...and that was all that mattered

1. Start your story with the line, “It had been twenty-four years since she’d last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same,” and end it with, “[…] and that was all that mattered.”

It had been twenty-four years since she’d last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same. Being a small-town American girl was something Lillian wanted to forget. In looking around the room of this 25 year reunion, she was clearly the only one that felt that way; same couples, same hairstyles, same lives and the new breath of desperation in the air was the only change….Lillian went to college and studied as much art and history as possible, and decided that Europe was a place she would rather be. She traveled through parts of Western Europe on a gap year, then decided she wasn’t that good at learning new languages; they hadn’t been a priority in her High School. So, England would be where she settled. The land of castles and fairy princesses...that was her motivation for a change of scenery.  

In High School, Lillian had been popular and smart enough. Her parents owned several houses, so she had her pick of nearby schools to attend. Instead, she chose to go to a working-class school, rather than the posh one her parents actually lived nearby. It required effort, getting up early and driving with her dad to school, out of district but on his way to work. She tried her best to fit in, although her nickname was Miss Vogue, because she always wore the latest styles. With a flair for fashion, she either shopped with her mom at high end department stores, or ran home after school and designed and made her own styles...High School was her fashion runway. She was determined to be something more when she graduated. When she met Chad in her Senior year, that all changed. She would have been willing to stay to be a small-town wife if he let her….

Striking-but-not-beautiful was the way to describe Lillian. She had a a certain ‘quality’. Lightyears ahead in maturity, she was raised by her parents to be the next great Victorian lady, although her upbringing was the 1970s, not the 1870s. She ran the pageant circuit, designing her own gowns and costumes and choreographing her own talent...she figured a crown would get her where she wanted. Chad was just the opposite; boyish good looks, like a young Mark Harmon, he would rather play Pacman rather than listen to Puccini. But when he saw Lillian for the first time in the hallway on her usual route to an honors class, it was love. For her, not so much...who was this peasant and why did he like her? It didn’t take long to convince her, and much of their Senior year in High School was engaged in a lip lock that lasted long into college. It was young love….

Her grades rose, his plummeted. She gained pageant and academic scholarships; he wasn’t able to graduate without summer school. Relentless, since Lillian was his dream girl, he rode his bike after summer school to be with her at her parents out of district home. They were getting concerned; although they liked Chad, they raised her for much higher aspirations. Their expectations of their golden girl was to go far in life. A teenage love affair would hamper that…

Chad asked Lillian to marry him, because she would not sleep with him otherwise. So, they were secretly engaged; Lillian was over the moon. After her upcoming Miss Universe pageant, they would marry. Even if her parents cut her off, she had gained enough scholarships to finish her education. She got a job at the college bookstore and worked hard, got her own place, and from there the relationship could really grow...or so she thought. 

Her parents were having none of it. They cut her off, they took her car, they took her savings out of the bank, they kept everything she owned. She was wandering the streets in a pageant interview outfit, which is what she happened to wear to school that day. Friends gave her food and loaned clothes, and she increased her hours at the college bookstore from 15 to 30 to try to make ends meet. Obviously, Chad was in no position to rescue her at the time; his parents had promised hers they would never let her spend the night. Her parents took her clothes, all the things from her hope chest that she planned on having on her own...her own mother could not have been crueler to her if she had been Macho Valia. Lillian starved, she slept on the floor of her apartment she had paid for, assuming she could take her own belongings that had been acquiring to move out. Her parents even took her car in the middle of the night! Lillian was singing in a club for a few dollars to pay for food, but she had no way to cook...her parents took everything. They gave her an ultimatum; marry Chad now and we cut you off, or you can have a gap year and travel and figure life out. They were both 19 by now; Chad lived with his working-class parents, they had no way to take her in and it was too soon to marry. Lillian couldn’t go on as she was, so trying to marry Chad and take him into her unfurnished apartment was not the way to start a new marriage. It gutted her when she went to him sobbing, literally crying make-up onto his velour shirt she made until the dye came out. He certainly couldn’t marry her. She would either have to stay as she was, starving and sleeping on the floor of the apartment she paid for, or take her parents up on their offer. They would pay for a gap year of travel, and she could finish her education afterwards once she made her mind up what she wanted to do with her life. The choice was hers.

