So I'm rereading Eli Jang's backstory and now that I think about it, Heather is kind of wrong.
I know that they were both 15, but Eli had the education of a 2nd grader, he was mentally and emotionally stunted as well. Instead of mentally being 15 it was more like he was stuck at being 7 or perhaps 10 at best.
Heather, though just being 15, emotionally and mentally was a healthy teenager. I know she was a child as well, but it seems predatory now looking back that she had sex with him. She was old enough to know what the act was and what it entailed. She was old enough to know how it worked and that a baby could be produced. Plus she had access to a cell phone and a school library. Probably a laptop as well to do whatever research she wanted.
Eli had no idea. He didn't know what it was. He didn't know how to do it. Going back to him mentally and emotionally being 7-10, he thought that holding a girls hand would make him pregnant. I don't think someone in his situation could've properly consented to doing the act honestly.
He was delayed emotionally and mentally due to trauma and abuse... if they were both on the same level mentally and he was a normal kid then it just would've been an oopsie, but him being in the state he was makes it seem like he was taken advantage of to me. Even Sally herself recognized that something wasn't right with Eli in her words he "didn't know any better" and was "slow," so code words for delayed essentially. Just words for thought. She didn't technically do anything illegal but I think that it was morally wrong. Though because she was 15 she probably didn't think that deeply into it aside from "he's handsome" and "I like him."
