Juliet Takes a Breath

Juliet lands in Portland, Oregon, to start her internship with Harlowe Brisbane. At the airport, Juliet feels anxious about meeting her idol, but those anxieties are pushed aside when Harlowe greets her with a big hug and tells her that she has a “sweet-smelling aura” (45). In the car ride to Harlowe’s house, Juliet begins to cry and tells Harlowe about coming out to her family and how her mom wouldn’t say goodbye to her before she left. Juliet starts to feel better once she plays the mixtape she made for her girlfriend Lainie in the car. They reach Harlowe’s house, and Harlowe shows Juliet to her room in the attic.

The first day of Juliet’s internship starts with her taking a puff of weed from Harlowe’s blunt. Even though Juliet is asthmatic, the weed helps quell her anxiety. Harlowe hands Juliet a box full of scraps of paper because Juliet is going to be a “fairie-hunter,” searching for amazing women that haven’t gotten enough notoriety (50). The scraps of paper have images or names of women who Harlowe wants to know more about. Juliet feels overwhelmed by the research task, and she almost has a panic attack, which reminds her her mom used to “run her fingers through [her] hair and calm all the internal noise” for her (52).