Loving Elvis

3. Confessions of A Drama Teen

"Thank you for the food Mrs. Presley, it has been so long since I have had a home cooked meal." For the first time in my life I smiled shyly as I said this. I have to admit to myself I was actually nervous to talk to Gladys. And I am somewhat sociable and adaptable- something I got from my mom, who went through an intense socialite phase.

"Doesn't your momma cook? Or your daddy?" She asked me a bit coldly.

I looked down at the dishes as I dried them. My mother was always busy- always having somewhere to be, multitasking, and the only time when she gets into the kitchen was to either get a snack, a beverage, or on holidays such as Easter, Christmas, and Thanksgiving. "Well, to be honest with you m'am, I don't see my mom a lot. I do see her, but she is always busy...and rarely cooks."

"Why is that?" Gladys asked, this time, she was interested.

"Well my mother, is from Manhattan, and part will always be and is in Manhattan. That's where she works, and does business." I said a bit emotionless as I remembered when I too fell in love with Manhattan.

"You are not close with your mother, are you?" Gladys realized.

"No m'am, I am actually very close to my father. I have tried to get close with my her, but it didn't go so well." I told her as I placed the dry dishes in the place she told me place them.

"What happened?"

"You will think I am a crazy and a sad, ridiculous, over dramatic teenager if I told you." I warned Gladys lightly with a chuckle.

"I have had my fair share of crazy, sad, and ridiculous. Trust me." Gladys chuckled a bit, making an expression that said, I've been there.

"Well, when we lived in Manhattan, my father had to go out of the country for a few months, and he took my little brother with him. So that left me with my mother in the city. We tried to spend time together, and I really wanted to spend time with her- to talk to her since there are only certain things that you tell you mother. But she would cancel and go to the places she was needed. I tried to contact my father, but he was not reachable. With my hormonal self and mood swings, I became alone and depressed and became separate with God. I was sent to a private school, the one my mom went to when she was my age, and since I felt alone, sad, I needed something. Something to make me feel good again, a support. And I needed someone, and I wanted that someone to be my mother. So, I joined her. That was when I fell in love with Manhattan. The constant partying, events, shows, invitations- it felt good. To me, it was like how an alcoholic needed alcohol, how someone needed prescription...that was being a socialite gave me. I love it and I soon became obsessed with everything about the lifestyle. But, it changed me. It changed the way I dressed, my look, my attitude, my everything. My relationships with my family got mixed up, I lost friends because of it, and I did not want to leave Manhattan. I was addicted to everything, that when my father came back, I barely acknowledged it, and left to a gala with my mother. I was thirteen. You would not believe the fights I would get into, the sleep I lacked, what I consumed...it was a parent's nightmare. Thankfully, we got out just in time, but it was hard and I so tempted to just sneak out and go back." I confessed to Gladys, who stopped washing the dishes, and looked at me in the eye. As if I said something that she understood...maybe that's it. Of course her situation is much more serious than my socialite obsession- which now that I look back to it makes me laugh at how stupid that sounds.

"You went through a depression when you were thirteen?"

I nodded, "It led up to the whole thing. It was bad too, like I would look in the mirror, and my mind would just start to tell me the meanest things. I wasn't comfortable in my own skin, I felt like no one would care, I would ask myself what is the point of all this if this is how I am going to be, it was awful. It became worse when I would talk to God, and I could not hear him talk back to me."