True Stories: Inspiration for Mia Preston (Part 3) (Patreon)

True Stories: Inspiration for Mia Preston (Part 3)

It’s been a little while since I shared a true story regarding the real-life inspiration for my Mia Preston character, so I think I’ll continue the tale. As I mentioned at the end of part 2, I gave up holding out hope that I’d ever formally date Mia around the start of my Junior Year and her Senior year of college. So, I started looking for relationships elsewhere, which made Mia quite jealous. Jealous enough to try to sabotage my relationships with other women. The first of these women, let’s call her Sophie, was an acquaintance of mine who I asked to my team’s formal dance that fall.

I met Sophie when I was a freshman, she was a sophomore at the time dating my RA. She was blonde, tall, athletic and fairly fit and skinny. She was always super nice to me, and I was nice to her. A year later it turned out her boyfriend cheated on her, and she didn’t take it well. She stayed single for the rest of her time at college. That being said, when I was a Junior and she was a senior, we kinda had a spark going on between us. We had some mutual friends, and hung out a few times, and really seemed to hit it off. She’d flirt with me, and I’d flirt back. Her friends would tease her that we’d be cute together, and she’d always blush so much. It was very cute. It had been two years after her breakup, and Sophie wasn’t quite so skinny anymore, she’d filled out. I wouldn’t say she was chubby, but she’d gotten thicker and softer as college had progressed pretty much everywhere. She was tall, maybe 5’9, and I think she wore the extra weight well. In my eyes she’d gotten more feminine, womanly, and attractive, but she didn’t see it that way.

We started going for walks around campus and she’d complain about having let herself go. She felt people silently were judging her for gaining weight, including friends and family. She was trying to diet but wasn’t losing weight. I gave her nothing but compliments, but the insecurity was there. Sophie was a nice person, outgoing when her friends were around, very shy when she was on her own. Not wanting to waste my opportunity and end up in the friend-zone, I asked her to my team’s formal dance that Fall, and she happily agreed.

Word got around to Mia, and she had choice words for me in our shared night class that semester. I’d arrived at class before her, like usual, she was coming from dinner in the cafeteria and tended to show up on time or just a minute or two after class started. When she arrived I noticed, she was wearing black leggings, a matching tank top, and an oversized flannel button down shirt that she kept unbuttoned. She wore a variation of this outfit a lot since she gained weight, I think because she felt that the color black was slimming, but it was obvious to me her hips were wider and softer than the previous year, and that she still had that beer belly going on. Normally, she’d sit down next to me and give me an enthusiastic hello and ask about my weekend, but on this day she was silent. She looked pissed. So, I asked her if she was okay. She responded:

“I was hoping you’d ask me.”

I still remember the sound of her voice when she said it. This girl was dating someone else and wanted me to ask her to this dance. I thought she was being insane. Her rationale was that her boyfriend would get so drunk at the dance that she’d be on her own. She kept telling me her boyfriend wouldn’t care, but I knew better by now. She claimed she’d have more fun with me, and I’d have more fun with her. That might have been true, but it also would have caused a lot of unnecessary drama between her boyfriend and me. Eventually, the professor started class and saved me from having to engage anymore with Mia on the issue.

After class, she accompanied me back to my dorm (I didn’t invite her) on the preface that she missed some notes during the lecture and wanted to copy mine. However, once we got to my room, she rolled onto my floor and complained about her boyfriend for the better part of an hour. I remember the way she rested both hands upon her belly and watching it rise and fall with her breathing. This was pretty typical behavior for her this Fall semester of her senior year and my junior year. I tried to be understanding and supportive, but in hindsight I realize it was none of my business and I should have tried harder not to encourage her possessive behavior towards me... Besides, after her vent session was over, she hopped back on the irritated about Sophie train.

In terms of weight, I would guess that Sophie and Mia were roughly equal in weight at the time (best guess is between 165lbs-175lbs for each of them). Sophie was a bit taller and filled out more evenly than Mia did. So, of the two, I’d say Mia looked pudgier, but Mia didn’t see it that way. She told me that I could do better than Sophie, implying she was better than her.

What I took away from this interaction was that Mia might be a problem at this dance. I thought about warning Sophie about her, but I decided against it, figuring that Mia would behave herself in public.

Spoiler. I was wrong.

Along came the dance the next weekend, and I thought Sophie was looking fantastic. She was wearing a conservative black dress, didn’t show off any cleavage, but really hugged her curvy figure well. We went to the dance, started drinking, dancing, and having a good time. Sophie was a pretty reserved person, even when drinking, and dancing but still we were having a good time and I was thrilled things were going well. I noticed Mia and her boyfriend arrive late to the dance. Her boyfriend was already wasted, and she seemed to be holding him up. I didn’t greet her or anything, Sophie and I just kept going about our business.

A little while later, well into the dance, it was getting hot in the venue (my team rented out a church of all places to throw this party), Sophie says she needs to go to the bathroom, so we head off the dance floor and I wait for her. As I’m waiting, Mia comes up to me practically right after Sophie leaves.

