The Truth Hurts

  I spun around and I glared at them, my eyes getting watery.

“I can’t believe you guys!” I yelled. They looked at each other with widened eyes.

“I thought you were my friends!” I whipped my purse backwards. Alexia rolled her window down, rested her arm on the windowsill and raised her eyebrows, “Honey, we never were”. The window rolled back up and the vehicle drove away.

The end of the school year already. To celebrate, my best friends, Alexia, Samantha, Ally, Gabrielle, Febee and I were going to the movies.

 “Hey Mi, did you ask your parents yet?”, Gabrielle came up to me at my locker with a smile.

“Huh?” I turned around to look at the curly haired girl “Oh yeah, uh, no not yet”. I felt a little shy for forgetting.

“Do you even want to come?” her brow slightly furrowed.

 “Yeah, yeah, I just haven’t had the time to ask them yet”, I assured her. We walked to English class together; I put down my stuff and sat at my usual seat beside the door. Gabrielle and I looked at each other across the room, exchanging a smile. Samantha, Ally, Febee and Alexia walked in. Alexia first, like always. They all sat at their seats; Samantha next to Ally, on the right side of the class room in the third row, Febee behind Alexia in the second row. I looked at Alexia, perched over her desk, her flat blond hair dropping down on both sides of her face. I leaned my head in closer to my desk to see what she was doing. She was writing a note. She folded it two times and turned diagonally to face Samantha, whispering “Pass it on to Miley”. Samantha passed it to Ally and it went on to two other people before it came to me. I unfolded the small yellow paper and read it; so did your mom say yes, can you come? Her writing was neater than mine. I took out a blue pen and wrote back under her message; no, not yet, I’ll ask her tonight, you can tell the others. I gave it back to the girl next to me and she passed on to Alexia, her shoulders dropped and her eye lids lowered. I gave her a side smile to convince her not to worry.

That forty-five minutes of class passed by quickly. It seems that the older I get, the faster the days pass by. I mean, I’m already in secondary 3, I remember getting into high school for the first time as if it were yesterday. Back at my locker, I could tell that Alexia hadn’t told the other girls yet, because Ally came up to me.

“So Miley, can you come?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t asked my parents yet”, I shrugged while selecting books for my next class. She tilted her head and her eye lids lowered just like Alexia, “Do you really have to ask your parents, I mean, you’re in Sec.3 Miley. Think about it”, then she spun on her heel and walked away. I stared down at my purple lock for a moment, replaying in my mind the words Ally had said. I took it and locked my door closed.

It seemed as if the day passed by faster than my classes. Next thing I knew, I was on the bus home. Febee got on my bus, sat next me, and placed her school bag down in front of her.

“ So I heard that you might not be coming, that’s too bad”. My brow furrowed.

“I didn’t say that”.

“Well that’s what Alexia told me”, she said.

“No, I only said that I haven’t asked my parents yet, does Samantha think that too?”

 “No, I haven’t had time to talk to her about it”.

 “Oh”. I looked down.

Usually they talk about everything to each other, and they hang out every day at lunch, how could she not have had the time to talk to her about it. I don’t know the whole story, maybe it was true, maybe she didn’t have time.

 When I got home, I was alone; my mom wouldn’t come home before six. I did my French, History and Math homework during the two and a half hours that she was gone. When my mom finally arrived, I let her settle down, then I asked her the question. “Mom, have you decided if I could go to the cinema with my friends or not, have you talked about it with Dad yet?” I intertwined my fingers together, awaiting the answer nervously. She looked at me, “Yes”. I sighed in relief. “But I want you to be careful okay, I trust you, you’re responsible, be back at around ten. If there’s traffic and you’re back later, then that’s okay, I’ll understand”.

 I smiled “Thanks Mom”. I jumped to hugged her and ran off to my room. I hopped onto my double bed, sitting criss-crossed and took out my pink bedazzled cell phone. I tapped in Alexia’s phone number, it rang. Alexia answered with a monotone voice “Hello?”

 “My mom said yes!” I squealed with excitement.

“Oh, that’s great, see ya tomorrow”, she said, without much enthusiasm, perhaps she was tired.

“Ok bye”, I said.

“Bye”.

The next day was Saturday. At four thirty I was getting ready, we planned to leave at five; it would take about an hour to get to the cinema and the movie is about two and a half hours, that would leave us with thirty minutes to pay our tickets and get popcorn. I grab my small blue purse and stuff it with my keys, my iPod and earphones, my cell, money, and other useful things. Febee is driving us, she’s sixteen, the only reason she’s with us in secondary 3 is because she repeated her secondary 1, the rest of us are fifteen. The doorbell rings; I hurry to the door, purse over my shoulder, and open it. It’s Samantha.

 “Ready?” she smiles.

 “Yup” I turn around and look towards the kitchen, “Bye Mom!”

“Bye Miley! Have fun!” she yells back. I run down the steps to the red van with Samantha. There are six of us. The van is our easiest and fastest travel option, the best part is that it’s also free. The girls are waiting for us. I open the door and hop in, Samantha following behind me. We are now on our way.

