Fairy Tales
A Josh and Maya Story
By Brown Eyes Parker
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Rated: T
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Once upon a time ago, in a land not so far away there lived a little girl who lived with her father and her mother in a pretty little apartment almost in Manhattan. For the first few years of her life, the father told his little girl that she was a princess. And she believed it, she decorated her walls with Disney Princess posters and sang Someday My Prince Will Come along with her Disney Mania 6 CD and twirled around her room with plastic wands and dresses that came in a rainbow array of fake satin and gold thread.
She believed in fairy tales and happily ever afters until she didn't.. .
"Kermit, Kermit. . . please don't do this! Forget about me, think about Maya! She'll be devastated."
Maya's heart pounded in her chest. The fight was worse than usual, her mother's begging was more intense than before. But her father wasn't caving this time, he was laughing except it didn't sound like his regular laughter that felt like hot chocolate after a walk in the first snowfall. This was cruel and loud and hurtful.
Aliens must have abducted him and replaced him with this mean, awful creature. She was about to turn around and go back into her bedroom, to wait for her parents to come and tell her they still loved each other. That they still loved her. That everything was going to be okay.
But the alien was speaking, his voice more vicious than his laughter.
"Don't you get it Katy? I don't love you anymore!" He hissed. "I don't want you anymore! I can't even stand to look at you; I would rather be anywhere but here!"
"Shhh!" Katy answered, sniffing a little bit. "Please Kermit, please don't let Maya hear you. She's still young, she's still impressionable, she can't know the truth. Not yet. You don't have to want me anymore. You don't even have to love me anymore but do not walk out on her! She adores you."
Kermit laughed again and Maya cringed, her heart constricting in her chest. She wasn't downstairs but she could see it all playing out like the end of the movies that Riley's parents never let them watch. When her father walked out the door, he would never come back again. When he walked out the door, he wouldn't just be walking out on her mother, he would be walking out on her too.
Her fairytale world was coming to a crashing end and it wasn't supposed to. Not so soon.
Something inside of her little heart died. She knew nothing was ever going to be the same ever again.
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A few weeks later, it was her ninth birthday, Riley brought over a frothy monstrosity in a shade of cotton candy pink and blue.
"I'm sure he'll come," Riley said confidently, zipping up the dress for Maya and applying a thick layer of strawberry Starburst lip balm to her lips before adding a thicker layer of glittery lip gloss.
Maya shook her head and ignored how her lips were tingling from too much stuff being on them. "I don't think so, Riley. He's left us before but he always comes back. It's been forever this time; he's not coming home again."
Riley, her ever optimistic friend, shrugged her thin shoulders and patted her milkmaid braids. "Daddies just aren't supposed to leave their little girls or their wives, it isn't right," she explained patiently.
Maya sighed and swiped at her lips. "Maybe your daddy thinks that."
"My grandfather never left my Aunt Morgan or my grandmother."
Maya sighed again and grasped at straws for something to say. She remembered something her mother had said to her Grandmother Angela a few days after her father had left them. "I know Riley. But your family isn't like mine, okay?"
"But isn't every family the same?" Riley asked innocently, playing with the white satin sash tied around her waist.
"I don't think so," Maya answered. "Come on just forget about it, okay? My party's going to start any minute now."
"I think he'll be here," Riley said confidently, she was still only eight, she still didn't grasp the concept of what she was saying wrong. She was only trying to help, to be encouraging like the good friend she always was.
Maya smiled sadly. Part of her hoped her best friend was right but the other part knew better. Her father wouldn't show up at her birthday party even though he had called the night before and promised to be there.
He never kept his promises.
Why was he going to start doing it after he had walked out on her and her mother?
He didn't show up.
At the end of the day, Riley looked around the room sadly, clutching her plastic bag of favors tightly in the palm of her hand. "I'm sorry Maya," she whispered, her round brown eyes filling with tears for her friend.
Maya smiled in spite of the ache gnawing in her chest and her own stinging eyes. If she started to cry, Riley would be a mess for hours.
On her ninth birthday, she stopped counting on the people in her life.
She went into her bedroom and took down the princess posters and tore them all up. She tossed her Disney Mania CDs and dresses into a black trash bag.
Someday her prince wouldn't come.
