My step-sisters groaned. What? A marriage to who? This was terrible! My heart weakened. I thought that he had liked me.
"Wait, that's not all," step-mother said, "Last night, at the ball, a girl lost her glass slipper. He says he's madly in love with her and will search the city to find her! Whichever girl's foot fits in the glass slipper will be the prince's bride!"
My step-sisters cheered. My heart gave a gigantic loop-de-loop. He said he's madly in love with me? I knew I was in love with him. My tummy twisted around in little loops. Marriage? Was I ready for this? Who was I kidding, it was all I could have ever hoped for!
"Girls," step-mother said, facing her daughters, "You will make the glass slipper fit, understand?"
My step-sisters nodded. What? They couldn't do that. I went into sudden panic. What if some other girl's foot fit into the glass slipper? What then? My foot was a six and a half, very narrow with high arches, though. There couldn't be that many girls with a foot of that size.
At that precise moment, the doorbell rang. "CINDERELLA!" step-mother screeched, "TO YOUR BEDROOM!"
"I'm Prince Charming," the prince announced, as if scared of the voices he heard.
I tried to protest against step-mother's cruel wishes, but step-mother grabbed me with force, threw me in my bedroom and locked my door. I heard the prince coming into the house, welcomed by step-mother, Anastasia and Drizella. There was no time to waste. It was possible that he could leave without seeing me. That would be terrible. I ran to the door leading to the bathroom, but no luck. That was locked as well. Step-mother must have been planning this for a while.
"Sorry, but your daughters are not blond," I heard the prince saying, though his voice was muffled.
"Why does it matter," step-mother's crisp voice pierced the wood.
"Because not only was the girl I danced with blond, but she looked like neither of your two daughters. Is there any other eligible lady in the household?" the prince asked.
"ME!" I shouted, unable to hold myself in any long.
"What was that?"
"Oh, nothing, nothing, just the television I'm sure," step-mother said, and I could see her shadow pass by the door.
"PRINCE! PRINCE CHARMING! I'M BEHIND THIS DOOR!" I yelled, terrified.
Footsteps came closer and closer, until someone tried the doorknob. "Key, please," the prince said, obviously not in the mood.
Step-mother obviously handed over the keys, because a second later the prince opened the door and swept me into his arms, twirling me about in a circle. He must have recognized me, despite my altered appearance.
As I hugged him back, all I could think about was how my dreams of being a famous singer would finally come true. It would happen.
"Will you tell me your name?" he asked, finally setting me down. He stroked my cheek, "Or are you known as the most beautiful lady of all time?"
I giggled a wee bit, and pressed my hand against his. He was so cute. He was wearing a v-neck t-shirt that had mustaches on it, as well as simple semi-length pants and running shoes. Cutie. "Cinderella Casmin," I whispered softly.
He pulled me into an embrace. I cupped his head in my hands. "That's a cool name," he said, and just when I couldn't stand waiting anymore, he extended his head and planted a juicy kiss on my lips. My first kiss. I didn't want him to stop, so I cradled his head closer to mine. Our lips worked around each other's, closed, but lovingly.
"You don't know if she's the girl you danced with at the ball," step-mother's voice cawed out, her voice dripping with hatred.
Prince scooped me up in his arms, and carried me out to the the entrance hall. "We'd better try on that glass slipper, then!"
I removed my flats and extended my foot for him. Prince picked up the high heel and gingerly lifted my foot. He slowly slipped it into the high heel... It fit like a glove. Or a glass slipper, in this case.
It was perfect.
"I'll go get the other one," I said, and went back to my room, where I slipped on the beautiful glass slipper.
When I returned, Prince was knelt on one knee. My hand went to my chest.
"Cinderella Casmin," Prince said, reaching behind him and pulling out a little box.
Yes, yes, yes...
"Will you do me the honors," he continued, extending the box towards me.
Yes, yes, yes...
"Of being my beautiful wife?"
It was a shining diamond ring.
"Yes, yes, yes!" I screamed, tears of happiness leaking from my eyes.
He slid the ring on my finger. If felt so right, so natural. I admired it. He got up and I hugged him tightly. I looked up into his eyes. "Can I come live with you?"
He looked surprised. His face softened. "You want to get away, huh?" he whispered into my ear. His breath tickled me.
"Yeah. Normally I would want to wait until we're married, but I just want to stay with you and live with you and love you," I said happily.
"Lets go, then," he said, taking my hand in his.
I packed my few belongings quickly. I hugged Anastasia, Drizella, and even step-mother good-bye. I slipped Gus and Jack into my pockets and opened Pino's cage door. Then Lucifer came up to me and rubbed his head into my leg. Tears welled up in my eyes. I knew I wouldn't miss Drizella or step-mother, or the house or my bed or anything like that. I might miss Anastasia. But I would definitively miss Lucifer. I pulled him tight to me, kissing his fur. He mewed little cries of good-bye.