After working 30 hours a week and in college full-time, and living off of nothing but a cheese covered English muffin and wearing the same clothes day in and day out, Lillian had to make a decision. The love she had for Chad was immeasurable; they were soulmates. But young. Chad was due to inherit his parent's small industrial business they had worked so hard for, but as they were both Juniors in college right now, that was a way away. She had no choice. She told Chad in tear-stained eyes that she would wait for him, that whatever her parents put her through that their love was stronger. He agreed, but secretly his immaturity was getting in the way. They sobbed and kissed at the airport, as Lillian was sent first to Paris to enjoy the culture of her gap year. They wrote to each other all the time, until the letters became less and less frequent. Lillian enjoyed Europe for the most part, gleaning cultures other than her own small-town upbringing. Eventually her parents and she came upon an agreement of University of London for her to finish her degree. She lived in ISH; the International Student House, near Regents Park. Therein, she met people from all over the world, jogged through the park, took the Tube to galleries and museums and saw fashion up clothes and personal. It may seem she forgot about Chad, but rather she just learned a way to cope with the circumstances….

The years go by, Lillian loses touch with Chad. She finds out he was sleeping with her best friend Diane! The girl had a chemical imbalance, could not remember who she met the previous day, so it was convenient that she couldn’t even be held accountable. What was sadder was that Chad knew, acted as her friend, and this may have been going on all along. They had a child together, but Chad was still too immature to raise a baby and Diane was not able to remember from day to day that she gave birth, the child was given up for adoption. Lillian had casual love affairs, her American ways and her svelte glamorous ways made her very attractive to the European suitors. But she never felt love…

She easily found work, in fashion, working at first as an apprentice but working her way up to buyer at high-end London retailers. She had exquisite taste, she had great customer service skills, and could charm any client, no matter what their culture. She had finally found her crown...

Ten years had passed, and Anna, the old head cheerleader, alerted Lilian that there was a High School reunion coming. Since falling out with her own parents, being in the States was not a priority; career was. She never allowed herself the luxury of being under someone else’s thumb ever again; not her parent’s, or a man’s. Being successful on her own and self-containing, that was Lillian’s goal. Even if it meant struggling and doing without. Not unlike Scarlet O’Hara, she would never be hungry again…

Lillian sorted her flight back home, asked some designers she knew on the wholesale street near her work off Regent and Oxford to whip her up something special. She would look resplendent! Anna already said she won the “most miles traveled” prize, as the only other ones that lived abroad were military. She would go in style...She decided to visit her parents, but booked an affordable hotel nearby. For some reason, the reunion was not held in the same town they went to school; it was held in a big city nearby. One would think there was more choice for location, but in giving the cabby the address, that was not the situation. Indeed, next door was a great location for a reunion; posh, great food, fab location on the water. But no, Anna had picked a dive bar opposite, that attracted people that wanted to get drunk fast. Frozen food was the main choice on the buffet menu, which turned Lillian’s stomach but as this was supposed to be a sit-down dinner, so she had skipped lunch in anticipation of what she thought was going to be a fabulous meal. The disappointments kept mounting...

Looking around, it was as if time stood still. The 80’s hairdos were still in style, in listening to conversations, the people that dated in High School were married and still together...although there were many tales of the five-year reunion and the affairs that happened therein! Thankfully, Lillian’s parents hadn’t alerted her to a five-year reunion, although the process was to contact the parents, as for most people much hadn’t changed by then. Lillian looked svelte in her custom basic black dress, showing off just enough of the legs she was famous for, and matched with gorgeous designer heels from France. The girls that shopped at Walmart couldn’t beat that! Hair done in the latest London fashion, she looked the part, Sadly, the location was a far cry from what she expected. She sat with her food and drink, and listened while people talked about still working at Safeway, where they started before High School, and had married their sweethearts who had worked at the same garage as well. Literally, nothing had changed….

