Fairytale Green

‘I am finished!’ I exclaimed while throwing my hands up in the air and giving my fingers a break from hitting the keyboard of my laptop.

Since Stone had dropped me off, I had been typing nonstop. It was a good distraction.

It turned out a good way to escape a world full of pain was to write a new world.

Lana shook her head at me with a small smile ‘I can not believe you have wrote a whole book in two days.’

‘Not really.’ I argued but I could not help but feel slightly proud of myself ‘I have had the idea stuck in my head for a year now. It just took me two days to write it all down.’

She rolled her eyes while sitting at the bottom of her bed ‘So what did you finally come up with for the ending?’

The ending of the book took the longest time to write but I eventually got there. Some things just needed time.

Throwing myself back onto Lana’s neon pink pillows, I answered her ‘The whole book is more of a sci-fi fantasy human experiment set in space. It is all metaphorical for the nature of human beings so I left the ending open. I hate cliff hangers as a reader but writing them are so fun. I feel kind of evil leaving the ending where it is.’

Her blue eyes blinked a few times before she replied ‘I love you but you should know that I might not finish reading your book for like two years.’

I laughed at her ‘I was not expecting you to. I do not expect anyone would want to read it.’

‘Loads of people will want to read it. You need to give yourself more credit.’ She scolded ‘You have worked really hard on this.’

‘I do not know what to do now.’ I admitted, ‘Now I have finished it, is it just going to live in my drafts?’

Lana grinned in encouragement ‘Send it to some publishers.’

‘I can not do that!’

‘Why not?’ She questioned.

Shaking my head at her hopeful gaze, I explained ‘I have wrote the book but I can not just send it away. It is not even edited.’

‘No doubt that you checked it as you went.’ She argued before she mentioned, ‘Does publishers not have teams of editors to handle this sort of stuff?’

‘I am not sending anything away. I can’t.’ I assured.

‘Why not?’ She crossed her arms and tilted her head ‘Are you scared?’

She was provoking me into sending it away. I knew exactly what she was trying to do and I was falling for it anyway.

‘I am not scared.’

Lana mouthed ‘Sure.’

Scowling at her one last time, I put my laptop back on my thigh and started searching for a list of book publishers. I got up from the bed and scavenged for a pen and paper before I started to make a list of emails and details for different companies.

I then took my time to write an email before adding several publishing email addresses to the recipient box. Some companies sounded familiar and some did not but I added them all.

I read over my email again and then the panic of realisation hit me ‘I can not do this!’

‘Yes you can.’ She argued, ‘What is there to lose?’

Sitting back so I was leaning against her headboard, I sighed ‘Only my dignity.’

She rolled her eyes. Then before I could blink, she grabbed my laptop and clicked on the mousepad once. The little arrow had clicked on the send button.

A small scream left my mouth before I covered it in shock. I froze for a second before I grabbed a pillow and threw it at Lana.

She turned the laptop around and showed me the screen where the email draft was no longer there. It is too late for any takebacks.

Before I could even plan on suffocating her with a pillow, Mrs Armstrong walked in and studied my shocked face and Lana’s gleeful one.

‘What happened?’ The middle-aged woman asked, ‘Why does Ella look like she is contemplating homicide?’

Lana replied, ‘I sent the book Ella wrote to about fifty publishers.’

‘That is great!’ Mrs Armstrong cheered.

I reached for another pillow and covered my face with it then let out a groan ‘What if they hate it?’

Mrs Armstrong leaned against the door ‘Then who cares? Loads of writers get setbacks in their career. You can not just hold back and wonder what if.’

‘I guess you are right.’ I said quietly.

Switching her attention from me to her daughter, Mrs Armstrong voiced ‘Your dad and I decided to postpone our trip. I know that you are probably not going to—’

With a wave of her hands, Lana cut her off ‘I have not told her yet.’

‘Told me what?’ I asked her then I questioned the woman at the door ‘Were you planning on going on vacation?’

Mrs Armstrong replied first ‘We were just going to go away for the weekend so the house was free but it is fine. We would much rather be here for you.’

‘I am okay.’ I reassured both of them for the fiftieth time today ‘I just want everything to keep going as normal.’

Lana frowned ‘Mom and dad were leaving so the house was free. I planned you a Halloween birthday party but that is not what you need right now.’

‘Maybe a party would be good.’ I said while keeping my voice deliberately strong ‘A Halloween one, that is. I do not want anything for my birthday.’

Mrs Armstrong smiled but she did not look convinced ‘Ella, you have just lost your dad. It is still new. The funeral has not even past yet.’

‘I do not want to dwell on everything.’ I voiced ‘I will say my goodbyes at his funeral on Thursday and then I will feel much better. Everything will go back to normal.’

‘Are you sure?’ Lana asked, still unsure.

Nodding again, I sent a pleading look to Mrs Armstrong ‘Please go on your trip. It would make me feel worse if I knew I was holding you back.’

The room went silent for a while and then Lana stood up from her bed and walked to the door.

She turned back as she reached the door and said ‘I will go and get us some snacks because we are going to watch some trash TV and stuff our faces.’

Once she had left, I was back to randomly hitting buttons on my laptop. I had nothing to distract myself from thinking about him. I had not stopped thinking about Stone since he left but the book had kept me busy.

I shook my head and released a breath as I typed in the two words to the search engine. It came up with a few results but I clicked the first one.

