The Girl Who Stutters and The Boy Who Mutters

Chapter Three

"You look like shit," Anna says to Becca when she finally makes her way back into the room nearly 45 minutes later.

And Anna is kind of right, Becca does look like shit. Her mascara is bleeding and she has huge bags under her eyes.

"I feel like shit," she says throwing her book over onto her bed. "I got to the after part in Looking For Alaska."

"I know h-how you f-feel," I say giving her a sympathetic look. I remember getting to the after part of that book. It was about a year ago and I was at the doctor's office, I remember my mother freaking out because I started crying, she thought I was in pain.

My parents have always thought there was something wrong with me besides my speech deficiency. They were always afraid I might just pass out or start screaming out of nowhere. They figured I wasn't normal because I didn't have as much of a social life as Anna did or because I preferred to stay inside and read as opposed to having a night out on the town.

"Great," Anna says walking towards Becca, "now we're going to be late fixing you up."

"I'm not as messed up physically as I am mentally," Becca says walking towards the bathroom, "and I've been in this predicament before. Give me five minutes."

And five minutes is what it took.

Finally we were off, and by finally I mean after Anna finished throwing a fit about how late she thought we were going to be. We all began walking off back towards the other side of campus.

"I have a question," Becca says to me after a couple minutes of just walking, "at first I thought you were just nervous, but I noticed you stuttering a lot-"

"It's a speech deficiency," Anna immediately snaps at Becca.

Becca doesn't bother asking any other questions as we continue walking and I would have done the same. Anna can sound really harsh at times, especially when someone starts asking questions about my stutter.

Anna hasn't appeared to have taken an immediate liking to Becca like she usually does with everyone else which is actually quite strange seeing as Anna knows how to get along with most everyone. But Becca is different, she's more like me than Anna. She'd rather read as opposed to worrying about what she's wearing to the next big party. She seems like the type of person who would fly solo though, she'd probably be perfectly happy if she didn't have a room mate.

Finally, after some time we can hear faint sounds of music as we draw near the party. My feet are already killing me due to this pair of high heels I was forced upon wearing. I'm not used to wearing any of these types of things and to be brutally honest I king of hate it. I mean even though I am short I could still do without the extra inches, in fact it would be preferable to not have the few extra inches.

Typically at most high school or college parties you'll find that there are the occasional drunks milling around outside of the actual party and I'd be lying if I said it were any different at this one. But I'd also be lying if I said they were all drunk. Although most people were holding a red solo cup, a lot of them are just talking and laughing, a couple have strayed away and are making out in various different areas of the party.

"Before we go in," Becca says stopping us, "you should know that these parties usually bore me so I'm usually gone in about half an hour. Don't be surprised if I disappear, I'll either be in a corner reading a book or on my way back to the dorm."

"You didn't even bring a book," Anna says furrowing her eyebrows.

"Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not there," Becca says patting the satchel type thing she's been carrying around with her.