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Riley's ninth birthday was two months later. She had a princess themed party, of course, because she still believed in fairytales and happy endings and both her parents would be there, holding cake and singing Happy Birthday along with her friends and family.
Maya watched the party from the living room window seat, her lips pressed into a thin line and her skinny arms crossed against her chest.
Her mother had told her that she couldn't spoil Riley's day and tell her that there was no such thing as Prince Charming (or Santa Claus for that matter) and just because they were going through a hard time was no excuse to make everybody else miserable.
Unfairly, she wanted everybody to feel the same way she did, especially since Christmas was only seventeen days away and all wasn't calm and bright.
"What are you doing sitting here in the back all by yourself?"
Maya looked up at the intruder crossly. It was Riley's Uncle Josh; he was the only "prince" at the party. Clad in denim, an ugly Rudolph sweater and a plastic golden crown, he looked at her from behind long eyelashes, his elfin features were screwed up in confusion.
"I thought all girls liked princesses," he finally said, a little lamely.
"Not me!" Maya declared. "I know the truth."
Josh plopped himself down next to her and pulled his knees up to his chest, he folded his hands and rested his chin on them, still looking at her. "Oh? And what's that Maya?"
"Fairytales are a crock," Maya answered, proud of herself for using shocking language.
Josh frowned. "Um, no they aren't!"
Maya looked at him, her mouth slightly agape. "Oh no, not you too! Aren't you like thirteen? Aren't you a little too old to believe in fairytales?"
"I'm only going to be twelve," Josh answered crossly. "And my brother told me that one day I would meet a girl like my sister-in-law and fall in love and marry her. Just like they did."
"Fairytales AREN'T real!" Maya retorted angrily, getting up and stamping her feet at him in a display of anger.
The Matthews, she thought disdainfully as she stormed away from him and into Riley's bedroom, the only exception to the rule.
She didn't know Josh had followed her until she whirled around and saw him right behind her; he was short for his age, the same height as her actually. Riley had told her in whispers that he had been born prematurely. Maya's breath hitched in her throat, he was standing a little too close and he smelled like candy canes and Christmas trees.
Standing so close was enough to make her anger evaporate a little bit. With some of her frustration gone, Maya could see how cute he really was, like a little forgotten prince who would grow up strong and beautiful and brave and kind. Her worn out heart gave a tremendous flutter.
She took a step backwards and then another, she tripped over one of Riley's stuffed animals and lost her balance. She yelped a little as she fell to her feet. Josh was by her side in an instant and offering one of his hands. Already rescuing damsels in distress even at his young age.
"Are you okay?" Josh asked, looking at her with concern in his dark eyes.
Maya dropped his hand. "I'm fine," she answered ruefully.
"Okay," Josh said, taking her hand again and helping her to her feet. "Maybe we should get back to the party. Riley might miss us."
"Okay," Maya echoed.
She followed him out in a daze and for the first time since her father had left them, she forgot to remind herself there were no such things as happy endings. She was enchanted.
Except, she was swiftly reminded of reality when her mother came to pick her up from the party and she saw her eyes rimmed in red and mascara, and Topanga took her to the master bedroom so they could talk in private.
Maya remembered girls like her and mother didn't get the happy ending.
.
Her father had a new family now. She had gone to his wedding dressed in navy blue and silver lace and eaten cake and watched as he danced with a new woman who was seemingly everything her mother wasn't. At the end of the day, before the happy couple had left for their honeymoon, her father had pulled her aside and confided in her that she was going to be a big sister soon. Isn't that nice? He had asked her, his voice sickeningly sweet.
Maya nodded and kept her chin held high, a brave little soldier, but on the inside she was screaming and crying. No! No, it wasn't nice! Was he trying to replace her with a better model? Were her and her mother so easily traded in?
He patted her on the head and then disappeared, oblivious to everything but his own happiness.
Seven months later, her father called her and told her she had a baby sister.
The most perfect little princess you've ever seen!
Maya's heart grew heavier.
She wasn't his princess anymore.
.
Maya couldn't believe she had allowed Riley to talk her into seeing the new live-action Cinderella with her. She was a lot less Disney princess and a lot more anti-princess Punk. She hated all things Tangled and Frozen and Cinderella because they represented everything she had lost as a little girl on the cusp of double-digits and Knight in Shining White Armor dreams.
