After that night, Bobby and Kelly started to date on a steady basis. I was really pissed off because my best friend gave me the shaft. I know, I hadn'... said anything to Kelly, but Bobby knew how I felt. It's a "man law"; you don't go after a girl that your best friend is interested in. I didn't know which hurt the most, losing Kelly or Bobby making a run at her.My first reaction was to tear Bobby a new one. He knew how I felt about Kelly, but he made a run at her anyway. I decided to keep. The words just didn’t seem that important next to the soft, coaxing tones of Mona’s voice in her memory. All she remembered was what she needed to remember, and all she needed to remember was how good it felt to relax and let go. It didn’t even seem strange that Mona had hypnotized her, although Bev was pretty sure that was something she’d been programmed to think. It just felt like an enjoyable, pleasant experience that she’d be glad to return to again and again. (And again and again…) Bev. "I don't need your fucking help." All right," said Mia. "If you don't want us along, it's your choice." Yeah," said Liam, "it's your choice."As I made my way back toward the boardwalk, I ignored the fact that partof me really wanted my friends with me. I was my own man, dammit, notsome follower. I needed to fix this myself.A sense of uncertainty and doubt gripped to me as I approached thecluttered little shop with its wooden sign that said TINA'S GIFTS. I wasin over my head here. I stopped for. There were probably a few hundred committed to participating this year, though I figured maybe half would back out simply due to social norms, but it seemed like the movement had a progressive point about gender equality.I found several legitimate-looking sites, using April Fools' Day as a platform to call out the foolish double standard that allowed men to behave one way while forcing women to behave another. There were dozens of different messages, even a Facebook group. These people were.