" "Honey, I'd love to have breasts. I fantasize having them. But inany locker room the guys I'm with couldn't help but notice. I doshave my body h...ir and get away with it because they know I wasonce on my high school swim team and they think I still do highperformance swimming. But a softer face? Soft bulges hangingfrom my chest? My friends, my so-called friends would walk allover me. Men are always patrolling the borders of each other'smasculinity, you know that. Razzing anyone who. She sniffled. “I’m going to, Laura.”Laura was silent. Limp.What do I do? Fuck, fuck, FUCK! I was wrong! I’m sorry, Laura! I’m really sorry! I thought so many horrible things about you! And all you wanted—all you needed—was someone to talk to. Someone who really cared about you.What do I DO? I must be able to do something. I have to.I have to make it up to her.Am I ... Am I a bad person? Alaina shuddered. I am. I’m a bad person. Oh no. I almost let her leave! I ALMOST LET HER LEAVE!Tears. "Fortunately, my brain didn't fail me the way my looks did. I am almost always the smartest person in the room. And here is a little secret you may not know: most people are so afraid of being seen as stupid that they won't contradict you if you speak with any kind of authority. I didn't use this technique for purely selfish purposes until I was in medical school.For most of my undergraduate years, I was in love with one particular girl: Jessica. She was tall, only a few inches shorter than me,. . alone... for three weeks?" I sputtered."I know you two aren't exactly best friends these days Billy... but she is your sister, and Johnnies away... you havvvve to help her," she said in a voice that brooked my argument.Even if I had absolutely hated my sister I would have gone. I simply owed everything to my mom and couldn't refuse any request from the woman who'd raised Allie and I alone, a woman who'd slaved away to make a loving home for us after our father had died when I was three."When.