“Sooo, how was your date with Jason?”  Samantha nudges Ally.

  “You know, as soon as he said that he didn’t actually play basketball, I knew he wasn’t the right guy”, Ally says proudly.

“So you dumped him because he wasn’t a basketball player?” Alexia raises an eyebrow in disgust.

  “N-no, well, yeah, but also because he lied to me!” Ally hesitates, trying to find a good enough excuse. She crosses her arms. “Enough talking about me, how is it going with Matthew, Alexia?”

“Oh it’s going super well, we’re thinking of going to the next step-”

 “What’s the next step?” Febee interrupts.

“Well, we’ve been keeping it a secret from our parents ever since we started going out, but now we’re both feeling more comfortable with presenting each other to our families” brags Alexia.

 “You guys haven’t done that yet?!” Ally mocks.

 “Hey, at least I don’t dump my boyfriend just because he doesn’t play my favorite sport!” Alexia snaps.

“Okay, girls, we don’t want to start an argument here” Febee interrupts again, just in time. The girls stop and look away from each other, crossing their arms and rolling their eyes.

After a long trip of girl talk, we finally arrived at the cinema in Sherbrooke. Febee parked and we all hopped out. She locked up and we all ran towards the building, purses swinging as we went. The line to the ticket booth was not as long as we expected it to be; good thing too, we didn’t want to be late for the movie. It was now past six and we were standing in line to get our tickets. We were next for the booth after the fat smelly man standing in front of us; Ally was closest to him. She turned to us.

“Oh my god, someone cut my nose off” she whispered.

“What?!” asked Samantha.

“The guy in front of us”, she said, covering her nose. We all sniffed the air.   “Ew! He must take a shower like once month or something” Samantha whispered, but a little too loudly. My eyes widened and we all quickly turned our heads to look at him, thinking he must have heard us. We turned back around, and everyone except for me laughed. By the time we got our tickets, popcorn and drinks, it was six twenty. We quickly went to the washroom, hurried back out and grabbed some 3D glasses on our way to cinema room number nine. The advertisements had just ended; we were just in time for the movie. We found an empty row a little further back than the center and settled down there.  Putting our purses on the floor in front of us, our drinks in the cup holders on the end on the arm rests and placing the popcorn bags on our laps, we were ready to watch the movie.

The movie was great; it was funny, emotional and intense. It was about a group of mean girls rejecting this one girl in the group. I cried at the part where she discovers that they were trying to get rid of her.  I wouldn’t go back to see it right away though, but after a while, I’ll just be dying to see it again. We all took a deep breath.

 “What a movie!” exclaimed Ally, as we all dumped our 3D glasses into their recycling bin and headed for the doors. I squinted from the light when we got out of the theatre, my eyes had been adjusted to dark for so long. When we got outside, it was dark, but with the help of some streetlights, it was just bright enough for us to find the van. Febee unlocked it and we all got in. I sat in the back on the right corner; Samantha sat two seats over from me in the back on the left corner. Some of us looked tired and some of us didn’t, I was feeling a little tired myself though. I usually feel tired after seeing a movie, especially if I’ve cried during the movie. Febee backed up out of our spot and drove out of the parking lot. We were now on the road, I could tell that we were going to be home later than planned but that was okay, I guess. While the girls were talking about nails and hair and shopping, I didn’t feel like talking, because I was tired. I plugged my earphones into my iPod and then into my ears and I put on a song. A few songs later, I was asleep, but not fully asleep. It was like when you’re half asleep and half awake, you’re sleeping, but you can hear everything around you. I tried to ignore the voices around me, then I heard my name.

I wake up, but I keep my eyes closed. My playlist has finished, so my music isn’t playing anymore. I listen to their conversation.

“Is Miley sleeping?” I hear Ally ask, then I feel someone shaking me a little, but I stay still. They said my name, what were they saying about me?  

“Yeah” answered Samantha.

“How much longer can we wait before we can tell her?” Ally’s words worry me. I listen carefully.

“I mean, we don’t want to hurt her feelings, now do we?” Gabrielle’s voice is soft as she asks the question.

“We want to get rid of her but we’re afraid to hurt her feelings?” asks Alexia. Get rid of me? A feel a stabbing pain in chest.

“Really, the only reason we kept her for so long is because of you, Gabrielle”, adds Samantha, with emphasis on the “you”.

“Yeah but why did we invite her to the cinema with us then?” asks Febee.

“So she wouldn’t think that something weird was going on. I mean if your best friend invited everyone to a shopping trip but you, wouldn’t you think that’d be strange?” Alexia tries to make her point.

“Yeah, I get it now” says Febee.

“But seriously, she’s immature, she’s fifteen and she still asks her mommy for permission to go out with friends” Ally mocks “I mean, we all just tell them what we’re gonna do, and if they don’t agree, then, so what!”.

“I bet she still plays with dolls” Samantha joins in, only adding to the tightness in my chest.

 “No, what I noticed is that her hair is not as nice as ours, I bet she only washes them once a week”, ridicules Febee.

