L'angel rebelle
Cinderella is human-she has a very human reaction to not going to the ball
The stepmother and her stepsisters ripped her dress to shreds. No, not her dress. Her mother's dress.
"Go wait in the carriage," her stepmother ordered the stepsisters. After they were out of the house, she glared at her stepdaughter. "You shall NOT go to the ball!" she snarled at her. "After all I have done for you, you do this!" She turned to walk out the door.
Cinderella stared at her in hurt shock. "Why are you so cruel? Why?"
Her stepmother turned around slowly. Her face radiated an emotion Cinderella couldn't place. If she didn't know better, she would have said it was concern. "Because! You are young, and innocent, and sweet, and I-" she stopped, seeming to choke on the words.
"Don't go anywhere or you will regret you were ever born!" she barked and then closed and locked the door behind her. A shattered Cinderella was left on the stairs.
She sighed and trudged up to the attic to change into her regular clothes. She thought of how she helped her stepmother get dressed every morning, buttoning her sleeves and helping tie her shoes. Often their eyes met in a tender way. Her stepmother even helped her up sometimes. Lately, when Cinderella helped her undress at night, it seemed to take longer. Her stepmother was seemed to be gentler with her at night. She even let her stepdaughter kiss her goodnight. But that seemed to not matter now.
Cinderella wandered into the kitchen to make herself something to eat. A bottle of clear liquid caught her eye. Her stepmother's vodka. Next to it was a bottle of vodka flavored with raspberry syrup. Lady Tremaine normally only drank a small amount mixed into her tea at night. Cinderella, however, was in no mood for moderation.
She poured a generous portion into her cranberry juice. "Ugh," she said to no one. "Awful."
That didn't stop her from drinking the entire bottle. And then half of another one. The more she drank the less she cared about everything. She held up her fifth cranberry juice-vodka-raspberry vodka concoction up the window. A brilliantly blinding sunset met her intoxicated glance.
"I dub this drink 'the broken heart'!" she announced to the empty kitchen. "Because my heart is no longer broken!" With that she lay her head down on the kitchen table and began to snore.
"What on earth….?" Asked a puzzled Lady Tremaine later. Her daughters crowded behind her and all three of them stared at Cinderella, who was flanked by empty bottles and a powerful aroma of booze. Her blond head was in her arms on the table as she snored.
"Wake up!" her stepmother ordered as she shook her. Cinderella's head bobbed up and she looked around blearily.
"What?" she responded. "How was the mall?"
"The ball, stupid," Drusilla corrected her.
"Oh yeah," said Cinderella as she rubbed her eyes and tried to focus. "Did you dance with the prince?"
"Of course," her stepsisters answered together.
"I expect a proposal any day," said Anastasia as she twirled around.
"You won't get one!" Drusilla snapped. "He's going to propose to me tomorrow!"
"Were there spirits at the wall-I mean ball?" Cinderella asked, her words slurred.
"Yes."
"There'd have to be for him to dance with either of you, or for you two trolls to think he'd marry one of YOU!" Cinderella declared and then burst into a fit of giggles. Her stepfamily stared at her in shock.
"How dare you!" Lady Tremaine barked in rage.
"Oh, I dare, you wicked witch!" Cinderella snapped back. Her stepmother yanked her up and shook her.
"I demand an explanation!"
Cinderella opened her mouth and gave a window rattling belch. The smell of vodka was on her breath.
"There's your explanation!" she declared.
"She's drunk!" Anastasia announced.
"Well look who's caught up!" Cinderella retorted. She waved her arms in the air and sang "I love al-ca-hol!"
Her stepmother looked at her with the strangest expression. She was trying not to laugh. So this sweet little angel was human after all.
"Go to bed," she said to her daughters. "I'll take care of her."
Anastasia and Drusilla gave their stepsister a look full of smug satisfaction that she would be punished and left.
"Come, child," her stepmother said, almost gently. She couldn't really be too angry with Cinderella when it was her fault. Cinderella was so drunk she could barely walk. Lady Tremaine put one arm around the slender waist and took Cinderella's hand with the other and led her to her own chambers. There was no way Cinderella could make it up to the attic in her condition.
"Guess I'm not so innocent and good after all," Cinderella giggled as her stepmother set her on the bed. She was very dizzy but didn't care.
