Hi. My name is Ryan, and this is the story of how I became overinvolved in a complex relationship with my Mom's sister Jen.
A little bit about me and my family. I am an only child, actually the product my Mom's previous marriage. She originally married young - age 20. I was born by the time she was 22. She never told me directly, but I've gathered from things she said over the years that I was an "accident". She and my bio Dad - Jim - got separated then divorced shortly after I was born. I guess he felt like this wasn't what he signed up for, and the strain of having a newborn ended their union.
I hardly know anything about Jim. He was only involved with me very sporadically early on, and the last time I ever saw him was when I was 4. Mostly, I remember him and my Mom screaming at each other over the phone, or worse when he'd show up randomly to pick me up. I guess he was trying to be a Dad (kind of), but was too much of a fuck up to pull it off. Mom never talked about him after he disappeared. I think she had nothing good to say at all, but she didn't want to damage my self esteem by trashing him, something I was always grateful for.
She started dating and managed to snag a man within a year. I grew up with my stepdad, David, and we got along fairly well. He's a good guy, and I was happy that my Mom was happy.
Fast forwarding a few years, and I'd met my Aunt Jen, my Mom's little sister. I didn't know my Mom's side of the family well, and hadn't seen her since I was little. She was a good amount younger than Mom. She appeared in our lives when I was around 15 years old. I think she was around 29 or so when she moved close to us.
Over the next couple years Jen and me actually became pretty close. She looked and acted much younger than her age, and would just hang out with me from time to time, almost like we were the same age. She introduced me to punk rock, metal and Wu Tang Clan. She'd also take me shopping at the mall so I didn't have to endure the embarrassment of going with Mom. Mom was always pushing me to get these horrible clothes, and made a big fuss about the prices there. I could just hear the laughter if the in crowd at my school saw her fussing at me in public.
Jen had a surprisingly good sense of fashion, and would guide my clueless self to nice clothing. She would even buy them for me sometimes, despite the fact that I knew she had almost no money.
So, Jen and I became close. By the time I graduated high school we had started hanging out pretty regularly, going to see movies together and stuff like that.
When it came to my Aunt Jen, though there was another layer to her situation. As time went on she became more and more erratic with her behavior. Honestly, she was starting to show obvious signs of mental illness. I have no idea what she might have had, but it involved serious mood swings, social self destruction and bouts of serious paranoia. I heard Mom and David talking about her, and it seemed there was always a problem. They tried to get her professional help, but Jen completely rejected the possibility. She was one of those people who thinks doctors are con artists and she could fix her problems with all this new age crap she was into. Mystic crystals, burning incense, "astral projection", all that hippy stuff.
Jen remained interesting to me despite all these things. She was the most lively person I'd ever met, and I was kind of fascinated by her. Even to the point of daydreaming about what it must be like to be like her. Even though she was 33 by then, she definitely didn't act like it. She always wore these outfits, not quite the "Hot Topic" look but reminiscent of it. For example, she'd wear what you'd call "fuck me boots", stockings, short skirts and these shirts with a very low plunging neckline. She always wore these tight faux leather jackets that ended just slightly lower than her waist, no matter the weather. It definitely got my attention, I'd never seen a female dress like the dedicated party girl that she was.
Things really changed when I was 19. Embarrassing though it was, I still lived with Mom and David. They would "tease" me all the time about it, but I could tell they weren't really joking and kind of wanted me to leave already. I had a job, but it didn't pay very much. I had no idea what I wanted to study in college, so I hadn't gone yet. I also wanted to avoid the crappy community college that would have been my only choice by then.
Back to Jen - after showing occasional bizarre behavior for a couple of years, she finally cracked and had what I'd call a nervous breakdown. This was triggered by the stress of losing her job. Her former job had been as one of those promotional beer girls that go to bars (often dress skimpily) and try to promote Coors or whatever with giveaways and stuff. It fit her for a while because her strong personality was actually an asset there. Despite all that, her boss fired her as a result of all the problems she'd been having. Showing up late, getting into arguments with the other beer girls, acting as if she was drunk, actually being drunk or high - the works.
Mom and David tried to support her and tell her to get help, but she was pretty unapproachable. She often wouldn't even answer her phone for weeks at a time. A couple times she randomly showed up at our house and would talk nonstop about things that were one step above pure gibberish. Even though it was super weird, I have to say that it was nice to see her glowing and so happy when she was like that. She got herself in some trouble with her landlord by not paying rent at her place, and my parents had to bail her out a couple times as this dragged on. They were pretty kind to her as it became obvious she had some significant problems.
That summer of my 19th year Mom and David unexpectedly planned a vacation to Thailand. David had tons of frequent flyer miles that were going to expire if they weren't used. I agreed to watch the house and take care of our dog, but I had to work late evenings some times. My parents arranged for Jen to be there too and water the plants, walk the dog and all that housesitting stuff. It was plain from our conversations that they thought I'd be a good influence on her, and that they wanted to give her something to do to earn some money to support herself.
For the first couple of days I didn't see Jen at all. They were my days off and I didn't mind, but I had to work evenings the next day. I don't know if she actually knew my schedule or if it was just random, but my Aunt Jen actually showed up that morning. She didn't call or anything, and I was busy sleeping in, so she ended up marching straight into my room and woke me up. I was sleeping in just my usual boxers and had to pull up the blankets to cover up my bare chest.
She seemed to almost sparkle as she woke me. She was clearly in the grip of one of her hyper phases. She said "hey, Rynie. Today is great, I just know it, wake up sleepy head!" She was talking in almost a baby voice - Rynie was a pet nickname she coined a couple years back to tease me about being young when we'd go to the mall. The way she said it this time, though, it was almost a pet name.
So, to describe how she looked, it looked like she'd gotten pretty dolled up for some reason. I'd seen her dressed like that for work before, but this was our house at 9:00 am. Her hair looked good for a change, not showing the self neglect she had in the past few months. She had straightened it, and it had blonde highlights and a hint of brown hair beginning to grow out at the roots.
