Sutton at thirteen: a stunner in the making. Long colt legs, flowing strawberry hair that grazed budding breasts, eyes the color of summer skies. She became a woman overnight, it seemed, one day a gawky, bespectacled geek who got along with everyone; the next, in contacts and a new outfit, a glorious creature who struck awe in the eyes of everyone around her.

This sudden transition made her a very unpopular girl. It seems contradictory: teenage beauty should be the golden ticket to love and popularity, but on Sutton it worked the opposite way. She kept a few friends, though even they wandered away soon after, not wanting to be in her shadow.

There was Joe, too. Joe was Siobhan’s third husband. He was a metalworker of some sort, held down a good, steady second-shift job at the plant in Smyrna. They met at a bar on the outskirts of town. He drove her home and never left.

Sutton knew the timing of her losses had more to do with Joe’s arrival in their lives than with her budding beauty. He wasn’t bad at first. Brought Sutton candy, treated her mother well. Was entranced by their hard-luck backstory, humored Maude’s name change to the more glamorous Siobhan. He liked the idea of glamour, Joe did.

After a couple of months he asked Siobhan to marry him, and she saw a good paycheck and a warm body for cold nights, so the ring went on her finger, and then he started turning...skeevy.

He hung around Sutton’s room too much for her liking. She yearned for real privacy, but they were living in Joe’s house, and it was the first time in a long time that she had a room with an actual door instead of a curtain drape, so she couldn’t complain too much. Joe would stop by when he got home from work. Knock, knock. He wanted to hear about school. He wanted to hear about her friends. He suggested they have a sleepover party. He even provided the booze.

Seven hungover twelve-and thirteen-year-olds draped around the kitchen table made the parents quite angry, and of course, Sutton took the fall, almost willingly. After all, she now had a cool stepdad. She had a room with a door. She didn’t want to jeopardize things. Didn’t want to rock the boat. The newly bribed sleepover friends peeled away, one by one, until Sutton was left alone in the microcosm with Siobhan and Joe.

Soon after the disastrous sleepover, Joe came home from second shift, knock, knock, sat next to her on the bed with the pink princess comforter, put his hand on her knee, and explained the birds and the bees to her.

Sutton, aghast, complained to Siobhan, and a huge fight ensued.