“Come on, don’t exaggerate, it’s probably only…once a month”, laughs Alexia. I know they’re exaggerating, but it doesn’t stop the words from being hurtful.

“You know, once, I saw her fixing her hair in the mirror at her locker, and I felt like telling her, ‘It’s no use trying to make yourself look beautiful, you’ll never be’”, Ally laughs.

A tear rolls down my cheek. A big “ooooohh” filled the car.

“Now that’s harsh”, says Samantha, I could tell in the way she said it that she was grinning.

“Don’t you think you guys are being a little mean to her?” Gabrielle tries to make them notice.

“Shut up Gab, you’re not any better than her”, Alexia hisses. Gabrielle starts to cry, she is very sensitive emotionally.

“See what I’m talking about, she’s crying like a baby when she could easily just take it like women”, she sounds annoyed.

“Hey, everyone, guess what I saw Miley do once in class!” says Ally, “Okay, she’s fifteen, and I saw her picking her nose!” she says with shock in her voice as if, she too, has just heard it.

“She was scratching it”, says Gabrielle, still crying.

“Shut, up, you’re ruining my story!” Ally raises her voice at her. It’s silent for a moment. They don’t want to say anything because they know what they are doing is wrong. And when someone raises they’re voice, you know things are getting serious. Alexia spoke up.

“I always think to myself, why do we keep Miley, even if we all know it was Gab’s fault for keeping us from rejecting her, we could have done it anyway, I mean, she’s not as pretty as us or as good in school, she has C’s in every subject”. I do not have C’s in every subject, she just wants to make me look bad. “In fact, I’m starting to wonder why we even kept Gab” adds Alexia. “I know, right, it’s like if she was trying to ruin everything-” “Miley’s teeth are so crooked that even braces couldn’t help” Febee quickly adds to try to change the subject. Febee and Gabrielle had been friends since second grade, she doesn’t want to continue the insults on her. But when you think about it though, really they all just betray each other.

“Yeah, she probably has glasses but she wears eye contacts instead”, all they’re doing now is blabbing out whatever insult they can think of. This is ridiculous. Febee stays quiet for a moment because she wears eye contacts, “No. I don’t think she wears eye contacts or glasses. Her eyes are retarded, but she doesn’t do anything to help them, that’s basically why she can’t see how ugly she is. And to think that she even tries to do her hair in the morning, she’s doing a nasty job”.  

I know these things aren’t true, but they’re hurtful anyway, it’s even more hurtful coming from the ones I thought were my friends. I always knew something didn’t feel right being with them, but I stayed with them anyway, because they were my only friends. And we had been friends since fifth grade. All that time, they wanted to get rid of me… I have enough, I snap my eyes open.

“By the way, is Miley still sleeping?” asks Ally, they all look at me worriedly, “How long have you been awake Mi?” Samantha asks nervously.

“Oh, I just woke up”, I lie and act as if I’m sleepy.

“Oh, okay”, she gives me a fake smile. I try to act like I know nothing, but it doesn’t work.

I swallow down the clump of emotion rising up in my throat. But the anger is growing stronger inside of me, like a shaken soda can, ready to explode.

“Can you please stop the car?” my voice is shaky.

“Why, we’re almost at your house?” said Febee.

“Good, just stop the car” I slightly raise my voice.

“Okay” she sounds clueless but I know very well that deep inside her she has a feeling that I had overheard. It should have been obvious to everyone; I could have woken up at any moment, in the middle of their conversation. But clearly that was a risk they were willing to take, they didn’t care, they wanted to get rid of me anyway. I put my iPod and earphones back into my purse. The van stops, I open the door roughly, and quickly get out. I spin around and I glare at them, my eyes getting watery.

“I can’t believe you guys!” I yelled. They look at each other with widened eyes.     “I thought you were my friends!” I whip my purse backwards. Alexia rolls her window down, rests her arm on the windowsill and raises her eyebrows, “Honey, we never were”, the window rolls back up and the vehicle drives away.

I stand here all alone on the rough sidewalk. I hope they’re happy. For pretending they were my friends for five years. For dragging me along to their activities just because it would look strange if they didn’t. For back stabbing me when I wasn’t around and for lying to me about what they thought about me all those years. Just when I’m about to run back home, the van stops with a screech in the middle of the road further away. Gabrielle jumps out. She runs towards me, and hugs me hard. We are both crying. “I’m so sorry” she says, her voice an octave higher than usual.

“No, it’s not you, you were fine, at least now I know who my real friend is” I reassure her. She’s the only one in the group who didn’t participate in their back stabbing ways and didn’t lie to me. She came up to me every morning with a smile on her face, she’s the only one who was true to me. All that time she just feared the same thing as me, getting kicked out of the group, she only laughed with them because she wanted to fit in. But those girls don’t deserve a friend like her. I hug her still, and cry harder on her shoulder, letting out a small squeak.

“It happens” she rubs my back in a circular motion, “At least now you know the truth, and I know, the truth hurts”.