Husky by Justin Sayre

is yes. Yes, I want a makeover. I want to be made into something else. Someone completely different from myself. Someone who gets invited places and gets the jokes on people’s phones and doesn’tfeel weird about coming into a room, like, ever. Because the person I would become would be beautiful and popular and know everything about music and phones and Facebook or anything that is important to know to be popular and liked. And I would be all of that. If I got to go, I would be made over into that.
    But I’m not allowed to go. I’m a boy. A weird, hallway-lurking, doesn’t-get-why-a-kitten-lady-falling-is-the-funniest-thing-ever, armpit-staring, fat-kid boy who listens to opera and will probably never have a phone because they are crazy expensive and Nanny doesn’t feel like it’s worth it. No day at a spa or whatever can fix that.
    So I leave.
    I make up some excuse that really no one buys. Sophie especially. But why would she want me to stay in this room after this? It’s just not a nice feeling. Why doesn’t she get that?
    â€œC’mon, stay. We’re going to order Thai or something,” Sophie says to me.
    But no. I have to go. I make up another excuse: It’s the Big Bake tonight, and my mom wants me there, becauseit’s the last one before school and I should go, I, like, never get to see her as it is.
    And that one, the one that is so close to the truth, convinces Sophie, and she says she’ll walk me out. She never does this. Maybe she does know something is wrong. Maybe she’s going to invite me when we get to the door. Or maybe she will tell me how much she hates Allegra and just wants her out of the house, but she’s too nice to say anything. I mean, she is totally annoying and awful, right?
    But when we get down to the front door, Sophie just looks at me and says, “It’s not on my actual birthday. It’s not.”
    That does not make it any better.
    And I’m sort of shocked about that. It’s like I don’t even know who Sophie is right now, because my friend, my best friend, since-I-was-a-baby best friend, would not do this. But she’s not doing anything. And that’s the trouble.
    â€œIt’s fine,” I say, and I clearly, like, so clearly, don’t mean it.
    â€œIt’s Allegra and her mom, they just wanted something for the girls, like me and Ellen . . .”
    Now, Ellen’s going?!
    â€œIt’s, like, fine, really.” And I walk away. I don’t turn back or anything, which I’ve never done to anyone ever. I don’t even turn around when she says good-bye to me, I just sort of wave over my shoulder from the sidewalk. I walk away. So far away from Sophie. I never ever thought I would have to, but right now there’s nowhere I would rather be than away from here and her.

CHAPTER 10
    I get home and go right upstairs to my room. I stomp the whole way up. I know, because Nanny yells at me the whole way. “What did I tell you about walking like that? Pick up your feet!” There’s more but as I get higher and higher away from her, I stop listening and when the door is closed, she is gone.
    Usually I can still hear her even with the door closed, but tonight, I’m too far away. It’s the only way I can say it. I’m not there. I mean, I’m in my room, and standing in the middle of my floor, but everything else is away somewhere really dark and angry. That’s where I really am. I want to break everything. I want to turn over the bed and bust the windows and break my computer and rip up all my clothes. I want to ruin everything. Becauseto me, everything is already ruined.
    But I sit. I don’t know what else to do. I sit down on the right side of my bed and think about everything. It’s all coming so fast over me, it’s almost hard to put it all together. Or to take it all apart. Sophie stopping me, and Ryan laughing, and making fun of