princesspottypants

Bad Influence - Chapter 1

Published: November 22nd 2022, 1:00:06 pm

'Mom, are you serious?' Elle messaged, Ruth practically able to see her daughter's eyes rolling through the Internet.

'Of course I'm serious,' Ruth replied. 'I just want to keep up with you. You're so far away now!'

Elle had been far away for a while now, really... And Ruth did miss her. She couldn't say that was the whole story, however. There was no doubt that Elle was an adult now; she was in her twenties, and studying for her master's degree in education, at a school much further away from where she did her undergrad work. But she was still Ruth's only child, and she wanted to keep an eye on her.

Whether there was a justification for doing that or not, she didn't know yet. She'd had no idea Elle had started up a different social media account, only that she'd suddenly stopped using her old one. If the app hadn't suggested Elle's new account to her as a possible friend, she'd still be in the dark. Why was that? Had she gotten locked out of her old account? If that was the case, why hadn't she said anything to Ruth about it? At one time, Elle had told her everything, and Ruth couldn't say she liked this change, though she wasn't going to push it, wasn't going to demand an explanation... Then again, she wouldn't mind if Elle let the beans spill on her own. Whatever the reason for its creation, Ruth hadn't been able to resist friending the new account as soon as she saw it... And Elle had almost immediately responded.

'I guess,' Elle conceded. 

It was so impossible to read emotion from simple words. Had she forgotten the period at the end of the sentence because she was lying on her bed, tapping away at her phone, not putting too much effort into it, or was she trying to convey annoyance? It would be far, far easier if Elle was here, with her, if she'd attended the grad school Ruth had suggested.

A part of Ruth wished she'd been sneaky, too - assuming that was what her daughter was actually up to - and made a fake account to friend Elle under in total anonymity. Elle should be happy she hadn't done that, had been upfront with her! She couldn't exactly point that out without making it sound like a threat, however, a way of telling Ruth that she'd be back, in some form, if she unfriended her, or an accusation, saying that was what Elle was doing, basically.

Instead, Ruth promised, 'I'm not going to comment on anything or embarrass you. I only want to be able to see what you're up to.'

'Okay," Elle replied. 'I get it.'

She didn't, Ruth noted, tell her that she didn't have to worry about following through on that. Perhaps that had been the issue... Ruth hadn't been able to resist commenting on every picture Elle posted on her old account, telling the girl how cute she looked, how proud she was of how much she'd grown up... When Elle had started slowing her photo posting to a crawl, Ruth suspected she might not be too happy about that, even if that didn't help her contain herself.

'Since you're here,' Elle continued after a few moments, 'there is something I should tell you... I was going to do it next time I called, but you're definitely going to notice it before then now...'

'Did you dye your hair?' Ruth asked, letting the implication that Elle hadn't planned on calling her for a while slide, for now. 'You know I think that's tacky.'

'No, Mom,' Elle said. 'I have a new girlfriend.'

'Oh, I see.' Ruth didn't know how to respond to that. She hadn't minded when Elle had come out to her, told her she was pansexual, and she'd liked her old girlfriend, Jillian, way more than any of the guys she'd done out with in high school. She'd seemed like a nice, quiet, respectful girl... Elle, on the other hand, had confessed to Ruth that Jillian was kind of boring, and that she'd been thinking about breaking up with her... 

Apparently, she had. Had she neglected to tell Ruth that because she thought she'd be disappointed that she hadn't stuck with Jillian? Or was there something about this new girlfriend that she wanted to hide?

'What's her name?' Ruth inquired a moment or two later, after processing the news as much as she could.

'Her name is Carly,' Elle answered. 'I think you'll like her, too, if you give her a chance.'

And why wouldn't Ruth like her right away? Ruth's Mom senses immediately began to tingle at the phrasing. She wanted to push the subject, but she was trying to prove she could be cool, that Elle didn't need to make yet another account to hide from her. 'I'm sure I will,' Ruth told Elle, as she started to scroll through her daughter's feed to find a comment from, or a tag with, a Carly.

It didn't take long at all, and, once she'd discovered it, she could see both why Elle hadn't told her about the girl, and why she'd added in that qualifier to her statement about Ruth liking her. 

"Why would she post these online?" Ruth fretted, scrolling through the girl's photos. There were a few where she was properly dressed, and seemed sweet enough... In more of them, however, she was half naked, wearing what appeared to be a bra and a tiny, plaid skirt, with huge, black leather boots, with an attitude that suggested she was moments away from flipping off the camera.

