Cinderella's Tears

Cinderella's Tears ~ Chapter 5

The first thing I saw when the blindfold was taken off was Dylan's face smiling down at me. For a moment I could only stare at his face and absorb all the perfectness. He took of the rest of the rags that were binding me. Then, before I could stop myself, my fist struck his face in lightning speed. He staggered back, holding his cheek. He was no longer smiling. He looked at me with a look of disbelief and confusion. I frowned at him. I would have stood up but I couldn't find the strength in my legs to do it. I started to hit my legs. They were so numb that I couldn’t feel a thing. Dylan grabbed my arms.

“Stop hurting yourself!” He let go of my arms slowly. I stared at him. Without taking my eyes of him, I slowly hit my thigh once more. He groaned of frustration. Dylan covered his face with his hands and squatted down in front of me. Confused, I brought my head closer to see what was wrong. He took his hands away and I could see that he was grinning. I pulled my head back in disgust.

 I looked around me, ignoring him. Dylan had dragged me to an alley. We weren't too far from home. Dylan had sat down in front of me with a pissed of look on his face. He still had a hand of his cheek. He looked like a child who had been sent to the corner. There was an awkward silence.

"Why did you hit me?"

I stared at him. "Are you serious? You kidnapped me and now you’re wondering why I hit you?!" I practically yelled at him.

He looked at me for a second and gave me a smile, you know, the type of smile that people give you when they are about to play a prank on you or they know they are better than you. I frowned at him in frustration.

"Aw, come on. Don't look at me that way. I wouldn't say I kidnapped you. More like saved you from work."

I looked away, not knowing if I should be angry.

"Besides you are the only interesting thing around here," he continued.

"So you’re saying that I'm just some entertainment to you?" He looked at me surprised and then turned away, as if he was thinking it over.

"Now that you mention it, it is exactly like that!" Dylan looked at me and laughed at my struggles to stand up. "Can't stand up? Well why didn't you say so?" He took my back and pushed me up. Only the problem was that my legs couldn't support me. I grabbed Dylan's shoulders without realizing it. He wrapped his arms around my waist to hold me up. I looked up at his face. His eyes were filed with amusement.

Dylan took me and sat down, crossed legged, leaning against the wall. He placed me on his legs. I felt like a doll, so useless.

"Tell me about yourself," He suddenly asked. Surprised, I looked down. "I won't let go until you tell me something."  He hugged me even tighter around the waist. I knew he was just teasing me. Dylan didn't even seem to care but he seemed to be greatly interested to my fingers and kept playing with them. Annoyed, I pressed my back against his chest as hard as I could. I took a deep breath and started talking as fast as I could.

"When I was young, my mom was killed, I mean died, just died... My dad married a witch, who had two daughters. They are horrible too. They treat me like a maid, so then I demanded they pay me but still I get paid less then they, when they get their allowances. So I have to endure this until I get enough money to runway."

Dylan was silent for a bit. Trying to break the tension, I asked him, "So what's your story?"

He scoffed, "My story? My dad is, well I don't know how to put this, is a big deal and everyone's been putting a lot of pressure lately. All the perfection and keeping up to everyone's expectations. My dad is also making me put up with these ridiculous events. In the end, I just got sick and tired of it. So I left."

"And now you just make fun of me," I said softly. He didn't answer or either he didn't hear me.

We sat there for a while. Time flew by, but I didn't dare to try to get up. Finally, he got up. Dylan held on to my waist. When he let go, my knees gave out a little but I had regained strength in my legs. I turned to him. He gave me a devilish grin. Not exactly what I expected.

“Were you just pretending to not be able to stand, so that you could sit in my arms?”

I stared at him in disbelief, “Of course n-”

He stopped me by putting his finger on my lips. “I’d rather not know.”

He looked a little sad. I couldn’t bring myself to say anything. Did I hurt his feelings? I shook my head. What am I thinking? He has no feelings!

"I'll see you again, soon. I'll guarantee that," Dylan said out of the blue.

I gave him a strange look, "I'll look forward to that." He lit up. He is such a child. He sped off before I could say anything else. I guess he just wanted leave before I could say anything that would ruin his good mood. I chuckled to myself.

 "OK then. How do I get home now?"  I asked to no one in particular.

I walked out of the alley and looked around. It seemed deserted out in the streets.  Looking right and left, I confirmed no one was in sight. I ran on my tippy toes to the other side of the street. Fiery, wet leaves covered the ground. I walked in the direction of the field. If I could get there, then I could get home. I didn’t know how they would react to disappearing twice in two days.

In the garden, the servants looked undisturbed. More than happy to escape garden work, I snuck into the house. It seems that at home, no one noticed that I was gone, so I resumed to my usual chores in the house. I was dusting the living room when Zoey and Rachel entered to have their midday tea. Lisa was nowhere to be seen, which was unusual. Seeing that it was midday, my stomach grumbled. I didn’t have breakfast. It reminded me to also feed the sparrow later.

The blondes gossiped about men, money and latest fashions. They looked so stereotypical it was almost disgusting. I placed the duster down and retrieved a wet rag to wipe the furniture.

Lisa bargained in the room, out of breath. Zoey and Rachel looked at her. I also looked at her briefly. She had a very excited look on her face.

"The Prince is here!!!"