I waited for my own transformation with barely concealed impatience. The only comfort seemed to be that my best friend Kevin was in the same boat, bobbing sadly behind our peers on the treacherous sea of puberty. He used to joke that at least we didn’t smell as bad as the others, and that was true – they all seemed to reek like skunks, as though growing up caused you to develop stink glands along with underarm hair.

I liked Kevin. He could always make me laugh.

I liked him. I never meant for it to happen.

It was late October, a few days before Halloween, when I invited him to my house for one of our weekly sleepovers. We’d been having them since we were little kids and they seemed as natural to me as dinner at 6 o’clock every evening.