Hated For Loving By: December Lewis 

Chapter One: The Dark Female Voice

Women are very complex creatures, except in how they pick their friends. 
More specifically, women are transparent in the reasons why they choose 
NOT to be friends with someone. There are two reasons that a woman will 
refuse to be friends with another woman. One is that the other woman is 
seen as a threat. In other words, the potential female friend is a better 
defining example of an ideal that the friend chooser, for lack of a better 
term, is herself. For example, this other woman would be prettier than 
the beauty, smarter than the brain, or more mysterious than the girl of 
mystery. As hard as it is to find Mr. Right, no girl in her right mind 
is going to have a better alternative always in her vicinity.


The second reason a woman will not be friends with another woman is 
about status. If friendship with lady X significantly diminishes the 
status of lady Y, why would lady Y take the hit? Admittedly they may 
be a few friendships that seem to, on their surface, negate this rule, 
but I caution you to look closely. Either the women in question care 
more about other statuses that the friendship doesn't effect, or women 
of the right status all appear to be threats. Which would invoke rule 
one, and rule one ALWAYS trumps rule two.


It could also be said that women look for trustworthy friends or friends 
who won't hurt them, but, surprisingly, that is not as true across the 
board as all those books and chick flicks would have you believe. A chunk 
of women would rather be hurt than be constantly next to a threat or lose 
their precious status. Look at the movie Thirteen or the movie Heathers. 
Both movies illustrate this point rather well.


Why talk about women and their friendship? To explain why Miranda didn't 
have many friends. With her thick, pitch black hair, intriguing violet 
eyes, 5'9" height, long legs and size ten body, she was beautiful. Even 
the D cup blondes did not like to have her in their midst. She was an 
understated beauty, not even needing make-up to arrest the attention of 
the straight (and a few of the gay) males in her general area of movement. 
The fact that she didn't seem to flaunt this or use it to her advantage 
just emphasized it more. So, she was out potential friends who considered 
beauty their calling card.


Miranda was also very mysterious. She was quiet. She moved with the grace 
of a cat. She typically wore black. And she had a way of staring at you, 
without blinking and without answering your questions. She also rarely 
showed any kind of facial expression. One really didn't know what she was 
thinking or feeling at any given time. She walked so softly that she seemed 
to appear and disappear at will. As that made her more mysterious that most 
women of mystery she was out potential friends who used mystery as their 
calling card.


The frightening thing in all of this was that Miranda was amazingly bright. 
Not that she would tell you herself. When sitting in class, she would share 
an insight that would floor the professor. She understood esoteric pieces 
of writing. She had an aptitude for math. She was good at logical puzzles. 
So the brains didn't want her around either. It was a smart move on their 
part; as they were leveling their brain power to win them attention, having 
a beautiful, mysterious woman make them look stupid was the worse case 
scenario.


Of course, Miranda would have had lots of hangers on is she had the right 
status. Unfortunately for Miranda, she wasn't famous. She wasn't related 
to anyone famous. She wasn't rich. She wasn't in line for any fortune of 
any kind, not even a trust fund. She didn't even have a cute brother or 
father move her in when she arrived at college last semester. And, since 
she was listening to an artist that no one had heard of before and seemed 
to know nothing about current popular music...well, she was quickly labeled 
"weird" and ignored. No one really knew how she felt about that.


But no one really functions well in the world alone, so, like anyone else, 
Miranda did manage to find one friend. And it was that friend she was on 
her way to meet that sunny day in early February. Only a friend would compel 
her to brave Center Stage, one of the busiest snack bar lounges on campus.


As she entered the room, the first thing Miranda noticed was that it was 
more crowded that usual. That annoyed her slightly, but it didn't show on 
her face, even after she pushed the hair away from the right side of her 
face to get a better view. Tapping the floor in annoyance with her right 
foot, her eyes swept the room as she pulled on the sleeve of her black dress. 
She finally spotted her friend in the middle of the room and began to wade 
through the crowd to get to the table.


"Oh, thank God," her friend said as Miranda neared the table. "If one more 
person asked me if I was using this chair, I would have gotten up and decked 
them," the young woman laughed. Wearing a bright yellow cashmere sweater 
and tailored green pants, the woman at the table resembled a rather non-
threatening sunflower.


