Title: Did You Hear?
Genre: Real Life
Rating: PG14
Characters: Kate, Suzanne, Julia, Will
Summary: The real story, whether people want to hear it or not, of a gay guy, a bible-thumper, a slut, and an oddball--Because real life isn't always nice and pretty.

--

Out of the blue, a call buzzed in.

It was from Suzanne.

“Did you hear from Julia?” She asked.

Julia.

So many thoughts pour through my head.

I reach out, almost unconsciously, to the girl who was once our Golden Girl. The one we all protected. The one who we could do nothing to save from herself.

Julia replied with a cheery message.

She seemed to want to pretend nothing had ever happened to separate us. She wanted to pretend she had never alienated us, and she had never lied to us.

Well fuck that.

I can be polite, but I was raised to tell the truth. In consequence, I’m well known for being bluntly honest. I often tell people not to ask me questions they don’t want the answer to, because pretty, ugly, polite or not, I’ll give you that answer.

--

Ms. Vase stared at us.

Long ago in high school, we had promised to completely alienate the teacher who took over for Mrs. O’Leary.

True, it was unfair to promise that. The new teacher had nothing to do with the injustice that had befallen our favorite English teacher.

And then, Ms. Vase decided it was alright to treat us like kindergarteners.

Julia had loved it. Of course she had, she was Ms. Vase’s favorite. She could do no wrong in the teacher’s eyes and Julia loved every minute of it.

However, none of us enjoyed being read to from children’s books, told to color in things, given safety scissors, and treated as if we were age five instead of fifteen.

Ms. Vase just stared at us as we argued our point that this project was unfair.

I must have seemed to be the unofficial leader of this rebellion, because it was me she turned to and asked: “Why do you all hate me so much?”

I couldn’t help it. My brain began to whirl up all the reasons. I frowned and said, “Well…” Fully meaning to give her a logical response—

—But the instant the words left my word, our teacher turned into a puddle. She ran from the room in tears and we could hear her sobbing outside in the hallway.

A guilty twinge hit me, but Will and Suzanne laughed and told me what a good job I had done. I smiled, and laughed.

People should know better than to ask questions they don’t want the answers to.

Especially to ask me.

--

Suzanne and I frowned at each other from across the table.

We had hit up the usual restaurant we always ate at when we wanted to chat, but this time the normal chatter took on a more melancholy tone.

Neither of us could ignore the way our once friends had abandoned us.

Neither of us could forget the days we worried and pushed for people who obviously could care less about us.

Julia wanted to start things up again.

I knew she was just being her usual friendly, if painfully oblivious self, but she must realize by now what she had done to us.

Or was she really that oblivious to anyone but herself.

Suzanne wanted to get back in contact. She wanted to know the news, as if she could bring back our old, closely-knit friendship through facebook.

I sighed, and remembered a time when our group had been stretched thin by the constant bickering between Suzanne and Julia.

--

Julia’s new religion of that week was Wicca.

Suzanne’s new reason Julia was going to Hell was witchcraft.

It was all Will and I could do to keep the two of them for going for the jugular.

Will and I played a careful game of mediator, but often Will would lose focus and side more with Julia then was needed. He would spin things out of control again, the lack of balance in the argument forcing me to side with Suzanne, or risk her feeling like she was being targeted.

While I sided with Suzanne, I had to carefully wind the argument down, trying to get everyone to focus less on what they disagreed on, and more of what everyone could agree was fair.

I used facts to my advantage. I knew the Bible, since I had been raised Roman Catholic, and I used what I could from memory to find balance—to sooth Suzanne’s Hell rant, and to calm Julia down from her pedestal.

I called myself a non-denomination Christian, even as I struggled with my own beliefs and views of the world.

I had to balance the Atheist in Will and the religion-jumping in Julia against the Baptist in Suzanne.

But honestly, I didn’t care as much as they did about finding an exact religion for me, I never had. I decided long ago that I would search for my own Truth in my own time.

I found out later that the name for what I had decided was Agnostic.

--

Suzanne pondered aloud where Will was.

I brought up the photos I had seen on Julia’s various websites, depicting Julia with her bouncing baby as Will and his younger sister smiled in the backgrounds.

Braxton the Fourth was still with Julia. She hadn’t gone through with the adoption—not that I had really thought she would.

I had hoped, but hope isn’t ever enough to make things happen.

Turns out that Will will probably be the closest thing little Braxton ever has to a father figure.

Julia and Will had obviously not done anything with their lives. They were still in the same miserable situation that Suzanne and I had last seen them in.

I had hung on desperately, before, to the hope that they would better themselves—that they would realize that they were intelligent and that they could go far if they actually did something.

Now I knew, without any uncertainty, that they would never push themselves—that they would never prove to the world the utterly beautiful people they were underneath their broken outer-shells.

I knew that they had taken all the times I had tried for them, to push them, to force them to be better, to get them to see their potential, that they had trashed it.

I knew that they had trashed my friendship completely, traded it in for cheap drugs and shallow pleasures.

They were no longer anything beautiful.

They were just broken.

--

But as you’ve heard, life goes on.

I push myself to be the better person that I had known within them. I push myself to be beautiful within, rather than broken throughout. I push myself to shine through my broken cracks, to make life better, to make life as beautiful as those I see hidden around me.

I watch Suzanne push herself to be more open. I watch her push herself to do better than anyone had thought of her. I watch her reach out to others in the same manner I had once reached out to Will and Julia.

And I hope, even though hope isn’t worth all that much these days, I hope that Suzanne continues to shine in all the ways that show just how beautiful she is inside.

I hope that maybe, we can all be beautiful—without being broken.

--

A/N: I feel bad adding to this story, because I never meant to ever add anything to it. I thought that the story was done with, that maybe that part of my life was over and done with--but then... well everything is stirred up again. As I said, life doesn't stop.

And if you haven't gotten this by now, you really ought to pay more attention: This is a real story. This all has happened. I wrote it as well as I could recall it. Sorry if that makes this story all the more upsetting, but I can't pretend it didn't happen.

So, thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. I love comments and critiques. I just love responses, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

-Kate, a.k.a. Kit.