Austin, Texas
"Sue Ellen?" Patricia lightly tapped on her daughter's bedroom door, "Sue Ellen. I made some iced tea and I thought you might like some", she waited for Sue Ellen to open the door but received no answer; she entered the room herself and looked at her eldest daughter. "Now dear, you'll dehydrate yourself if you don't stop. Come downstairs and sit with us, I'm sure you'll feel better after that". Sue Ellen sat up and looked at her mother, her eyes puffy and red from crying, the last thing she wanted to do right now was have a polite conversation and iced tea with her mother and sister; they were the least sympathetic people she'd ever met. "No thank you mama, I'm not thirsty" she lay back down and waited for her mother to take the hint and leave, "I don't think it's good for you to stay up here all alone; wallowing in self-pity is not going to help now. What's done is done, you need to move on and focus on what you do have while you still can. You're still Miss Texas and a popular model and soon you'll be Mrs JR Ewing; concentrate on what you have now and you'll flourish; but if you stay locked up like this and shut everyone out of your life, then you're on the path to being a nobody, self-destruction is not the answer. Now, please get out of bed, freshen up and I'll go setup on the patio" she left the room and Sue Ellen did as her mother said. She still didn't feel like facing the world, but she would at least appease her mother and have tea. She splashed water on her face and brushed her hair before changing into a dress and walking downstairs.
"The fourth of July is next week; do you have any plans? Kristin's spending the day at her friend Susan's house and I've been invited to a party at the Montgomery's lake house, you're welcome to join us if you'd like" Patricia made conversation and Sue Ellen did her best to participate, but she was still emotional and distant in her thoughts. Her Miss America loss had really surprised her and she was still in shock, she didn't feel like celebrating anything right now. "Mhm, the Ewings are hosting a small barbecue", JR had invited her weeks ago and she'd accepted, but she wasn't so sure she wanted to go anymore. The thought of everyone expressing their sympathies about her loss made her even sadder; she really had not expected to lose. Even though she had been telling people repeatedly to not get their hopes up and that it wasn't a guaranteed win, somewhere in the back of her mind she knew that she was just being modest. It would have seemed conceited to have too much self-confidence, but she did think she had a good chance and everyone kept telling her that she'd win; the early elimination had knocked her confidence and taken her by complete surprise. She was having a hard time dealing with it; crying was the only thing that made her feel better. If her mother had let her return to her apartment instead of insisting she come back to her house, she probably would have gone straight for a bottle of vodka and drank enough to blackout; she hated how she felt and was upset with herself for failing, she just wanted to forget everything.
Dallas, Texas
Julie worked at her desk and observed JR; he was on edge about something, but she wasn't quite sure what. The oil business was running well, so something in his personal life must have gone wrong. She'd watched the television broadcast for reasons she couldn't explain, she didn't even like beauty pageants and she especially didn't like Sue Ellen, so why she tortured herself by watching the Miss America pageant, she had no idea; but she was secretly pleased when Sue Ellen had been eliminated early in the competition. It made her feel better about herself to know that JR's 'special' girlfriend was about to be thrown to the bottom of the social heap again; she would be irrelevant soon enough and JR would probably lose interest in her. She hoped that he'd naturally break things off with Sue Ellen and then he'd be free again for her to pursue, she missed him, not just in bed, but his companionship. "Julie, make copies of these and file them. If daddy asks, I've gone to lunch" JR exited his office, gave Julie her orders and left the Ewing Oil building. He was in no mood to talk; he was angry at his connection in the pageant office, he'd paid good money for results and what he got was less than satisfactory. Sue Ellen should be Miss America right now, but instead, she was miserable; she'd not said two words to him since the pageant ended and he knew that she was holding all of her emotions in.
He just wanted to comfort her and make everything better, but there wasn't anything he could do now; his connections weren't strong enough to get her what she wanted and she'd put up her emotional wall, he couldn't even offer kind words or actions to make her feel better. She wouldn't let him do anything too personal to comfort her after her loss either, not with her mother around; Patricia had hovered over them from the moment the pageant ended. Sue Ellen hadn't had much time alone with JR or by herself and he feared that when she finally did, she'd let everything out in a self-destructive way; he'd gathered from their time together that she'd never been taught how to deal with emotion in a healthy way. He was much the same way; he would use women or business to comfort himself when he was down. Personal problems would be ignored and he'd throw himself into business, or he'd have a hard time at the office and find himself a woman to relieve the pain; it didn't necessarily work in the long run, but in the moment it helped. He wasn't sure what Sue Ellen's weakness was, but she had to have one and with a build-up of negative emotion, it was sure to burst in the worst way. JR hadn't been able to fix her problems as they happened and was still trying; he'd returned home on Sunday afternoon after flying Sue Ellen and her family back to Austin. Sue Ellen had barely communicated with anyone after the pageant and he'd decided to give her a little space, it was what she had asked for and what was probably best for her right now. He would let her rest for a while and then in a few days she'd be ok, at least he hoped she would. He didn't want this one little thing to have a big impact on their relationship; he knew that she placed great importance on being Miss America, but to him it was just another title. He was happy that she was Miss Texas and didn't need for her to be Miss America; he really only put effort into helping her chances because it would make her and her mother happy. He wanted her to understand his perspective, that it really didn't matter to him either way, but he didn't think that she would really want to hear the 'beauty pageants aren't important' line from him. After all, her mother had brainwashed her into thinking that being a pageant queen was the most important thing she could do, aside from being married to a wealthy man of course. He hoped that with the space he was giving her, she would naturally come to her own conclusion and they could resume their good relationship soon.
Austin, Texas
Sue Ellen ran her finger around the rim of the glass and stared off into space, she wasn't really thinking about anything, just letting her mind drift in and out of conscious thought. She refilled the glass and downed the clear liquid, she already felt better. This was exactly what she needed, time alone to cry, drink and forget the pain, at least temporarily.
To be continued…