Miranda's lips lifted slightly, the closest thing she ever gave to a smile. 
"Somehow, Suzette, I can't actually see you doing it."


Suzette smiled, "You never know. One day, I just may snap."


As their clothing emphasized, Suzette was Miranda's opposite. This is 
not to say that Suzette was amazing perky or transparent or dumb or ugly. 
No, Suzette was just a more open, less mysterious, and definitely louder. 
An only child who adored her mother and missed her dead father, Suzette 
was talkative and engaging. Along with having a rather unique sense of humor 
and some interesting tastes in food, music and clothes, Suzette was 
pretty smart in her own right. And, with her shorter, dark reddish-brown 
hair, sparkling brown eyes, skin the color of peanut butter, and above 
average height, Suzette was actually pretty attractive. Suzette was, to 
the people who didn't know her, refreshingly normal.


Why was Suzette friends with Miranda? Wasn't that friendship a violation 
of the rules? Not really. Suzette didn't trade herself on her intelligence 
or her beauty, in part because she just accepted the former and didn't 
notice the latter. Suzette also wasn't anyone's idea of mysterious. No, 
Suzette traded herself on the ability to do her job well. And she met 
Miranda in the course of her job. A year ahead of Miranda in school, 
Suzette first met the mysterious dark haired beauty the day Miranda moved 
onto campus, as Suzette was Miranda's Resident Assistant. Miranda's success 
and happiness in her present state in life, in Suzette's head anyway, was 
a direct reflection on Suzette's ability to do her job. At least, it was 
that thought that allowed Suzette to get to know the mysterious girl last 
fall who quickly became a good friend.


"So, why the crowd?" Miranda asked her friend and she sat down on the 
chair Suzette had saved before.


"Because of the Crushingham project," Suzette replied. At her friend's 
silent request for elaboration, Suzette continued, "Didn't you hear? Dr. 
Crushingham has decided to test all the pop theories about why women and 
men become attracted to each other by picking out a female and male student 
and setting them up on dates and the like while taping the whole thing. 
He plans to make some kind of documentary out of it. He said he'd have 
graduate students out scouting for the guy and girl all this week."


Shocked, Miranda stared at her friend and RA. "But it doesn't work that 
way!" she insisted to Suzette. "Our cultural norms alone would cause some 
problems. And then when you think about what Randall Collins and others 
have said about romantic love, it makes even less sense. Plus, by taping 
it...well, you add everyone's hopes for their fifteen minutes of fame - "


"Oh, don't me wrong, I agree with you," Suzette interrupted. "In fact, I'm 
a little annoyed by this whole thing," Suzette shared. She blew out a 
frustrated breath as she leaned across the table to whisper, "Do you know 
that our staff meeting was extended by thirty minutes so that we could talk 
about how this might affect our residents! I mean, really! I don't need 
twenty-five insecure freshmen women having some kind of breakdown because 
they didn't get chosen. I mean, I could count on your sanity, but..." Miranda 
nodded her understanding as Suzette admitted, "At least that's what the RA in 
me is thinking."


At that statement, Miranda raised an eyebrow. Her friend didn't disappoint. 
"The part of me that is Suzette is getting a kick out of this. Want to place 
bets on who out of here is going to make the cut?" the second semester 
sophomore laughed.


Miranda shook her head at her friend. For someone who very often played it safe 
in life, Suzette would enter a bet with her in a heartbeat. But then, losing to
Miranda wasn't really losing.


Suzette opened her wallet and pulled out two dollars. Slapping them on the table, 
she said, "My bet is on Tri Sig president Sydney Hammond. She's blonde, built, and 
beautiful. The three Bs that catch a man's attention. Add to that who she is, and 
she's the dream girlfriend, guaranteed," Suzette looked at her friend. "So ante up."


Miranda quietly pulled out two dollars out of her black bag and placed it on the 
table. "Sure Sydney's a dream, but an unattainable one for many guys. That scares 
many of them away. The rest are probably put off that they will constantly have 
to fight other guys to keep her. No, my money is on Accounting Club president 
and student government representative Colleen Spencer. Colleen isn't pretty, but 
she's passable. Beyond that, she's well-off, well-connected and a good first wife 
material. She'll help you build your career and you won't worry about having to do 
battle over her."


