The Princess Sisters (The Princess Sisters Series) (7 page)

Chapter
Ten

Friday,
July 16th

Cinderella
jerked awake the next morning to someone banging on the apartment door.  Her
eyes were crusted shut from falling asleep with mascara on.  It took several
painful seconds of rubbing her burning eyes before she was able to open them. 
Then she remembered also falling asleep with her contacts in and the burning
suddenly made sense.  She sat up slowly on the makeshift bed, her head feeling
like lead.  Cinderella heard the banging again and pulled at her black lashes
as she ran to the front door, leaving behind the still frames of Jenny and Melissa. 
She threw open the door, frantic now that something might be wrong.  There
stood Dave; showered, shaved, and looking good as ever.  Cinderella tried to
cover herself with the thick, white door, which seemed to be shrinking with
each passing second, but Dave only grinned.

“Come
on sleepyhead!” he said, trying to reach for her hand.  “We made breakfast.”

“I’ll
be there in just a minute...I…a…I’ve got to wake up the girls,” she said,
settling on an excuse.

“No
need,” said Melissa, coming up behind her.  She and Jenny groggily made their
way past Cinderella and out the door.  Both were still in their pajamas, Jenny
pulling her hair up as they walked.  Dave looked at Cinderella again.

“Just
give me a minute.”  She hoped he couldn’t hear the desperation in her voice.

“Well
hurry up, Scott’s roommates are pigs.”

Cinderella
closed the door and slid her back down it until her butt rested on the kitchen
floor.  She silently waited for the cold linoleum to open up and swallow her,
with no such luck.  Forcing herself back on her feet, she hurried to the
bathroom.

“Awesome,”
she said in a flat voice.  The black mascara had left her with raccoon eyes, no
thanks to the rubbing on her own part.  Her chocolate brown hair wasn’t very tangled,
but it did look as though she had been rubbing it with a balloon.  Cinderella
reached for a silver container resting beside the sink and pulled out several Q-tips.

“Let’s
get to work,” she said aloud.  It didn’t take much time to clean up her eyes and
tame her hair with a bit of water and gel.  But as she stood back, looking at
her reflection, Cinderella became very aware of just how high her borrowed
shorts sat.  She all but dove for the blue jeans that sat folded next to her
pillow in the back bedroom.  Once Cinderella was redressed in her clothes from
the day before, she finally felt suitable to step out the front door and
venture across the hall.

“There
she is!” Dave’s voice shouted over the table.  Cinderella had to hold back a
laugh as she entered the cramped kitchen.  There, on the table, sat piles of
white bags with a familiar yellow ‘M’ stamped on the front.

“You
made
breakfast?” she asked, raising an eyebrow in Dave’s direction.

“Slaved
for hours and hours,” one of the roommates responded.

“Our
little providers,” said Jenny, playfully tousling another roommate’s hair. 
Dave made room next to himself for Cinderella to take a seat, and she followed
his gesture.  She reached for a bag and pulled out an assortment of egg and
meat combinations.

“So
what’s what?” she asked Dave.

“That’s
the fun part,” he said, showing off his perfect smile.  “Just grab one and
start eating, you’ll figure it out.”  Cinderella unwrapped the one nearest her
and it didn’t take long to discover it included bacon.

“I
didn’t realize how hungry I was,” she said, reaching for another.  Then she
paused for a brief second.

“Go
ahead, I’ve already had seven.”

“Seven?! 
I thought you said Scott’s roommates were the pigs?”

“Hey,
what happened to those shorts you were wearing?” he retorted.  Cinderella gave
him a dirty look and brought the biscuit sandwich to her mouth.

“There’s
our sleeping beauty!  You made it!”  Scott said as he entered the kitchen from
the open door which led back into the three bedrooms.  She tried to swallow and
breathe in at the same time, resulting in a cough attack as she choked the food
down.

“Put
a shirt on you show off!”  someone yelled.  “You trying to kill the poor
girl?”  Scott laughed and grabbed a chair across from Cinderella, flipping it
around with his palm before straddling the seat.  She tried desperately not to
look at him, but could barely control her eyes from moving toward his strong
frame.  Scott had just gotten out of the shower, his bare damp skin catching
the light above.  He strolled in the room wearing nothing but a pair of dark
blue basketball shorts.  His hair was still wet and a little messy from a quick
run-through of the towel.  Scott’s perfectly toned arms rested casually on the
table before him, which captivated Cinderella the most.  She remembered how
those arms had easily swung her around the dance floor last night, but she
didn’t realize how good they could look without his shirt for covering.

“I
think you have a new fan club,” Melissa laughed.  Cinderella realized she had
been staring.  She quickly tried to change the subject.

“That’s
my cousin,” she murmured under everyone’s laughter.

“What’s
that?” Scott asked.

