Her Happy Ever After
She picked up the large frame of the photograph and sighed as she looked deep into the picture as she had done so many times before. The two people smiling at her, their faces so washed with happiness that they looked almost ridiculous. She barely recognised her own face aglow with radiance that was partially from the wedding make-up and partially from her own ecstasy. She stood up and peered into a dusty mirror on the hall wall. Her eyes were drawn and dark and her skin dull from the stresses of being a young working class adult. She had never been beautiful, granted, but she flinched now to see herself looking so tired.
Her eyes drew away and back to the picture in her hands. Why he had chosen her she would never know. He got so much attention from the opposite sex and it was easy to see why. His perfectly chiselled face was so handsome but without looking fake and his piercing blue eyes were a window to his lively, outgoing personality. He was such a contrast to her and yet, here they were five months after the glorious day she held in her hands. Even on the wedding day she could hardly believe that he would stay with her. She had never had someone love her in her life, let alone the popular, Mr Right type.
Keira climbed back onto the bed. She could scarcely make out the number on the clock in the dark but she knew it was late. Outside the usual gangs were fighting again. It would not be long before the police turned up. She sat leaning up against the old bedstead and waited. He would be home soon.
The dark apartment was not what she would call her ideal home but she was grateful to have a roof over her head. The three rooms were mostly cream and the ceilings yellow from her husband's smoking habit. The bedroom, where she sat now, was littered with his clothes of which he took pride in. A few times, when they had first moved in, she had tried to clean up and he had just complained that he hadn't been able to find anything. She had long given that up now and so the floor was covered in jeans and t-shirts both dirty and clean. She got out her book from beneath the bed and began to read. Many people would claim that the stories she read were to take her away from her drab lifestyle, but she was always adamant that she had always loved reading and that she was perfectly content with the way she lived.
It was gone 3 o'clock by the time the apartment door clicked open and Lawrence staggered in. Drunk as usual, he left the door open and collapsed on the bed. Keira, got up pushed the door closed and started untying his trainers. As she undressed him he tried to pull her down on top of him. His masculine arms wrapped around her and his face lurched toward hers. She kissed him reluctantly. He forced her onto the bed and roughly grabbed at her breasts. The stench of alcohol and smoke was almost too much. His hand slipped under her nighty and touched her thigh. She pulled away. He was too pissed to complain and just lay there as she finished taking off his clothes until he lay in his boxers. Then, she crept into bed and lay next to him as he mumbled something about how much he loved her and how she didn't show her love to him. He put his arm heavily around her and pressed his face into the back of her neck. As his breath deepened and slowed she pushed the disappointment of his intoxicated state away and recited the familiar words in her head.
This may not look like a fairy tale to some but I have my happy ever after and I'm lucky.