It's Not True

“It’s not true,” Mina said. Her expression had remained the same throughout. The excitable manner in which Polly had related the story to her having no effect.

“But what if it is?” Polly asked, her tone remaining dead serious. The low voice she spoke in only loud enough for her friend to hear, sitting in the study area of the library as they were.

“There’s no way, not Mrs. Baker. And even if it was…”

“But if it was true, is true, imagine the scandal!” Polly interrupted, her eyes lighting up with the possibility. 

“Listen to yourself, just forget about it, this is just another way for some arsehole guy to go about degrading women.” Mina remained firm, continuing to show no interest whatsoever in the story.

“But it came from Darren.”

“And he’s just another one of those arseholes. Look, he would’ve heard it from a friend, and that would’ve come from another friend and they’ll all laugh and be disgusting and probably jerk off to the idea, but it won’t matter, because no one in their right mind will believe them.”

“You’re wrong, Darren’s not like those other guys.”

“Did he tell you who he heard it from?”

“No.” Doubt now starting to become evident in Polly’s replies.

“Did he tell you it was almost certainly bullshit?” Mina pushing her friend again for a negative answer to prove her point.

“No.”

“Then for all you know, him and his friends could’ve come up with the whole thing themselves. There’s no way he actually believes it.”

“But then why did he tell me?”

“Because you’re a girl. And you like to talk. And if girls start spreading this bullshit, then more people will start to pay attention to it and begin to question it, just like you’re doing now. And then it’s all going to get blown out of proportion.”

“You really think so?”

“You haven’t told anyone else about this have you?”

“No, not yet.”

“Promise me you won’t. This kind of shit just ends up with girls keeping each other down, women deriding other women.”

“Okay, you’re right. My lips are sealed. No one will hear of it from me.”

 Polly Shaw was thankful for having her best friend to talk to. Mina Reins was so level headed and smart that she’d kept Polly out of all sorts of sticky social situations these past couple of years. She didn’t approve of Darren, which was becoming a little bit of a problem, but she was still always there to talk to whenever Polly was unsure of something. There was no doubt in Polly’s mind as she left her friend there in the library that Mina was right. The story wasn’t worth considering as even a partial truth and she’d say as much to Darren the next time she saw him, promising herself to make sure to add that he should be ashamed of himself for ever thinking differently.

——

“I can’t say who, but trust me, it’s true, I promise.”

“What do you mean you can’t say. How can I believe you if you can’t say?”

“He was there.” Darren’s emphasis on the word ‘there,’ spoken in a such a way as to suggest it held all the answers.

“Who was there, what, you mean at Mrs. Baker’s?” Polly couldn’t help but smile, she was getting into the nitty gritty of the gossip now and knew it. She moved across closer to him on the couch, body language zeroing in, her eyes transfixed.

“There’s no way I’m telling you.”

“Well no, but forget that, what do you mean he was there, like at her house? Inside?”

“Not inside. That’s one of the reasons I know it’s not bullshit.”

“Outside? What like spying through the window or something?” Polly suggested, stunned by what she was hearing.

“Yeah. That’s what I heard,” Darren replied. Even he remained shocked at the revelation his friends had passed onto him.

“Oh my god, you have to tell me who!”

“Not a fucking chance.”

“But I’m your girlfriend. I deserve to know which of your friends is a total fucking creep. You should want to tell me to protect me, to help make sure I never tell him my address and stuff like that.”

“Oh come on, don’t do that.”

“If you tell me, I’ll be able to keep my distance.”

“I mean, I do want to tell you.”

“I promise I won’t tell anyone. Not even Mina.”

“You swear?”

“Yeah. It’ll prove to me that you really do care.”

——

“Let me get this straight, you want me to trust the words of some lowlife, stalking, sneaking, peeping Tom pervert?”

“Oh, I didn’t think about it like that.”

“Guys are so messed up. That’s fucking disgusting.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“So did he tell you who it was?”

“Umm.”

“Oh my god, he did!” Mina’s face finally revealing some emotion. This was gossip, and not just any old gossip, this was payback gossip that had every chance of being true. It’d serve whichever arsehole and all those other arseholes right if a whisper or two was spread about it.

“No, well, I mean…”

“Oh come on Polly, you have to tell me!”

“I promised Darren I wouldn’t.”

“Fuck Darren, who cares, it’s me.”

“Ahhh.”

“Come on, you know you want to tell me. Which one of those arseholes is actually a flesh and blood pervert, sneaking around houses and spying through windows?”

She thought for a moment, but it didn’t take long for Polly to breathe the one syllable name. The ‘You’re going to regret this,’ alarm bell ringing through her head not enough to keep it from spilling out of her lips.

“Will.”

“Will? Will Tenny? Oh my god, ew! Fuck, that’s gross. Remember to always close your blinds before you get changed.”

“You won’t tell anyone, will you?”

“Don’t you think it’s better that people know?”

“But then Darren will know it’s me.”

“No, he won’t.”

“He trusted me with it.”

“Yeah, but we’ll just change the story, leave Mrs. Baker out of it completely. Say one friend was walking by some random house and saw Will there in the garden, spying through the window, dick in hand.”

“You think that’ll work?”

“Of course it’ll work. Why wouldn’t people believe us?” Mina stated effortlessly, her mind racing with possibilities of how far they could really take it. “We can even add a second friend who said he seemed to be suspiciously lurking close to her house. And even a third friend who said she felt like she might have caught a glimpse of him through the mirror in her bedroom one evening.”

“Don’t you think that’s a little extreme? I mean, what’ll happen to him?” Polly questioned, still feeling uneasy at having revealed the name and wondering what would happen if Darren ever found out.

“Who cares. Hopefully the police come and take him away. Can you imagine if he’s been lurking around one of our houses? Can you imagine if he’s somehow managed to see one of us changing, or worse? Gives me the creeps even saying it.”

“Yeah, you’re right. It’s totally fucking disgusting,” Polly replied, knowing she was already a part of it now. Her indecision and uneasiness leaving her, there was only one question on her mind. “Who should we tell first?”