Free BFF Breakup by Taylor Morris

thought about lying about it, but we never lied to each other. So I told her.
    â€œIt’s not a big deal,” I said. “It was sort of a last minute thing.” Okay, so I kind of lied. I have no idea why.
    â€œOh,” Brooke said as we walked to the front of school at the end of the day on Friday. “That’s cool.” She so didn’t look like she thought it was cool. She looked kind of surprised, and not in a good way. “Who all is going to be there?”
    Exactly the question I didn’t want to answer because everyone was going to be there except her. “Um, I think maybe Natalie and Julia are going to stop by. They might be spending the night too, but I’m not sure.”
    â€œSo it’s like a whole slumber party thing?” she asked.
    â€œWell, not really. It’s just really casual. Really last minute.”
    â€œReally?” Brooke said, but she was smiling. “Because I really want to know if it’s really casual and really last minute. Really .”
    â€œHa ha,” I said. “Seriously, I’d invite you but it’s at her house. If it were my house, it’d be totally different.”
    â€œYeah, you wouldn’t have to invite me because I’d already be there.”
    â€œF’sho,” I said.
    As I packed a bag for the night, Susanna called me on my cell.
    â€œMajor problem,” she said. “We have a leak in our roof. Can’t have the sleepover here.”
    â€œIs it from walking on the roof?” I joked.
    â€œNo,” she said. “Natalie and Julia and I talked about it and we think we should have it at your house. I’m tired of their houses and we haven’t seen yours yet. So it’s your turn. Is that okay?”
    It didn’t really seem like much of a question, but I guess I didn’t mind. Mom was actually at a conference in Chicago, which had started another fight—Dad wanting to know what kind of work conference happened on a Friday night—and my brother, Josh, was going to a friend’s after the high school football game. It was kind of perfect, actually.
    I made sure all traces of Josh’s dirty socks and shorts were out of sight, then picked up my room. I paused, looking at the stuffed animals on my bed. I had sort of teased Brooke about hers, even though I still had some. I wondered what Susanna and the girls would think of them. They’d probably think it was babyish. I scooped them all up, even my beloved Harold, and put them in a big duffel bag that I stuffed in the back of my closet. It was time to move on from them anyway.
    When everyone got to my house, we raided the pantry, stocking up on Pringles, gummies, cookies (alreadybaked, thanks very much), water, and Cokes. We settled ourselves in my room, where I had pulled out my best collection of movies just in case we wanted to watch something, and I had a new mix playing on my computer that I’d made earlier that week. We dumped our nosh on the floor. Susanna picked up the remote and started flipping through the TV channels, Natalie wondered if we should call any boys, and then Julia asked, “So, what’s the deal with Brooke?” Suddenly I had a very bad feeling in my stomach.
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œShe means,” Susanna said, turning her head but not her eyes toward me as she kept changing channels, “what’s her deal? Why does she act like she’s better than us?”
    â€œShe doesn’t,” I said, feeling defensive about Brooke, but also knowing they had reason to ask that about her. It wasn’t like she was being the world’s friendliest girl or anything.
    Julia said, “I never did anything to her and it’s like she shoots me dirty looks every day at lunch.”
    â€œYou’re just misreading her,” I said. “She does like you guys.” I was pretty sure this wasn’t true, but I couldn’t say what I really thought,