A Fairytale
by Nyssa Jayne
Just Over One Year Ago in Tulsa
It was a fairytale wedding, if you were a rockstar and a fangirl.
Taylor, even when he was seventeen, had always assured us that he was in love,
and stood by his word and his girl. Now, at age nineteen, he was watching
his prom date princess Natalie walk toward him in white, all ready to be his
wife for now until eternity. There was family, flowers, vows of matrimony,
and... hot bridesmaids!
Isaac and I tried to concentrate on the wedding, but the girls assigned to stand
next to us were being good looking and distracting. Isaac was probably
marrying one in his mind, I was undressing the other in mine.
"You may kiss the bride," permitted the priest, and the chapel filled with
heartfelt cheering, as Taylor and Natalie sealed the deal and shared their first
kiss as husband and wife. I grinned like mad at the goofy look on my
brother's face, as Natalie almost tripped over mid-swoon. Someone had said
it would be the happiest day of their lives, I don't think that they had lied,
either.
"Has wedded bliss sunk in yet?" I asked at the reception. Taylor
giggled.
"Wedded bliss kicked in a couple of months ago, Zac." Natalie glared at
him, faltered, smiled, and maternally patted her belly. Isaac and I
watched our brother almost melt into a puddle.
"It did hit me for a moment at the alter just how much I love her."
"Here's to happily ever after -- for Taylor and Natalie." I raised my
glass.
I believed in fairytales, one was happening right in front of me, albeit almost accidentally and far more contemporary than most. I was just avoiding my own like the plague, because happily ever after meant forever, and that was a scary thing to take in.
* * * * *
More Recent Times in London
"Hello London!" I screamed out over the balcony. It had just ticked
over midnight into the twenty-second of October, 2003, and the man in London
declared me legal and ready to party. As the band, my brothers and I, had
just finished a concert to our excited, loving fans, so we were already in the
mood to celebrate. My birthday just added more reason.
With an invite from some of the London crew, we hit a trendy bar, where the
girls were make-up believe beautiful and the drinks flowed in all kinds of
colours and potions.
There was one girl that caught my eye. She had long, long legs that grew
out of her miniskirt and finished at her trashy, plastic pumps. She wore a
ball gown inspired top that was ripped and see through in all the right (wrong?)
places, as if her fairy godmother had lied about the condition of the clothes
when they were auctioned on eBay. And despite all this, she help her head
high and strutted with confidence; she yelled at the guy next to her like being
nasty was going out of fashion.
Isaac caught onto what I was looking at.
"Stupid bitch," he muttered. "She's yelling at one of the young lighting
guys, who are some of the coolest people we've met on this leg of the tour."
"That, and she's a skanky whore," I concluded, snickering. "Probably
shopped at Britney's garage sale."
Just like she was mad at the lighting guy and us, she stormed out of the
nightclub. Isaac and I just cackled wickedly, as our eyes followed her
out.
The girls kept coming and going and the potions kept flowing. Isaac gave a speech in my honour, telling all the embarrassing moments of my life that his five extra years of existence let him remember. Taylor brought out a cake, that he claimed to have baked, but I found out later that it was Natalie's expertise with packet mix that had brought it to life. The knife touched the bottom and the nearest girl was a very pretty girl indeed, so much so it was only an hour later when my under-the-influence wish came true. I didn't mean to keep imagining the prima donna princess of before, who just wouldn't leave my mind, not even when Natalie decided not to hit the dancefloor, but the tables instead, declaring true love for my brother and a happy birthday to me with a raunchy round of karaoke.
We didn't see the outside world until dawn and when we did, it was very
blurry and far too bright. The birthday party that would now forever
become a legend, stories about it would begin with, "Once upon a time in London,
Zac had a smashing birthday party..." was over, and it was back to real life.
The four of us, Isaac, Taylor, Natalie and myself, stumbled back to our hotel,
ready to fall into a repose that didn't need to last forever, just a very long
time at least.
That's when I saw the slipper.
It was a worn out beige colour, it's sheepskin insides looking deteriorated, the stitching holding it together was doing a pretty pathetic job, and it was hardly a pretty thing to smell.
"Isaac, is this your ugly excuse for a shoe?" I laughed.
"Excuse me? Mine are grey."
"Not ours," cooed Taylor and Natalie in unison.
"Maybe it's mine," another voice pondered. A little old lady shuffled up
to us, and inspected the shoe. "Ahhh... I think I know who owns it."
"Who?" I asked, curious now. The little old lady sported a hunched over
figure and a limp, but there was a mischievous twinkle in her eyes that also
played on her lips, that dragged me in to whatever it was she had to say.
"One of the girls in the foyer just here." I looked around and saw the
princess from last night. I leaned back to the others and said,
"Guys, the princess from last night owns this."
"Are you going to give it back?" asked Isaac. I looked at the slipper.
"Sure as hell not going to keep holding on it." The Princess looked over
to me, then spotted the slipper. She came over to me, as I took a couple
of steps forward. "Is this yours?" I looked at her feet. One
foot was bare, while the other wore a matching sheepskin shoe.
"Yes," she snapped. She stuck her foot out, as if waiting for me to put it
on for her.
"Excuse, what's your name?" I asked. She paused.
"It's Lulu."
"My name is Zac and you can put your own damn moccie on." Princess Lulu
snatched her shoe from me.
"Thanks Prince Zac Charming." After she pulled her slipper back on, she
looked back up at me.
Our eyes locked, we had a moment, as Taylor would describe it. The
world stood still and I realised how much I could, and did, love a girl like
Princess Lulu. Her long legs that grew from her miniskirt to her pumps
were elegant and feminine, and her ball-gown inspired top was a delicate
creation made just to show how beautiful she was. She didn't let anyone
get to her and attack her confidence, making her sexy and intriguing; the girl I
always would want and could never have, unless she fell in love with me too.
And... I think she did.
"No, I mean, thank you very much for finding my slipper."
"You're welcome. You're very welcome."
Just as quickly as the moment had occurred, it finished, and Princess Lulu
grabbed her suitcase and stormed out in a huff. I poked my tongue out at
her back, as Isaac, Taylor and Natalie watched on in a dumbfound confusion.
"My dear family, " I began to declare. "I have fallen in love with
Princess Lulu."
"That's a hard thing to understand," started Isaac. "What's even harder to
understand is why didn't you grab her number then?!"
"Because we'll live happily ever after without each other," I swooned, writing
the end of my fairytale.