Page 44 of Under the Weatherman
“Are there others?”
God, so many.
“I mean, yeah.” I took a deep breath, let it out. “Most recently, about a month ago, I ran into an old friend from school. We reconnected, hit it off, and I went home with her. I thought it was the start of something.”
Dr. Zimmerman leaned forward a hair. “And?”
“Turns out it wasn’t her.” I laughed. “She just made all of it up.”
“Made it up how?”
“Her friend had put her up to a prank. She pretended to be an old acquaintance, and I guess I filled the rest in.”
Saying that out loud, I realized how much I’d contributed to that fiction.
Dr. Zimmerman wrote something. “How did you find out? Did she tell you?”
I inhaled, trying to figure out the shortest way through this. “A mutual friend of ours clued me in.”
“You must have felt so betrayed. Did you confront this woman about it?”
I nodded. “She said she told me, but I was too caught up in an alternate reality and misinterpreted her words.”
“So let’s go back to the friend you thought you were dealing with.”
I squirmed a little. This was a much touchier topic. “Lizzy.”
“What was your relationship to her?”
“She lived nearby. She was like me. Nerdy, bookish, and not conventionally attractive.”
Dr. Zimmerman lifted one eyebrow. “You don’t think you’re attractive?”
“Not then, I wasn’t.” I scratched my neck, embarrassed for some reason.
“Were kids mean to you?”
“Kids were always mean, but I wasn’t much better. While I thought I was getting more popular, I left my middle school friends behind. And then I walked right into my comeuppance.”
“How so?”
“Sophomore year, two of the popular girls invited me on a date on the same night, putting me in an awkward spot.”
“When it rains, it pours?”
“That was exactly what I was thinking at the time. I’d agreed to go out with Meghan when Vicky asked me out. In hindsight, I know I should have turned Vicky down and honored my commitment, but I was fifteen and stupid.”
Dr. Zimmerman’s eyes widened. “Please don’t tell me you tried to go out on two dates at once.”
I shook my head. “No, they were friends, so they would have figured that out. That should have been my first clue something was off.”
“So what did you do?”
I clenched my fists, mortified all over again by a social situation I’d been in no way prepared to handle. “I thought I was doing the right thing by letting Meghan down before telling Vicky yes.”
“Why’d you make that choice?”
“Honestly, I don’t remember.” Though the fallout was etched in my mind. “I guess I liked Vicky more.” That wasn’t true. I wasn’t paying to lie to my therapist. “Actually, I thought she’d help my reputation better.”
