Read To Be Someone for Free Online

wiped his eyes and moved over to hand me a box of tissues, Ruby still clinging around his neck. I couldn’t blow my nose on account of it being broken, so I dabbed delicately above my top lip instead.
    “I’m sorry about your friend. Had you known each other a long time?”
    We managed watery grins at each other, acknowledgment of the bizarreness of the situation.
    “Yeah, thince we were about five. Tham wath my betht friend in the world. I don’t know what to do with mythelf without her.… ”
    My watery grin drizzled away. Toby’s head suddenly shot up.
    “Oh, no! Sam died? Jesus, that’s terrible!”
    I stared at him and gulped with shock. All my old steel shutters clanged down to the ground around me, bang, bang.
    “How do you know Tham?” I hissed.
    Ruby’s eyes grew like saucers as she followed the exchange. Toby groaned. A blush crawled up his neck, into his cheeks, and over his ears.
    “I knew I should have admitted it straight away, but I thought you wouldn’t want to be recognized. I don’t—didn’t—know Sam, but I do know you. We met years ago, when Blue Idea was on tour in London. I interviewed you for Melody Maker , and you told me all about Sam, and the charity record, and how she had recovered from the leukemia. You were so happy she was better.”
    I thought I was about to explode.
    “I don’t believe it! You’re a …  journalitht ! You complete thcum-bag, how could you do thith to me? Did you thend her in firtht, to get into my room? ”
    I pointed at Ruby, who shrank back, terrified.
    “Wath thith whole thing planned? Ith there a photographer out there? Who’th the piece for? Or are you auctioning it to the high-etht bidder? Get the fuck out of here, now, before I call the polithe!”
    Toby stood up, clutching Ruby, panic and grief printed across both their faces.
    “No, Helena, please, you’ve got it all wrong. I didn’t even know you’d had an accident, honest! I swear it’s not a setup. I didn’t even recognize you at first, until you said your name. Please, I—”
    “Jutht get out!” I yelled feebly, completely unable to think straight.
    They shot through the door in a blur of fake fur and curls, Ruby gripping her juice carton so hard that Ribena sprayed up through the straw and across the carpet in their wake.
    I cried and cried, even though it made my face throb with pain. I didn’t care. I wanted it to hurt. All I could think was, How soon could I make this stop? How soon could I do the show?
    And the answer was … as soon as I got it all written down.

Jackie Wilson
I GET THE SWEETEST FEELING
    S AM GRANT WAS FIVE WHEN WE FIRST MET, AND I HAD RECENTLY turned six. I was in the backyard playing on my swing, a dangerous-looking contraption with frayed green nylon ropes and a plank for a seat, which my father had rigged up for me from a sturdy low branch of the big chestnut tree. The tree itself was in our garden, but the branch holding the swing wandered out and stuck over the fence into a separate paved area where our garage was.
    I was swinging mightily back and forward, with my back to the garage. Humming tunelessly and kicking my legs to make myself go higher, I was enjoying the sensation of the wind flapping my skirt up and catching underneath my hair. I was at the apex of the swing’s trajectory, eyeing the bloomers hanging on next door’s washing line, when a massive, metallic boom rang out in front of me and almost caused me to plummet off my seat. I managed to hang on, but listed heavily toward the left-hand rope, which made the swing twirl around, out of control. I hadn’t noticed the two figures standing nearby, until I rotated limply to a halt. Then I heard the sound of scornful laughter.
    “Not very good, are you? Let’s have a go,” said a voice.
    I turned to see a boy and a girl in the yard. The boy was holding a football and had a mean expression on his less-than-clean face. He looked to be a couple of years older than me. The girl was