My Online Cinderella

The Girl In Glass Slippers

Kit couldn't take it anymore. Without alarming anyone, he slowly retreated to a lonely corner, hiding behind a lovely potted vine with white flowers.

He powered his phone into action, punching open the Instagram app. A little red dot with a white 1 in the centre was sitting at the edge of his app screen. Kit hardly got DMs. His Instagram handle was filled with pictures of birds and sunsets and trees and water.

@the_clicking_prince was a whole different world for him, his own safe space away from his real identity. The online world is funny. No one knew anyone and yet somehow people connect over common interests and tastes.

He clicked on the DM icon and saw a glowing message sitting at the top of his private chats. @thegirlinglassslippers had texted him. A small smile lit up his face at the unique nature of the username. He had never interacted with that account. The message was short and crisp.

I love your clicks

No emoji, no excessive gushing, a simple message of approval.

Thanks. Kit typed back, his fingers hovering over the handful of emoji predictions. But he pressed send.

The text was seen almost immediately. Kit expected the conversation to end there, or at most an emoji reaction, but he was surprised to see her typing again. Kit took the time to quickly click on her profile icon. True to her name, her picture was a single glass slipper. The account was private and Kit's fingers ached to press that request button, but he didn't want to seem desperate, so he moved back to the DM.

Do you travel alone? She had asked.

You could say that. I don't like too many people.

But you've been to so many places. How do you get the time?

Kit had a habit of disappearing for a week. He would leave everything with his close confidant Max and go off the grid. Nobody would know where he was and he would always return in a week, much to the relief of his family. They never dared ask, and his mom had gotten used to his eccentric disappearances. Maybe that's why she wanted a girl more. A girl who would make him want to stay and to settle and settle was the last thing Kit wanted to do, besides the fact that he was too flustered around girls and he never felt anything around any lady that he could remotely call as an attraction.

He wanted to travel, to fly around the world and see places. Sunsets at Tuscany, tulips in Switzerland, seas of the Caribbean and mornings in Norway...Kit had been travelling, travelling solo and taking breaks from the daily humdrum of routines. And maybe that's why he didn't want a relationship. He didn't want love to chain him down and hold him back from exploring.

Just take a break and go off, fly away He typed.

The message was left unseen. She had probably taken his long pause as a sign that he had left her on read. In any other circumstances, he wouldn't have cared, but even as he killed the screen, he kept on powering it up and expecting a reply.

In five minutes, the little Instagram icon was sitting on his lock screen and he jumped like a child.

I wish I could She had written and added a cute little puppy-eyed emoji.

Why not? He asked immediately.

Because my stepmom is paying for my university. I need to graduate and get a job before I do anything else.

Oh! He left it at that, not knowing how to respond. Although a bit bolder online, still he had never been good at continuing conversations.

So, are you really a prince? She asked.