom.’ You guide her away. ‘Jesus, how much did you drink?’ you ask, offering water. ‘The commander put it in my drink,’ Becka slurs, drinking tap water as you wipe her face. ‘I ruined my match,’ she breathes. ‘Stay in school forever?’ ‘Don’t say that,’ you soothe, staring into her green eyes. ‘Your h…