I'm No Cinderella

Chapter 28

My eyes were swollen and puffy from all the tears shed the night before. Even after a hot shower and putting on my face powder, I still couldn’t hide the puffiness. What was I thinking? My stomach clenched at the thought of Ryan’s lips on mine, and then my heart burned at the thought of Leah’s eyes flaming with the fire of betrayal. I’m the worst person in the world. How can I do this to her? My tears started to fall again, because I realized that I’m irrevocably in love with Ryan and I don’t know what to do now. Why and how did I get myself in this situation?

                    Someone knocked on my bathroom door.

                    “Are you done in there?” Leah asked; her haughty tone barely masked her annoyance. Who wouldn’t be annoyed by someone like me?

                    “I’m almost done,” I call out, splashing water on my face and wiping it.

                    “Everyone’s gone to the skating rink,” she said, “I’m waiting for you.”

                    “You can go ahead if you want to,” I said as I heard her sighing loudly.

                    “Fine,” she said, “Don’t take too long.”

                    I nodded my head although I knew she couldn’t see. I waited in the bathroom until I’m sure that no one’s around, before going into my room and sitting at the edge of my bed. I took my phone out and opened my photo gallery. There was a photo of the lion that I caught a few months back, a candid shot of him smiling at me and I’ve never looked back at it because I wanted to control my feelings for him. My tears started to fall as I looked at the photo – it was one time when we had to stay back at work for something I can’t remember of and we ordered take out and we were joking around with no care in the world. He did a funny gesture with his food so I decided to take a photo of it, but then I caught this photo of him smiling at me warmly and it was enough for me.

                    I sighed loudly. Even if I can’t have him, I’ll have all this good memories to keep me going. As I locked the cabin door behind me, I was greeted by Mrs. Hilda and Kayla. They were worried because I haven’t shown up so they came looking for me.

                    “Are you doing okay, Dearie?” Mrs. Hilda asked me as I nodded my head.

                    “Yeah I’m fine,” I said, “Is everyone there?”

                    “Yes,” Kayla said, “Leah and the boss aren’t really skating but the rest are.”

                    “She’s quite the party pooper isn’t she?” Mrs. Hilda said as I rounded my eyes at her, “I’m sorry, I know she may be your family and all and that she may have a bad life or anything – but hey, no one has a good life. This trip is to forget any of that nonsense. Even you’re having your little battle with your lion, but you’re still having fun.”

                    I rounded my eyes once again at Mrs. Hilda and glanced at Kayla, but she didn’t seem to get the lion part. Mrs. Hilda may look like she wasn’t paying attention but she seemed to be observing everything.

                    “I don’t know,” I said, owing my loyalty to Leah to defend her, “Maybe it’s just because we’re not her crowd. I bet she’d be a whole load of fun with her own friends.”

                    Mrs. Hilda rolled her eyes in disbelief but didn’t say anything more. The skating rink was already full by the time we arrived. We found Leah and Ryan sitting on the bench overlooking the rink. Mrs. Hilda and Kayla left as soon as we reached them, leaving me looking awkwardly at the pair.