“Having fun?” She asks. I could tell from her eyes she was drunk. I also noticed she’d curled her hair for the dance.

“Yeah.” I replied.

“I’m not.” Mia frowned. She was wearing a black dress too, but this one showed off a lot of cleavage and showed a lot more leg than Sophie’s dress. It was clear to me she was pretty bloated, her beer gut appeared round and jiggled a bit with her shaky movements.

“Why not?” I ask.

“***(her boyfriend) won’t dance with me… Will you?” She pleaded innocently. (I learned later her boyfriend wasn’t dancing with her because he’d gotten sick from all the alcohol and was throwing up in the bathroom, sadly typical for him on a weekend.)

At first I turned her down, since I had a date, but eventually a slow dance came on, and she succeeded in tugging me over to the dance floor. I figured one slow dance wouldn’t hurt, I’d danced with her many times over the previous year, but never a slow dance. Where Sophie and I had pretty much been dancing with a gap of space between us all night, Mia was fully squeezing herself against me. For the first time I felt her gut pressing warmly against myself.

As we danced, she put her hands around my neck and pulled me closer so she could whisper sweet nothing’s into my ear, as my hands drifted from her waist to her hips, and then back to her waist when I caught myself. I wanted to feel how soft she’d gotten, but I knew this girl was trouble. I should have known better than to dance with her that night, but we all make mistakes. Eventually the song ends, Mia smiles at me and gives me a sincere hug.

That’s when I realize Sophie is standing off to the side of the dance watching us. I introduce Mia to Sophie, as my friend, and Sophie asks me to walk her home. I asked her why she wanted to leave, and she tells me she isn’t feeling well. I assumed maybe she had a low tolerance for alcohol, but once we left it became clear to me that I had hurt her feelings by dancing with Mia.

In my mind, I’d been to many dances with many girls who had danced with other guys. Junior and Senior prom come to mind in high school, and I’d been to plenty of formal dances in college where the person you brought with you as a date wasn’t the sole person you danced with. But, I’d never asked Sophie her opinion on that. I think in her mind, because I’d asked her, she was the only girl I should have danced with. If I could go back in time, I’d resist the temptation to dance with Mia because in hindsight any shot, I had of dating Sophie was dashed that night. I don’t think she ever forgave me. We stayed friends, but the flirting stopped.

I don’t have proof of this next theory, but I sincerely think Mia saw Sophie returning to me and put some extra effort into making our slow dance look like something more meaningful than it was. It just seemed to be her style. For some reason she was very possessive over me, even though we were not dating.  At the time, I didn’t put any of the blame on Mia, I told myself she was drunk, she liked me, she couldn’t help herself, I wanted to believe that she’d been innocent. Besides, I was the one that let myself dance with her. As I’ve said plenty of times before, I should have known better. I guess I’m a slow learner.

…

A year or two after graduation, I ran into Sophie again quite randomly at a baseball game, small world. She’d gotten an office job, gained more weight and was solidly north of 220lbs. She’d gotten really chubby all over and had grown an impressive pot-belly. She seemed happy to see me, but shy when I looked her over from top to bottom and stupidly exclaimed, “I can’t believe it’s you!”

I wasn’t trying to make a comment about her weight, I was simply surprised to see her. Not very smooth on my part. She looked mortified standing there with a hot chocolate and a hot dog in each hand. She replied that she’d gotten back into fun running and was doing 5k’s pretty much every weekend and asked what I’d been up to. We talked, ended up sitting down to talk some more, and just like old times, it felt like we had that old spark going on between us, so I asked if she’d be open to seeing a movie sometime so we could catch up some more and she agreed.

However, she changed our plans before we met up and invited one of her friends along. When we actually met up and saw that movie, she tried to set me up with her friend. That night she seemed more interested in eating her food than talking to me (we’d met up at a movie tavern where they served alcohol, burgers, fries, etc.) and she’d ordered a lot. It was pretty obvious to me from that point on, that she still hadn’t forgiven me for that dance with Mia. Kinda made me feel bad to remember it, but that’s life.

Her friend was nice, but we never saw each other after that. It was an awkward night.

Sophie tangent aside, yeah, what I’ve just described was one of Mia’s successful attempts to keep me single. The following semester she’d have less success with the plump pole vaulter I dated (Isabel) but she’d try none-the-less. I’ll probably get into that mess next time I talk about Mia on here. I will say I made much better choices then than I did at the dance with Sophie so at least college Polaris was learning.

That’s all for now, hope this was a coherent story, I realize I jumped around quite a bit. I suggest if you are lost, look up the previous two true stories regarding the real life inspiration for Mia.

This was about 2,000 words, longer than I intended, but hopefully interesting to read regardless!

Hope you are all having a good day and remember treat people the way they want to be treated, especially if you invite them to a dance.

-Polaris