“Mom, shhhhhh. It's embarrassing for the neighbors,” I stopped her from cursing at me and my father because I noticed my crush from afar.

“Why? You should be ashamed of what you're doing! You're still young but you've done nothing to help me with the household chores, Jamie! You are always reading those damn pocketbooks! Why don’t you tell me where you got the money to buy those useless books, Jamie?”

My mother was furious when she caught me reading romance novels. She claimed it was a useless book and I should be reading my books from school. “From my savings,” I told her but she just snorted at my...