How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I was thirteen when my dad caught me with Tommy Webber in the back of Tommy's Buick. (Prologue.1)
Deanna's dad blows the opportunity to learn something about Deanna's life and protect her from making the same mistake in the future. Instead he chooses to carry a grudge and alienate her even further.
Quote #2
"Dammit, I'm leaking. Again." She changed her shirt and looked at me. "I hope you know how lucky you are that Tommy didn't get you pregnant." (2.37)
Stacy and Deanna don't talk about abortion or adoption—and because of this we can question how much choice either of them sees around sex. We might say that they've given up and are on their path to becoming the same kind of woman as Deanna's mother—powerless to stand up to men and the situations into which men invite them.
Quote #3
After Dad caught me, my mom dragged me to the doctor to put me on the pill, and after that we went straight to the drugstore where she bought a box of condoms. (2.38)
Deanna never tells us if her mom taught her how to use the birth control, but given that she still has the unopened box of condoms three years later, chances are her mom dropped the communication ball just like her dad.
Quote #4
His voice shot through me. It's amazing, the things your body will do just when you don't want them to: heart speeding up, fingers aching. (3.89)
Deanna is still attracted to Tommy when she meets him again at the pizza place. Do you think this is because of chemistry, or because of her continued need for male attention?
Quote #5
Come on, Dee Dee. Come on. I remembered exactly how it felt when he wrapped my ponytail around his hand, pulling it back until I got the hint he wanted me to go down. (3.96)
Also not a great communicator: Tommy. He doesn't even tell Deanna what he wants her to do—he just physically pushes her in the general direction.
Quote #6
He stood right up close to me, all in my personal space. My body did things again, nerves awake, something not quite good and not quite bad creeping over my scalp. (4.1)
Tommy knows he's in Deanna's personal space, and he knows this is a way of asserting power over her like he used to. If he can't grab her ponytail and get her into his car, at least he can still intimidate her—which might ultimately lead to the chance to once again grab her ponytail and get her into his car.
Quote #7
One of the last times I cried was when Tommy and I had sex for the first time […] It hurt so much and Tommy was stoned and not even paying attention to how I tried to slow him down and there was some stupid commercial for a diet pill on the car radio. (5.23)
That Deanna noticed what was on the radio shows that she definitely wasn't as into the sex as Tommy, despite the nasty rumors that swirl about her. She wasn't really paying attention; she wasn't really getting into it. Remembering this is one way to remind herself she's not really skanky (like so many people say)—she was just doing what she had to do to keep a guy around.
Quote #8
We'd walk home together […] and I'd tell her about sex […] I'd tell her all that and help her decide. I'd be a friend. (5.106)
Instead of helping Lee decide, Deanna abandons her to make her own decision. Would Deanna have chosen to have sex with Tommy if someone had had the conversation with her she wants to have with Lee?
Quote #9
He liked to remind me about that all during the next months when I would say we should stop doing what we were doing. "Hey," he'd say, "you started it, remember?" (6.110)
Everything Tommy does and says to Deanna is, on some level, a power play. Making someone else feel shame and obligation is a prime way of taking away their power.
Quote #10
"It sucks that you think I would actually sleep with my forty-six-year-old boss." (10.106)
Deanna's dad has so little regard for her, and so little knowledge about who she is, that he almost dooms her to make bad choices. He gives her no guidance, but lots of judgment—which is yet another way that Deanna's life is pretty heavy on shame.