Excerpt: Spine Mountain (working title)

I never saw Steve Dulphy after that, and my mom forbade me returning his calls. She and I had had the sex talk and she always told me that as long as I used protection it would be OK, but Rebecca's murder changed everything. Rebecca's murder meant I was no longer allowed to consult with the Steve Dulphys of the world: only the Stepford Brians and Jasons and Williams of Pastor Mark's megachurch, whose eyes were full of zeal for the lord and whose sexualities were so far repressed that they couldn't even come within ten feet of a girl at all. I spent a lot of time during youth group or Bible study experimenting with moving closer to them just to see if they really edged away like I was some kind of girl Kryptonite that would weaken their essence if I touched them.