Star Studded Part 1
This is part one of three. All parts are written. Life's whirlwind has intensified lately. I'm still way behind in getting back to those who left comments. In fact, I'm not even sure i'm doing it right. But for now here's some lighthearted drama.
Star Studded Part 1
Gwen counted her blessings, walking hand in hand with her knight in shining armor, Lee. Gwen and her hubby were headed to the neighborhood party. She knew she'd struck gold with her neighborhood and friends. She also knew after several years of courtship then marriage that she'd be even happier to spend the night at home alone with her husband. She blushed romanticizing she had to hold his hand lest she sail away so buoyant from proximity to the man who saved her from a life of disconsolate loneliness.
The group of young married couples made a point of getting together once a month. All about the same age they bonded having the same basic circumstances and problems. In the summer their get togethers took the guise of a neighborhood block party since all of them lived on three neighboring streets.
All were nice normal people, making an amiable group quite to each other's advantage. When someone needed a hand painting a room, or help with babies, or what have you, there were always several eager volunteers. They genuinely liked each other's company.
Now that the couples were beginning to have children, it became especially important to be a resource and comfort to each other in their brave new child orbiting worlds. Everyone made sure their formerly free-wheeling and fancy-free friends were not left behind or left out of the social activities when pregnant or at home with newborns.
If any of their number could not attend a social event, typically due to a new family addition, someone made sure to connect electronically so they could join in from their home too.
They were gathered for one such summer event. Gwen hid her disappointment when Lee left her side as the guys broke off to aid in one's garage project, then to the all-important barbeque duties. While the ladies stayed behind to trade stories and build relationships; an exercise sometimes called gossiping. There was a key difference: no one talked behind anyone's back. They playfully brought matters up directly, normally having a hoot in the process. While they already got along like life-long friends there were lots of things they still didn't know about each other serving as fodder for their impromptu discussions.
Susan, one of the neighborhood wives with a knack for organizing the group, spoke kicking things into gear, "Okay girls, while the guys are off telling their war stories and putting the final touches on the cooking, let's play a quick condensed game of Truth or Dare."
Gwen shook her head laughing while stating, "That can be a very dangerous game, folks end up regretting that one a lot."
Smiling with a mischievous glee Susan answered, "Oh, I don't want anyone getting in trouble, believe me, but I want to know you all better." She was giving Gwen a particularly strange look.
Despite the look, Gwen believed her relenting, "Okay, what do you have in mind?"
"Well, we all know how happy we are in our present relationships, so we know we all have happy endings. Sooo, what brought us to our current happy state?"
Except for Gwen the gals laughed as Susan continued, "And for the record I think we actually ARE happy, right?"
She received nothing but nods and laughs, Gwen's head nodding more than the others.
"Great. So how about it? Before you met your hubbies was there ever a guy that just made you swoon, a guy who made you do something you knew was so gloriously stupid that it made a major impact on you?"
"What?!" Gwen heard herself say.
Susan had a peculiar gleam in her eye as she cut a quick glance at Gwen. "Don't give us specifics, keep it general; maybe a torrid one-nighter, an exciting spur of the moment trip, or a wild experience, something you still look back at the sheer wonderful stupidity of and smile. You know, some pre-hubby grand adventure that eventually propelled you into the arms of your wonderful spouse; or something that you can be glad for the lesson, if not the experience itself."
Several heads turned towards Gwen, who shut her eyes trying not to freak out; it couldn't be happening again, it just couldn't. She gathered herself hoping she could pour water on this without making her friends more curious.
"Look ladies, if we don't answer very carefully, keeping our precious husbands in mind, we can create another stupid act; one that won't end happily or with fond memories," Gwen warned. Her audience was not scared off.
The guys had finished their duties and had started back towards the women when one of them held up a hand signaling the others to stop. It was like a signal to commandos in the jungle to stop and be aware of your surroundings. They'd come upon their wives while still concealed by greenery. The ladies' conversation could be overheard now, and the hunter-gatherers instinctively homed in, knowing their wives were unaware of their presence.
Gwen waded in, "I may have memories, but I can tell you hands down my dreams are of my husband. Before Lee found me, I'd begun to despair. That so called "happy memory" story you're fishing for left scars on my entire life until I met him. My husband saved me, cared for me, released me from a painful past without even knowing he was doing it. Lee is the part of ME that I simply cannot live without."
