The prince walked into the club, After Ever-After. He needed a night to forget all about his failure with women in the past. This specific club was very high end, only Kings and Queens, Princes and Princesses, Lord and Ladies, Dukes and Duchesses, any manor of titled persons. He was dressed down from his norm of the military uniform his parents made him wear when in front of his subjects. Though, he was still dress up compared to the commoners.
He wore a navy blue silk button-up shirt, with black trousers, and his black leather riding boots. He looked around, shaking his shaggy blonde hair out of his face. He couldn't even remember the real color was anymore, he changed it so often. His eyes ranged from brown to black depending on the day. His name as well changed with his mood and the girl he intended to flirt with on any given night. His given name was Philip Adam Henry Archibald Charles Elizabeth Eric Fredrick Leonardo Merryweather Felix Montgomery. Such was his family's way of naming the boys with a dozen names, one being a feminine name, while the girls, like his sisters, were give names like Isabelle Marie or Julia Catherin.
He crossed the club to the bar, scoping out the girls. There were a few clusters at tables, some with dates, who were clearly off limits, some with dates, who he could test the waters with, and some without dates entirely, who were free game to flirt shamelessly with. His gaze caught on a girl down the bar from him, drinking some girly drink, pink in color, almost empty. He made his way over to her as she took the last sip.
"Bring her another on me," he told the bartender, "and a vodka for me."
She turned to him and smiled. She had perfectly straight teeth, brilliant green eyes, and platinum blonde hair that curled down mid-back. She was in a strapless gold gown, out of place among the other girls who wore short party dresses. They had a stare down until the bartender returned.
"Your vodka, and your pink lady."
"So," she said, taking a sip of the drink. "To what do I owe the pleasure of being bought a drink?"
"Your beauty for one," the prince replied. "And the promise of talking to the one who holds that beauty."
"You're sweet. I'm Olivia."
"Montgomery, but you can call me Monty."
They talked for an hour about the happenings of the kingdom, each other and people around them, drinking the whole time. They moved from the bar to a booth. Conversation turned to themselves, after many drinks, both their speech slightly slurred.
"When I was ten, I met a prince, first in line for the throne to his kingdom," Olivia explained. "As time passed, we began to fall in love. When he was eighteen, I was sixteen, and our parents arranged our marriage. A month before our wedding, his father's kingdom was engaged in a war. Our wedding was postponed until the fighting ended.
"When it finally did, the wedding was arranged. As I prepared to be walked down the aisle by my father, I saw that Timothy wasn't waiting for me. I was furious that he would dare to stand me up on our wedding day. I found out the next day that he had been murdered by the people he helped defeat in the war.
"It's been three years, so I thought it best to begin my social life again. So, at twenty-three, here I am. What's your story?"
"Well," the prince began, "When I was eight, my parents arrange a marriage for me to the daughter of the king in the neighboring kingdom that had just been born. I didn't think much of it at first, not until I was much older.
"When I was eleven, I was in our summer castle, and this creepy old lady came asking for a place to stay, only offering a rose in payment. I sent her away, but she placed a spell on me turning me into a beast. I was trapped as the beast, only to be freed if a girl would fall in love with me before the rose died. I gave up hope of ever being released, because, who could love a beast?
"When, some years later, this old man stumbled into the castle, I was afraid of what he would tell the people I ruled, so I imprisoned him. Then his daughter came to rescue him, letting me keep her in his place. I saw her heart, and I wanted to get to know her. Belle finally loved me and released me from the spell, but when she saw me, she left. She fell in love with the beast, not the man."
"That's horrible," Olivia cried, covering her mouth.
She threw her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. In the process, she knocked over their drinks. She started giggling at the alcohol on the table. The prince waved the bartender over to clean up the table and order another round of drinks.
"So, after that, I returned home, only to be told that my betrothed had fallen into an enchanted sleep, and that I needed to awaken her. So, I set off to find her. I had to battle through a thicket of thorns a hundred feet deep, and I hate blood, the thought of it, the sight of it, pictures of it, everything, hemophobia you could say. I made it to the castle where she was being held only to be stopped by a dragon, a freaking dragon. I mean, really? How cliché is that, a dragon guarded castle?
"Anyways, I killed the wretched thing, only to find Aurora looking beautiful and half dead. You see, I also had minor thanatophobia, the fear of dead people. But, these fairy things told me I had to kiss my Aurora to awaken her, so I had to. After kissing her, the whole of her kingdom awoke from the enchanted sleep. Her parents began to plan the wedding with my parents to join our kingdoms.
"And what's she do? She dumps me. Dumps me. Apparently, she'd never been told that she was going to marry me, and she didn't find me at all to her liking. Our parents began to argue, then the yelling started. They told us we would marry anyways, whether she liked it or not. She promptly told them she was going to join a convent and become a nun, before she walked out, fuming."
He drank his vodka in one shot, ordering three more. He drank another before continuing.