Riley still wanted to be a princess and most of the time she got her wish, with white horses and princes with Texan accents who looked like he should be plastered on the walls at Aéropostale or something.
Riley was the charmed one. Fairy godmothers had descended on the day she was born and gifted her with only the best things in life.
.
Life wasn't a fairytale. The prince never told the princess he was too old for her in any of the storybooks and the movies.
.
The prince never told the princess she was too young for him in any of the stories. But he always looked at her like she was the most beautiful person he had ever seen. Like the way Josh was looking at her on prom night.
"You look gorgeous, Gorgeous," he finally said.
Maya blushed and ran her hand down the gold and glitter tulle dress that Riley had insisted she buy for prom while Josh studied her. "It isn't too much?" She asked, resisting twirling around and showing off for him.
"On anyone else maybe," Josh said. "But you wear too much well."
She blushed some more and was about to say something when Riley made her big debut in something that was an inexpensive version of Cinderella's ball gown. She did twirl around for them while Josh and Maya both oohed and awed because even though she was a junior in high school, Riley still wanted to be a princess.
These days, Maya was more than happy to indulge her.
Because she was starting to believe in fairytales again. Even though she hadn't even admitted it to herself quite yet.
.
She got a call from her half-sister one sunny afternoon in late July. There was a long pause and Maya almost thought she had hung up on her when she heard sniffling on the other end.
"Maya?" She whispered.
"Yes?" Maya asked, not really wanting to speak to the little girl on the other end but she sounded distraught. "Is everything okay?"
"I'm all alone at the house."
Maya frowned. "Rosie, are you sure?"
"Well, my nanny's here," Rosie answered. "But she fell asleep watching TV. Maya, will you please come over and sit with me? Please?" she begged.
Maya closed her eyes and exhaled. She barely knew this kid, hadn't wanted anything to do with her father's replacement child. His new little princess. But there was something in her voice, something familiar to her. Rosie sounded just like her when she was a little girl.
"I'll be right over," Maya finally said.
Rosie was waiting for her by the door when she finally reached her father's new apartment in the heart of Manhattan. She opened the door and threw her arms around her legs.
"You're here! You're here!" She squealed, crying in relief.
Something inside Maya's heart, the part she had closed off to her little sister the day she was born, melted away and she knelt down to scoop her up even though she was going to be six-years-old on her next birthday. She was wearing an Elsa dress, her platinum blonde hair was in a fishtail braid.
"Where's your mommy and daddy?" Maya asked as she closed the door behind her with her foot.
"They left yesterday for a fashion show in Italy," Rosie answered her in a tiny voice. "They wouldn't take me with them."
"Well, I'm here now. I'll take care of you," Maya promised. "But first we need to get rid of your nanny."
Rosie nestled her head in Maya's collarbone. "Thank you Big Sister," she whispered.
Maya melted some more. "No problem," she whispered back.
Three days later, her father and stepmother came home from Italy. Maya was waiting for them, her sister's personal knight in distressed denim shorts and a boho top.
Kermit looked surprised to see her as he dropped their luggage in the hallway. "Maya, what are you doing here?" He asked, looking at his wife.
"Rosie called me a few days ago, crying because you left her here," Maya answered, stretching to her full five feet and praying her father would take her seriously. "I have a feeling you do this kind of thing a lot."
Kermit shook his head. "Go home Maya," he ordered.
"No! Dad, you're going to listen to me!" Maya answered, shaking her head and looking between him and her stepmom. "Rosie needs the two of you. I don't care how important you think your life is aside from her. But you already abandoned me. I'm not going to let Rosie grow up without a father. It isn't fair to her. If she ever calls me again like that. . ."
'You'll do what? You're too young to do anything," Kermit retorted. "You're not even out of college yet."
"Just make sure she keeps her sense of wonder and magic," Maya said. "You already ruined my childhood. Don't do it again."
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"You really are a princess!" Riley gushed when Maya told her about her encounter with her father later that night.
"What?" Maya asked, frowning.
"Princesses always standup for the people who don't have a voice," Riley explained.
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Life was like a fractured fairytale, Maya mused as she stood next to her mother at her marriage to Shawn Hunter, her maid of honor in a muted gold dress and pink glittery heels.
