Letting the door swing shut behind her, Darla walked along the tile floor and around the corner to the row of stalls that lined the bathroom wall on one side and sinks on the other. She set her 10th grade geometry textbook down on top of the edge of the sink in the middle and began to check her hair and makeup in the mirror. It was perfect as always.

From the end of the row of stalls, there came the sound of a flushing toilet. Darla immediately stopped checking for flaws in her reflection to watch as Sara pushed the door from her path and give her attention to the individual at the sink.

“Oh, hello Darla.”

“Hey Sara.”

“I didn’t really expect to see you today. I know you’ve got a bunch of tests…” Sara began to say, while adjusting the books in her arms, but noticed she was having trouble getting the words out from under the weight of her conscience.

Seeing that something strange was going on, Darla elected to bypass whatever it was and make more small talk while searching for her lipstick in the green, leather purse that hung from her shoulder. “Yeah, today is gonna be pretty rough. Hopefully it goes by fast though. I just want to get home because I have a big date tonight.”

Suddenly Sara’s mood seemed to change. Nothing ever seemed to happen at their high school so when you found out that someone might be getting intimate, it actually was something to get excited about.

“Ooooooh! Who with?” Sara asked eagerly, making her way to the sink next to Darla’s.

“I really can’t say…” Darla said looking down at her purse.

“Oh come on. You’ve GOT to tell me! I’m like your best friend!”

“No, I could get in trouble.” Darla hinted.

Sara felt chill go down her back. With Darla’s response, her conscience decided to roll back on top of her heart again, reminding her of what she had done.

“Oh… Okay…” Sara’s voice seemed faint.

“What’s going on with you?” Darla’s right hand found its way to her hip as her body swung around to face Sara, giving her an air of authority. Darla was good at this sort of thing.

Facing the mirror now, Sara couldn’t bring herself to look into her own eyes and clutched the book tighter to her chest. Her conscience was suffocating her and the room seemed to get smaller around her. She couldn’t breathe anymore and began to gasp for air as the tears started to trickle down her cheek. She reached for eyes with one hand and felt a foreign one touch her shoulder.

“Oh my God! Sara! What is it?” Darla began to seriously worry for her friend and did her best to console her, offering to mediate whatever the problem might be.

“I’m an awful person is what!” Sara managed to say between the sobs.

“Just take a breath and I’ll get you some tissue. Try and calm down, okay?” Darla said as she moved toward a stall to break some toilet paper away from a roll. “Here. Just breathe and tell me what’s going on.”

Dabbing her eyes and blowing her nose, Sara took a brief moment before revealing her secret.

“I cheated on my boyfriend…” Sara said as she watched her fingers rotate the tissue she was holding.

“Wait, what?!” Darla couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “I didn’t even know you had a boyfriend! When did that happen?”

“We’ve only been dating for a week and we’ve been going out like every night, but last night…” Sara trailed off, clearly thinking about the events that transpired.

“Yeah? Last night?” Darla pushed.

“Last night we were supposed to go hang out and have dinner with some of my friends but he had to work and couldn’t make it so I went by myself. I ended up drinking way too much and around 4am this morning I woke up in my friend’s bed…” Sara began to cry again, her emotions feeling like an open wound.

Darla was surprised. Her mouth hung open waiting for consoling words to spill out so that her friend might feel better about her situation. She wanted to help but couldn’t find the words to use. So instead, she decided to try and get Sara’s attention away from what she had done and tell her about her own bit of trouble that she was putting herself into.

“So you know how I said that I couldn’t tell you who I was seeing tonight because I could get in trouble?” She responded, turning and looking toward her textbook.

Sara stutter-stopped her crying, surprised at the turn in conversation, “Ye… Yeah?”

Darla took a deep breath, “Well… he’s one of the teachers here…”

Sara’s mouth was now hanging open, her perfectly white teeth popping against her pink, soggy skin.

“Are you serious? Like, for real?” Sara questioned.

Feeling vulnerable, Darla looked to Sara to defend herself, “Yeah… I wouldn’t lie about it…”

“Sorry… It’s just that…” Sara rubbed her forehead in embarrassment. “I can’t blame you or anything because… well… my boyfriend is a teacher here too…”

Darla’s eyes went wide, “Shut! Up!” She pushed on Sara’s shoulder and saw a faint smile come across her face.

“We’re really horrible people. Can you imagine what would happen if anyone found out about this?” Sara said.

Shaking her head and clutching her formerly perfect hair, Darla began to chuckle, “We’d get into SO much trouble. I can’t believe this. What are the odds that we’d both be dating teachers?”

“I know, Mark and I were discussing ways to keep this a secret this past Tuesday and…” Sara was cut off.

“Hold on. Mark? You mean Mr. Adams? The history teacher?” Darla was suddenly cold and extremely serious.

“Uh, yeah? He’s my boyfriend. The one I just told you I cheated on last night?” Sara responded, not sure why Darla was acting this way all of a sudden.

Darla began to laugh. Her left arm crossed her midsection while the right moved up to allow its hand to pinch the skin between her eyes so she could think how to say what was coming.

“I don’t understand what’s funny.” Sara said beginning to get upset with Darla’s reaction.

Darla stopped herself from laughing so she could say the words she was thinking.

“Yesterday after school, I was walking out to my car and Mr. Adams came up to me to talk about how things were going with my classes and he asked to take me to dinner. You see where this is going?” Darla explained.

Sara was steaming with anger, “Are you kidding me?”

Seeing the rage form on Sara’s face, Darla felt the room begin to close around her. The fluorescent light above them was flickering. It was so quiet, she could hear the drop of water fall from the faucet to the sink below.

Putting her hands in front of her, trying to reason with Sara, Darla said, “Look, nothing happened between us. We didn’t do anything. And he never told me that he was seeing you. If I had known, I never would have agreed to go out with him.”

“Oh I’m not mad at you. You’re my friend and I know you’re not the kind of person to do this sort of thing.” Sara explained. “No, I’m mad at that cheating piece of garbage who I developed feelings for. Who made me think that he was a great guy and that we might actually have something special and who made me risk everything to be in a relationship that I thought would mean something. And the worst part is that I felt like absolute scum for cheating on him like I did and the entire time, he was trying to do the same thing to me. No, I’m not mad at you Darla. I’m actually happy you told me this, because now when I tell him that I had sex with someone else, I won’t be in the wrong for rubbing it in his face.”

As soon as Sara stopped speaking, the bell went off for fourth period to begin.

“Well I want to be there for that so let’s go tell him right now.” Darla said.

“Alright, let’s go ruin this piece of garbage.” Sara said feeling fire in her belly.

They picked up their purses and their books and began to walk toward the door.

“Wait, what about your test?” Sara asked, looking to Darla.

Darla looked back to Sara and said, “Aw screw it! My students will be happy not to take it.”