Fairy Tale Confessions, page 32
“What. Are. You. Wearing?” Summer growled through clenched teeth as I descended the final step. Her red hair was pulled back in a severe French twist that displayed the angry veins bulging on her neck.
“A dress. A cover-up sort of. But I think it works,” I replied smoothing it down.
She marched toward me with Winter hot on her heels. Winter’s brown ringlets bounced with each step. The two circled around me snatching the skirt into their hands and dropping it aggressively.
“This dress is awful,” Winter sneered. Her face was screwed up in repulsion. “This is by far one of the worst things I have ever seen you design. Thank God you didn’t try to give this to me.”
Summer nodded adamantly and gestured to her own gown. “Although my gown tonight is a close second. It is so unoriginal, Cinderella. And for a fashion party? For pity sake, I’m embarrassed.” She accentuated every syllable of the word through her pinched scowl. “I’ve told mother that this is the very last time I wear anything of yours. It’s all utter crap!”
My jaw dropped with shock. The Silicone Sisters had never been overly complimentary of my designs, but they had never given me feedback like this. “If you hate my work so much, why do you have me make all of your clothes?” I asked feeling like I had just entered the Twilight Zone.
“A favor to mother, of course!” Summer laughed meanly. “Are you stupid? Did you really think you actually had a talent for fashion design?” She burst into a hearty laugh, clutching her narrow waist in her boney arms.
“You’ve never even gone to college, Cinderella!” Winter seethed an inch from my ear.
“You can really be a fool,” Summer said snidely into my other.
My neck snapped back and forth as they both circled me again. Their hands flailed wildly as they continued to pick apart every aspect of my dress.
Winter suddenly stopped inches from my face. “You have zero talent, Cinderella. Somebody needs to tell you.” A cold detached look filled her features. “But Mother says since both of your parents are dead, we have to show you pity.”
The mention of my parents felt like icy cold hands gripping and squeezing my heart until tears formed in my eyes. “Don’t speak of them.” My voice wavered. I bit my lip and unsuccessfully blinked back the tears that were slipping down my cheeks.
Summer’s face joined Winter’s. “Fortunately, there’s really not much to speak of! Your daddy—” Summer stopped midsentence, chortling. “He acted like you were some prize. But—,” she was laughing harder now. “It was all an act, Cinderella. Surely you’ve figured that out by now. He never thought you would amount to anything and he felt sorry for you.”
“Why do you think he found our mother?” Winter added. “He needed someone to care about.” She glared up at me from her squatty stature. “That’s why Mother owns this home. And you don’t. Not because there was no living will. The truth is, we were more important to your father than you and your mother combined.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, willing away the flash images of my father kissing my head every night before bed. He’d give me two kisses. One from him and one from her. My mother. I never even knew her, but she was special to me. That memory had escaped me until this very moment.
My eyes stung with an onslaught of more tears, so I opened them. They trailed down my face, fast and furious. Just then, a foggy glow formed around Summer and Winter’s faces. My balance began to waver. This wasn’t a dream. This was my own living nightmare.
“No one loves you and you have no talent,” Summer added and the two erupted into witchy cackles.
“Girls.” MD’s voice cut through my haze. My head snapped to find her leaning against the doorway. Her stance indicated that she had watched the entire scene. A quiet giggle escaped her breath when she tried to speak. “I told you to never tell Cinderella these things.”
“It’s been six years mother,” Summer whined. “How long are you going to make us put up with her?”
“Enough.” She strolled toward me in her scarlet-red chiffon dress. “As I said earlier, you are still very welcome to come tonight, Cinderella. That is…if you won’t be too embarrassed by—” Her eyes dropped down to my dress without finishing her sentence.
My chin trembled. All three watched me with complete disdain. I stared back in wonder. Surely a flicker of empathy or feeling would show itself. Something. Anything! If either of them would have looked upon me with even the slightest look of compassion, I could have been saved.
Their faces only glittered with malice.
How had I lived with such hate for six whole years? Even if I had had the strength to stand up to them, I couldn’t. They had armed their words as weapons and gave voice to that shred of self-doubt that I had screaming in my head every single day.
I wasn’t talented.
I wasn’t loved.
I wasn’t anything.
I was a twenty-year-old charity case who still lived at home with her non-family because she had no one else in the world that gave two shits about her. How did I let Prince give me hope like he did?
Winter and Summer continued to giggle as tears rained down my cheeks. I swallowed around the painful knot in my throat. The damage was done. This was how pathetic I really was.
“I won’t be coming,” I uttered and walked shakily toward the front door past MD. “Thank you anyway.”
As soon as the night air hit my face, I kicked off my wedges and balled my large skirt up in my hands.
Then…I ran. I ran to the one place that wasn’t even mine to run to anymore. But I had no choice. I was being pushed.
Love was impossible. It was sick and twisted and wrong. Loving people. Loving what you do. Having passion. Anything you ever developed a true attachment to could only wreck you when it finally got around to striking you in the face.
Because everything always did.
