Page 56 of Let's Pretend I'm Okay

I don’t get it. This is Margo, the girl who followed me home just so I’d talk to her. So why won’t she talk to me now? Did I do something wrong yesterday? Was she mad at me for leaving so suddenly?

All this anxiety is making my head hurt.

Olive steps next to me and tugs on my arm to see the phone. “Oh, you got it bad. Is that Margo’s number?”

I turn off the phone and slip it into my pocket. “You saw wrong.”

She laughs. “No, I definitely did not. I thought you said she was annoying. Why are you texting her?”

I shrug.

“Do you like her?” she asks.

“No.”

“Then why did you text her?”

“Does it matter?”

I make my way outside, but Olive tugs my arm. “My mom is picking us up.”

“I can take the bus.”

“Come on, she’s already here.”

I sigh and turn to follow her. I don’t say anything on the ride home. Olive does all the talking. She talks about how her drama class is holding auditions for their winter play and how she wants the lead role but she doesn’t know if she’ll get it.

When we walk inside the house, “my room” is occupied, so I set down my things by the front door and walk toward the back porch to hide away, but Olive follows me out.

I sit down on the steps.

Olive runs down, turning to stand in front of me with her script in her hand. “Want to help me practice my lines for the audition?”

“Nope.”

She frowns, following my gaze to my phone. “It’s not like you’re doing anything.”

“No,” I say.

“Come on. It won’t kill you.”

“Go ask your parents.”

She sighs. “Don’t you think I’ve tried? It’s not like you’re the first person I thought of. No offense.”

I lean against the porch post and close my eyes. “Why don’t you go practice with one of your friends?”

“I don’t have any,” she says.

I stare at her. Olive? No friends?

“Most of the kids at school think I’m weird. Even the other drama kids don’t seem to like me very much. They say I’m too loud.”

“Well, they sound like jerks.” Her words tug on my heart. I don’t like knowing that. I don’t want to practice drama lineswith her, but someone should. She shouldn’t be alone. She shouldn’t be unwanted.

I’m about to say something when my pocket buzzes.

Margo:

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