Union County Tales
by Lena Rushing
Character Intro
I know of a high school student
He is likely the last I would think to call prudent
Confident in his mental capacity, he enjoys talking about the thoughts in his head
Quite frankly I find he bases his decisions off the wrong head instead
His eyes are comparable to sunrise, his spirit charmingly impulsive
However I have always found his morals and thoughts to be rather repulsive
His love is simply too vast and wide to include a single girl
He was always sweet in the earlier years, appears his life has taken a whirl
Forgetting to cover up his tracks, you can only imagine his girlfriend to be vexed
When she unlocked his phone and came across a rather risque text
Always he was preaching about the importance of being loyal
How when in love you are honest, his own morals he seemed to foil
Now this young student has decided to become more blunt and obtuse
That’s how he words it, what he calls the emotional abuse
It is inflicted of his poor loving partner
These behaviors he swears to be normal, yet I find them to be quite darker
Commonly he is clad in at least one article of clothing from a past relationship
One that simply crumbled after becoming a dictatorship
It is much to his disliking if you ever catch a man’s eye
His insecurities quickly rise and he is likely to accuse you of infidelity until you almost cry
Much to his credit he hardly ever shows shame
Openly tells you how often his bed was shared and when the experience with you is not the same
Trinkets, coins, and little things seem to be his sentimental possessions
Good health is something he values, always willing to show off the body he tends
Perhaps the reason why he has more admirers than those he could call a friend
Or maybe it's because he often speaks with the intent to offend
His cold attitude, his bitter mind, his vindictiveness, all seem to repel others
Don’t be fooled however, he is a good child, simply ask his mother
Family appears to be his primary companion
He is someone that people often abandon
I give my honest testimony to things I’ve heard and seen
Though my words may be biased I think them not mean
For this is all very true about a student named Dean
The Tale Part 1
The harsh sun beat down across Union County
Bringing record heat in waves that seemed to put people in hysteria
Perhaps it was the weather that had put Dean in such a poor mindset
Maybe had it been another season, the blissful fall or chilling winter, he would have been wiser
Well what matters now is not hindsight, but still we shall recall the fault in Dean’s actions
Six months had it been since Dean entered a commitment
It was to a young, sweet girl, fragile in all aspect but so filled with kindness that she radiated it
Anna was she dubbed, though I feel the name never truly fit her
Her voice kind, smile genuine, happy eyes, awestruck Dean confessed love within two weeks
I’m sure that they were happy for a decent amount of time
They had to have been, it was clear from the fixation in both of their eyes
When they had first met the Anna had all her virtues and innocence quilted around her and clear to any beholder
Dean was rather quick to claim that all to himself, as he had before with another and another
Being naive to the point of folly, Anna too felt a love but it would soon bring on melancholy
Despite having no real reason or proof to show
Dean began making bold accusations towards his shy lover
He would raise his voice and shout obscenities
Showing the blind anger of a man inebriated
If he discovered she had any slight interaction towards another man
The most fitting thing he saw to do was call her a whore
Until she swore down that she wouldn’t do it anymore
“You should be grateful” he would say
“Grateful that I am giving you another chance, no one else would do that for you”
Becoming aware of his power, manipulation became a hobby of his
He found it favorable to be in someone else’s mind rather than his own
Honestly cannot blame him for that preference
So, as the tale goes, it had been six months that Dean and Anna had been together
It was at that point in time when he decided that he wanted something more
“I really do love Anna still, I just never feel alive with her, you make me feel alive”
He gave such flattering words to someone who was little more than a stranger
Unknown to Anna he had made it clear that he had all intention of being unfaithful
The stranger not so easily swayed, pointed out to Dean that he was breaking his own morals
It became apparent that the stranger felt more guilt than Dean himself
A thought occurred in his head;
If he could not justify himself, why not demonize Anna instead?