Suzette shook her head, "We're talking about college students, Mira," she said 
to her friend, invoking the nickname that Miranda had conceded to only after 
knowing Suzette for three months. "College guys aren't thinking like that. They 
aren't thinking with their heads, period. At least, not the ones that contain 
brains," Suzette added in a little off color insight.


At this Miranda's lips lifted slightly and her eyes sparkled, something that only 
her friend and her family would recognize as laughter. "But," Miranda argued with 
her friend, "if they are not thinking like that now, they will be soon. How else 
do so many find the perfect first wife to set them up to catch the Sydney Hammonds 
in ten years?"


Suzette laughed out loud. "Okay, okay. I concede," she said. "Our pet theories 
aside, same bet rules as before. Winner takes all. Tie, we each reclaim our initial 
bets. If we are both wrong, the four dollars goes into the dinner out fund. Agreed?"


"Agreed."


Suddenly, cell phones began to ring all around them. As people answered their 
phones you could hear shouts of "What?" "Really?" "Where?" "Is he coming this 
way?" as women pulled out their make-up mirrors and pulled down (or up) their 
skirts. At all the activity, Miranda raised an eyebrow to her friend.


Suzette's eyes twinkled, "That probably means that Dr. Crushingham is on his 
way over. See, over in the right corner," Suzette pointed to a non-descript 
student with a notebook in front of her, her brown hair pulled back into a 
ponytail.  "That is one of his graduate students. If I'm not mistaken, that is 
his star grad student Tanya. That means we'll find out the results of our bet 
today. Be prepared to be beaten."


Miranda just shook her head at her friend. She would have said more, but, at 
that moment, the fifty-plus graying Dr. Crushingham walked into Center Stage.


Honestly, based on the female reaction, one would have thought he was some 
kind of a movie star. The girls batted their eyes at him. They showed leg. 
They waved. They smiled. They shouted out that he was a wonderful professor. 
The women in the back tried to get closer to him.


"He's going to be sued for sexual harassment," Miranda said.


"No, Mira. He could sue for sexual harassment at this rate," Suzette corrected.


The professor, trying to ignore the students practically throwing themselves 
at him, made his way over to the student in the corner whom Suzette had pointed 
out. They talked quietly for a few minutes as the room got quiet. Then they both 
rose and began heading towards the tables in the center of the room, everyone 
watching their progress and commenting in whispers.


"Oh, man!" Suzette said in annoyance as she and Miranda tracked the progress 
of the professor. "They walked right by Sydney and didn't stop! Maybe they'll 
back track?"


"Well, they aren't going anywhere near Colleen. Wait...are they stopping at 
Sara's table? Sara, theater queen, Sara?" Miranda blinked, clearly surprised. 
It wasn't that Sara wasn't a viable option, but living in the same building 
with Sara had taught Miranda that the aspiring actress was a little...over the 
top.


"No, not stopping. I think...I think Sara tripped them." Suzette sighed as she 
turned away from the drama. "I guess we were both wrong."


"Shows what we know," Miranda agreed.


"Yeah. Oh, well. We'll get a nice dinner out eventually," Suzette said as she 
put the four dollars on the table into an envelope.


"How is that dinner out fund shaping up?" Miranda asked


Suzette laughed. "Another bet or two and we can afford a three course meal 
somewhere that is not a TGI Fridays' knockoff."


Miranda's lips lifted slightly again, "Works for me."


After that comment, Miranda and Suzette finally noticed the overwhelming silence 
in the normally loud Center Stage. Looking down at the table, they both noticed 
that they were two shadows on the tabletop that were not there before. At that 
moment, the two ladies finally processed that they were no longer alone at their 
table. Looking up, both were surprised to see the fawned over professor and the 
stalker-like grad student standing in front of them.


Miranda merely raised an eyebrow. Suzette, a little more flustered, managed 
to get out a confused, "Uh...can we help you?"


"Miranda Inamorata and Suzette Wilson, correct?"


"Yes," Suzette confirmed hesitantly. Miranda just raised her eyebrow again.


"It is nice to meet you both. I am Fredrick Crushingham and this is Tanya 
Kay. We were wondering if you would help us out with a little project..."


- to be continued -