They were some of the lucky ones, the exception to the rule. Not every broken family got to be mended when the matriarch walked out. Not every girl got a king in black leather to rescue them. She could hardly believe they were the ones who had been chosen.
.
She watched the edited version of Pretty Woman with Riley on ABC Family.
That night, she dreamed of uncle princes climbing up fire escapes and rescuing her from her notions about life and fairy tales and making her see things from his point of view all over again.
.
Maya was watching Rosie while her father and stepmother went to the Met for opening season. They were listening to Disney music and shouting the lyrics, spinning around the spacious living room in dress up clothes, the tulle and silk swishing around their knees while they whirled around, holding hands and pretending to be Cinderella.
There was a knock on the door and Maya went to check who it was, almost tripping over one of Rosie's pink plastic shoes in the process. She looked through the peephole and saw Josh standing on the other side of the door with his hands behind his back.
"Mayaaaa! Who is it!?" Rosie shouted from the other room.
"A friend of mine!" Maya yelled back.
"Riley!?" Rosie asked hopefully, appearing by her side.
"Not exactly," Maya answered, unlocking the three sets of locks with shaking hands and throwing the door open. "Josh. What are you doing here? I haven't seen you since the wedding."
"A PRINCE!" Rosie screamed before Josh could answer her. "Do you want to play prince and princess with us?"
Josh laughed and glanced at Maya. "Would I get in trouble if I came in?"
Maya shrugged. "Who cares? It isn't like you're a serial killer."
"What's behind your back?" Rosie asked, tugging at his arm.
"Oh, this? It's nothing, really," Josh answered, producing a glittery pink shoe.
"You've got to be kidding me," Maya muttered.
She had kicked her shoes off towards the end of the night at mother's wedding, her feet aching from standing on heels all night, a blister developing on her big toe. At the end of the night, when it had been time to go home, she hadn't been able to find her left high heel. At the time, she had assumed it had gotten thrown away by mistake.
She had never imagined Josh of all people would have picked it up. She had never imagined he would take so long to return it to her.
"May I?" Josh asked, gesturing towards her leopard print ballet flat and kneeling down in front of her.
"You have got to be kidding me," Maya repeated, laughing a little bit at the ironic twist her life had taken.
"Why do you keep saying that?" Rosie asked, looking at her big sister curiously.
"I'll tell you when you're older," Maya answered, allowing Josh to slip her shoe off her foot and put the other one on it.
"I knew it would be a perfect fit," Josh told her, looking up at her, his eyes glowing under the chandelier lights.
"You have to kiss each other now," Rosie told them, all matter-of-fact. "That's how it goes in the movie and we are playing Cinderella, right?"
"No," Josh answered, getting to his feet and cupping Maya's cheek with his hand before giving her a gentle kiss on the mouth while Rosie began to sing Kiss the Girl off key while she clapped her hands in delight. "We're not playing Cinderella, actually."
Maya closed her eyes and smiled against his lips.
"Say my prince, Maya," Rosie prompted. "Go on, say it!"
"I always knew you would grow up beautiful and brave and kind and strong," Maya told him instead.
"Ha?" Josh asked, looking confused.
Maya just laughed and kissed him again.
My Prince. . . she thought to herself.
.
She was humming Disney songs again between art class and art history, her heart bursting with unspeakable joy. Which was crazy because she was almost an adult
But there was a prince waiting for her at the end of the day.
He had helped her believe in fairy tales again.
Once upon a time ago, in a land not so far away there lived a little girl who lived in a pretty little apartment almost in Manhattan with her father and her mother. For the first few years of her life, the father told his little girl that she was a princess. And she believed it until the day her fairy tale world was smashed into a million little pieces by a king who had abandoned his family and left the princess disillusioned.
Until she grew up.
And realized that being jaded and cynical wasn't all that great.
She became a princess again, got the prince and created her own happily ever after.
_The End_
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Author's Note:
I do not even know where this story came from to be honest. It was a small story and it grew into this monster. It is probably one of the longest one-shots I have ever written in my whole entire life. I hope you enjoyed it and that you will tell me what you thought in the box below.
I might have this story from Josh's POV but I'm not making any promises.
Until Next Time!
Love,
Holly, 7/9/2015_