Although the bar staff was told to strictly wait on the reunion folk, Lillian made her excuses to go to the lady's room. Although the whole affair was outdoors, she needed air. She went out the front door after powdering her nose, and came back in by the bar to order a double gin and tonic, only to come face-to-face with Chad! He hadn’t aged a bit! Their eyes locked, and he was smitten all over again. The two found a corner to talked for what seemed ages…

It appeared, just like the rest of the folk here, not much had changed. Chad had taken over his parents' business; their health was poor, so it was a decision to have him take over in his 20s rather than later. By now his parents were dead, so he had had inherited and sold the company they worked so hard to build, so he had tie to play. This whole time, as the sun faded, even though Lillian spoke with rapture to Chad, she was aware of a man watching her...someone she did not know. Although this was a private catered affair, there were locals that went to this dive bar after work. This man was large and blonde, a real man’s man. And she couldn’t shake the feeling she knew him. As it turned out, he was from a rival school, that same year!

But their eyes were locked, the feelings flooding back between Chad and Lillian. She was glad for her original dress, figure-hugging and unique, although far too dressy for the dive bar jeans and t-shirt brigade. They talked for what seemed to be forever, until she saw the tow-headed image of Diane coming in. She came to Chad, the only person she recognized from her alma-mater. Chad took over, introduced Lillian as if it were the first time they’d met [they had been best friends since Jr High, and were both coincidentally boundary exception to different school districts, but for different reasons]. She took all his attention, and then her mother came in. That was when Lillian realized that Chad had been with Diane the whole time, even when we were in High School, as her mother regaled stories about what Chad and Diane did when Lillian and he were a couple all those years; it was like having a knife in her gut to realize that for trying to be a nice girl and wait for Chad, that Diane was always available. She was trying to remind Diane of times there; when Lillian loaned her a gown for Homecoming, when Chad had her in her basement [the same place for Chad and Lillian’s lovemaking], the prom and graduation, when Chad couldn’t really graduate because his grades had fallen for dating Lillian all the time...or was it now because of Diane and two-timing to burn the candle at both ends? When Lillian saw Diane’s mother, she knew all those years she had been duped….Before the baby pictures came out of the child Chad and Diane had adopted out, Lillian could feel tears rising and ran outside.

She bolted to the gravel entryway off the parking lot, feeling suddenly ill. The love of her life had been two-timing her with her best friend, who had mental problems making it so Diane herself had no accountability. The poor girl had to be reintroduced to people she knew; Lillian remembered this was the gap of 8th to 9th grade, when they had been besties and both transferred schools for different reasons; Diane had to be introduced to her best friend as if they never met. This would go on for the rest of her life, so Chad clearly was a constant that kept reinserting himself into her blank memories. Suddenly, Lillian felt her frozen fish chunks rise in the parking lot! After much gasping and choking, she noticed that Chad didn’t follow. In fact, the person that followed was not one she knew, but the one I was aware of. It turned out his name was Ken, he went to the rival school and was a football player that remembered her on drill team, in her short skirt and pom poms. Ken had also remembered Lillian being with Chad, and always thought they were a bad match and wanted her for himself. He had been watching Lillian the whole night, and said she should call him Ken O, because an O face is what I would have when I knew him better! Despite the vulgarity, he showed genuine concern, and said he had been watching her all night and liked the tight LBD and killer heels. He was good-looking enough; tall and blonde, but a much more robust physique that boyish Chad. He took Lillian to the nicer restaurant nearby, the one a reunion should have been held in. He bought her a drink and chatted in the much nicer environment. They decided to settle into a booth overlooking the water, and enjoyed a bottle of champagne and oysters; a far cry from the frozen food buffet and beer next door. Since she took a cab there, he offered her a ride back to her hotel. She was staying in an upscale area of the city, and had a decent room at a local inn. Ken talked about parties he had been to in that area, of fireworks and music, and after such an emotional evening it made her happy to think of positive celebrations once more...and in the end that was all that mattered.