Plastic Confidence (Good Bye Trilogy #1) Read Online Free PDF

asked.
    “It was her father, dear. He is a very, very sick man. But that isn’t your problem so you don’t need to worry about it one bit. Here, let me get you some candy money and you can walk down to the corner store,” she said as she scurried out of the room and gave us each a five dollar bill. We all looked at it perplexed.
    “Is it too little? I can get more,” she said, sounding panicked. “You girls have been holed up for three weeks now. Maybe I should get more.”
    “No.” We all said it in unison and Angie’s mom nodded slowly. We filed out the front door and started walking on the sidewalk in a line. We didn’t say anything all the way to the store. We all knew who had killed Grace. But the shock that the board was right was what made us realize that we probably couldn’t escape who we would be as we grew up.

FOUR
     
    I was anxious to get home that night. I immediately went to Kent’s room and banged on his door. He was playing his electric guitar and the amp was so loud, I could hardly hear my knock. Krysta opened the door, sucking on a lollipop, and smiled. “Did you hear? That asshole dad killed his own daughter. What a freak,” she said.
    Kent looked up and gave her a weird look and then smiled at me. “I guess this means you are off house arrest now, huh Jules?”
    “Yeah. I guess. Hey Kent? Can I talk to you a minute?” I asked and looked at Krysta. “Privately?”
    Krysta bounced out of the room, claiming she needed to touch up her makeup and Kent rolled his eyes. I shut the door and sat on his bed, closest to the chair that he sat in when he played. “You sound good,” I said.
    “Thanks, Jules. I doubt that is what you want to talk to me about though. If it is a boy, I will... ” he started, cracking his knuckled.
    I shook my head. “No. No. No boy. Kent ... What does the word... slut mean?” I asked him cautiously and watched for his expression. It grew dark and he stood up quickly.
    “Did someone call you that?” he yelled.
    “No. I mean, yes. But no. It was just a game,” I said, trying to calm him down. It wasn’t working. He was pacing back and forth.
    “Just tell me what it means,” I pleaded.
    “You don’t want to know, Jules. It’s a mean, mean word.” He snapped.
    “I need to know,” I said quietly.
    He let out a loud exhale and sat down on the bed next to me. He looked at me and then back down at the ground. “A slut is someone who has sex with a lot of people.”
    “Sex?” I asked. “Like intercourse? What they talked about in maturation classes?”
    He nodded, looking completely uncomfortable. I closed my mouth on the subject, blinking over and over. I had both embarrassed him and me. Why would I grow up to be a slut? That doesn’t make money or provide for my family. Did it mean something else? Kent started to talk again but I couldn’t hear him. All I could see was the pointer moving to the words over and over again. I was lost in the visual, lost to the word, lost to all the questions I had that probably would never get answered.
    “Cool. Well... thanks Kent,” I said awkwardly.
    “Jules,” he said.
    “Yeah?” I answered, turning around from my door.
    “Make sure you love the guys that you have ... umm” he coughed and I nodded.
    “Like you love Krysta?” I countered. I didn’t wait for his response. I ran out of his room so fast that I almost slammed into Krysta who was obviously eavesdropping. She gave me a sad look like she was going to say something. I shook my head, bee lined it for my bedroom and slammed the door.
    I knew in that moment that nothing would ever be the same between Kent and me again. We had officially stepped over the brother/sister boundary line. Of course, I would never ever discuss the word slut with my mom. She didn’t know that I was going to be one. Or was I?
    That night in bed, I fell asleep repeating the word “slut” over and over in my head. I tried to sing a song. I tried to think of any other word.