Memoir of a Young Mistress Pt. 02

Emily cycled through all her MySpace friends' pages, as well as the ones Ted operated. There were still no videos from the morning worship service.

"Ted." She called him that in her head and it was fine, but she didn't have the nerve to do it at church, so he was always "Mister Ted" in public. It's not that she didn't want to; but she thought it was too familiar. Most of the other girls called him Ted, but she couldn't bring herself to cross that line, not yet anyway.

Kayla's page was full of quotes from Chuck Palahniuk and Henry Rollins. She considered herself to be "edgy" in the trendy sense of the word, but inside she was very insecure and spent most of her free time wondering what others thought of her. Behind her back, a lot of the boys called her a "butterface". She wasn't that unattractive, but people did tend to notice Kayla's figure before her face.

Amy's page was full of flowers, peace signs, and day-glo colors, which matched her perfectly. She would have fit right in at Woodstock, with her slim figure, tan skin, long, straight blonde hair, and blue eyes. Bubbly and outgoing, she was usually an instigator rather than a follower.

Tawny was the church girl. Her page always had a "Christian Rock" song on autoplay, and it was full of trendy images of church-camp style inspirational posters. Favorite book: The Bible. Favorite pastime: Praying. Favorite band: Whatever group was in the top 10 of contemporary Christian music this month.

She played bass in the praise band, and they had to put her out front because no one could see her 4' 10" Reubenesque shape behind the vocalists, and she couldn't see past them either.

Sierra was the wicked girl. She had a serious IDGAF attitude and she loved proving it. Her MySpace page listed her occupation as "Future Suicide Girl" and she meant it. Her single mom took her to get her first tattoo when she was 14, and now she had three. Her favorite was the colorful full-back design that replicated the album cover of one of her favorite bands. Slim, pale, with long straight brown hair and dark green eyes, she had led more than one boy astray in the youth group. Her only reasons for attending SCBC were that she enjoyed being with her friends and stirring up controversy. Ted learned quickly to never call on her during class discussions unless he was ready for debating. She loved challenging authority, and better yet; overcoming authority.

Emily's own page showed her loves: Comics (particularly Batman and Harley Quinn), music (Beatles, Billy Joel, and Queen in the song rotation) and young adult book series such as Harry Potter and Twilight. The most recently-posted picture was a colorful fantasy-inspired unicorn painting.

Emily considered herself to be a unicorn, in some ways. Her homeschooling kept her from much of the social development that most children got from public school, but she was exceptionally smart for that same reason. She loved having conversations with people decades her senior; and could hold her own discussing history, politics, music, religion, and philosophy.

Another "unicorn" trait was that Emily was the one remaining virgin in her circle of friends. Not just socially but also sexually inexperienced; Emily had only romantically kissed someone one time so far (at the age of 16), and her nervousness and awkwardness about it led her potential suitor to tell her she was "a lousy kisser", which caused her to draw inside even more. Avoiding any further attempts at dating, she paid strict attention to her studies, and dove into her comics and her fantasy books.

What she didn't realize was that in the last couple of years she had blossomed from a clumsy tomboy into a curvy head-turner. Most any boy in the youth group would have loved to date her, but they were either intimidated by her looks or misinterpreted her shyness as coldness. Had she known, she would have been terribly hurt to hear the word most often used to describe her was, "stuck-up".

So, she sat in bed, alone with her fantasies of Batman and Harley, and waited for the video to appear. Bored, she typed a sentence into her status box, "Being sick sucks," followed by a sad face.

VIDEO UPLOAD COMPLETED.

"About time," thought Ted. Although he was impressed with his newly acquired DSL service, uploading videos was still a painfully long wait. It was close to an hour for this one and it was less than ten minutes long. If he was to ever fulfill his dream of uploading entire services to the internet, someone had better find faster ways to do it.

He posted the link to view the video on the youth group MySpace page, and then to the SCBC one. When he returned to the youth page, he saw it already had a comment, a simple "Yay!" and a smiley face.

"Well, hello there Emily," he whispered out loud. He clicked her picture, which took him to her profile. "These girls must put hours into customizing their pages," he thought.

"Hmm. Batman. I never pictured her as a DC girl." Ted was more of a Marvel fan. "I guess that ends that relationship," he chuckled to himself.

He continued to explore Emily's profile, reading through public conversations and poring over pictures. Such a pretty girl. He felt a small bit of guilt over his fantasy earlier, but he knew he would be forgiven. He was a man born of sin, and it would always be in his nature to want to sin. "Besides," he mused, "big difference between fantasizing about it and actually doing it."

All of the other interests listed on her page really clicked with Ted. The more he learned, the more he thought that she would have been his Soul Mate if they had met when he was her age.

