Chapter 3

'Let's deal with the boyfriend part as a starter. It is obvious that you would like a steady relationship with someone who wanted to get to know you as a person. From what I have said, you already know that I am attracted to you and would like to get to know you better. I just did not have the confidence to approach you. The situation we are in now has changed this and I have been able to talk to you about your situation"

"Yes! I suppose you have, and I have also surprised myself by talking to you about the difficult and depressing way I view my life. So are you going to ask me for a date?" Jenny queried.

"No! Not just a date," Rory told her. "I want something more than that. I want a relationship with you, and not it's not just out of pity. Of course I want to help you and hope this will be a step in that direction, but most of all I want you as my girlfriend. We are in our junior prom year and I would want you to be with and be my partner. So what is your answer?"

"If you can put up with my neurosis," she said with a wry smile, "I think I would like that. It would certainly mean I was less isolated and had someone who I think I could really get to like."

"I would hope it would certainly do that, since you would get to know a few of my friends as well. I have a few friends who are not at this school but who are members of my Thai Chi class. I would like to introduce you to them. I would also introduce you to some of the people. I play Golf with. Whom I play golf. I would hope to introduce you to them, and spend some time in their company. In fact, you could even think about joining me in both these activities"

"I would like that too," Jenny declared, "because they would be accepting me as your girlfriend and would not know anything about the baggage that has haunted my school years. It would also give me hobbies and leave me less time to worry and give in to my neurosis."

"That's certainly true, but since we would also be a pair within the school, I think we should also make an effort to make friends here as well. As a couple we might find this easier to do, and people may be more ready to respond to us. We must be ready to make the effort though."

"Rory, to be fair to you, I am the one who really needs to make the effort. In the main you seem to get along with people, even if it it the case that a lot of your friends are out with the school. Still, this meets your needs, so that unlike me, you don't feel lonely all the time. You also seem to be happy in your own skin and you are probably the kind of person I need as a boyfriend."

"I am glad you see you that. I hope you can also see, that with my support you can change your situation. The fact you are prepared to make an effort to turn things around means change for the better is possible. Together we can improve massively the circumstances in which you find yourself now. I think it bodes well for the future since you are willing to make that kind of effort,"

"I think I will be able to do that with your help."

"This is only the start though, and there are more difficult things you will need to tackle. We will look at those as we get to them. I have received a yes to the fact that I have asked you to be my girlfriend. At least that is what I am assuming from what you have just said."

"I think you can safely say that," she said with a smile.

"Well, if our relationship develops as I hope, then it carries with it the possibility, that you won't, as you feared, die an old maid, He said with a grin. If we do get together and stay together, it probably means at some stage in our relationship I will most probably make sexual advances towards you, I would add though, that you are in control of how far and how fast we go in that direction. I think, despite our best intentions, it is possible for both of us to lose control at some stage, so we should take precautions for the time being."

"I agree, but it isn't something we have to worry about. I was having, heavy, painful and irregular periods and the doctor put me on the pill and this has improved matters. I am still taking them so that situation is covered"

"That's fine and since I am a virgin, and from what you have said, I am assuming you are as well. This means we don't have to worry about using condoms. If we ever do lose control, we don't have to worry about contacting any kind of sexual disease"

"I guess," Jenny concurred, "I read somewhere that it is in our situation, that if you don't plan birth control, then you are more likely to get carried away and have unprotected sex. So it is just as well we know that we have taken precautions and that I am on the pill."

"I agree, I think we have dealt with several of the matters which have caused you to feel rejected, isolated, lonely and unloved. We have planned how our relationship as a couple and taken precautions against messing up and landing in a worse predicament. Since we have done this we are free to your problems and begin to take the actions necessary to improve things. We now have to look at what I feel is your most serious and painful problem."

Jenny looked at Rory and with a worried frown she said,

"I suppose you are talking about my relationship with my parents, or maybe that should be referred to as my non relationship with my parents."

"I think that this is probably the most important thing you have to do," Rory told her. "The fact you don't communicate well with one another means you have little knowledge of exactly how each of you feel about each other."

"It is true that we don't talk to each other much, but it seems to me that their attitude is one of indifference to me. This makes me feel that they did not want me in the first place."

"One of the things this tells me is that they lead very busy lives and that they don't seem to communicate with each other much never mind with you. They may not even be very emotionally demonstrative either. I say that because I get the feeling that not much hugging goes on in your house."

At this, tears sprang to her eyes. "I can't remember the last time either of my parents hugged me."

Robby felt her pain and his heart went out to her.

"Do they show much affection to each other?" He asked

"They do kiss when they leave each other or and if one has been away for the weekend, they would kiss each other briefly on return, but they do not do a lot of touching or hugging," Jenny told me.

"That confirms what I suspected," Rory responded. "So how they react to you, pretty much reflects how they react to each other. Add to this the fact that you are very intelligent and act in a mature and independent way around them, they could well think that you don't need much in they way of advice or interference from them. If that is the case they just leave you to get on with your life and are content to provide you with the things they think you need.

"If that's what they think, they could not be more wrong," Jenny said tearfully. "I need and want a lot more than that."

"That is why you need to talk to them. You have to let them know in no uncertain terms what your life is like and how you feel about your situation. I would suggest you tell them how suicidal you feel at times even, if you don't tell them that have actually tried to do it and that I prevented you. You have to make up your mind about that."