Elle put the glowing glass shoes down and lurched forward to give her faerie godmother a big hug. “You came to help me!”
“Of course, I came.” She pulled Elle into a warm embrace and kissed her on the top of her head. “I wasn’t going to abandon you when you needed me the most.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Elle held onto her faerie godmother for dear life. “What am I going to do?”
“I need more info from you than that.” Her faerie godmother released Elle and sat down on the closed toilet lid. She adjusted her Marie Antoinette-like wig and then pulled out a lipstick tube from a small purse she carried. “I can’t read minds, my dear. Tell me what’s going on.”
Elle settled back on the ground and crossed her legs. She moved the glass slippers to the side and didn’t know where to start. “Everything is going wrong.”
“Okay, can you be a bit more specific?” Her faerie godmother puckered her lips and touched up her lipstick while holding a compact mirror. “You’re obviously really upset and I can’t help unless you give me the details.”
Elle fidgeted with her hands and looked down at the ground. She tried to find something to focus on and braced herself for a wave of heartache. A bobby pin had fallen into a groove in the floor right by the cabinet under the sink. She stared at the pin and just let the words out. “Clarissa told me that she’s been cheating on me with Henry. Not only has he been lying to me, but so has my best friend.”
Her faerie godmother clamped the compact shut with a firm finality and put it away into her purse along with the lipstick. “You’ve been doubly betrayed. The two people who you love most in your life have conspired against you.”
Looking up sheepishly, Elle nodded. “Yes.” She let a wave of sorrow wash over her and didn’t fight back the tears. “I’ve trusted both of them with my deepest secrets and I’ve loved them both. Now I feel broken.”
“I hear you and understand where you are coming from.” She folded her hands onto her knee and flattened down the sparkling dress she wore. Glittering from head to toe, she wore an outfit that would rival those worn at the Met gala.
“But what am I going to do?” Elle’s voice cracked, and she put her head in her hands.
“Let me tell you a story.” Her faerie godmother reached forward and put her hand on Elle’s shoulder. “A long time ago, I fell in love. When the sun rose, I thought of Morgan. And when the sun set, all I could think of was my love for her. The joy that I found in being with her, doing the simplest of things, made my day. We would talk for hours out in the park and walk for miles on end. Day after day, there was so much to say. I craved being around her because I felt so much joy in being able to really connect with someone. Nothing else mattered to me. We went on this way for a few short months, and then I noticed that things slowly started to change. Morgan started spending less time with me. She slowly started to withdraw from me and started seeing someone else. For the longest time, I couldn’t figure out what I had done. My heart was broken, and all I wanted to do was to be with her, to capture what we had, and to make the rest of the world fall away.”
Elle crossed her arms and frowned. “You’re telling me that I’m obsessed with Henry and that it’s my fault?”
Her faerie godmother shook her head. “No, I’m not saying that. What I’m telling you is my story. And for me, what I realized is that I chased after the magic instead of seeing the magic within myself.” She lifted her arms and snapped her fingers.
The bathroom light went out, and she glowed like sparkling diamonds. A pure white light emanated from her and lit up the room.
Elle uncrossed her arms and her mouth opened in disbelief. “You’re beautiful.” The words tumbled out of her mouth, as she didn’t know what else to say.
Her faerie godmother lowered her arms and gently touched Elle’s check. “As are you, but you just don’t see it yet.” She smiled and touched Elle’s chin and tilted her head up. “The more that you seek others to fulfill you, the further you’ll be from getting your truth.”
“But Clarissa and Henry have betrayed me and it hurts.” She clenched her fists at her side. “I’m angry and it’s not right what they’ve done.”
“And what are you going to do about it?” Her faerie godmother leaned in closer to her. “Go back in time and fix what happened? Strike them down with a lightning bolt? Give Henry a love potion to make him be with you again? Hmm?”
Elle listened to the complicated plots being presented to her, and she shook her head. “I’m going to do nothing.” She glanced back over her shoulder toward the other room and wondered if Clarissa still banged on the door. “I’m going to move on. They don’t deserve me.”
Her faerie godmother smiled in agreement. “There, that’s much better. Yes, it’ll hurt for a time, but chasing after them will not solve your problem. If there’s anything that I could have told my younger self, it would be this: ‘You can’t change others. You can only change how you feel and what you do.’”
“But this is hard, and it still hurts.” Elle put her head down and let the weight of her worries pull at her. “I feel so weak and I just want to crawl into bed.”
“Then go do that.” Her faerie godmother stood up and prepared to go. “Rest up and pamper yourself. When you’re ready, call me again and we’ll go together on a trip. I’ll take you somewhere fun.”
“Thank you. I think I’ll take you up on that when I feel a bit better.” Elle stood up and gave her faerie godmother a hug.
“I can’t tell you how long to grieve what you’ve just lost. All I know is that it will take some time, but you will feel better in time.”
“What did you do after Morgan left you?” Elle asked.
“I moped around for weeks until I realized that everyone else was having fun but me. So I started to go out for walks in the woods and I started writing each day and cooked elaborate meals for my friends.” She paused for a moment and considered her next words carefully. “But most of all, I learned to laugh again, spend time with those I love, and I was easy on myself. I learned to love myself and not just being in love with falling in love.”
“Thank you for coming to me tonight. I really needed it.” Elle gave her faerie godmother one last hug and then backed away.
“Of course.” She hugged Elle back and kissed her on the forehead. “Be easy on yourself.”
“I will.” Elle blinked, and her faerie godmother vanished from sight.
Her heart still felt heavy and the weight of her problems still swirled around in her mind, but she had a plan. She would go to bed, get up, and see what new adventures tomorrow would bring. A realization came upon her: Her world wasn’t ending, it was just beginning.
It would take time for her to heal, but some day, not too far in the future, she would meet someone else. But in the meantime, she would focus on herself. One day at a time.