Marley stood alone, leaning against her bike and watched Stacey struggle over the crest of the hill and roll to a stop a few feet from her. The exhausted girl slumped over the bars to catch her breath. “Sorry this was way too hard of a ride for someone who hasn’t rode before,” Marley said.
“Now you tell me!” Stacey said looking up, then laughed and said “Thanks for waiting on me.”
“No problem, a few others wanted to wait but I shooed them along,” Marley said. The girls began to ride and soon were coasting down out of the hills and into some more forgiving terrain. “Trust me you’re doing great for your first ride, all of us have been doing this for years.”
“So how did you get into riding,” Stacey asked.
“Well, my Mom was a bike racer when she was in college, we rode bikes as kids, she took me to my first race when I was 13,” Marley explained.
“I thought you said you didn’t race?” Stacey asked.
“I don’t anymore,” Marley said with a slight edge to her voice.
“Why’d you stop,” Stacey asked.
Marley felt her breath shorten and not from the sedate pace they were riding, she thought about what happened. She could still remember the way people looked at her, the stinging hatred in their eyes. Not only was she a freak, but a cheat who had stolen from “real” girls. A big part of her just wanted to be honest and say, I’m transgender and was hated for riding with the girls. Marley forced a smile on her face and looked at Stacey, “I just got tired of the stress of competition. So what’s it like being in a Sorority?”
“Well, I’ve only been there a month now, but it’s good, lots of new friends, lots of opportunities, the hazing wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.” Stacey laughed
“Hazing, that’s for real?” Marley asked.
“Yeah, I mean, some of the houses are kind of intense, like insane stuff, but Pi Beta Phi is really pretty tame,” Stacey said.
“Well what happened?” Marley asked.
“It’s kind of embarrassing,” Stacey said.
“I’m trying to live vicariously through you, my college experience revolves around going to classes, riding my bike, and working at the shop,” Marley said.
“It was last year, and I was scared because I’d heard horror stories about Rush week. First we were all assigned a ‘Mom’ and mine was Brita. So for a week we had to call her mommy, which was like no big deal you know. They all treated all the pledges like little kids, we had to ask permission for everything, and I mean everything, but in the process they taught us everything we needed to know,” Stacey explained.
“Well that doesn’t sound so bad,” Marley explained.
“I’m leaving out the real embarrassing stuff,” Stacey said with a laugh.
“You can’t leave out the good stuff!,” Marley said.
“Well they took the whole mommy and daughter thing kind of far, we had to wear a pacifier holder with our letters on it, at all times that week, and then there were the spankings and diapers,” Stacey said.
“The what!” Marley said.
“Well a big part of the week was learning the culture and history of the Sorority, so we were given lots of tests, if you didn’t pass you’d get spanked,” Stacey said.
“Umm, and diapers?” Marley asked with a giggle.
“Yeah, I guess we sound pretty immature,” Stacey said. In my defense they were those cute pull-ups for bedwetters, so you know.
The thought of Stacey in such a garment getting spanked brought butterflies to Marley’s stomach, but she forced the thoughts out of her head and said “Well it’s not for me.”
“I know it sounds stupid, but it really helps bring us all together, now Brita is my best friend,” Stacey said.
“That’s cool,” Marley said.
“Now it’s your turn, tell me an embarrassing story,” Stacey said.
Marley felt a lump in her throat as she thought of all the ways her life had changed and how many emberassements she’d suffered. “No thanks,” she said.
“Come on, it’s only fair,” Stacey said.
“I don’t really have an embarrassing story,” Marley said.
“Every girl has an embarrassing story,” Stacey said.
“OK so I was doing this ride once and there was a rest stop with tons of people. I rolled into the rest stop and couldn’t get my feet out of the pedals and fell over,” Marley said.
“Ouch, that sounds painful,” Stacey said.
“It really just hurt my pride,” Marley said.
The girls rode together chatting and the miles ticked away, soon they were back in the parking lot of Campus Cycles. A few riders were hanging around talking but most everyone was gone including Jordan. Brita was talking to Ben and waved when they rolled in. “Can you guys believe that Ben rode 35 miles tonight,” she said.
Ben just smiled, and Marley laughed, “He’s pretty amazing,” she said.
“Jordan had to go, she left her bike up against the wall over there,” Brita said. Stacey helped Marley gather up the loaner bikes and helmets and return them in the shop.
“Thanks for waiting for me, I really enjoyed riding with you,” Stacey said.
“Oh.. great thanks, we ride every Thursday night,” Marley said. Stacey approached her and hugged her, Marley immediately tensed her back, and left her arms stretched out in front her. “Oh, OK,” she awkwardly said.
Stacey laughed, “Sorry, I’m a hugger, thanks again.”
Stacey turned to leave and Marley felt a word forcing itself up from her throat, “Wait,” she said a bit too forcefully.
“Would you like to get some coffee, we could talk about training for the Little 5,” Marley said.
“Oh, that would be awesome, but I promised Brita I’d help her with some school stuff tonight,” Stacey said.
“Oh, yeah cool,” Marley said.
“How about tomorrow night, say 6 or something. Let me get your number,” Marley struggled for a few seconds sputtering before she could remember her number, and Stacey laughed again. “Bye,” she said and left. Marley didn’t move for several seconds then finally took a deep breath.
“What the hell are you doing?” she asked herself.
“So did you get his number?” Stacey asked Brita as they rode home.
“Whose number?” Brita said with a smile.
“Don’t be coy with me bitch, the hunky bike guy you were drooling all over when I pulled up,” Stacey said.
“Oh Ben, why yes, yes I did,” Brita said. The two girls fist bumped and giggled. “By the way, thanks for leaving me with that weirdo.”
“Weirdo?,” Stacey asked.
“Jordan, she was so awkward, but I did find out something interesting, I was right about Marley, I knew something wasn’t quite right about her.” Brita said.
“Right about what?” Stacey asked.
“I asked Jordan how her and Marley were friends, and guess what, they met at the LGBT center, they’re lezzies.” Brita explained.
“Oh, wow, I’m going out with her tomorrow night,” Stacey said. Brita nearly fell off her bike laughing.
