After high school, Cheryl, took a gap year and worked as a cashier at Target. To her way of thinking, it was time to make a change, to separate herself from her past, and the way to do it was to drop a lot of weight. It was now or never, and Cheryl got skinny quickly by refusing to eat. It was not the healthy way to lose weight, but it was hard to argue with success. Cheryl suddenly became thin and beautiful; her frequent trips to the gym gave her a tone body and she bought dresses that showed off her new form. Then, once she had transformed herself, she enrolled at Eastern Kentucky University. To prove to others that she had separated herself from her past by becoming attractive, she ran for homecoming queen. Cheryl joined the Little Sisters of Kappa Alpha, the most popular fraternity on campus, and they sponsored her bid. After campaigning hard, and giving away a couple of hundred suckers with stickers that said “Vote Cheryl Frazier for Homecoming Queen” taped to them, she became the first runner up; no small feat at a major university with a student population of twelve thousand people.
Part of the reason why Cheryl campaigned so hard to become homecoming queen was help her social life and that worked because she was young and thin and beautiful and attracted the eyes of a lot of young men. One of the guys who caught her eye was Larry Burnett, a member of the fraternity that sponsored Sarah’s campaign, and who brashly introduced himself to her at a press conference. The two fell in love quickly and started dating each other exclusively. Larry never left her side and even drove the car that carried Cheryl through the homecoming parade that the university put on for the Parent’s Weekend.
Larry was originally from Baltimore. Cocky and self-confident, he was a rebel while growing up but was the kind of kid who never got caught doing anything bad. His parents were middle class; his mother worked at a department store and his father worked on the line in the local factory making large kitchen appliances. Since they were gone from the house a lot and weren’t around when the kids came home from school, they left Larry in charge. Larry even took on the job of protecting his older brother, the class nerd, from being picked upon by the school bullies, and made sure that his younger sister wasn’t getting any unwanted attention from the class Lothario.
After high school Larry served four years in the Air Force and was among the airmen who flew in the final flights over Vietnam in the last year of the war. The community college that he attended after he was discharged was not challenging for him, so he transferred to Eastern Kentucky University because it had a good law enforcement program. While pursuing his studies, Larry worked part time, played intramural Lacrosse, and joined Kappa Alpha, the fraternity that sponsored Cheryl for homecoming queen.
Larry Burnett was the man of Cheryl’s dreams and she couldn’t believe that she had landed him. He was of medium height, not much taller than Cheryl, and had an athletic build with broad shoulders and muscular arms and legs. His thin, black hair was parted down the middle and he had penetrating brown eyes that sparkled with fun and energy. The strong brow above those eyes gave him a severe look and, when he became angry, Larry’s whole face flushed. In short, Larry was a man’s man, carrying himself with confidence by throwing his shoulders back and keeping his chin up. Some thought that he was arrogant, strutting around like a peacock, but his cockiness was like a shot in the arm to the Frazier family. He was a winner, and the Fraziers never had a winner in their family up to that time. When she was feeling saucy, Rita liked to say that Larry added strength to the gene pool.
Jeff, especially, liked Larry. It wasn’t just because of his dashing good looks, it was mostly because he brought the Frazier children a new outlook on life. Larry taught Cheryl’s siblings that they shouldn’t put each other down; that they should support each other. It was a take on the family’s dynamic that they hadn’t considered. He set a good example by always complimenting his own family by saying that his brother was smarter than he was or that his sister was more athletic than he. Another new thought for the Frazier children was that Larry openly declared that he would never do anything wrong because he wanted his parents to be proud of him. He even cleaned up the basement and did the yard work on Trinity Hills Lane without even being asked. It was almost like seeing the sun come through a stain glass window for the first time; up until then then family dynamics had been dull and matte. Now the Frazier family had a real hero as its new member.
Larry had grown up deprived and he was determined to treat himself to the finer things in life once he started to make his own money. He liked to dress well in name brands: Polo shirts, Calvin Klein khaki pants, and leather shoes made by Dockers. His future brother-in-law, Jeff, had never owned more than one jacket at a time but Larry had an overflowing closet full of them. Larry had more several watches and wore a different watch for different occasions, which was another concept foreign to Jeff, who had never owned more than one watch at a time. Also, Jeff had never seen a man put on cologne and thought that wearing it was somehow feminine, like putting on perfume. But after seeing Larry’s dresser crowded with many name brand colognes, Jeff bought himself a bottle and never left the house without wearing it. Jeff began to hero worship Larry, and it wasn’t just because of the cologne. After watching everyone else in the Frazier family dress in t-shirts and sweatpants, Jeff decided to step it up a little and began to dress like his future brother-in-law. Even his casual shirts were cleaned and pressed before he went to school.
The two enjoyed each other’s company and began to think of each other as blood brothers and not just brothers-in-law. They were in each other’s weddings, played tennis together at the Louisville Boat Club, and shared an interest in watching football and baseball.
Misti Flynn
In high school, things began to turn around for Jeff because he earned a lot of self-confidence through personal hygiene. For the first two years in high school, he still had his bangs growing past his eyes, but once he was in his junior year, he could drive himself up to the barber to get a decent haircut. No longer would his hair be too long, waiting for his mother to take the time to take him up to the barber, or too short because she shaved it off so that she wouldn’t have to take him back up for a few months. Also, Jeff learned how to shop for clothes. He got a job at a men’s store at the mall so that he could build up a wardrobe full of name brand clothes that fit. Slowly, over time, he gained self-esteem because he looked good and the girls began to notice. He became determined to smell good too, mostly by showering every day and wearing cologne. The other members of the Frazier family commented that this change in hygiene and wardrobe must have come about because of a crush. They were not wrong. Jeff had fallen head over heels for Misti.
