Spill the Tea

On a typical girl’s night out, Carolyn, Ellen and Pamela find themselves at a usual haunt where any Friday or Saturday outing could mean either a concert or a cache of drag queens performing their nightclub cabaret. Tonight was the mix of high energy and hilarious music, dancing, and comedy performed by the queens in residence.

The show was always entertaining, but today they featured the trio’s favorite skit—The Library is Open! In this bit done between acts, the queens don fake glasses and open books to read the room and tell the tea (the truth) right to the well made-up faces of their fellow queens. It’s caddy, but always witty and amusing and all done in fun.

“Kendra Wild, I love your street smarts. But you should check the length of your skirt, because only women who work on the street would risk showing that much of their ‘smarts.’”

“Bossa Nova, gurl, this is going to hurt, but you need to hear this tea. Your beehive is too tall and your stinger is showing.”

“April Fool. I’ve always admired your wonderful taste in clothing. You should be on the best-dressed-drag list. But do all your tasty man treats have to be on the most-wanted list?”

When the show was over, the girls sat and finished their drinks, each speculating what truths they would love to tell each other but wouldn’t dare.

If I could spill the tea to Carolyn, I would tell her that her makeup is overdone and makes her look like a drag queen, Ellen thought to herself, but said.

“It’s it funny how they kid each other. I wonder if any of it is true.”

“I think it’s all made up. It’s too funny to be real,” Pamela said thinking to herself a few things she could tell her friends that wouldn’t be funny, but would be real.

“I bet it’s all true. When you spend a lot of time together, everyone has opinions about something their friends do or don’t do. But most people are afraid to tell. I think it’s refreshing,” Carolyn said, secretly wishing she could tell Pamela that her hair is too high and her shirt is too low and Ellen that she needs to stop dating losers.

“Well, I would certainly tell you girls anything I was thinking,” Ellen slyly grinned.

“Of course, that’s what friends do,” Pamela sipped her drink.

The girls smile and laugh looking at each other wondering the undisclosed truths and opinions that lie beneath the friendship façade, knowing that the unceremonious end to any friendship is only one contentious truth away.

The truth often goes untold as many people can’t handle it and sometimes it does not set you free.

(c) Suzanne Rudd Hamilton, 2023