The B Girls - By Cari Cole Page 0,6

looking down their nose at you because of it," Mae said. She ground her cigarette out in a ceramic dish they'd brought out to the patio for use as an ashtray.

"You're right I don't have to worry about it and neither do you," Jane said.

Lucy squinted at both of them with concern. "What's going on here? Mae, why would you think anyone would look down their nose at you for any reason? Especially your clothes. You've seen the way I dress. We live in the same neighborhood for God's sake." Lucy had never met a pair of jeans or sweatpants she didn't like and the very thought of wearing something that had to be ironed--except for weddings, funerals and the occasional church service--gave her hives.

Mae's lower lip trembled. "You don't understand, either of you. You never had to." She looked at Jane. "Your mother probably dressed you in designer diapers and I'd bet everything I own that you were the queen bee at your high school." She turned to Lucy. "And you, you're one of those people that can get away with anything by being 'creative' and 'intellectual'. Well, I'm here to tell you it isn't like that for all of us. Some of us live on the other side of that coin."

"What the hell are you talking about? Just because you came from a peanut farm in South Georgia instead of the city? Or some college campus?" Jane said.

"I lied."

The Truth As We Know It

Mae's voice was so low when she responded that Jane and Lucy took several seconds to process her words.

"Lied about what?" Lucy said. "Your parents?"

Mae nodded looking miserable and blinking back tears.

"So what?" Jane said.

"I knew you wouldn't get it," Mae said.

Lucy shot Jane a look letting her know to back off.

Jane shrugged and leaned back in her chair.

Lucy couldn't imagine what Mae's parents had to do with any of this but obviously Mae had something bubbling to the surface after being submerged for a while. "Maybe you should explain," Lucy said. "We want to help." And maybe thinking about someone else's problems would take her mind off her own for a while.

"The only true thing I've told anyone about my past is that I'm from South Georgia. Even Chip doesn't know the whole truth," Mae said.

"What is the truth?" Lucy asked.

Mae sucked in a breath and averted her eyes before answering. "My parents were total white trash losers. Drinking, drugs, jail, unemployment, bad trailer parks--the whole works. I spent more time in foster care than I did with them. Which was a blessing and the only reason I made it to college. I was the kid everyone either felt sorry for or ridiculed in high school." She shuddered. "It was hell. After I made it to UGA, I invented a different past for myself and made it a point to learn how to dress and how to act to fit in. But deep down, I always knew I didn't really belong, that if I wasn't vigilant my genes would come back to bite me and everyone would know I'm a big impostor."

Lucy blinked back tears of her own but Jane just stared at Mae with her mouth open for several seconds. "You're serious," she finally said.

Anger sparked along with shame and hurt in Mae's eyes when she looked squarely back at Jane. "Of course I'm serious. Lately it's been harder. My kids are getting older and I'm always afraid I'm going to embarrass them or do something to make the other kids treat them the way I was treated in high school."

Lucy got it. For the first time Mae made sense to her. The ruthlessly clean house. The immaculate clothes, hair and manicure. The fact that she never, but never, drank more than two or three drinks even when it was just the girls. Her constant worry about Chelsea and Trey's grades, sports performance and social life.

"You need a serious reality check," Jane said.

Lucy started to shush her but Jane shook her head indicating she knew what she was doing.

Lucy waited, ready to jump in if Jane went too far.

"All those people you seem to think are somehow better than you? They all have their secrets too," Jane said.

"If you're talking about Betsy Lamar's husband having an affair or Leanne Standish being an alcoholic, it's not the same thing," Mae said.

"You're right. But the fact that Betsy was 'Betsy Boop' stripper extraordinaire when she met Mike or that Leanne drinks in part because Truman