Read Online High Heels and Lipstick by Jo Ramsey - Free Book Online

clients who had killed themselves. So of course she would worry about it.
    Mom should have known me better, though. I did things she didn’t approve of, like having sex and partying, but I didn’t want to die. Not even after everything that had happened.
    â€œMaybe you should change schools,” Mom said. “There’s an opening at the Catholic high school your cousin Leigh-Anne goes to.”
    â€œHell no.” I immediately put my hand over my mouth. As far as my parents were concerned, “hell” was a swear word and wasn’t permitted at the table. “Sorry for my language. I’m not changing schools. The only way I would do that is if you let me do online school, and you keep saying no to that.”
    â€œA new school will get you away from the kids who are making things difficult for you,” Mom argued.
    I looked at Marcus. He was the third of the kids in our family. He hadn’t been old enough when I was born to completely ignore me the way our older brothers Joseph and Lenny had, and he was used to having a younger kid around so he hadn’t resented me as much as Andy. Marcus usually had my back, especially against our parents.
    â€œSay something,” I said. “Would you let them make you go to a religious school?”
    â€œNo, but I’ve never been in the same position you are.” Marcus sighed. “You don’t talk to anyone anymore. You just go into your room and check the crap people post about you. I see you on Facebook all the time.”
    â€œI talk to plenty of people.” He was right, though. Most of the time I tried to avoid my family. It wasn’t so much because I didn’t want to be around them. It was more that I wanted to minimize the chance of hearing them say something negative about the way I’d lived my life until November.
    I wasn’t ashamed of anything I’d done, but in my family, good girls waited until marriage or at least engagement to have sex. I didn’t see the point in waiting around to sleep with a guy who might not even know what he was doing, and then be stuck with him for the rest of my life. I wanted to have fun and try things and sample the possibilities before I settled.
    Plus sex felt good, and as long as the people doing it wanted to and were smart about it, I didn’t see why there had to be a problem. But that wasn’t a popular opinion in my family. At least not for girls. Guys were allowed to stick it wherever they wanted as long as they didn’t catch anything or knock up anyone.
    So far, my parents and brothers hadn’t said a word against me when I was around. I didn’t know what they said when I couldn’t hear them, though, and I didn’t trust that they wouldn’t spout off at me if I spent too much time with them.
    â€œYou had a lot of friends,” Marcus said.
    â€œI had a lot of people I par—spent time with,” I said. Talking about partying wouldn’t help my case. “If they were actually my friends, they wouldn’t have turned on me. But that doesn’t mean I should go to a different school. Kids from this town go to Leigh-Anne’s school. They’re going to have heard about everything. At least here, I know what people are going to say and who’s most likely to say it. A different school might be even worse.”
    â€œIt isn’t really your decision,” Dad said. “Your mother and I want to do what’s best for you. At the Catholic school, you might meet people who are a better influence on you.”
    â€œAre you freaking kidding me?” I stared at him. “Dad, have you listened when Leigh-Anne talks about that place? There are five girls in her grade right now who are pregnant, and two seniors who got married already because they had kids. And I’ve been to parties with kids who go to that school. They drink, do drugs, all that stuff more than anyone I go to school with. Just because