"Take care, darling Lucifer," I whispered, tears leaking into his fur. I set him down, took one last walk around the house, then got into Prince's awaiting car with my belongings. I turned my face away so he wouldn't see my tears.
It was all happening so quickly.
"Well, here it is," Prince announced once we had arrived at his house. Mansion, more like it. Prince carried my things in while I let Gus and Jack out into the grass. The three story Victorian style house was absolutely breathtaking, and I admired the little children's play-set in the yard. I suddenly wondered if I was supposed to have children with Prince. I realized I was ready to, and wanted to.
I had a sudden urge to use the washroom, so I rushed inside and scrambled for the nearest toilet. The bathroom was extremely large, with yellow tiling, a bathtub, paintings, a mirror, and-lo and behold-hung hand towels! Such a luxury! Once I was done on the potty, I washed my hands with expensive smelling soap, then dried them off with soft, fluffy towels. It was so refreshing. My momentary sadness at the loss of my 'family' was gone, replaced with comfort and luxury.
I exited the washroom to find Prince waiting for me. "Hello, darling," he said, pulling me into his arms. We started making out, right by the window. When we finished, I turned to see a fat, old, balding man in a tracksuit standing by our window. I sat down on the sofa with Prince and we cuddled. Moments, later, the old man walked in front of us, arm waving in the air, yelling.
"I go for a jog, and when I come back, this is what I see? My son kissing some random girl?" He cried, evidently perplexed.
"Dad, this is Cinderella Casmin, my fiancé. Cindy, this is my father, the King," Prince explained calmly.
"Pleasure to meet you, sir. You'll be my father-in-law, then?" I asked.
He nodded, mouth open. "You're the girl my son met at the ball?" he said, confused.
I nodded as well. I lifted my feet up. "You see? Glass slippers and all."
"Well, then," King said, "You're my soon-to-be-daughter-in-law! Let me light a fire in celebration! My son is finally getting married! And I'll have grandchildren!" King hummed to himself as he lit a fire for us before sinking into the couch next to Prince's and mine.
"So, Cinderella, tell me about yourself," King said, and I began my long, long lifetime story about my step-sisters and step-mother. Prince, who hadn't known this story either, gasped and tutted and laughed at all the appropriate places. I loved him all the more for it.
When I finished talking, I got an itching to cook, or clean. And I was hungry enough, so I got up and examined the ingredients and such in the fridge and pantries. I loved the kitchen. It was vast, with a microwave, blender, and coffee machine. King had even promised to order a dishwasher! It really intrigued me, the idea of having a machine to wash plates and such. How could we know they did a good job?
I pulled out some meat, onions, buns, and spices. I had once read a recipe online about making good hot dogs from scratch. After molding the meats, I sprinkled on spices, then set several on a plate and placed them in the microwave. When they were done, I put them in buns and squirted on ketchup and mustard.
"Food's served!" I announced. I hoped I made a good impression.
I grabbed a hot dog and sat sown at the counter. I noticed a high chair in the corner. I was beginning to wonder if my sole purpose was to become a mother. After I finished chomping down a hot dog-which was really delicious, actually-I washed my plate in the large sink.
"Honey, where's the nearest shower?" I asked Prince.
He was in the dining room, at a table seated for eight. I could hear King making his way into the dining room. Oops. I didn't know I was supposed to eat there.
"Second floor, I think," he replied between bites. Once he swallowed, he said, "These are heavenly, by the way! Thank you so much, Cinderella darling!"
Aw. He thanked me. And he called me darling. I loved him so much.
I went up to the second floor, where I stripped off my clothes and took my first shower ever. When I was younger, we didn't even have showers. In my old home, showers were expensive, and step-mother feared we would overuse a shower. So, the feeling of warm water cascading down onto me was quite pleasant and refreshing. I actually felt clean. I noticed some hotel looking shampoos and conditioners sitting on a ledge in the shower, so I pulled my elastic out of my hair, uncapped a bottle and began scrubbing the thing into my hair. My scalp felt so much cleaner as I massaged it. With my hair all bubbly, I found a bar of soap, and used it to scrub my body down. It was heavenly. After I had rinsed my hair out and repeated the process with conditioner, I rinsed the soap suds off my body and the conditioner out of my hair. I stepped out of the shower, but didn't want to get back into my dirty clothes. I opened the door a crack and peered out. I wasn't a prude, per say, but there was no way I was about to parade about in the house naked. What a sight that would be! I think my step-father would have a heart attack. I looked down and saw a fluffy, pale red towel and a bag with all my clothes in it. What a kind man that Prince was.
I toweled myself off inside the washroom and slipped on my underwear, then pulled my nightie on over top. I towel dried my hair, and picked up my clothing and dirty towel, feeling more refreshed than I had ever felt before.
"He's doing some work at city hall... King stuff. The usual. Do you want me to take that up to the laundry room?" Prince offered.
"There's a laundry room?!"