“You
called me Sleeping Beauty when you came in here.  I’m Cinderella, but Aurora is my cousin.  Maybe you need to brush up on your fairy tales.”  The room went
completely silent.

“You
have a cousin named Aurora?” Jenny finally asked.  Dave looked over at her
eager face and came to the rescue.

“And
Ariel, and Belle, and Snow White,” he added with a slight nod.  “The five of
them are cousins.”  The room was quiet again for a brief second before bursting
with questions.

“Thank
you,” she mouthed to Dave.  Cinderella didn’t mind the attention on her, just
as long as it had moved away from Scott and her.

Not
long after breakfast, Dana called to make sure they were on their way home. 
Cinderella assured her they were and not ten minutes later they said quick good
byes and were back on the road.

“Thanks,”
Cinderella said after a few minutes of pleasant silence.

“For
what?” Dave asked.

“For
bringing me with you.  I had a lot of fun!”

“Yeah,
it was fun,” Dave said, keeping his eyes on the road.  At the next stop light
he turned and looked at her for a long time.  The light turned green and the car
behind them started honking before Dave looked away.

“The
girls are gonna hear about all of this, aren’t they?” he finally asked.

“Probably,”
she said.  “Why?  Don’t you want them to?”

“I
guess I feel kinda weird,” he said.  “I don’t want them to act different around
me now, you know, now that we’ve kissed.”

Cinderella
wasn’t sure what to think of Dave now.  When he helped her at breakfast, he
came to her rescue in a very prince-like way.  But now he was doing exactly one
of the things her mom had used to describe toads.  She decided to test his
reaction.  “It didn’t mean anything though,” she said, waiting for his response.

“Oh...Okay.” 
Dave shrugged, but Cinderella got the feeling he didn’t really brush it off
that easily.  She wasn’t sure if this meant he was offended by her comment. 
She wasn’t sure what to say next, when she glanced down at her hands.

“It’s
gone!” she shrieked.

“What?”
Her scream had startled him and the car swerved a little to the right.

“My
bracelet!  The one my mom gave me!  It’s gone!”  Cinderella wanted to cry.

“You
scared me!” Dave said, sighing.  “I’ll call my brother.  I bet you just dropped
it at his apartment or something.”

“What
if I lost it dancing?”

“Don’t
worry too much,” Dave said.  “I’ll have them scour all of Logan till they find
it.”  He placed a comforting hand on hers and it remained there for the rest of
the drive.

Chapter
Eleven

Friday,
July 23rd

“So
was he hot?”

“Of
course!  Do you really think I’d lose my VL to someone who wasn’t?” asked
Cinderella, pretending to be offended by Aurora’s question.

“VL?”
Snow White asked.

“Virgin
Lips.  Come on, Snow.  Where have you been?” Ariel responded.

“I’m
sorry, but it sounds pretty lame to me.  You didn’t really kiss Dave’s
brother.  It was all for some dumb title.”

“Gee
thanks, Snow,” said Cinderella, more quietly now.

“Well
I think it’s awesome!” said Aurora.  “She got more action than any of us have
ever gotten!  And it was with a college guy!”  She high-fived Cinderella over
Belle’s head, who had remained unusually quiet during the whole story of
Cinderella’s overnight adventure.

Cinderella
beamed at Aurora, who continued to ask question after question.  Cinderella
really wished she could tell them the whole story, about kissing Dave and all,
but she knew Dave was right.  It would completely change the dynamic of the
group if one of them started dating him!  So she’d have to continue keeping it
a secret, at least for now.  Cinderella played that night’s events over and
over in her mind until she had convinced herself that she would probably never
see Scott again.  It was a fun story to share with her cousins, but that’s all
it was; a story.  Her own little fairy tale evening, complete with a kiss from
two handsome Princes.   

“Was
it a foot-popper?” Ariel asked.

“There
were too many people!” Cinderella answered, taking Ariel’s joke literally.  “If
I had popped my foot, I would have kicked someone in the head!”

The
five Princess sisters were finally back together again after a week or so of
passing around a bug.  They were all sitting around Belle’s room in their
pajamas for a sleepover to commemorate their reunion.

