Excerpt: Forever Is Over

Cinderella set her shopping bags down and straightened up observing her prizes. She smiled to herself as she thought of the beautiful new wardrobe she had just purchased and began to root through the bags for the new shirt that she had bought Prince Charming. She had noticed that he did not have a blue dress shirt and figured that he needed one for the next ball that they were throwing the following month.

Cinderella removed the sale's tag and tossed the shirt onto the gigantic four poster bed that took up most of the space in their bedroom. She walked into the Prince's study and sat down at his computer. Cinderella remembered that she had to RSVP for Snow White's baby shower and wanted to get it out of the way before she forgot again. She moved the computer mouse across the St. George and the dragon mousepad and the screen illuminated before her.

When the screensaver dissolved Cinderella discovered that her husband was still logged into his Facebook page. She was just about to log out and log into her own when she noticed a flashing IM in the corner of the screen. It was from Glenda, one of his ex girlfriends. One that he swore he never spoke to anymore.

Furrowing her brow, Cinderella clicked on the IM and the window popped up. She scrolled to the beginning of the conversation and started to read.

GLENDA
Hey Charming, what's up?
CHARMING
FML.
GLENDA
What's wrong?
CHARMING
The kingdom is in financial trouble, my carriage broke down yesterday, and I'm married to a girl that I can't stand.

Cinderella blinked. She read that sentence again. And again. And again. Her jaw dropped. She continued to read.

GLENDA
Sounds like you need a hug.
CHARMING
I do.
I need to get going. I have to finish up some paperwork before the bitch comes back from shopping.
GLENDA
Okay. Talk to you soon.
CHARMING
Bye.

Cinderella stared at the screen in disbelief. She read through the entire conversation again. For some reason the words on the screen didn't magically change into something more pleasant. Cinderella was shocked. Charming couldn't stand her? He referred to her as "the bitch"?
What had happened? It was only six months ago that he slid a glass slipper onto her foot and smilingly told her that he wanted her to be his bride. Six months since they said their I dos and promised to be faithful until death do they part. Six months since they sunned themselves on the beaches of his kingdom for their honeymoon and smugly walked arm in arm along the shores.
Cinderella got up from the computer and wandered over to the window where she stared out, observing some of the stable boys grooming the horses that had just pulled her carriage to the local shopping center. She looked up, realizing that she had to do something. She couldn't stay with a man that couldn't stand her and would talk about her so disrespectfully. But what was she going to do?
Leave him? Divorce him? Maybe there was an explanation for all of this. There had to be. He had given her no indication that he was unhappy with her. They were always a close couple. Playful, yet sincere. Their love had to be stronger than whatever it was that was bothering him. Love conquers all, remember? Cinderella desperately wanted to believe this, but as she bit her lip she realized that there wasn't any logically explanation for talking about her in such a manner. How could he explain this? What could Prince Charming possibly say?
"Darling? Is that you?" Prince Charming's deep voice shook Cinderella from her thoughts. She turned and observed her husband entering the study. He smiled warmly at her and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips. "How was shopping?" He asked, sitting down at his computer.
"You – you can't stand me?" Cinderella stammered. As much as she wanted to be strong she realized that her lower lip was shaking and her voice cracked.
"What?" Charming asked in confusion. He then looked down at his computer and saw the IM conversation that was still active on the screen. He signed deeply, slouching in the chair, defeated.
"You called me a bitch." Cinderella said, mostly to herself.
"Honey, I was just joking around." Charming said, running his hand through his dark hair. "Glenda and I, we always talk about our significant other being terrible and things like that. We don't mean any of it. It's just a joke."
"A joke?" Cinderella asked. She desperately wanted to believe him. A little more desperately than she would like to admit, but the excuse could barely pass for flimsy. "That didn't sound like a joke." She said, realizing that her hands were shaking. "There was nothing in the context of that entire conversation to tell me that it was a joke. You weren't joking."
Prince Charming rested his elbows on the desk and rubbed his face in his hands. "I don't have time for this." He said finally. "I have a lot of paperwork to do and it's not my problem that you can't take a joke."
"You called me a bitch!" Cinderella objected. "That's not funny. And you're talking to Glenda. You told me that you never talked to her anymore."
Prince Charming sat back in his chair and observed her for a second. "You know you left you Myspace page up the other day and I read your e-mails. You sent a message to David. You told me that you never talk to him either."
"What?!" The princess shrieked. "It was his birthday. I was just sending him a message. And why are you going through my e-mails? That somehow justifies you talking to your ex after you told me that you weren't?"
"I'm not trying to justify anything. I just want to point out that you shouldn't be slinging blame on people when you're not perfect yourself." Charming rose from his chair and collected some folders from his desk. "I have to be in a meeting. I'll see you tonight at dinner." He left the room without turning back to glance at her.
The door slammed behind him. Cinderella stood in silence for several seconds as a tear rolled down her cheek. She carefully wiped it away but managed to smudge her mascara in the process. Wiping off the black smear onto her pastel pink dress she sat down at the computer again and frantically looked at the Facebook page. Friend updates, wall comments, super pokes, Mafia Wars… Nothing of note. Cinderella then accessed his inbox and clicked on the first message that popped up. It was from a girl that she didn't recognize.

