The Secret

In my English class, we were given a prompt where we had to write nothing but dialogue with no tags where one character was hiding a secret and the other knew their secret and was sick of them hiding it from them. The point is to show that dialogue alone can show the reader who is speaking because it shows tension and personality via tone. This is what I came up with for the exercise. I want to share it. I'll let the writing do the talking:

“Why are the medical bills going up?”

“Because I just had my yearly checkup.”

“More like daily checkup, the way our money just keeps disappearing!”

“Calm down, Em, I’ve only went once.”

“I checked the records. You know, I checked it because I’m the only one who ever does anything around here.”

“I help out, and you know that. What’s this really about?”

“You’ve gone to the doctor every freaking week.”

“I’m not sleeping with anyone else if that’s what you’re assuming.”

“No, I know your secret. It’s worse than infidelity. I didn’t think I’d ever say that, but it’s worse!”

“What could be worse than that?”

“Quit playing the dumb game with me, Jay. Stop.”

“Okay, so I needed some prescriptions.”

“Ugh.”

“I’m not on drugs.”

“I know you’re not!”

“Well if you know some deep, dark secret about me (which isn’t true by the way), then why don’t you just say it?”

“I don’t want to believe it. You’re going to have to admit it.”

“I’ve just been struggling with insomnia, so my doctor has been giving me meds.”

“I know that’s not it! What are you achieving by blatantly lying to me? I don’t know why you-“

“Maybe because I was avoiding this confrontation.”

“What? You thought I’d get depressed, didn’t think I’d get angry?”

“If you really know the truth, you can’t blame me for it.”

“I can blame you for not telling me. For not telling me that you’ve been given thirty days to live. If you would’ve told me, I would’ve had more time to plan things and we could’ve planned a trip to do something. I could’ve had more time . . . with you.”

“If we would’ve taken a trip, you would’ve just been worried the whole time about my health. Living with anxiety is not the way to go. Plus you’re always the one going about living your life to the fullest. So without knowing, you should’ve already been making use of our time!”

“I’m your wife. I deserve to know if you’re sick.”

“It’s not like you can stop it.”

“Just tell me that you are having an affair. Tell me it’s something else.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Tell me. I’m begging you.”

“I can’t.”

“Just stop!”

“I can’t.”

“I hate that I love you, I really hate it, you know that?”

“I know.”

“Don’t laugh, no part of this is funny. Whenever I yell, you always make a joke out of it.”

“Just making light of the situation.”

“Not possible.”