Susan was confused, the smile plastered on her face faltered. Gwen's reaction was not at all what she had expected.
Gwen made deliberate eye contact with each of her friends as she spoke, "For me to go back and tell any of those stories that sound so meaty would take them out of context, making them sound more important than they are, as well as making what I have now seem less important by comparison. That would be the biggest lie and mistake of my life as my husband is part of my soul!"
Her smile toned down, Susan looked at Gwen with strong admiration, though Gwen surmised for the wrong things.
Susan now made eye contact with several ladies and smiled pointedly before continuing, "But Gwen it turns out there are stories and pictures of you on the internet." Susan was beaming now, hardly able to wait until Gwen shared what had recently been discovered about her.
Some of the girls gasped in anticipation.
Susan was quick to hush them, "No, not bad pictures, not at all! But what would you girls say to pictures of our own miss Gwen here, tagged as herself, literally under the arm of a well know A-list movie star! A gorgeous man that several of us might have had dreams or outright fantasies about. Why don't you fill us in, Gwen? How have you been so quiet about this all this time, when you're a virtual celebrity in our midst, Miss Gwen!"
The girls were shocked and very excited. Yet when they turned to Gwen breathlessly wanting to hear the obviously fabulous story, Gwen was in tears, her chin trembling.
"Pleeease no! Y-You don't understand. I-It destroyed my life. I moved more than once to escape it. I even changed colleges. Lee found me; Lee saved me. My life is Lee!"
Susan's expression changed thinking she understood, "Oh my Gosh. And Lee doesn't know, does he?"
"No." Gwen's brow wore a growing panic, "You don't know what being linked to someone... like that, does. It changes everything. No one wants me for me, they all want stories of... him. The whole thing only lasted a few weeks. We... he and I, had discussions about sports and news, normal stuff normal people do, but not all that many of those. I don't have any insider information. I-I only saw him a handful of times. There was nothing Hollywood, or even Walt Disney, about it."
They stared at Gwen now mesmerized by the emotion she was failing to contain.
"I was a stupid freshman, but I said I was older, we all did. I learned what was truly important in the aftermath. That led to Lee eventually, but I wish it never happened. There's a truly terrible reality to it."
Gwen surveyed a small sea of bewildered faces. She shook her head as she pressed on, "Can't you understand what it would do to a person, to a man, who loves you? People who supposedly cared about me changed their behavior towards me after they found out, trampling my feelings to get stories about... that man. If they treated me so callously, how do you think they'd treat my husband?
"If I stop being me and am only... that actor's girlfriend, then Lee will never be treated, or even seen, as my husband. People who know only want to see me as that guy's girlfriend, so they can claim to be friends with one of "his" girlfriends. What I am doesn't matter anymore, I'm forced to be one of "his" girlfriends and would never be seen as my dear Lee's wife! People won't even want to acknowledge I've moved on and am happily married. If they can delude themselves into seeing me as still hanging out with "Mr. Hollywood" it gets them that much closer to stardom themselves: a friend of a friend sort of thing. My husband becomes a barrier to the status they want.
"What happened to me is the dark price of fame. I didn't understand there was a cost when everything happened. How can you tell your mate that it was nothing but a youthful misadventure, when that's ALL anyone wants to talk or think about when his wife's around? Wouldn't that be wonderful for a man: constant tales of your wife and her boyfriend. They don't even bother to add the word 'old' before 'boyfriend'. At best Lee would be reduced to taking out that guy's discarded trash, instead of finding his own woman to love. And that's only if our friends even acknowledge Lee and I are together, and I'm not still with that... other guy. Most folks who know, we're talking some close old family friends here, don't want to admit I got married, they want to ignore the fact of Lee, erase him from history. That's not exactly the sort of joy a wife wants to bestow upon her husband. That's a hell of a reward for being the man of my dreams.
"Worse, there seems to be no shelf life on this thing; I'm no longer in California, I haven't seen... that guy... in years, and it still comes up. The whole shebang lasted less than three weeks." Gwen hesitated, "That was an unfortunate choice of words. Yet there are people who continue to think of me as that guy's girlfriend: present tense - in perpetuity!
"Please understand, Lee would see himself in constant competition with a media generated image of a Hollywood movie star, not even a real man. Stars seem bigger than life because a huge PR machine makes sure they seem that way. What would that do to Lee?"
