The B Girls

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 Standish makes his money producing porn isn't just the same thing, it's proof positive that these people you so admire don't have one tenth as much class as you."

Lucy's eyes went wide. She hadn't known any of that. "Are you serious? About Betsy and Truman I mean."

"Oh yeah. You'd be amazed if you knew the kind of secrets that are being kept in the houses of Pine Bluff Country Club Estates."

"Wow," Lucy said. "You aren't kidding."

"The point," Jane said turning back to Mae, "is that you shouldn't be ashamed of your background. You should be proud of the fact that you overcame it and made a good life for yourself and your family."

Lucy was starting to think Mae hadn't been listening when she suddenly started to laugh.

"Truman Standish makes dirty movies? Bald, short, coke-bottle glasses Truman?" Mae said.

Jane nodded. "Oh yeah. Wanna hear about John and Trish Markham?"

"I do," Lucy said. She felt a tiny twinge of guilt at listening to such evil gossip but, well . . .

"They're swingers."

"No way! Not Trish. She leads a bible study group at the Baptist church," Mae said.

"The very one," Jane said.

"And just how do you know all of this?" Lucy wanted to know.

"The years I spent married to Lloyd were very educational," Jane said.

"Oh my God you didn't . . . I mean you weren't . . ." Mae couldn't find the words.

"Swinging with Trish and John?" Jane shook her head. "No but not because they didn't try to convince me--all three of them. It was the last straw that sent me to divorce court."

Mae didn't know what to say.

"So you see we all have our secrets," Jane said. "As for the designer diapers and the queen bee thing. You're right but I doubt I saw more of my parents than you did yours--sleazy personal injury lawyers make a lot of money but they work a lot of hours. And I like to think I've grown a conscience since I tortured the less popular in high school."

"I'm sorry," Mae said. "I apologize to both of you I was out of line."

"No worries," Jane said.

"I'm just glad you got it out," Lucy said.

"Let's get out of here," Jane said. "We really need to kick up our heels."



###



"I guess everyone has their sacred cows," Lucy said when Jane turned up her nose at the Shitkicker's appetizers. What the hell had she expected? Sushi?

Jane looked a little green around the gills. "Sacred cows?"

"Okay, maybe that wasn't the best choice of words." Lucy eyed the huge assortment of deep fried and sauced food--including a basket of fatty ribs swimming in a brown sugar based barbecue sauce. "But this isn't a salad bar kind of place."

"Can I help it if I have a fear of getting fat?"

"Yes, you can. I've been meaning to tell you you're starting to look a little pinched around the edges. That can happen when the main staple in your diet is iceberg lettuce with lemon juice dressing," Mae said.

"Besides, what's the difference between this and that ice cream you put away this afternoon?" Lucy asked.

"That was a treat not a meal," Jane said. "I shudder to think how much grease I could blot off this food with a paper napkin."

Lucy held up a fork. "Blot any grease off of this perfectly horrifying food and I'll stab you."

"Take your own advice and lighten up," Mae said. She took a handful of French fries dripping with melted cheese, bacon, and chili, to emphasize her point.

Jane winced and reached for a Buffalo wing. "I'll have to do doubles at the gym this week."

The girls were sitting at a table in the raised dining area of The Shitkicker, decked out in their western finery waiting for the evening's entertainment to start. Lucy had ordered one of every fattening, greasy appetizer on the menu along with a pitcher of Spicearita's--signature drink of the bar.

The Shitkicker was known for having the best live bands, the best drinks, and the best time in all of Metro Atlanta. And the girls had ringside seats.

"I thought bars like this died after the Urban Cowboy craze ended," Jane said.

"I'm having a Thelma and Louise flashback myself," Mae said. "Are you sure we should be doing this?"

"Of course we should be doing this," Lucy said. "We're going to line dance when things get cranked. No soccer moms here tonight."

"That's for sure, I feel like a character in a B movie western," Mae said.

"Hey those B movie queens were pretty bad ass," Jane said.

"Brazen," Lucy said.

"Bold," Mae said.

"Bitchy in a good way," Jane said.

Jane raised her glass for a toast. "To The B Girls."

Lucy thought about that for a second. "I think I like it. To The B Girls."

Mae raised her glass to join in the toast. "Us?" Mae said. "The B Girls?"

Lucy and Jane nodded.

"Bold, Brazen, Bitchy, Brave and Bad Ass--that's us," Jane said. "From this day forward."

Mae clinked glasses with them. "To The B Girls." She prayed Chip and the kids would never find out about this. They'd know she'd slipped gear if they could see her wearing a Stetson and cowboy boots.

"You know," Lucy said, "I'm more of a sagging C cup."

"Hey, speak for yourself. I don't plan on anything sagging for at least ten more years," Jane said.

"At least as long as you have an underwire and and a good plastic surgeon," Lucy said.

"I don't think her boobs are big enough to sag," Mae said. "Mine on the other hand are in danger of getting tucked into my waistband if I don't put on my bra first."

"Yow! Too much information," Jane said. "And I'll have you know I'm toting around a pair of solid C cups."

Lucy gave her an exaggerated once over. "More like a skimpy B."

Jane just shook her head. "This conversation is getting a little too weird for me. I think it's time for Mae to join the line dance."

Mae was shaking her head before Jane finished talking.

"Oh yes you are," Jane insisted.

"You and Lucy go. I'll stay here and keep an eye on our stuff."

"Lucy will sit this one out," Jane said. "You're up first."

"I think I need another drink first. Alcohol lends false courage and I could use a little right now," Mae said.

Jane stood and pulled Mae to her feet. "You can use some of that false courage later when we get you up on the dance bar."

The dance bar was a replica of the one the bartenders worked behind but its purpose was only to display the dance skills of the customers. Especially the female customers who were encouraged to display their talents by the appreciative male customers.

Jane had spotted this unique feature of the Shitkicker as soon as they walked in the door and decided that her goal in life--or at least for tonight--was to get Mae up on that bar.

"Hell will freeze over before I dance on a bar," Mae said.



###



"Who would've guessed?" Lucy said to Jane as they watched Mae performing a complicated clogging routine on top of the dance bar while the crowd cheered.

"Not me. I didn't think we'd get more than two drinks in her, let alone get her up on that bar."

"You know what this means?"

"We have to get up there too?"

"Yep," Lucy said. "Thank God we'll never see any of these people again. I'm afraid I don't have Mae's skill."

Jane shrugged and climbed the three steps placed at the end of the dance bar to assist the less agile in reaching the top.

Lucy went up after her.

Mae grinned when she spotted them and issued a silent challenge.

For the next five minutes Lucy and Jane did their best to keep up while reveling in the drunken wolf whistles and cheers of the crowd.

Sweaty and breathing hard, they shared a laughing hug before climbing down.

"Call Larry," Lucy said. "I have an idea."

Larry the Limo driver was providing them safe passage tonight. They'd had to call four limo services before finding a car on such short notice but Mae had been the only one willing to be the designated driver.

Unacceptable, Lucy had decreed. There would be no DD on this trip.

"I'm almost afraid to ask," Jane said as she pulled out her cell phone.

"Then don't. I think it should be a surprise."