I stopped at the top of the cliff, peering down into the falls with pure, undiluted pain. My dress whipped around me in the wind. It was torn and filthy from my sprint through the woods, but I didn’t care. None of it mattered anymore. My designs. My dreams. My hopes. What a joke! I was nothing more than a seamstress. The dream of becoming a legitimate designer was all derived from lies. From pity.
Did anybody ever love me?
“Whyyyy?” I cried out, launching all the anger, resentment, disgust, and evil that was thrown at me tonight out into the rocky abyss. My lungs ached with my guttural scream as my voice echoed in the distance. “Why would you give me these hopes and dreams with no intention of ever helping me fulfill them? Why would you let me feel so alive for nothing? Nothing!” I cried out again and dropped to my hands and knees, dragging air into my lungs.
My vision blurred as my body was seized with sobs. I dropped to my elbows and cried into my arms like I’d never cried before. Not even when my father died. The loss of my father was a pure and innocent grief. This was a pain I didn’t understand. The difference between mourning loss…and mourning hatred.
I wasn’t sure how much time had passed before I suddenly felt my back and shoulders turn damp and cold. I looked up to see a huge cloud of mist surrounding me. My tears stalled instantly as I rose to my knees and analyzed the glittering droplets all around me.
The foggy mist swirled, increasing in speed with each lap. The vision before me was other-worldly. Then, the bubbles clustered and shifted into a familiar silhouette. With a huge burst of white light, I closed my eyes at the onslaught of water spraying my face. When I opened them and looked up, you could have knocked me over with a feather.
“Am I dreaming?” I whispered.
She shook her head.
“Am I dying?”
She shook her head again.
“Am I losing my mind?”
“A state-of-mind is fluid, like water, so that question is a bit harder to answer.” Her voice sang with a pitch that warmed my heart. It was an older woman’s voice with a weak tremble to it.
“Are you real?” I asked, tears forming in my eyes.
“I’m as real as your face is wet.” She tilted her head and rubbed the back of her hand across my damp cheek.
It was the glowing woman from my dreams. I could see more than just her face now. She was short and round in a cozy grandmotherly way. Her cheeks were rosy and her mouth turned down in that obscenely happy way it always did. She was dressed in a long, pale blue cloak with a hood that framed her round face and white curly hair.
“What does this mean?” I asked feeling an overwhelming urge to run into her arms and cry.
“It means it’s time, Rell,” she whispered.
“Time for what?”
She placed her cool hands on both my cheeks. “Time for the dreams to stop and reality to begin.”
I cried at her loving touch and she hugged my face into her waist. It was soft and supple, warm and inviting. It felt like a hold that a mother would give a child.
“Who are you?” I cried between sniffles.
“I am your Fairy Godmother, Rell. I have been with you for many years, and I am here because it is time.” She giggled dreamily. “I’ve been listening to your hopes and dreams for many years. And for dreams to float, reality must sink.”
My breath escaped me as she reached her hand out to mine and lifted me to my feet. She was a good twelve inches shorter than me.
“Have we met before?” I asked, curious about all of her appearances in my dreams and the feelings of déjàvu I had felt since losing my father.
She chuckled. “Well, it certainly wasn’t a glitch in the Matrix!” She moved me to the edge of the cliff. “Come now, we don’t have much time.”
“What are we doing?” I asked nervously as we held hands on the rocky edge.
“We’re grabbing your dreams.”
Before I could ask another question, she jumped and pulled me down the bluff and into the dark waters. As soon as we were submerged, I felt different. I wasn’t worried about time or holding my breath like I normally would have been. Time seemed to stand still. She crooked her finger and motioned for me to follow her. We swam deeper into the water, where the falls crashed to the water’s floor. A flurry of bubbles pushed me through to the other side, near the cave.
There, we came upon a glowing light. The closer we swam to it, the brighter it got. Fairy Godmother stopped and urged me forward toward the light. All of a sudden, everything was bright white around me, like I was floating inside a cloud.
The water swirled and I noticed the fabric on my dress glittering at the hem. Pops of color shot off all around me. The colorful vortex spun up and up until I broke through the water’s surface with a mighty explosion.
I landed straight onto my bare feet in front of our home. I looked around dazed and confused as to how I got here. But what was even more stunning was my appearance. And how dry I was.
“Remind you of anything?” Fairy Godmother asked, appearing from thin air beside me.
“I’ve made this dress.” I touched my skirt delicately. I was wearing a diamond blue ball gown. The bodice was a strapless, sweetheart corset with navy blue rosettes layered over top of each other. The skirt was a shimmery light-blue organza with a navy overlay. I glanced at my reflection in the house window. The dress was large and simply dreamlike.
“But I only made this dress in my dreams,” I said disbelievingly.
Fairy Godmother giggled while coifing her short, white curls.
“How…why?” I asked, touching my own hair as well. My blonde locks were curled and flowing down one side with blue ribbon laced into an intricate braid along my hairline. I’d never worn much makeup before. But in my faint reflection, I could tell it was dramatic and gorgeous. I barely recognized the girl staring back at me.
“Magic becoming reality my dear. I helped you make this gown in your dream.” She smiled proudly. “And now your talent transcends the dream realm.”