“Hey,
you girls want pizza?” Mary yelled up the stairs.  She was bombarded with five
very loud, very enthusiastic yes’s.  Half an hour later when she entered the
room with two large, warm boxes, the girls were still going over the details of
Cinderella’s night.  Belle and Snow White sat cross-legged on Belle’s twin bed,
atop her new chocolate brown and baby pink comforter, slapping doubles as they
lay card after card on top of each other.  They both looked bored and
occasionally rolled their eyes after glancing down at Aurora and Ariel who were
still gushing over the smallest details.  Cinderella sat with her back against
the bed, talking animatedly with her hands.  She had a fuzzy brown pillow with
pink polka dots resting on her lap and each time she got too excited the pillow
would fly off her lap as she raised her arms in the air.  Just such an
occurrence happened as Mary entered the room.  She opened the door, carefully
balancing the pizza boxes in the crook of one arm, and then had to immediately
jump back as the pillow zoomed by her head.  Aurora sat balancing on a Pilate’s
ball across from Cinderella, with her back to the door.  She would occasionally
lose her balance and slide off the ball, resulting in a fit of giggles on the
floor.  Ariel was across the room at Belle’s desk, her hands stretching behind
her on the floor in a half backbend.  To anyone else, this would have looked
strange, but for Ariel, it was to be expected.  But as the smell of melted
cheese met their teenage nostrils, five sets of feet leapt from their various
spots and surrounded Mary.  They quickly removed the pizzas from her hands and
she was pushed back into the hallway with several thank-you’s and a click as
the door closed behind her.

Normally
Mary liked being the “cool mom” and didn’t want to interfere.  But the girls’
speed to get rid of her raised a silent mom alert in her head.  She noiselessly
pressed an ear to the door and listened.  For the first few seconds it was
silent, and Mary was about to walk away until she heard the next words and her
heart stopped.

“Wait,
so did you sleep with him?”

“Ariel!
Gross!” Cinderella shouted, throwing the pillow at her. 

When
Ariel realized what she had said, her cheeks became flushed and she began
stammering, “W-Wait!  I didn’t mean
that
!  You just said you were out
really late and then you were at his apartment for breakfast.  I meant did you
fall asleep at his apartment?”

On
the other side of the door, Mary released the breath she had been holding and
her heart resumed its normal beating.

“Geeze!”
Ariel said, chucking the pillow back.  “Every one of your minds went straight
to the gutter!”

Then
they all started laughing and talking at once.  It didn’t take long for Mary to
realize Cinderella had gotten her first kiss.  She wondered if she should say
something to Dana, but very quickly retracted that idea.  Mary laughed to
herself as she walked back down the stairs. 
Yeah, that would go over well!

“Please,
can we talk about something else?” Belle finally spoke up and her words came
out sharper than she had intended.  She was tired of hearing how Cinderella had
been the first.  This should have been her moment!  And Cinderella had gotten
to spend the entire night with Dave.  Her Dave.  At least she thought he was
her Dave.  But then he had disappeared for awhile, so she didn’t even know
anymore.  Now if she brought up her own first kiss story it would seem lame in
comparison.  Cinderella was kissed by a college guy under the full moon with a
whole crowd of people counting down around her.  Belle got kissed outside the
McDonalds.  She now wished she had never made that stupid promise to Dave!

Belle
finally pulled away from her own thoughts and realized all her cousins were
watching her anxiously.

“Sorry,”
she said.  “I guess I’m more tired than I thought.”  She rolled onto her side
on the bed, with her back toward the others and pretended to fall asleep. 
Cinderella looked at Snow White who shrugged in answer to the silent question.

Finally
Aurora whispered, “Do you want us to leave?”

“No,”
Belle said, slowly sitting up again.  “Let’s just watch a movie or something.” 
Ariel pulled a classic chick-flick from the eighties out of her bag and they
all squealed in delight.  Belle’s mood lightened when Aurora pulled her hair
into a side pony tail and began dancing around the room.  Aurora slid a silver
hairbrush from the dresser and pulled Belle to her feet, handing over the mic. 
The two sang and danced along, the other three eventually joining in.  Soon all
five were scouring the room for the brightest clothes they could find.  Belle
disappeared for a few minutes, returning from the bathroom with a crimper and
her fuzzy purple make-up box.  They then spent the next hour styling each
other’s hair to look like the two main girls from the movie.  Belle, who was
the make-up expert, added lots of glittery eye shadow and bright lipstick to
their ensembles.  When the movie ended, the dancing continued for another hour
with several borrowed 80’s CD’s from Mary’s collection.  They finally collapsed
onto their sleeping bags spread about the room around 2:00 am.

“What
do you think ever happened to that main guy?  Belle asked.  “What was his
name?”

“I
don’t know, but we should find him,” said Aurora.

“He’s
probably like in his forties by now!”

“He’s
old enough to be our dad!”

“Ew!”
they all screamed.

“Oh,
come on!” said Aurora.  “There are hot old guys!”

“It’s
true,” said Belle.

The
girls then spent the next half hour listing off all the hot “old men” they
could think of.

“He’s
not old!” Belle said, challenging Aurora’s pick.

“He’s
like thirty though.”

“And
I think he’s married,” Ariel added.

“Stop
ruining this for me! I had plans to marry him!”

They
all threw pillows at Aurora, giggling as she screamed.  Then the conversation
switched to younger male actors and right before they fell asleep, the Princess
sisters were discussing just where they would like to marry their Hollywood
dream man, if he ever got around to proposing.