Her Friends Try To Correct Her
They had been waiting for her. Donna had barely arrived at her house after the long flight home when they showed up at her doorstep within half an hour later and 'forced' themselves inside. Exhausted and frustrated she had no power left to fight and just had let them in.
She knew what was coming now, but she wasn't in the mood to face them. Not only was she still dressed in the whorish outfit she had traveled in, but also as she just had collapsed on the couch with a drink, mesmerizing her situation. She had nearly dozed off into a much-welcomed sleep. Her needed private time was now brutally disturbed by them.
They pushed her back on her couch and positioned themselves on chairs or standing in a half circle facing her, ready to tell Donna exactly what they thought of their old friend and her new ways. Their faces radiated their determination, and Donna knew they had egged each other on during their drive over.
She observed her friends facing her. She knew this had to happen sooner or later, but now it just came at such a very bad time. Her mind was just not ready for this. She was dead tired, and she had not even begun to recover from the fall out with Robert's family.
Also, she hadn't figured out yet what to do with her current situation; how to face Ms. Brendan?
So, what to tell her friends was something she hadn't even began thinking of. That had been outside her scope by far. Yet now they forced her to focus on them, obviously because of all the rumors they heard, and the lack of news lately from Donna's side.
"What is happening to you?" Tammy started, "Bridgette told us everything."
"How can you do this with Vivian just dead? Have you no shame?" Samantha added, looking disgusted at Donna's attire.
"You should be, I can't imagine Robert would approve of you dressed like this, travel like this." Tammy smirked.
"Look..." Donna tiredly responded "I..."
"I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it with my own eyes." Tammy said to the others, as if Donna hadn't said a thing. "You were right, Bridget."
Donna shot Bridgette an angry look, who, in turn, couldn't look her in the eye, and just smiled nervously at Tammy. Donna understood Bridgette had told the group everything, just like she had feared. Exactly why she had not chosen her in the first place.
"Don't you look angry at her, Donna." Dolores reprimanded Donna, "You'd better explain yourself."
"Well?" Tammy pushed on.
"Tell us!" Dolores shouted at Donna.
"I don't want to!!" Donna snapped back, "I have something going on in my life and I'm dealing with it. If Bridgette told you everything, I don't have to explain myself, ask her!!"
Her frustration turned to anger as she hopelessly looked for what story to tell them. She couldn't possibly tell them the truth, that much she understood. But what could she tell to convince them to let her be? She wanted to deal with Ms. Brendan alone for now, find her weak spot, and then call the cavalry. Hauling them into her miserable situation now would just endanger everyone.
"You were the last to see Vivian alive, Dillon told us. And yet the very next day you just go into this weird therapy, as if nothing happened." Tammy spat back.
"I had to! Why do you think I met with Vivian? She was supposed to help me out. And then she died and I had to find someone else, fast." Donna defended.
Actually, this was the truth. Sort of.
"Couldn't you at least have waited a decent bit of time, like say a few more minutes?" Tammy sarcastically noted.
Her friends clearly had come to straighten her out. They could not comprehend their old friend, and now were convinced she had to be pulled out of whatever mess she was in. Donna had to change their minds.
"Make fun of it. I have a very serious situation to deal with, and I just pushed on. Don't you think I am also taken by Vivian's death? The cops were here questioning me, Dillon called me that night... I mean, have a heart!"
"That's exactly what we want you to have." Dolores said all too smart.
Donna gave her an angry look but couldn't really respond.
"We want you to quit this ridiculous therapy and start acting normal again. As simple as that. I don't believe you do this because of a mental illness."
"Well, I do! Ask my therapist." Donna replied.
She couldn't think of anything else but go along with the lie she was living. Anything else would just make the situation worse. If she invented a story right now, she would make mistakes. If she followed the lie she had been living lately, at least her story would be consistent.
But her friends weren't so easily fooled. They knew her too long to just accept the new Donna. They were naturally taken aback by her appearance. She could see their eyes ogle her all the time, disgusted by everything they saw.
And her actions, as told by Bridget, were, if possible, even more disgusting to them. How could she openly crave things like dressing up like a slut, fucking herself with a dildo, as Donna was confirming now?
The discussion therefore didn't go all too well. Tammy, Dolores and Samantha were the three ring leaders constantly digging, trying to find out the truth behind her actions, the reason for her sudden change.
Donna was afraid she would make a slip of the tongue and endanger everyone. And she hated having to defend a life she didn't want at all. But she had mustered up all her courage and stuck to her story.
Leaving out the blackmail, the suppression of Ms. Brendan, Ninon and all their friends, she told them she craved sex, she had urges she couldn't fight. That she had suppressed them too long, and now was undergoing therapy to heal herself.
But no matter how convincing she told the story her friends just didn't buy it. They didn't want to; it was too much out of their world.
"Look..." she said at last, with obvious tension, "I can't seem to convince you all that I have this ... problem.
"Yet you see me dressed up like this, and you know now I even travel like this. You haven't seen me in a while now, and you can't even call me as I'm constantly out of the house and have a different cell number now. If all that does not convince you I have problems, I don't know what does. And frankly, I prefer to deal with them alone...for now."
She was tired of their probing, their digging, and felt herself about to explode.
"Do you sleep with other men?" Sandy asked, totally ignoring her plead for them to stop. She had been silent all the time, apart from some disapproving smirks when Donna had given some bullshit answer.
But it was obvious she had analyzed her all the time, and now was trying her way to get to the truth. Her recent bad experience with her own philandering husband had made her suspicious of any women even talking to him, and Donna understood she had concluded Donna had another man in her life.
"No..." Donna therefore cautiously answered, remembering her adventure on the Caribbean, and thinking of all the flirting she had been doing lately.
"No as in 'No, not yet'?" Sandy pressed on.
"I don't want to cheat on Robert. That's why I seek help. Before it all goes to far."
