She plopped herself down on her chair and tossed her phone across the room and it landed on the down comforter on her bed. Then she kicked off her shoes and let her hair out of the bun and covered her face. She took a breath, slowly counting to four, then held the air in for another four seconds, and then exhaled from her mouth for eight seconds.
The breathing wouldn’t make what happened go away, but she needed a way to calm down. Something had to help and better breathing than doing something stupid.
When no more air came out, she made a whooshing sound and then stopped to start the cycle over again.
As she inhaled a second time, she glanced over at the microwave. In bluish neon, she read the time and sighed. She needed to get to bed. It was late. Way late and she had work early in the morning.
But she owed it to herself to breathe in and go through the exercise one more time.
So she did. She breathed in through her nose and her phone rang. The musical notes that chimed could only mean that it was him.
Disgusted, she got up off the chair and sat slowly on the edge of her bed as she grabbed her phone to answer it. “Hello?”
“You picked up.” Henry’s intonation ended the sentence in a question.
“Yeah, I did, but I’m beginning to regret it.” She held the phone away for a minute and thought about how she could end the call soon. “I really need to get up early in the morning. I’m tired and what’s done is done.”
“I just called to apologize. I’m sorry. I really am.” Henry paused a moment and then added, “I did something really stupid and I want you to know that.”
“Look, you stood me up. You got held up at work and forgot to call me. It’s not the end of the world. I just want to go to bed.” She said all she had to.
Henry waited for her to finish and replied, “I understand. I love you. Goodnight.”
“Love you too.” She hung up and dropped the phone onto her bed.
An aching feeling filled her heart with hurt, and she pushed herself off her bed and went into the bathroom. As quickly as she could, she went through her nightly ritual by washing her face, brushing her teeth, and coming out her hair. She left the brush on the sink and then stripped down and got into a pair of comfortable pants and a t-shirt. All she wanted to do was to forget the day and go to sleep.
Work and the drama there had been difficult enough, but Henry standing her up on their two-year anniversary of their dating completed her crappy day.
She picked her phone up and as she did so, it rang. A different ringtone, one that she did not expect. “Clarissa, is everything okay?”
Her friend never called her this late.
Silence answered her for the first few seconds and she began to worry. “Are you there?”
“I’m here.” Her voice broke at the words and she choked back tears.
“Where are you? I’ll come right to you.”
“Elle, no, that’s okay. I had to call.” Clarissa sniffled and continued, “I’m outside your door. Can I come up?”
Elle had known Clarissa since they were little. The two of them had become inseparable over the years and Elle would do anything to help her friend.
“Of course, I’m buzzing you up now.” She jumped off her bed and quickly hit the buzzer by her door.
While she waited, a thousand thoughts crossed her mind. Someone had died. She had lost her job. She had found out that someone in her family had cancer. The thoughts became darker and more ominous as she waited for her friend to knock on her door.
But eventually she did, and Elle unlocked it, and let Clarissa in.
Dressed in a fancy outfit, Clarissa came into the studio apartment with her shoulders slumped and tears in her eyes.
Elle went to throw her arms around her, but Clarissa held up her and warned her off. “No, let me talk first.” She clenched her fists at her side and raised her chin up. Her lip trembled, and she fought to keep her calm, but could not do so. She started to speak, choked up, and steeled herself to get the words out as broken and incomplete as they were. “I’ve been sleeping with Henry.”
The words that came out of Clarissa’s mouth did not sync up with the numerous horrors that Elle had conjured up. Cancer, death, and job loss were each horrible and a life-changing event, but betrayal from her best friend?
The words hit Elle like a large weight that pressed against her chest. She staggered back and put her hand out to catch herself from falling. And then the anger rose up within her, a shot of adrenaline that lit her up like a phoenix in the night.
Not knowing what else to do, she yelled, “Get out now!”
Clarissa put her hands together and pleaded. “Please, let me explain.”
No words could take away what had happened. There was nothing that could be said that could make right the harm done.
Elle rushed forward and pushed her friend back out into the hall. “I want you out of here now. Leave!”
“Please, Elle, let me—”
Elle slammed the door shut and didn’t look back. She grabbed her phone, turned it off, and went into the bathroom, shutting the door. She needed time to think. The night had gone from really bad to one of the worst nights of her life. At such a late hour, she didn’t need to hear the details. That could come later. Right now she needed time to calm down and then rest.
An idea came to her and, as inane as it sounded, she opened the bathroom closet’s door and got down on her knees. She dug out the rolls of toilet paper and a box of tampons to unearth an old shoe box.
After all these years, she had kept them. As a teenager, when all else failed her, the shoes had worked their magic.
She pulled off the lid and beheld two glass slippers. She had nearly forgotten the last time she had worn them and how good they made her feel. Taking them both in her hands, she pressed them against her chest and murmured, “Faerie Godmother, please. I need your help.”
Nothing happened.
Elle put the shoes back down, but changed her mind, and closed her eyes as she held them close. “I need you now more than ever. Please, hear me.”
Again, nothing happened until something did.
Elle opened her eyes, and the shoes began glowing in a beautiful bluish light.
And from behind her, she heard, “Don’t worry, my child, I’m here.”