Cinderella: Amnesia

My Birthday Party Part 1

"You can see me?" Eleanor said, forcing a smile.

It was painful to feign the opposite of her current emotional state. 

Her memories were like a broken mirror, and Eleanor was trying to piece the mirror back together. She had to walk on shards of glass to see her real self. The shards were all the sad memories that resulted in pain and guilt. The mirror - what the sad shards were once part of, was her happy childhood self that needed to resurface amidst this sea of depression. Eleanor was drowning in sadness, struggling to keep herself afloat. At some point, she knew that she would sink to the depths of despair, and Eleanor's happiness would eventually lose oxygen and die.

She felt like this because she was remembering. Maybe she was supposed to suppress her memories and forget her mother's death. Maybe she was supposed to forget the fact that it was all her fault! 

Maybe moving on and accepting her mother's death meant forgetting her mother altogether. She would never do that though. She felt somewhat obligated to feel bad. She deserved to suffer on the inside for her heinous crime. She did not deserve happiness. She deserved to be sad and broken for the rest of her life. That did not really matter though. No matter what she did, she could bring her mother back.

Unfortunately, she was forced to smile right now. How unnatural did her smile look? Could any onlookers see through her? Why was it so painful to smile with Michael and Henry around? Usually her smile was convincing. 

If only those they would go away. Maybe they could find someone else's business to stick their noses in. 

She said sarcastically in her head, 'No Henry. I'm okay.It is absolutely normal for people to cry alone in a corner with everything OKAY! ' 

"Nope, we came to talk to the wall" Henry said smiling. Ella loved it when he did that. Why was he smiling again? Oh right. Ella asked if he could see her - because nobody else seemed to be able to. Henry was so nice and perfect.

Ella looked up into his eyes. He towered over her. His delightfully chocolate brown eyes peered into hers. The emotion they portrayed was somehow alluring – whatever emotion it might have been. Ella had absolutely no idea of what he may have been thinking. Teenaged boys were a mystery. She wished he was as open-a-book as she was.

Ella never had any idea what he hid behind his alluring smile. He could always see through her which always felt unfair. Was he amazing at detecting lies, or...

Eleanor could practically hear her father saying in annoyance, 'Eleanor, why do you always have to overthink everything?'

He could not have been right. Eleanor thought about everything a perfectly healthy amount.  

Henry's special ability was how he made her forget everything else. He was not doing his job!

Honestly this silence was awkward. At most ten seconds passed. Henry looked away.

Ella looked over to his little brother. He was twelve – her age. He was three years younger than his brother. Michael was not nearly as friendly, honest or captivating as Henry.

"You look amazing." Henry said in his soothingly deep voice. "That dress looks perfect on you."

"Thank you. Of course it does. I'm wearing it." Ella said, hoping to make Henry laugh.

"Hello Duchess Eleanor," the little prince said abruptly. "It is nice to see you again."

Eleanor did not look at  him - but she recognized his voice. She was not in the mood to have him mock her today so she was considering ignoring him. Who would like to be judged (rudely and openly) by an over pampered little princess? All the little prince did was eye roll and make sarcastic remarks - who would deliberately talk to him? He did not even sound as if he cared. He did not even pretend to be sincere.