The B Girls Read Online Free

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