Putting Boys on the Ledge Read Online Free PDF Page B

considered them my key ingredient to the life I wanted. I just found them embarrassing. But now was not the time to express my displeasure with that ugly fate.
    Mom was still wearing black, but she did smile and congratulate me. Then she looked like she was going to launch into a discussion of the "repercussions" of my being late for dinner earlier in the week.
    I wasn't going to give her a chance. "At school, Frances and Allie had an assembly on sexploitation."
    Mom lifted her brows. "And what is sexploitation?"
    Some parents would send Marissa out of the room if sex came up at the dinner table, but not my parents. They figured they could influence her better if they were present whenever these types of topics came up. Better for Marissa to hear about sex around their dinner table than under the football bleachers with a boy.
    Given that I was fourteen and still hadn't experienced a real kiss with a boy, there may have been some indication that their approach was successful. I was definitely going to have to do something about that. But first things first. I couldn't put Heath on The Ledge if I never got to see him.
    Not that I was going to put him on The Ledge. I was going to keep him right next to me on the couch. No way was I mean enough to put a boy I liked on The Ledge. Now, if it was a boy I didn't like or who was mean to my friends? That was another situation entirely.
    "Sexploitation is turning women into sex objects to sell things or advance agendas. It's about making the only value of women sexual," Frances said.
    Mom did a double take.
    I wasn't sure I'd ever seen anyone actually do a double take before. But she definitely looked at me, then did some sort of jerky thing with her head, then looked at me again. We must have hit a nerve.
    This was good. Very good.
    "You know that sex is only about love and respect," my mom said. "Marissa, you know that, don't you?"
    Marissa just shrugged and drank her milk.
    "Anyway..." Okay, here I went for the kill. "The sexploitation issue made me think about how you tell me all the time that as a girl, I'm equal to boys, and that I should never let anyone walk all over me just because I'm a girl."
    "None of you should." My dad shook a cooked carrot at my friends. "All of you are important, valuable human beings."
    This was going perfectly. "I have a question."
    "What is it?" Mom actually looked a little wary. This was going splendidly.
    "If I'm not devalued because of my sexuality, or worthy of less because I'm female, how come you make dinner exceptions for Theo but not for me?"
    Utter silence fell over the table.
    Frances was studiously mashing her lasagna, Allie and Natalie were staring expectantly at my parents, as if they were waiting for some great revelation, and Marissa was weaving the lasagna noodles into some sort of artistic decor.
    And Theo wasn't there—because he was getting ready for his football game.
    Mom looked at my dad. "Conference in the other room."
    My dad nodded, and the two of them disappeared into the kitchen. We didn't dare say anything, just sat there eating quietly. Except Marissa, who apparently had some artistic talent, as she turned her food into a very interesting arrangement.
    It took less than two minutes for my parents to return.
    They stood at the head of the table, my dad's arm around my mom, in their customary show of allegiance. The message in our house: never try to go around one parent to get to the other. They are one unit of love and authority.
    My mom was the one who spoke. "Girls, we have to admit that we temporarily did fall into the trap of treating you all differently from Theo. Yes, as girls, you are more vulnerable. But it's our job to empower you, instead of trying to protect you by treating you differently. And if anyone ever tries to tell you your vulnerability is justification for not giving you equal opportunity, don't accept it."
    Dad chimed in. "Blue, you can be in the play. I'll find someone to take care of the afternoon