The Way We Were

The Way We Come Clean

Marcy was at her locker, fixing her high pony when she looked up and spied a tearful Tina striding her way. "What's up, T? You look like someone shot your dog."

Tina leaned against the locker next to hers. "Artie broke up with me."

Marcy's eyes widened. "What?!"

Tina nodded. "I l-lied about something and f-finally told him the truth. H-he's really angry with me."

"Did you cheat on him?"

"No." Tina shook her head.

"Are you really a dude?"

Tina snapped her gaze to Marcy's. "No!"

"Then what's the big deal?" Marcy put up her brush and shut her locker.

"I s-should t-tell you. So all my f-friends can leave me." Tina bit her top lip.

"You're being melodramatic."

Tina sighed. "I lied about having a stutter."

"What?" Marcy didn't understand that at all.

"My s-stutter. It's not real." Tina accidentally stuttered at the intensity of Marcy's green eyes.

"What do you mean it's not real? Who fakes a stutter?!"

Tina looked down and fidgeted with the frills on her cheer skirt. "I was always shy. I figured out that people didn't want to talk to people with a stutter so I practiced it until I got it right. People left me alone."

"Wow." That wasn't a good wow.

"I'm sorry for lying to you-"

"Did you know I had a speech impediment and a stutter when I was little?" Marcy cut in. "On top of being the freak that couldn't get English, I just plain couldn't talk. I was made fun of by everybody and I got into fights almost every day. It took two years of speech therapy to get me out of that and it can come back at any moment."

Tina felt low. "I didn't know."

"It's not something I advertise."

Tina swallowed hard. "You must hate me. You had such a hard time and I've been making light of it for my own selfish purposes."

"It's not like you knew." Marcy pursed her lips.

"You must have felt like we were kindred souls. That we had the same struggle and I just stomped all over that. I'm a fraud. You have more in common with Rachel."

Marcy held up a hand. "I have nothing in common with that wretched beast except we're both girls."

Tina giggled. "I'm really sorry."

Marcy sighed. "I guess it's okay. I get shyness. Why'd you come clean anyway?"

"I just couldn't keep up with the lie anymore. I wanted him to know all of me if we were going to go forward in our relationship. I guess we no longer have one."

"RT's a goober. He'll be back and if he's not, my mother always says a man is like a street car; one comes along every fifteen minutes."

Tina beamed. "Will you help me tell the girls?"

"Sure."

Tina felt better than she had all day. She knew Marcy was a real friend.

Marcy turned and started walking to the gym. "Are you at least really goth?"