It Wasn't Meant To Turn Out Like This

Mayza thanked and paid the taxi driver before grabbing her small bag of personal items and exiting the vehicle. Mayza turned and stared up at the Haner house, feeling the first complete sense of happiness wash over her for the first time in several months. She smiled at the thought of seeing everyone’s face once they realized that she’d returned. It had been so hard on her to leave them behind, and it had been very difficult for everyone else too. At the time, moving to the settlement seemed like a good idea. Now, it just looked like a pockmark on her relatively pleasant time on Earth.

Mayza walked up the sidewalk and paused at the front door. She wasn’t sure whether she should knock or just walk in. Deciding on the latter, Mayza gripped the doorknob and pushed the door open, stepping into the familiar hallway. She stepped further into the house, turning into the living room.

Suzy sat on the couch with her back facing Mayza, reading the newspaper it looked like. Mayza paused in the doorway, drinking in the room before she alerted Suzy of her presence.

“You’re home early, Brian,” Suzy said suddenly, not looking up from her newspaper. Before Mayza could speak, she continued, “Yes, I heard you come in. Trying to walk quietly doesn’t help when I hear the front door open.”

Mayza smiled and stepped forward towards the back of the couch.

“And by golly, if you’re sneaking up behind me to scare me, you won’t get sex for a week,” Suzy snapped.

“Agh!” Mayza exclaimed, slapping her hands over her ears. “Poison to my ears! Please, I really had myself convinced all your children appeared out of thin air!”

“Mayza!” Suzy screamed excitedly, throwing down the newspaper, standing up, and turning around in one fluid, graceful motion. Upon seeing that it really was Mayza standing in her living room, Suzy vaulted herself over the back of the couch and screeched to a halt in front of Mayza, throwing her arms happily around the fairy and squeezing the life out of her.

“I missed you too, Suzy,” Mayza grunted, attempting to breathe and finding it impossible with Suzy’s arms crushing her lungs.

“Oh my God, we’ve missed you so much!” Suzy gushed, releasing Mayza and straightening up, resting her hands on the fairy’s shoulders to get a good look at her. “We knew freeing you and telling you about the settlement was the right thing, but we really began to regret it because we missed you so much! Have you just come to visit for a few days?”

“No, I think I’m staying,” Mayza answered. Suzy’s face instantly fell from complete jubilation to a deep frown. She steered Mayza towards the couch, pushing her down into the cushions before seating herself beside Mayza.

“Why?” Suzy asked quietly.

“The settlement wasn’t all I hoped and imagined it would be,” Mayza sighed. “It wasn’t a dream come true. Nothing was the same as it is in the fairy dimension. It only made me feel more home sick for my own homeland. I decided my second home was better than that settlement and decided to come back. If you’re willing to let me live here until I can find work and support myself, that is.”

“Of course that’s perfectly alright,” Suzy assured Mayza, resting a motherly hand on her knee. “As long as staying here is what you want, we’ll be more than happy to provide a home for you for as long as you need. You’re family, Mayza, and you will be treated as such.”

“Thank you,” Mayza answered with a grateful smile. “This house feels more like home than that settlement ever could.”

“Please, tell me everything that’s happened,” Suzy said, becoming happy again and leaning forward in anticipation of Mayza’s tale. Mayza grinned wider and explained everything that had transpired over the six months she’d been gone.

“So, how’s Brian?” Mayza asked once she’d finished with her tale. Mayza knew it couldn’t be good when Suzy instantly looked sad and even a little angry at the mention of Brian. “Oh, is he being a jackass to you guys?”

“Oh no, not him,” Suzy said hastily, shaking her head. “It’s that damn girlfriend of his, Michelle, that we’ve all got a problem with.”

“Why?” Mayza asked with a frown.

“Brian hasn’t been the same lately,” Suzy began. “He’s a free-spirit, and he always has been, but she’s suffocating him and controlling him and being an all-around bitch. He can’t be himself around her because she’ll just shoot him down if he tries to be anything like himself! She controls his every move, and he can only go out with his friends when she gives him permission.

“Not only that, but she’s crazy jealous too!” Suzy continued, her voice becoming angrier and angrier with every sentence. “Every meet-and-greet or concert the guys have, Michelle is hovering close behind, keeping her beady little eyes on every fan who steps up to Brian asking for an autograph. She bites anyone’s head off who shows even the slightest inkling of interest in him! Brian told me that one time, Michelle stood behind him with her hand on his shoulder and every time he went to shake a girl fan’s hand, Michelle would squeeze her devilish little fingernails into his shoulder to make him stop!

“And, oh, the world just stops rotating if a girl fan asks for a picture with Brian! Michelle at least thinks it does and will instantly snap no and tell the fan to get a move on! It’s seriously disrupting the way the band does things,” Suzy snapped, looking more and more like a dragon about to breathe fire.

“Suzy, calm down before you burn down the whole neighborhood,” Mayza said soothingly, resting a hand on Suzy’s arm. Suzy took a few deep breaths and began to look a little calmer. “Please continue, but don’t get so worked up about it.”

“I’m sorry,” Suzy apologized. “I only have Brian Sr. to talk to about this and whenever I start thinking about it, it just makes me so mad. Anyway, Brian’s been looking so defeated lately. He isn’t the same man he used to be. It’s like he has no confidence anymore because any time he tries to be confident—you know, just like himself—Michelle stops that in a heartbeat.”

“Has anyone tried to talk to him about this?” Mayza asked.

“Yes, we all have,” Suzy answered. “Even Val, Michelle’s own sister, told Brian to break up with the controlling bitch, but Brian just keeps insisting that it’s just a phase. He says they’ll get through it. I think that’s bullshit, and that it’s just Michelle’s words being spoken with Brian’s mouth.”

“No one’s been able to talk some sense into him?” Mayza asked.

“Nope,” Suzy said with a shake of her head. “Not even Jimmy.”

“You know what,” Mayza said, shoving herself to her feet. “I’ll give it a try. I’ll go pay the two of them a visit. If Michelle resists, she’ll just get a face full of fairy magic.”

“Good luck!” Suzy called as Mayza walked out of the living room.