Beastly by Alex Flinn

of last year’s juniors, in a major Public Display of Affection unfolding before my eyes like an R-rated movie. They could do it in front of me because I was, once again, invisible. I started to wonder if maybe I really was. Finally, they went inside.
    That was how the night went. People came. People left. Around midnight, tired and way too hot, I thought about leaving. But that was when I heard a familiar voice from the steps above my head.
    “Wild party, huh?” It was Trey.
    He was with another former friend of mine, Graydon Hart. “The best,” Graydon said. “Even better than the one last year.”
    “Which one was last year?” Trey said. “I was probably too trashed to remember.” I hunkered farther down, wishing they’d leave. Then I heard my name.
    “You know,” Graydon said. “Last year – the one where Kyle Kingsbury brought that skanky girl who spent half the night with her hand in his pants.”
    Trey laughed. “Kyle Kingsbury – a name from the past. Good old Kyle.” I felt myself smile and get even warmer in my long coat.
    “Yeah, what ever happened to him?” Graydon said.
    “Went to boarding school.”
    “Guess he thought he was too good for us, huh?”
    I stared at them, especially Trey, waiting to see him defend me.
    “Wouldn’t surprise me,” Trey said. “He always thought he was so big when he was here – Mr. My-Father-Reads-the-News.”
    “What a putz.”
    “Yeah. I’m glad that guy’s gone,” Trey said.
    I turned my face away from them. Finally, they walked away.
    My face, my ears stung. It had all been a lie – my friends at Tuttle. My whole life. What would people say if they saw me now – they’d hated me even when I was hot-looking. I don’t even know how I got home. No one noticed me. No one cared. Kendra had been right, about everything.

    5
    I was on MySpace again. “Show me Angelbaby1023,” I told the mirror.
    Instead, it showed me Kendra’s face.
    “It won’t work, you know.”
    “What are you doing here?”
    “Relieving you of your delusions. It won’t work, trying to meet someone online, find true love that way. It won’t work.”
    “Why the hell not? I mean, sure some of them are full of it, but they can’t all –”
    “You can’t fall in love with a computer. Not true love.”
    “People meet online all the time. They even get married.”
    “It’s one thing to meet online, then meet in person and fall in love. It’s another thing entirely to conduct a whole relationship online, convince yourself you’ve fallen in love from thirty states away…”
    “What’s the difference? You think looks shouldn’t matter. With the Internet, they really don’t. It’s all about personality.” Then I figured out her problem. “You’re just mad because I figured out a way around your curse, a way I can meet someone without them getting freaked about what you’ve done to my looks.”
    “That’s not it. I cast the spell to teach you a lesson. If you learn it, great. I’m not rooting for you to screw up; I’m trying to help you. But this just won’t work.”
    “But why?”
    “Because you can’t fall in love with someone you don’t know. That profile of yours is full of lies.”
    “You read my mail. Isn’t that against the –”
    “‘I love to go out and party with my friends…’”
    “Stop it!”
    “‘My dad and I are really close…’”
    “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” I covered my ears, but her words still taunted me. I wanted to break the mirror, the computer monitor, anything, but it was all because I knew it was true. I’d just wanted someone to love me, someone to break the curse. But it was all hopeless. If I couldn’t meet someone online, how could I meet anyone?
    “Do you understand, Kyle?” Kendra’s muffled voice penetrated my thoughts.
    I looked away, refused to answer. I felt my throat getting tight, and I didn’t want her to hear it.
    “Kyle?”
    “I get it,” I roared. “Now can you please leave me