Page 48 of Mr. Principal

She smiled at me and then her face grew serious. “Umm… Dana? I just want to clear the air…” she cleared her throat nervously.

I looked at her in concern. Clear the air? What was she talking about? I stared at her for a second, trying to guess what was coming next, but wanting to just run away and hide. Was she going to tell me off or something? I’d thought I’d been nice the whole time, but who knew? “You okay? Everything alright? Did I do something to upset you?”

She nodded, then thought better of it and said, “Well no. I mean… it has nothing to do with you.”

Now I was curious. “What’s wrong Becca?”

“I just want you to know that I was not seeing Tom while you guys were married. I would never ever do that. I swear to God.”

I raised my brows. I didn’t know where this confession was coming from.

“You do believe me, don’t you?” she asked me, looking as if she were about to cry.

“Becca, me and Tom are old news, if you were seeing him while we were married—”

“I wasn’t! I swear I wasn’t!” she cried, tears welling in her eyes.

I felt instantly terrible. “Hey, don’t cry! I was just going to say that I’d moved on. That part of my life is over. I don’t care what Tom does or did.”

She sighed. “Thank you. That means a lot. I just didn’t want you to think I was some conniving whore.”

That’s exactly what I’d thought she was, before I’d gotten to know her, but there was no way I was going to tell her that.

“I don’t think ill of you, Becca. I really don’t”

She stared at me and narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure?”

“Very.”

“Good. Because I’m leaving Tom. And I wanted you to be the first to know.”

I stared at her in shock and said the first thing that popped into my head. “But you guys have only been married for like a minute!”

“One minute too long,” she said, swiping at tears. “I just don’t think I love him. And I don’t think he loves me. Call me silly, but I’m only nineteen. I don’t want to be tied down the rest of my life to someone who doesn’t love me only to wake up seven years later and watch him divorce me and marry someone half my age…”

“Ummm... that’s exactly what he did to me.”

“I know!” she said, “I can’t let that be my future. I’m not stupid… I know you think I am—”

“I don’t think you’re stupid, Becca,” I said fiercely. Now I felt terrible for thinking anything bad about her. Clearly, she was hurting.

“Well, I’m not stupid. A little naïve, but not stupid. The only reason I even stuck around past a month was because Meredith is such a sweetheart and I know what it feels like to grow up in a home shuttled between parents. I just wanted to be her friend, you know? And now I feel terrible that I’m leaving her and her father.”

She started sobbing then and I reached out to put my arms around her. She was smarter than I’d given her credit for. She was also clearly a beautiful person.

“Listen to me, don’t you feel bad for an instant about leaving Tom. And don’t stay with him a minute longer out of a sense of guilt. Meredith is a trooper. She’ll adjust. Trust me. That’s why I stayed so long and stayed so miserable. I thought I was doing what was right but I wasn’t. What was right would have been showing Meredith what a functional relationship looks like. And Tom and I were anything but functional.”

Becca continued to cry, and I awkwardly tried to soothe her. “It’s fine… you’ll be fine. Stop crying,” I pleaded.

“But,” she said, trying to compose herself as she pulled away and reached for her bag. She started to fix her makeup. “Will you still let me see Meredith after Tom and I divorce? I know he won’t, but I thought that maybe you would? I don’t want to stop being a part of her life.”

And I know Meredith would have felt the same way. She went on and on about all the fun things she and Becca would do together. She loved Becca and there was no way I was going to hurt the special relationship they had.

“Becca, I promise you can see Meredith whenever you want. She loves you and I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize your relationship with her.” I paused then and asked, “You said I was the first to know. Does that mean Tom doesn’t even know yet?”

She shook her head. “I was going to wait until tonight after the party. Since it’s your weekend, I figured it would be better to do it now so that Meredith wouldn’t hear us argue. My parents argued all the time and it was a nightmare.” She shook her head. “I already packed a bag.”

“Where will you go?” I said.