Ted had very little in common with his wife. His circle of friends never could understand how they got together in the first place, as they were so different in likes and personality. Ted was a nerd, a lover of classical music, and very laid-back. His wife watched football on TV and yelled at the referees, listened to Gospel music, and her mercurial mood swings were the stuff of legend.

The only explanation Ted could give for their original attraction was no one else was available at the time, and both of them were happy just to "be" with someone, as the teenage social pressure of the time required it. Both of them thought as they got to know each other, they'd grow closer, and they did to a degree, but it was more like best friends, rather than true love. Ted decided over time that he had never really been in love yet. Maybe one day he would meet someone and actually fall in love. "What am I thinking?" he scolded himself. "I'm here, and I need to make the best of it."

Scrolling back up to the top of Emily's page, he noticed her short complaint. Once in a while, he interacted with the youth on their MySpace pages with short comments. "It won't hurt to make one here," he thought.

He did a quick search for an image of a bowl of chicken soup. Copying the image, he pasted it into the box along with the comment, "Missed you in church today. Here's some soup for you. Get better!"

He was about to log off the computer when he heard the notification chime indicating a private message. It was Emily. "Thank you for the virtual soup! It was delicious! Haha,"

He smiled at that, and started to log off again, and hesitated. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to have a quick chat," and he sent back, "I do hope you get better soon. Is it a cold or something worse?"

Ding. "It's a cold but my throat is really sore. (smile) "

"I hope you have everything you need. Lots of liquids, and all that?"

Ding. "Yes, my mom got me Gatorade and that helps."

Ding. "You sang really nice today. I liked the songs you picked. (smile) "

"Thank you! I appreciate the feedback. Sometimes I look out over the congregation and really can't tell if they're enjoying themselves or not. The only exception is you guys there in the front few rows, you always look like you're into it."

The youth group always sat together in the first few pews, like a club. There was always plenty of note-passing and texting. It was subtle though, and never a distraction. Ted could see everything from his seat by the choir loft. More than once he would send a shotgun text to everyone in the row, "STOP TEXTING AND PAY ATTENTION TO THE SERMON" and all the kids would giggle and smile at him, but comply.

Nothing more back. He started to log off again.

Ding. "I like hearing you sing. You have a really amazing voice! (smile) "

Ted blushed a little. He was used to compliments on his singing, but coming from this girl, it made him feel really good.

"Awh, thanks! You're amazing too! (smile) "

"What the heck did I just say?" he thought. Worried he had stepped over a line, he waited out the awkward gap that seemed like forever. Would she even reply?

A message like that could easily be misinterpreted. He certainly didn't want to be accused by some girl of flirting.

Ding. "You're more amazing! (smile) "

He breathed a sigh of relief. She took it in a friendly way.

Ding. "(wink) "

"Shit." His heart sped up and he looked over his shoulder to see if his wife were near. Nowhere in sight, and the sounds from the kitchen indicated dinner was being prepared.

"Haha, silly person. (smile) I'm too old for you!"

Ding. "Oh hush. Every girl in youth has a crush on you, don't deny you see it, haha! (smile) "

"Well, too bad, I'm married! Haha! (smile) "

Ding. "Too bad for me, haha! (smile) "

"It's just friendly talk, she doesn't mean anything by it," Ted told himself. He decided to send one more message and then try to gracefully exit before he embarrassed himself once again.

"Well, I hope you get better. I missed seeing your beautiful smile out there today."

Ding. " (smile) "

He typed again. "Anyway. It's fun talking, but I was up too late last night working on the music so I'm really needing a nap and sitting at this computer isn't helping with that. I'd better log off."

Ding. "Awh, I wish we could talk longer, but I understand."

"Yeah, I'd better go. Nice talking with you! (smile) "

Ding. "You too! (smile) "

Ted started to click the log out button.

Ding. "Hey if you get bored and want to talk more, you can text me. I'm bored because I'm stuck in bed and no one else is online right now," and she ended the message with her cell number.

"Okay, maybe I'll do that, haha. Bye. (smile) "

He quickly clicked the log out button before he felt the urge to say more.

Ted already had everyone's phone numbers, and they had his. He considered this. "She knows I have her number. Was that an invitation?"

He made his way to the bedroom, telling his wife on the way up that he was getting a nap. Shutting the bedroom door behind him, he undressed to his boxers again and laid down. He took his cell in hand, scrolled through his contact list, and found Emily's number.

He tried to think of something witty to say and everything sounded like a 14-year old awkwardly chatting up a pretty girl at the school dance.

"Do I really want to do this?" he asked himself.

"Yeah. I do. I really do."

Ted started typing, one hand holding the phone, and the other absentmindedly brushing against the front of his boxers.

End of part two.