When I first met Riley Benning in Middle school, she was a short, painfully skinny nerd, that wore huge, thick glasses. I was one of 3 kids in her mom's carpool to school. When I started having trouble in Algebra, her mom thought it would be a good idea if I came home with them, so that Riley and I could do our homework together.
Like Riley, her mom was short and wore thick glasses. But as skinny as Riley was, her mom was fat. Mrs. Benning was really nice, though. I don't know what she did for a living, but she liked to cram herself into these polyester business suits, with buttons just ready to pop, that made her look even fatter - like an over-stuffed sausage.
With Riley's help, my grades improved, so we kept it up, slowly building a relationship. Over the next year or so, we progressed into boyfriend/girlfriend territory, holding hands and stealing kisses.
But as soon as we hit High School everything changed. Riley ditched the glasses for contacts and decided she wanted to try out for the cheerleading squad. When she made the team, there just wasn't any more time for us: the carpool broke up, she wasn't available after school for homework-time, and she was spending all of her time with the other cheerleaders. Meanwhile, I decided to join the football team. So, we broke up, but remained friends.
By the time we were both enrolled in the local community college, she was different. In High School, she'd really bonded with her cheer squad, done a lot of partying. I never thought I'd see it, but Riley had been riding high in one of the most popular groups in school. She'd gone from mousy and shy, to energetic and playful. now in college, she still got good grades, but, except for her friend group, didn't care much for school. The classes she took were only to keep her mom quiet. She really only wanted to do whatever her friends were doing: shopping, hanging out, partying, etc.
Several times, I'd be on my way to her house to pick her up, only to get a text that she'd gone out already. The message was always the same: someone had invited her to go somewhere, so I should just meet her there. The first few times she did this, I was okay with it. But after a while, it started wearing me down. We weren't dating, but it still hurt.
One time, I got all the way to her house without a text. So, I figured maybe this time we'd be able to go out, just the two of us. My knock was answered by a short, shapely woman with a bandanna holding back her ponytailed blonde hair, grubby jeans and an old t-shirt rounding her out. This woman (a maid, maybe?) proceeded to tell me a group from school had dropped by earlier, in a shiny convertible, and Riley had gone with them.