"After the experience, I was quite depressed. I would ride through the forests, not really knowing what I was doing. Well, I happened upon another girl. Her face was a white as snow, never found out her name. She was in this glass casket, so I went to investigate. I had been cured of my thanatophobia, so I lifted the lid of the casket to get a better look at her. I figured I could try the kiss again.
"After I kissed her, I felt someone watching me. So, I turned around to see seven dwarfs. They all looked furious. And to make it worse, I have nanosophobia. They started accusing me of being a 'weirdy' and many other things. What wasn't helped me: the fact that I was on top of the girl trying to get away from the dwarfs.
"And wouldn't you know it, she wakes up, and calls me her wonderful prince. She told me she knew I would come to save her. I promptly told her that I had only kissed her to see if I could bring her back from the dead, because the world needed more pretty girls. Well, I actually said the world needed some more sexy things like her.
"I was young and stupid. I mean, I was twenty-four, but that was a long three years ago. My next failure in the relationship world came when I was sailing for my twenty-fifth birthday. We crashed, and I was rescued by this girl with gorgeous red hair-but nothing compared to yours-and eyes that shown like stars- but they were so dull when I look at you- and this voice. I didn't know how to describe it, something unhuman about it.
"I searched for her, but couldn't find her, and gave up entirely. Then, I found this girl that looked just like the one I sought, but she had no voice. She was quite a strange girl, brushing her hair with a fork, blowing into a pipe. It was almost like she'd never seen those things before.
"After three days, I was bewitched by another girl into marrying her. Just before sunset, a seagull pulled this other girl's necklace off, and suddenly Ariel could speak. I was about to kiss her when the sun set, and she lost her legs. She was a mermaid, and here I thought they were just fisherman's tales. The other girl turned into this octopus thing and dragged Ariel out of the boat.
"I killed the crazy woman and saved Ariel's life. I tried to tell her I loved her, but she ran away-swam away-saying I betrayed her. After that fiasco, that journalist Katrina Scott has been all over my social life."
Olivia was sitting almost on top of the prince, entranced by his tale. Their table was littered with empty glasses, that once contained their drinks. She moved closer to him, waiting for more of the story.
"So, I refused to leave the castle for more that a year. My parents grew tired of my moping and threw me a ball, to meet all the eligible maidens in the kingdom. I wasn't really interested, but I went along with it. And I found her. We danced through the evening, when we went elsewhere in the palace. Around eleven thirty, we rejoined the ball for another dance, before going out to the gardens. When the clock struck midnight, she ran out. I never found out her name or where she lived. All I had was the glass slipper she left behind, which is unfortunate. I have crystallophobia, fear of glass. That was six months ago, so here I am."
"What a tale!" Olivia cried.
The prince picked up another vodka, now severely drunk.
"Thinking back, though, the relationships weren't really based on anything solid. I'm a cradle robber. I've kissed two dead girls. I held another prisoner. One turned out to be a mermaid. One ran out on our first date, and she may or may not be pregnant."
"I'm sure everything will work out in the end," Olivia assured him.
"Oh my god," the prince suddenly yelled. "I fell in love with half a fish."
Olivia stood up, not nearly as drunk as she had been letting on to be. She pulled the prince to his feet, helping him over to the bar to pay their bill. She took him outside, and hailed a carriage for him. Once finished she turned away without a backwards glance.
The prince awoke the next morning with a pulsing headache and a hangover, like he did quite often nowadays. He groaned and pushed himself toward his bathroom to take a shower. He hoped the steam would clear his head slightly. He was interrupted halfway through his refreshing by a banging on his bedroom door.
He stepped out quickly, pulling on a robe. He opened the door to see a furious queen, his mother. She was dressed in her royal garb and holding a newspaper. She was red in the face as she tried to form words. When she couldn't, she threw the paper at her son and stormed off.
He looked down at the paper, and the front page article. The title, in giant bolded print, read PRINCE'S SECRETS REVEALED. Below the title, was a long article on his entire dating history. He couldn't understand how she'd gotten all the information, unless she was listening in to his and Olivia's conversation. In the middle of the article was a picture of him, that he didn't know who took. There was only one person who would write this kind of story, Katrina Scott.
And, just as he suspected, as he looked at the end of the article, there was her little signature statement. "This article was written by Katrina Scott, with special thanks to-" whoever her contacts were, except this time it read, "with special thanks to Prince Philip Adam Henry Archibald Charles Elizabeth Eric Fredrick Leonardo Merryweather Felix Montgomery for such an enthralling tale."
He couldn't believe it. He had never talked to her. And she would have thanked Olivia if she had told her anything, but Olivia wouldn't, not after telling his so much about herself first. Katrina must have been in the booth beside them, listening in on everything.
The prince read through the article, every detail exactly as his fuzzy mind remembered telling it to Olivia. As he reached the end, he glanced at the picture that accompanied every article, the picture of the author. She had blonde hair, green eyes, and perfectly straight teeth. His heart dropped. He had told Olivia his entire love life, but she wasn't Olivia after all. She was Katrina Scott.