It could have just been a photo shoot, Ruth reasoned. Nobody would go outside like that... As she kept going, though, she saw a picture of the girl in the same outfit, with an open coat over it, suggesting she'd done exactly that, not even bothering to pull the jacket closed to hide her mostly bare chest. A few shots later, Ruth saw the girl at a party, dressed in something else just as slutty, a drink in each hand...

She couldn't help herself. She should stay quiet, let Elle work it out for herself, and have confidence that, eventually, she would, that the allure of this new girl would fade away... She didn't want to see what it would take to make that happen, however.

'I don't know about her,' Ruth messaged Elle. 'She looks like a bad influence.'

'Mom, please,' Elle replied. 

'I know you're an adult, and you can make your own decisions,' Ruth said, 'but I don't think she's right for you at all. I think you're overcompensating for how boring you thought Jillian is, and you're going to regret it if you let this girl talk you into doing anything crazy.'

'I am an adult,' Elle agreed, 'and I know what I'm doing. Seriously, Mom, just give it some time, okay?'

She didn't want to - she would have loved to march right to that grad school and give this overgrown, naughty little girl a piece of her mind - but she made herself stay calm, for now. 'I'll try,' she promised, the best she could do. She only hoped none of Carly's attitude rubbed off on her innocent daughter... Or she'd find some way to make her regret it.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

To Ruth's surprise, things did seem to get better. She was afraid of friending Carly directly, assuming that would tip her off, but she made a habit of checking out her page whenever she could, waiting to see her post something that she could send to Elle, to prove that the girl wasn't right for her, or anyone else, for that matter.

There were a few more posts with her strutting around practically naked, but not as many as there seemed to have been before. Was it just that she was at school now? She didn't have time to get all dressed up? Or was there a dress code? Ruth hadn't heard of any such thing at the school, and she would have thought grad schools were beyond that sort of thing... Clearly, while there were people like Carly attending, it wasn't a bad idea, however.

In fact, pretty soon, it seemed like all that Carly wore was what appeared to be a uniform, a sweatshirt and another plaid skirt, only slightly shorter than the ones Ruth had seen in the previous pictures, yet somehow far more respectful, with no straps or chains dangling from it. Between that, her knee socks, and her Mary Janes, Ruth almost didn't recognize her... She looked more like a sweet little schoolgirl than the slutty goth nightmare she'd seen in those first pictures.

She wanted to ask Elle about it, but she didn't want to be too obvious about it, to let on that she was keeping tabs on her girlfriend. It only got more confusing when she saw Elle posting pictures of herself, though, and she wasn't wearing something similar - which was a bit disappointing, since Ruth was certain she'd look adorable in it.

'Does your school have a uniform?' she tried finally, hoping that was vague enough not to raise suspicions.

'Huh?' Elle shot back. 'Of course not! I haven't had a uniform since middle school! I'm not about to start again now!'

That made sense... Elle did work during her summers, and she did her best to be self-sufficient, but if she'd had to buy a bunch of new uniforms, she probably would have asked Ruth to help pay for them, or at least complained to her about it. It didn't help Ruth figure out what was going on with Carly, however, and now she wasn't sure how to broach the subject further.

Luckily, she didn't have to. 'Oh, are you looking at Carly's pictures?' Elle asked.

There was no point lying about it now. 'I was just taking a peek.' It wasn't a fib if she pretended she was talking about what she'd done right before sending the message, glancing at the girl's page one more time to ensure nothing had changed, that she hadn't suddenly posted another pic of her back to her old fashion sense.

'Those are from her high school,' Elle explained. 'Between classes and homework, things are so crazy that she decided it was easier to go back to wearing those, so she wouldn't have to think about what to wear every day.'

'Makes sense,' Ruth said, unable to resist teasing, 'Maybe I should send you some of your middle school uniforms so you can do the same thing!'

'Very funny, Mom,' Elle replied. 

As cute as it might have been, there was no way that was going to happen... Those uniforms had been so much more childish, with their plaid, babydoll jumper dresses. Ruth couldn't imagine a grad student would want to be caught dead in those! They'd felt a little too immature even for middle-schoolers, at the time, though Ruth hadn't minded.

'Although,' Elle sent another message after a brief pause, 'if you do find any of those, you could always send them to me, just in case...'