Danse Macabre--chapter 2

This chapter is fucking ugly. 

It starts with Nate and Micah freaking out--a little--over the idea that Anita might be preggers. I think I have used more words on their freak out than the book actually does. This segues very quickly into Anita and Nate making out in front of Ronnie to rub her nose in her oncoming monogamy, which turns into a very, very, very ugly exchange of words between Nate and Ronnie. Ronnie, it seems, has been verbally sexually harassing Nate because, you know, hot stripper. This is the first Anita's heard of it, but Ronnie admits to it.

Then things go off the deep end.

He said again, “I know why you don’t want to commit to Louie.”
 She said in a small, weak voice, “Why?”
 “Because it torments you to know that you will never know how I am in bed.”
 “Oh,” she said in a voice that was almost her own, “so I’m not wanting Louie because you’re such a stud?” 

“Not me, Ronnie, but the next me. The next guy you get obsessed about. Not love obsessed, but I-wonder-what-he’d-be-like-in-bed obsessed. And you’ve always been beautiful enough, hot enough, to get anyone you’ve ever wanted, right?”

This is the moment that, in reality, would end a friendship. Whose, IDK, but that's a very, very, very ugly paragraph.

It also creates a catch 22 for Ronnie that she can't get out of. She doesn't want to commit because she doesn't want to be chained down to good sex, and she's jealous of Anita's harem, who are the best sex in the universe which she can never have because they're loyal to Anita. It's this simultaneous condemnation of monogamy and promescuity that leaves no outlet whatsoever. Anita gets to sleep around because her love is true, but everyone else is a slut.

Right.

It gets worse.

Nathaniel ignored him. “You need to find out what you’re running from, Ronnie, before it ruins the best thing you’ve ever found.”
 She spoke in a harsh whisper, “You mean Louie.” 

He nodded. “Yeah, I mean Louie. He loves you. He really, truly loves you, not just for a night, or a month, but for years. Part of you wants that or you wouldn’t still be with him.”

Why is Louie good for Ronnie? It's not because of the sex, or because of anything he helps her do, or how she feels about him. Nope. It's that LOUIE loves RONNIE. And Ronnie needs to get her act together and love him back because his love for her makes everything alright.

Nevermind that she's obviously uncertain. Nope. Her feelings don't matter at all. She needs to make herself love Louie or else she's gonna lose him forever.

This is repellant.

And then Nate gives Ronnie the address for his therapist, because obviously that's what you do when you verbally castigate them in public.

WHY WOULD YOU WRITE SOMETHING LIKE THIS.

 When they're discussing Anita's pregnancy (she isn't) Nate brings up that he went through this once already. With the woman (established as a prostitute) who took his virginity. Apparently she found out he was a virgin and "fixed" it for him.

...when Nathanial was thirteen.

And the fact that she became preggers soon after is more important than this casual mention of statutiory rape, which is treated as a rite of passage and not, you know, a terrible crime committed against a minor by an adult (or at least significantly older teen) who should fucking know better.

Also: Nate? You're talking about all this like it's normal and not abuse. Get a better therapist.

 He tells us how the woman aborted the baby and then got murdered by a John, and then firmly establishes that he wants the (non) baby. Micah and Nate then go way way way out of their way to state that it's her body and her choice, kind of the way that people talk about how they can't be racist, they've got black friends.

They plan out buying the pregnancy test. The chapter closes with this:

Positive. It seemed like such the wrong word. If I was pregnant it was definitely a negative. A really big, scary negative.

Great. You don't want kids. Go fix the (non-existent) problem. Anita's not unsure here. She very, very firmly does not want a baby. This should be a non-issue.