I've known Helen Blackstone forever. Ever since we were students at Morton Academy, an all-female private school located in the city of Brockton, Massachusetts. Helen was the six-foot-two, gorgeous Black Amazon-like chick I always admired. She was captain of the women's soccer team at the Morton Academy and one of the toughest women in the universe. I worshiped her. And she knew it. She was smart, sexy and damn near perfect. In fact, she was the first black prom queen the school ever had. And also the first Black female valedictorian.
We ran into each other at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. I was simply my nerdy old self, Marion O'Neill. A short, red-haired and green-eyed, plump Irish chick who lacks coordination. I suck at sports. I can't run fast or throw a ball to save my life. I wear thick nerdy glasses. And I'm also queer, though nobody knows. I'm also the most ordinary person you will ever meet. Life was okay for the most part. I lived in the shadow of Helen, the gorgeous Black female athlete who led the University of Massachusetts women's soccer team to glory at the New England Championships. Yes, she was all of that and then some. I loved her. I wanted us to be together. Helen once told me that she was bisexual, having had relations with a football player and a cheerleader during our freshman year.
I was thrilled that she entrusted me with this secret. I thought I could trust her with my secret too. And one day I decided to tell her. Helen was stunned. And basically laughed in my face. She told me that I wasn't her type. She liked manly Black guys, big-booty Black sluts and sexy Hispanic women, not chunky White chicks like me. I told her I was only joking, but my heart was broken. My undying love for her turned into an obsession, and later, pure hatred. It's amazing what a broken heart can do to a person.
I wanted to avenge the hurt I received at her hands when she broke my heart. For years, I pretended to be her friend. I waited for the perfect time to get my revenge on her. Helen graduated from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst with a bachelor's degree in business. I had my bachelor's degree in psychology, but lacked the funds to continue with my education. Helen won a scholarship to Suffolk University's Graduate School and enrolled in the MBA Program. Later, she had her MBA and took the business world by storm. She became one of those amazing success stories you hear about. A self-made millionaire before she was thirty. Wow.
As for me, I became a public schoolteacher. The life of a teacher was okay. I enjoy teaching and the work was pretty rewarding. I watched Helen Blackstone become a diva. She was featured on the cover of Black Enterprise Magazine. She had her picture taken with Oprah at a Women's Business Forum Summit. She wasn't a mere millionaire anymore. Rather, she'd become a multi-millionaire, with a net worth of eight million dollars. She dated a handsome Black actor who plays a cop on a popular and long-running television series. Yes, she was living the high life. Whoever said what goes up must come down was definitely right. Because Helen Blackstone was definitely in store for a cruel reversal of fortune.
The Recession hit the world in full swing in 2007, and lots of wealthy people lost a huge chunk of money. Helen Blackstone had invested the bulk of her money into a certain car manufacturing company whose CEOs were definitely not the sharpest tools in the shed. And that's how she lost several million dollars in the blink of an eye. In one day she went from being rich and powerful, admired by many to a broke-ass Black bitch and a has-been. Yeah, the public which once admired her and celebrated her as a strong Black woman who made it in corporate America now jeered and mocked her. She still had close to a million bucks in the bank, but wasted it in legal fees trying to get her old stuff back. Also, she spent a fortune on booze, drugs and sex with escorts of both sexes. How the mighty had fallen. Helen wrecked her own life and ended up in rehab. When she came out, she was broke. Completely broke. Wow. Life is funny, isn't it?