“So you”re the pretty sister?” My middle school advisor says jauntily to me.

He smiles and walks away, with utter conviction he has paid me a kindness.

I suppress the sickening tsunami of self hatred, of self doubt.

My only worth to others is the falsified beauty that I brazenly present with a calm face.

A poker face, one without emotion that could be construed as “too much”.

Devoid of any real em...