The word talent made my heart sink as my consciousness was flooded with earlier memories. That painful knot in my throat returned.
“Why the sad face, my darling?” She glided up to me as if she didn’t walk on feet but on air.
“I don’t have talent, Fairy Godmother. I so appreciate this but it’s not…it’s not any good.” I was trying desperately to squelch the heartache of seeing my creation come to fruition. None of it mattered.
“Hush right now.” For the first time since seeing her in my dreams, Fairy Godmother wasn’t smiling. “Tonight, my dear. Tonight, you will see. You will see what evilness has been trying to hide from you. You go to that party. You show your work. And you will see.” She chortled with excitement as a sleek stretch Mercedes pulled up to the house.
“But my—” I started as she shooed me into the backseat.
“Your designs are already there. Everything has been handled. Let your Fairy Godmother get her fairy on would you?” She tittered and tucked my dress inside the car door. “One more thing. I know you prefer barefoot…but—”
She circled her hands in front of her and a clear bubble formed. With a small burst of mist, two clear glass slippers appeared in her hands.
“This dress demands heels my dear. Hopefully this is a compromise.” She winked dreamily and slipped the smooth glass onto my feet. “Go. Enjoy. Smile. Laugh. Live. Just…reach for that happily ever after. Because you…are special my child.” A maniacal chuckle bubbled up out of her and her cheeks flashed rosier than usual.
I grinned incredulously. “Thank you, Fairy Godmother.” I leaned out of the car and captured her around the waist in a tight hug.
She appeared to be taken off guard, and then relaxed. “It is my distinct pleasure.” She stroked her hands down my hair and hummed with appreciation. “Oh! I almost forgot! You must be back by midnight. No exceptions.” She pulled me back to lay her serious blue eyes on me. “This magic is a gift, not a guarantee. All you see before you will be as it was when the clock strikes twelve.”
This was already more than I’d ever dreamed.
In a flurry of lights, champagne, people, and ball gowns, I found myself at a prime front row seat at the end of a runway. It was five minutes to eleven and when I gave my name at the gate, I was ushered quickly to my seat and told that everything was taken care of. My swimwear line would be waltzing down the runway any minute now and I was vibrating with anticipation.
“You came,” a voice whispered into my ear from behind. I attempted to turn.
“No. Please,” Prince said, placing his hands on my shoulders. “Don’t turnaround. I’ve been staring at you from across the room for the last ten minutes and I’m afraid that if you actually look me in the eyes, I’ll totally lose my nerve.”
My eyebrows rose as a million butterflies took flight in my belly. “Your nerve should be well in tact considering all these women are here for you tonight.”
He scoffed. “All they saw tonight was my head snapping in every direction looking for you. Kept me waiting long enough, Princess,” he added with a playful growl.
I pinched back a smile. “I’m not really here for the mixer, Prince.” I felt guilty at that admission, but it was true. Mostly.
He sighed heavily. “I know, Rell.” His lips tickled my ear as he leaned in and whispered, “And while I’m incredibly happy for you and what we’re about to see, I want to make it clear that I have ulterior motives.”
I could feel his eyes on me now but I couldn’t bring myself to look at him. My chest rose and fell with deep breaths as my mind dreamed of all the possibilities behind that statement. But too many people’s words had power over me tonight. Tonight wasn’t about their words.
Tonight was about my own voice.
“Well, suck it up.” I grinned. “Tonight isn’t about you.”
A puff of cool air hit my neck as he let out a pleasant chuckle. He slid into the reserved seat beside me. “You look…beautiful.”
I finally looked at his face and his eyes were bright and charming as ever. He was dressed in a fitted, warm-charcoal tuxedo with a black vest and bow tie that matched his dark wavy hair. He was looking every bit the Prince Charming tonight.
His expression morphed from amused to smoldering the longer we gazed at each other. I swallowed. Hard. I couldn’t tell what was causing the most ruckus with my nerves: the fashion show that was about to start, or the way Prince looked at me, like if he didn’t kiss me he might spontaneously combust.
Turning my gaze back to the runway I exhaled heavily to get a grip on these insanely overwhelming feelings. “I think I might be sick,” I croaked.
“Don’t. I was just back stage and…Rell.” I turned back as his voice shifted. “I had a feeling you were talented but nothing could have prepared me for what I saw.”
“Really?” I gasped in shock.
He shook his head in disbelief. “Do you really have no idea how amazing you are?” Our eyes locked again in a heated exchange as his words penetrated through all my fears and anxieties.
Clearing his throat, he added matter-of-factly, “I mean, the models didn’t look half as good as you.” I rolled my eyes. “Rell—” he started.
Just then the lights dimmed and three spots swerved to the stage.
“And now ladies and gentleman,” the MC’s voice announced through the sound system. “The surprise final show tonight. Introducing… Princess Pride Swimwear.”
My head snapped to Prince and he shrugged his shoulders and grinned salaciously. I turned back to the stage, beaming with pride. This was really happening! A glowing rim of blue lights flashed around the perimeter of the floor-level runway.
“How much are you freaking out right now?” Prince asked, leaning into me as my eyes took in the huge crowd.
