ugly girlfriend

I was Connie Hughes' ugly girlfriend. We were both 13 and though I was still a kid, she was a woman. Her polished, manicured beauty shined like the noon day sun next to my childish appearance. I felt like a hefty trash bag compared to her. She had the blondest blonde hair and molten brown eyes that sparkled. Her little turned up nose perfectly framed her startlingly white teeth. Her skin was perpetually tanned even in the days before tanning salons because she had her own sunlamp and she only wore the latest, most fashionable clothes. Connie moved with a grown-up grace that I still, to this day, struggle to possess.

As for me, I wore regular clothes that looked OK to me but that Connie wouldn't have been caught dead in. Sometimes I wore hand me downs that never fit exactly right on my chubby young teen body. My hair was dishwater blonde and never quite fixed. My unmade-up eyes were blue-gray and paled in comparison to my friend's eyes and her perfect minimally applied makeup.

I had little composure around boys and was pretty shy most of the time. Connie's confidence and charm was a beauty to behold. I was right beside her and watched closely while she held court with the boys every Sunday. If I'd had pen and paper, I'd have taken notes. She was that good. Connie talked with them as though they were just regular people, while I thought they were aliens to conquer and take prisoner.

She lived with her divorced mother in her house with white carpet and a manicured yard. (I was never invited in, but she told me about it.) I lived with my parents and three siblings in our house with gray carpet and Dad's pigeons in the garage. She never even saw my house.

With all these differences you may be wondering how we ever connected, this gorgeous Connie and I. We knew each other from Jr high but actually met in Sunday School at Calvary Baptist Church. I rode the church bus, and she, living closer to the church, walked. Despite our differences and because I was the only other person in the room she knew, we got to know one another and she charmed me, too. It wasn't too long before I was skipping the bus ride and walking all the way to her house so she didn't have to walk the last block to the church alone.