"Um, yeah?" Prince looked amused. "Third floor, washing machine and dryer. Detergent and bleach and stuff's on the shelf. It's next to the exercise machine."
I nearly fainted. They had such luxury! "It's okay, I'll handle it," I said, and hurried off to the laundry room. There were little blue bags to put your laundry in. Although I already had the laundry in my arms, I put them in the bag, just to see. I put the clothes in the washing machine and set it to normal.
When I returned downstairs, King was already back. "Cinderella!" he called to me happily. "I loaded the dishes in the new dishwasher!"
He was so jolly. I smiled at him. "Thanks, sir," I said, but felt off with calling him sir.
"'Sir'?" He laughed. "You can call me dad."
I hesitated. I hadn't had someone to call 'dad' in a long time. Would I be disrespecting my father to call my father-in-law dad?
King noticed my hesitation. "Cinderella, my dear, I can assure you that your late father wouldn't mind you calling someone else 'dad'. He knows that you'll never forget about him. If your mother was still alive, I know my late wife would be happy that her son found a motherly figure again, if he addressed his mother-in-law as 'mom'. But it's entirely up to you and your comfort level. You can just call me 'King', if you like," King explained gently.
I bit my lip. "If my dad was still alive, and you were dead, would you be totally okay if Prince called my dad, 'dad'?"
King nodded. "I would want my boy to be happy. I'd feel as if I'd be holding him back from leading a normal life style. I'd want him to move on."
Tears were approaching, but I blinked them back. "Okay, dad, thanks," I said, trying it out. I liked it.
Prince put a hand around my waist and kissed my cheek. Tingles danced up my spine.
Ten minutes later, we were in Prince's-now Prince's and my-bedroom, all over each other. Prince was stripped down to his underwear. He began to tug at my clothing, but stopped himself. "I don't want to pressure you... especially before we're married," he said seriously.
"I'm ready, trust me," I said madly, wildly. I was going to marry this man. I had no parents to approve or disapprove. I was eighteen. I wanted him. I was a little scared, though. "Are you a virgin?" I asked cautiously.
He nodded. "You?"
"Still got my v-card," I said. Okay. So he was disease free. This man here was going to take my virginity. I kissed him softly, more slowly, but he pulled away again.
"We're going to be losing our virginity to each other, then?" Prince said, slowly. He was sweating a bit, his face flushed.
"That's right," I said, and was beginning to lose patience.
"I don't think we should until we're married," Prince said, agitated.
I sighed. "You're probably right." I laid down in bed beside him. We snuggled under the covers, but no more than that.
"Lets get married soon," Prince said, and we drifted off to sleep.
The smell of smoke and King's yelling woke us up. In our excitement, we had forgotten to douse the fire. A small fire had started, catching on the nearby rug. We could hear King downstairs, trying to put the fire out.
"We have extinguishers," Prince explained quickly, scrambling around with his jeans on the floor, trying to find his cell phone. He punched in 9-1-1. "Hello? Yes, this is an emergency! We have a fire in our house!" King let out an anguished scream from below. Prince looked panicked. He shoved the phone at me with a, "Can you talk to them?", before running downstairs to aid his father. I remembered my experience before with fires. This was different, though, because we were adults.
After giving the police essential information quickly (address, number of people in the house, etc.), I ran downstairs to see how my two new housemates were handling the fire. It seemed that Prince had taken over, and he had managed to decrease the fire size so that it stayed in the fireplace. The hot red light shone off of Prince's perfectly carved body.
For some inexplicable reason, seeing my fiancé, Prince Charming, standing in his tight blue boxers with his bulging muscles, extinguishing a fire, made me realize how in love with him I really was. It was impossible to say why, or even how I knew, but I knew that not only were my feelings for him a wanting, but a needing. I couldn't imagine him not being in my life. He was my knight in shining armor. He was the Prince who saved me, the damsel in distress. He was generous and kind and grateful and silly and funny and I loved him so.
With a poker, my love moved the logs around to control the fire. King came in with a barrel of water and splashed the fire.
A siren blared, and I watched the same firefighter that came when I burnt the stove. I learned her name to be Ashley Rudin.
"Not you again," she said, laughing.
I blushed. "It's under control, though," I said.
She grinned. "Normally I'd accuse you of being an arsonist, but I can't imagine you'd do this on purpose." She looked around the house. "This is the King's estate! Wow!"
"I'm marring his son," I said proudly.
"You're a lucky girl," the firefighter said.
"I know. Thank you."
Ashley and I chatted a bit more, but eventually we said our good-byes and she departed.
Prince scooped me up in his arms and carried me off to bed. We fell into bed, exhausted. He held me while we slept. I thought about the wedding. Where it would be. And when. Before falling asleep, Prince had told me when he wanted to hold the wedding two months from now.
"Sweetheart?" I whispered, not sure if he was asleep.
"Yeah?"
"I love you."
"I love you too."
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