From Charming: To Stephanie

Great to see you last night. I've never had such a great time with a girl. Call me soon.

From Stephanie: To Charming

I had a great time too, lol. When do you want to come up and see me again?

P.S. You left your underwear at my place, lol.

Cinderella gasped. He was cheating on her? They hadn't even been married a year and he was cheating on her already. Cinderella read over their message history and discovered that Stephanie was a peasant girl that Charming had been dating long before he had even met Cinderella. They exchanged flirtatious e-mails, talked about their future plans and as Cinderella read over the timeline she realized that he had been talking to this girl all during the time he had met and started courting Cinderella. He never mentioned her once. She clicked back to Charming's profile page and realized that under relationship status Charming had set his to "single".
Another tear streaked its way down Cinderella's face. She shut down the computer and walked back into the bedroom, sinking in her marriage bed, defeated. Cinderella sobbed quietly into her hands for several seconds before she realized that she needed someone to talk to. She crawled to the edge of the bed and shifted through the shopping bags before she found her matching pastel pink clutch and retrieved her matching pastel pink phone. She speed dialed her best friend and pressed the phone to her ear.
"Hey girly, what's up?" A friendly voice said.
"Aurora, the most horrible thing has happened!" The princess managed to choke out before dissolving into tears.
"OMG, are you okay?" Aurora asked in concern.
"No, I'm not," Cinderella sobbed, "Prince Charming is cheating on me and he thinks I'm a bitch."
"He thinks you're a what?" Aurora asked in shock.
"I saw a Facebook conversation that he had with Glenda. He called me a bitch and he said that he couldn't stand me. Also, he's cheating on me with some peasant girl named Stephanie. What am I supposed to do?"
There was silence on the other end of the phone.
"Aurora?" Cinderella finally asked, wiping away her tears on her sleeve.
"Uh, I don't know." Aurora said. "I don't have any of these problems, I'm happily married."
"Should I leave him?" Cinderella asked. "I can't let him talk about me like this. I'm a fucking princess for crying out loud, no one can talk about me like that. And the cheating? How could he? We haven't even been married a year. A year!"
"I really want to help, but I don't feel like I can. Maybe you two should go to marriage counseling." Aurora helpfully suggested.
"Counseling? But how can I ever forgive him for treating me like this. Does he even love me at all? Where did all of this come from anyway?"
"Uh, I have to go." Aurora said, her voice muffled. "I'll talk to you soon, okay? I hope you figure things out on your own."
"But I –" The line went dead. Cinderella pulled her phone back and stared at it for a second. Princess Aurora had hung up on her. Cinderella laid back against the blankets and pillows in frustration. She stared at her phone again trying to think of some else to call. Her mind was blank. She wasn't really close enough to anyone to ask for their help.
Cinderella gulped. She could feel a strange tingle at the back of her throat. She approached her dresser, opened up the top drawer and retrieved her anti-anxiety medication. She had originally started taking the medication when she had trouble adjusting to palace life. Her move from enslaved peasant to princess had been a difficult one and the royal doctors had grown tired of listening to her talk about her feelings and simply gave her a prescription for Xanax. By that time she had finished adjusting to her new lifestyle but found herself addicted to the Xanax. As soon the slightest thing went wrong in her world, which albeit, was not often, she found herself reaching for that tiny bottle of pills.
Cinderella shook out two small oval pills and swallowed them, nervously screwing the top back onto the bottle. She replaced the bottle and quietly closed the drawer deciding that she had to do something. She couldn't let a man treat her that way and lovingly accept him back into her life. What kind of example would she be setting for all of the little girls in her kingdom that looked up at her everyday and wished that they had her perfect life?