Coming Home

It's a Friday afternoon. Lonely, teenage girl Bethany escapes to the imaginary kingdom where she is a beloved, beautiful princess instead of the awkward, unloved child she sees herself as in reality

The front door stuck like it always did, so Bethany gave it a moderately forceful shoulder-ram. It swung inwards as she gasped with pain.

Stupid door; that's gonna bruise. When's mom gonna get the darn thing fixed? wondered cynical-Bethany.

She breathed in the smell of the house. The omnipresent scent of the flowers on the kitchen windowsill, the ever-so-faint trace of dust. It always smelled like home to her. Of course, there was one smell that used to mean 'home' to Bethany. Her father's cologne. That was gone now. In fact, she found that she could hardly remember it. That upset her sometimes.

She shrugged her bag off her shoulder and into her hand, then dumped it at the bottom of the stairs. She briefly considered digging out her history homework, but the thought of slogging through the pages and pages of dull facts and figures she had to learn almost made her want to cry.

Future-Bethany can deal with that, she thought, knowing full well she was only screwing herself over for the test at the end of the week.

"Mom, I'm home!" she called. There were footsteps, and then a short, slender woman emerged from the living room.

Bethany's mother was dressed to the nines. A breathtaking, silky dress showed off a lot more leg and a lot more cleavage than Bethany herself would ever have been comfortable wearing, and her auburn hair was down, bouncing luxuriously off her shoulders. She had applied makeup sparingly but effectively, bringing out her dazzling eyes and perfectly sculpted nose.

Why couldn't I have inherited her looks? snapped jealous-Bethany. The rest of Bethany ignored her, though. She felt guilty even complaining about how she had her father's eyes. They were about the only connection she had to the man.

"Hey, babe. What do you think?" she did a little spin, so gracefully she appeared to float. The skirt of her dress raised a little and Bethany felt another pang of envy at her legs, which looked like something from a painting. She stopped with her back to Bethany and looked over her shoulder with a mock-sultry expression.

You look like mutton dressed as lamb, was bitter-Bethany's answer.

"Very hot, mom."

"I should be. This dress cost more than my car! And I've told you, call me Emma. We're close enough for that, right?"

"Sure m... Emma." It still sounded weird to Bethany. "So what's with

all the glam?"

"I'm going out with Dave tonight." She smiled at Bethany as if she was supposed to be thrilled by this news.

"Why? You know I hate that guy."

Emma's smile faded.

"Give him a chance, babe. I know this sounds cliche, but he's a real nice guy once you get to know him."

"Doesn't help that he's got money, does it? Did he buy you that dress?"

Her mother was irritated now.

"Don't you get wise with me, Bethany Ella Perkins."

Bethany rolled her eyes.

"Whatever."

She made to walk up the stairs to her room, but her mother put a hand on her wrist. Bethany noticed that her nails were painted blood-red. Sanguine.

"I'm sorry, okay babe? Sometimes I just... I just need to cut loose a little bit. You understand, right? I promise, sometime this weekend, we'll do something together. Just us. Okay?"

Sure, you know all about loose, don't you mom? quipped I-need-to-get-out-of-here-or-I'm-going-to-cry-Bethany.

How could she be so casual about this? Even after what dad had done, he didn't deserve to be treated like he had never existed.

"Sure, mom. I've got homework to do now," Bethany told her. Her voice was beginning to waver and she couldn't look Emma in the eye.

Emma released her hand, and Bethany turned and climbed the stairs without a second glance.

She closed and locked her bedroom door behind her. The curtains were closed, and she kept them that way. A white puppy gazed at her with doleful eyes from the wall calendar. It was the picture from the previous month, but that puppy was just so darn cute that she hadn't been able to bring herself to update it.

Wimp, snarked teasing-Bethany.

She ignored teasing-Bethany, took a deep breath, and unbuttoned her crisp, white school blouse. The garment was too confining, too enclosing. It was always a joy after school to lock herself in her room, strip it off, ball it up and toss it into the corner.

In her thin, pink camisole and plaid school skirt, she flopped onto her bed. She kicked off her shoes, and her feet sighed with relief.

This must be what heaven feels like, thought melodramatic-Bethany.

She wriggled into a nest of blankets and closed her eyes. Thoughts of her cougar of a mother, of the slimeball Dave she was dating, of unfinished history homework, of creepy math teachers and of Troy calling her Bella all faded away.

Suddenly she was in Mirrorvale, the kingdom by the sea. The sound of Emma laughing at the TV downstairs was replaced by the sounds of the Western sea crashing against the cliffs to the south of Wholeheart City, the city of diamonds. The sounds of the blacksmith's hammer striking the anvil, of villagers haggling with market-vendors, of guards drilling in the castle courtyard. Men, elves and orcs wandered the pristine streets talking, laughing, singing. And Princess Bethany the Fair sat - in the finest silver gown, with her hair in a long braid down her back and her skin blemish-free - on the balcony of Wholeheart Keep looking out over her domain. She could see the city sprawled out before her, and past the farms beyond all the way to the Everwatch mountains, between which poked the shy midafternoon sun.

This is home, said every-single-Bethany.

Reviews

[Mikayla_Stagg]

So far i like it. short but sweet. Looking forward to reading what happens next.