A Secret Betrayed

AlwaysARose (ChelleBee)

Summary:

Written for
https://fivedotoh.com/2022/02/22/fandangos-story-starter-3-2/
where the prompt given was
Laura dreaded hearing the alarm go off because today was the day she would have to…

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Laura dreaded hearing the alarm go off because today was the day she would have to go to school
and face all the teasing, all the whispers,all the giggles and snickers. Hardest of all, she’d have to face,
no, she would have to confront Monica, her friend of almost four years, and that’s not easy to do when you’re only ten years old.

But Monica had betrayed Laura’s deepest secret.
The secret only the two of them had known.
The secret they never talked about.
The secret that was so embarrassing, and, now that it
had become public knowledge, so humiliating to Laura.

She had stayed inside since Friday afternoon, the day of the betrayal, but today, Monday, she had to go to school.

Not that staying inside had helped all that much. There had still been the phone calls, and the kids singsonging in front of her house.

And now, at a quarter after eight, Laura was walking to school, followed, taunted, by those same kids.
Monica was not among them. Laura did not know and did not care why.

Monica was late to school that day. She and Laura did not look at each other.

But when the class was on the playground for recess, Laura walked over to Monica and said
in a low, angry voice, “People have been making fun of me since you told them… you know what.”

“I” Monica began.

No,” Laura interrupted, “I don’t want to hear any excuses,
because there isn’t any excuse for what you did. I will never talk to you again.”

But when the class went back inside, Laura dropped a note on Monica’s desk.
Monica opened the note and a lump rose to her throat when she read,
“I’ll always miss the friend I thought you were.”