"Well," said Lady Tremaine, who towered over her. She crossed her arms and looked down at Cinderella with her head tilted to the side. "Well. What am I going to do with you, young lady? Getting drunk like this! Care to explain yourself?"
Cinderella looked up at her with drunk brown eyes. She ran a hand through her blond hair. "You have to ask? Don't you know? It's because of you, not the ball. Who cares about the ball or the fucking prince? Or fucking the prince? That's all Ana-stupid and Dumb-zila want to do. Fuck the prince!" she bellowed and giggled some more.
A small part of her brain screamed that was still sober, Shut up, stupid! but she ignored it. Now her stepmother looked amused.
"Because of me?" she asked as she tried to hide her amusement. "Please, do tell. I'm confused."
"No, you're not," Cinderella threw back. "You know what I'm talking about. You aren't stupid. How did someone as smart as you have two such idiots for daughters?"
"They take after their father," Lady Tremaine replied dryly. "Now explain before I lose my patience."
"Because I love you!" Cinderella shouted. "I love you so much and it hurts me when you are so cruel, especially for no reason! I love you!"
SHUT UP! Screamed the tiny remaining sober section of her brain. Cinderella, naturally, paid no attention.
Lady Tremaine's expression softened. She sat down next to her stepdaughter. Cinderella threw her arms around her for the first time since her father died.
"I don't care if you hate me or beat me for getting drunk," she whispered. "I had to tell you at least once that I love you."
Her stepmother didn't reply. Cinderella pulled away and took her stepmother's hand. "Feel my heart," Cinderella said. She put her stepmother's hand on her chest. Her heart pounded through the thin fabric of her dress. "That's how much I love you."
Lady Tremaine looked at her with the oddest expression. "Stay in here tonight," she said after a while. "Here." She began to unbutton the back of Cinderella's dress. Cinderella blushed drunkly as her stepmother's able fingers worked the buttons.
"Undressing me in this state, Stepmother?" she giggled. "Do you want to-"
"Hush," her stepmother said sternly. She undressed Cinderella down to her slip and wrapped her leopard print robe around her.
"Ohh, the robe," Cinderella giggled and fell back on the bed. "I love this robe on you. Do you love it on me?"
Her stepmother actually smiled at that but didn't respond. She began to undress herself for bed. As she reached behind herself to undo her corset, Cinderella tottered over.
"Let me help. I do it every night."
"Not drunk you don't," her stepmother snickered.
Cinderella's fingers were surprisingly agile in her intoxicated state. She unbuttoned the corset and let it slide to the floor. Then she knelt down and unbuttoned her stepmother's shoes. She didn't dare look up. At least she listened to the tiny sober part of her brain about that.
Lady Tremaine slipped another robe around herself and pulled Cinderella up. She took her hand and led her back to bed.
Cinderella began to tremble. She had never been so close to her stepmother in such a way. She could smell her perfume and soap and shampoo all mixed together so strongly. Usually she could only catch a fleeting scent that warned of her stepmother's approach.
Lady Tremaine propped herself up on her elbow and looked down at her drunk, trembling stepdaughter. She gently brushed the blond hair off her forehead.
"Why do you love me, Ella?" she asked gently. It had been years since she had been so gentle with Cinderella, let alone call her by her real name. Cinderella trembled even more. She thought back to earlier in the evening when she asked her stepmother why she was so cruel. Even as drunk as she was, she could read the genuine inquisitiveness in her stepmother's blue eyes.
"Because I can't remember my real mother very well," Cinderella said hoarsely. "I need a mother in my life, even if you hate me. I remember how you used to hold me on your lap, how you'd hold me during thunderstorms. And you are so beautiful-" she stopped, unable to continue. The truth really did come out when you were drunk.
"I don't hate you, Ella," her stepmother said as she looked directly into her eyes. "I'm so sorry it had to come to this but maybe it's for the best."
Cinderella giggled once more. "Maybe I should get drunk more often. It's so much easier to talk to you drunk than sober!"
Her stepmother smiled. She leaned down and kissed Ella's forehead. "Go to sleep, sweetheart. You've had a rough day."
Cinderella fell asleep curled up into her stepmother. But Lady Tremaine stayed awake for quite a while, watching her sleeping. She looked so innocent asleep. A sharp contrast to the smell of booze that was still drifting off her. And the hangover that was waiting for her.
"I love you too, Ella," Lady Tremaine whispered into the darkness as she finally fell asleep.