They met at the parish youth group. Jeff saw in the church bulletin that there was a parish youth group and he decided to attend the weekly meetings. This was a big leap for him, and he felt awkward and out of place at his first meeting, until a little blond-haired ball of fire rushed up to him and introduced herself. Her name was Misti and, even though she didn’t have a title, she was the queen of the youth group and everyone else was just a member of her court. No one had explained this to George before the meeting; he was taken aback at how forward Misti was, and he didn’t react well. Later, once they started seriously dating, Misti told Jeff that she thought he was “an obnoxious asshole” because he was so aloof toward her. The truth was that he had never met anyone like her and was smitten from the time that their eyes first met.
Misti represented a major change in Jeff’s life because she was the first girl whom he truly loved and, more importantly, she loved him back. Of course, Jeff had crushes before, but he loved Misti because she accepted him for who he was as a person. Jeff was always hungry for the approval of others. Misti made Jeff believe in himself, and for that reason alone he fell hard for her. The two spent hours on the phone and hung out together as often as they could. For the first time in his life, Jeff didn’t feel alone. The couple were as innocent as teenagers could be and, because they were too young and inexperienced for sex, the forbidden and unfulfilled desires drew them even closer. They never took the leap.
If the adage of “opposites attract” had any living examples, then it was Jeff and Misti. All the way up until his junior year in high school, Jeff viewed himself as a mental depressant who could never do anything right. While Jeff wallowed in gloom, Misti was volatile and frothing with energy. She was effervescent while his personality was low wattage. Her moods could swing wildly to different extremes; Misti would become overwhelmed with happiness over something as simple as a field of daisies, but then plunder down to fits of misery because of her period or money problems. She was fun and exciting to be around, and Jeff fell hard for her because he had never met anyone like her. Also, she was beautiful, with long thick blond hair and eyes that sparkled with fun. Misti was blessed with perfect skin, an infectious laugh, and her vitality provided a shaft of light into what had otherwise been a dark world for Jeff.
In the afternoon, when her parents were at work and she was alone, Misti cranked up the music in her living room and danced. The faster the beat and the more incoherent the words, the better for her private dance party. Jeff couldn’t get enough of her and watched as Misti whirled around and sang at the top of her lungs. She was wonderful because she was in love with life. Misti found everything and everyone interesting. The world was new, and alive, and vibrant to her and Jeff found her high energy very attractive. He was satisfied to fade into the background; to witness her radiance and to stand in awe of her personality. The teenage girl’s soul was unblemished, and Jeff thought that he was nothing but a mediocrity while standing next to her. It was like Misti was the star of her own television show and she surrounded herself with lesser lights.
Jeff and Misti only dated for a few short months but continued to stay in touch. Over time Jeff came to realize that he loved the idea of Misti more than the actual person. A lot of these ideas were made up in his own mind. In a moment of pure honesty Misti said that Jeff “admired her too much” and that put too much pressure on the relationship. Because she was so pretty and smart and personable, Jeff put her on a pedestal and that killed the relationship. It is hard to love someone who is kissing your ass all the time. Also, they were both too young to commit to a long-term relationship and there were a lot of guys who wanted to date Misti. She enjoyed being the object of attention and didn’t want to be tied down at sixteen years of age
They stopped dating and grew apart, but Jeff could not let his idea of the perfect teenage girl go. He had to settle for being friends and he watched as Misti drifted from one boyfriend to another, but Jeff had always hoped that they would get back together. He called her every day to listen to her boyfriend problems, wishing himself into the scenario, all the time sure that these new guys in her life were not good enough for her and that his time would come again. Misti’s romantic interest in Jeff was perfunctory at best. When she did trouble herself to ask Jeff about his life, she lost interest quickly, and turned the conversation back around so that she could talk about herself again.
In the end it was the things that Jeff loved about Misti that would ultimately keep them apart. She had volatile mood swings and was flighty. She was spontaneous and could find something fun to do at even the most mundane events. For example, one summer afternoon, as the two were taking a walk in the park, Misti suddenly jumped into the creek that paralleled the footpath. There was no reason to jump except that she wanted to be silly. It was that image, the one of Misti drenched from head to toe in creek water, and looking up at him like she had just done the craziest thing ever, that stayed with Jeff. Clearly, she wanted him to jump into the water with her. “But the water is dirty,” thought Jeff, “and I don’t want to get wet and smelly.” The moment defined their relationship, with Misti wet and wild and Jeff staid and dry. It was how he wanted to remember her. Jeff often wondered if their relationship would have turned out differently if he could have only jumped in the creek and learned how to play.
At that time of their lives, Misti was unfocused and rudderless and Jeff was somber and determined. He wanted to make something of himself. She was the peacock and he was the crow. The attributes that he used to love about her, those that he used to find charming, began to annoy him. Also, her constant need for attention was exhausting and Jeff could never be at her beck and call every moment of the day. The two lost touch. The years went by and as they did, Jeff washed the older Wendy from his memory, leaving only the young girl, the one he fell in love with. She remained the icon of unrequited love in his memory. Jeff knew that Misti could never live up to the idealized version that he had built up in his imagination. She had moved on before Jeff had learned that Misti was a person, and not an idol to be worshipped, so she would always remain perfect in his memory.