Without batting an eye he told the stranger Anna had originally been the unfaithful one
Words that were simply untrue, her loyalty and love was devoted to him alone
However, a lie showed through more than the truth
Feeling less guilt and blinded by a cunning charm, the stranger succumbed to his will
So began an affair, all the while Dean was able to act natural to Anna
He still erupted into tantrums that ended with tears running down her face
He continued on to take her kindness for granted, like an unwanted gift
The Tale Part 2
Poor, sweet, Anna found herself conflicted
She was sure of the love that she felt for Dean
She knew she did all in her power to express and show it to him
Yet could not figure out why he was so cruel
It was almost a month before she realized that she had been taken for a fool
It was almost too simple, almost too easy
Anna wasn’t even expecting to see anything when she went to take a picture on Dean’s phone
Yet she stumbled onto pictures, and messages
Incriminating evidence piling up until it was all too clear to her what was going on
Such a pure heart, such a kind soul, she truthfully was
However just as we are all human, we all have our breaking points
Without hesitation she confronted the man she had declared her love too
Dean knew at that point he could not even deny his actions
Anna held back her tears for as long as she could but her frustration and sorrow filled her eyes
The final straw had been broken, no longer could the gentle girl accept such mistreatment
Despite her aching heart, and much to her credit
She made it clear to Dean their relationship had ended in the nicest way she could word it.
Watching her leave, hearing her goodbye, Dean felt a need to hang on.
He chased her out the door and she refused to hear his apologies
It was now Dean who felt the heartbreak
Only in her leaving did he come to see how rare it was to find someone so generous as Anna
Having no other to turn to or shoulder to cry on, Dean returned to the stranger
He told her that now they could be in a real relationship, that she would be his focus
But knowing full and well how untrustworthy Dean was, the stranger turned down the offer
In fact the stranger left all together, not wishing to deal with the complications of Dean’s life
Now here we are, at the end of our tale
You may not think it to be one of excitement or adventure
But I find it to be rather revealing
It is so easy to be Dean, festering in his own hypocrisy
It is easy to be Anna, blinded by love that is not reciprocated
Or even the stranger who contributes to mess up people’s lives
In the end we all make fools of ourselves when it comes to desire
Rather that be the desire to feel loved
The desire to be in control
Or simply the desire to have something we don't.
Analysis
I choose a promiscuous teen aged boy as my main character because it was a real life character trope that I seemed to repeatedly stumble upon over the past Summer, though the people I encountered were different individuals, they could be broken down to very similar personalities; condescending, manipulative, insecure and immature. I feel today that it is becoming more and more of a normality in young relationships for someone to be much too controlling and overbearing towards their partner. Not only that, but the clinginess is romanticized and passed off as love when it’s really just a desire to be in control of another human being, such behavior needs to be recognized as selfish and how it can be damaging to the other person in numerous ways. People are beginning to think it is completely okay to isolate their significant other from other relationships, that they should have to choose between dating or friends, I know very strongly that these are not healthy relationships at all, and this needs to be emphasized to counter the pop culture influence as well as the real life examples of the poor relationships.
Along with over controlling, I wanted to include the way that people are becoming more and more comfortable with being unfaithful in relationships. It does go hand and hand with this generation's far more open outlook on casual sex than those in the past, however to enjoy sex and to cheat are two completely different things. Though it’s not a topic that comes up much in the typical classroom, teenagers are definitely having sex, but now they are having it with several different partners at a time, and I find this to be a huge mark unique to our generation as well as the morals of today’s society. There are so many younger people in relationships in which they have acted unfaithful and yet they carry on with their partner as if nothing was ever wrong to begin with, it is as if they have no shame or fail to even see why cheating is wrong. People begin to value their own sexual pleasure over the emotions of the person that they are supposed to be kind to, not only is it not looked down upon as much as it should be but this act is sometimes glorified and presented as an achievement in the eyes of young peers, when it should be deemed disgusting.
These two things I included also fit together because I have come to notice that the very people who are unfaithful tend to be even more over controlling to their own partner because they become suspicious and paranoid that perhaps they are cheating as well. The problem with young love is that a vast majority of the time it is not love at all, simply lust and desire, lust for sex, desire for affection and not to be alone. People who become a part of this kind of “love” only actually care for themselves, they will twist their words to make you think they are actually being caring and protecting when in reality they are manipulative and wish to suck every possible benefit they can out of the relationship before it goes sour, because it without a doubt will. My character accurately reflects the social flaws I was trying to point out, though he had a caring and loving partner already, he made the conscious decision to deceive her trust and risk the entire relationship on something he lusted after, demeaning his faithful girlfriend and showing she isn’t actually worth much to him despite their history together and all that he had given him