The background of the website was black with gold writing in the corner reading Litora Bello. I scrolled past the information about the details of the upcoming fight. The final of the season read as Vulcan versus Somnus.

I put it to the back of my mind because thinking about how the other guy had to be just as good a fighter as Stone to be in the final scared me.

I eventually got to a collection of videos. They were all different highlights of fights. I opened up the first one I saw with the name Vulcan in the title.

The dramatic music played over the fight. I watched as Stone and some other guy circled each other before they both struck. The fighter that I did not care about made the first move and it was a quick jab to the face. It did not affect Stone but it was enough to make me gasp.

I noticed that Stone was slow to react at first. It was almost as if he was trying to drag it out for theatrical reasons. Then he moved fast and deadly like a cobra. He landed a blow on his opponent’s ribs before making the final punch to his face. It was powerful enough to break the other guy’s nose and maybe his whole face by the looks of the brutality of the blow. The video moved in slow motion as the blood splattered onto the sand and the guy fell to the ground.

After that video finished, I clicked on the next one and watched as the same thing happened. Stone let the other guy get a few hits on him before fighting back brutally and mercilessly.

Lana walked in with a packet of gummy bears then she sat down next to me. She looked at the screen then at me.

I bit a gummy bears head off before glancing at her.

‘Is it bad that I find him fighting really hot?’ I asked shamefully ‘I do not think he has lost any of these fights.’

She giggled ‘You are so not winning this wager that you two have.’

‘It was never about this.’ I said while motioning to the screen.

Watching the fight, she tilted her head ‘I know that guy.’

‘Who?’ I raised a brow at her before looking to see what the name of Stone’s opponent was ‘Bacchus?’

‘His name is Hendrix Jones.’ Lana mentioned while still being transfixed by the screen ‘He thinks of himself as rockstar. He had that song out that went viral for being too explicit called I want to pop your cherry.’

I eyed the mystery guy in the video. He did look familiar. He was brown-haired and quite tall. Obviously not as tall as Stone because he was not the height of the Empire State Building.

The very distinctive thing about the guy that Lana was watching intriguingly on the screen was the large scar across his eye.

‘It is funny to think that you thought you would end up with some nerdy guy.’ Lana changed the subject quickly ‘How did you describe your future husband again?’

‘Curly hair and glasses. A cute little nerd.’ I laughed because I compared that to Stone who could never be described as cute.

‘And you are crazy for a guy that…’ Lana laughed before trailing off.

I continued for her ‘Looks like someone you would not want to meet in a dark alleyway? Looks like someone that should be on a poster for the death penalty so criminals are deterred from committing a crime?’

She nodded while holding back a smile ‘Yeah.’

We decided to put on some cringe romance comedy film but I could not keep up with the storyline. My mind was somewhere else.

It was only when Lana lifted a finger and wiped away a tear in my eye that I noticed I was crying.

‘I am not crying.’ I attempted to lie while wiping away my tears ‘Like I told you when we watched the notebook, I am allergic to your bedsheets.’

Lana put her arm around me and pulled me to her so that my head rested on her shoulder. I stayed there and watched the rest of the movie through blurred vision.

I started to feel my eyes get heavier just when something made a buzzing noise. I sat up and looked around for the source of the noise.

My phone on the bedside cabinet was lit up with the name Lurch.

I picked up the phone and stared at it motionlessly. I glanced at the time that read exactly midnight.

‘Answer it.’ Lana nudged me.

Watching until the call stopped, I shook my head ‘I can’t.’

‘Why not?’ She frowned ‘You need to stop torturing yourself.’

‘If I answer then I will miss him more that I already do.’ I told her before muttering ‘If that is even possible.’

Lana looked at the phone ‘You have a message from him.’

The screen was still lit up with a phone call from him.

I answered it. I brought the phone in my shaky hand to my ear.

‘Give me a reason.’ The gruff voice greeted me.

His words went over and over in my head.

‘What do you mean?’ I asked quietly.

‘I need a reason why you are not in my arms right now.’ He grumbled; his voice sounded too hoarse to be strong.

I could not speak. I did not know what to say.

‘Three fucking days.’ He uttered hoarsely ‘That is all I can do.’

‘You know that is not the case.’ I mumbled into the phone ‘I’m not going to change my mind.’

‘A bet is a bet and I will win.’ His voice broke as delivered his sentence ‘I want my girl back. I want my Ella back.’

My eyes closed and I let out a shaky breath.

‘I’m really tired.’ I said into the phone.

A deep sigh left him before he instructed sternly ‘Please go to bed and rest.’

‘Okay.’ I replied quietly.

‘I love you.’ He rasped out before he ended the line.

I threw the phone onto the bed and covered my face with my hands.

I felt sick and I felt nauseous. I felt dizzy. It was like I was being pulled in so many directions that I did not know what was up and what was down. I did not know what was right or what was wrong.

Lana took a look at the phone then she focused back on me and asked ‘What is the matter?’

‘He thinks that my side of the bet is a Sisyphean one.’

She adjusted herself so she was facing me before she questioned ‘You really expect me to understand what that means?’

‘Sisyphus was this man that betrayed the gods so he was sent to the underworld. His punishment was that he had to roll a massive boulder up a hill but every time he got up there then the wind would roll it back down. A Sisyphean challenge can not be completed.’ I gave her a quick explanation before I revealed ‘He thinks that he has already won.’

Her eyes met mine and she tilted her to the side as she watched my tear-streaked face.

‘Has he not?’ She asked.