Changed by Jennifer Snyder

him had given me a second burst of energy. We ended up at a little coffee shop, and I was thrilled to sit down for a moment and let my aching feet rest.
    “ It had been a good first date, but in retrospect the way he’d constantly been looking over his shoulder, like he was searching for someone following us, should have tipped me off. Later on in our relationship I began to wonder if he did that all the time because he was ashamed or embarrassed to be seen with me. I hadn’t been far off.” She frowned and I moved to sit Indian style beside her on the couch, waiting for her to continue.
    “ The next day when Kale and his buddies came in for lunch I’d been so excited to see him again, but my excitement melted away quickly when I realized he could barely even look at me. He’d treated me like any other waitress all throughout his lunch, and nothing at all like we’d gone out the night before. I felt crushed. I remember wondering how I’d managed to mess up any hope of a relationship with him in the matter of one night.
    “ But when my shift ended a little after five that night, he’d been standing outside, waiting on me with a smile on his face like nothing had happened. I remember how furious I’d felt and how I’d wanted to ignore him and keep on walking, but seeing his smile and seeing him look at me like that, I couldn’t. So, I noted his odd behavior as strange and filed it away in the back of my mind.
    “ After three weeks of relatively the same pattern I began to realize that this was just the way Kale was. When he was with his buddies I was another cute waitress to cat-call at, but apparently not cute enough to tell your buddies you were dating. I felt like some big secret,” she muttered, shaking her head. “As horrible as I know this sounds, eventually I got used to it. No matter what he was like when his buddies were around, Kale was always so sweet to me when we were alone, and nothing in the world would have made me change my mind about spending time with him then.
    “ Then one week he disappeared for two days straight, and I had no idea of how to get in contact with him. I didn’t have a number to call him at, I didn’t know where he lived, and I didn’t know anything about his personal life besides he worked across the street from the diner. That was when I realized how odd our relationship was.” Bringing her eyes to mine, Mom sighed. I smiled at her, hoping it came off as being reassuring so she would continue.
    “ When Kale finally did come back things continued on the way they had been before he’d left, except I began to question his personal life. Every answer he gave me was short and vague. If I had been smart, I would have left then, but I wasn’t smart when it came to Kale because I thought I loved him.
    “ After a few days my desire for answers seemed to fade away into the back of my mind, and I allowed myself once again to get lost in our strange relationship. And over the next few months nothing about our relationship changed, except for my building insecurities about myself. Kale continued to disappear for two days each month and never answer my questions about where he would vanish to. I never once saw where he lived and I never once got a phone number where I could reach him.
    “ I began to wonder all of the usual things a girl finding herself in a situation like mine would wonder. Was he married? Did he have another girlfriend? When none of these seemed to be the reason behind his strangeness, I thought again that he was ashamed to be with me or embarrassed by me in some unfathomable way that I couldn’t grasp.
    “ At night, when Kale wasn’t around, I’d cry myself to sleep, sickened beyond words with myself because I couldn’t break the invisible chains spurring directly from my heart that bound me to him. I knew our relationship wasn’t healthy, but I couldn’t stand to tear myself away from him. So, I continued on as though those feelings inside of me