Fairytales

A lot of people have told me that when I get out of high school, my friends would grow up and get on with their lives and I would be left behind, while they were out touring the country.

I wish I could’ve proved them wrong.

But they were right.

So Jimmy, if you can hear me, tell everyone that I miss them. Huntington Beach just isn’t as beautiful as it used to be. Especially since you’re gone. I think you were my last connection to them.

I love you.

- Grace

She shut her old, beaten and tattered notebook, slipping it back in to the desk drawer of her office. She looked around at the dark shadows that were casted along the walls from the dim moonlight coming through the large picture window she had installed so that she would always have a view of the ocean whenever she was working.

“Auntie?”

Grace turned her head to see her niece standing in the doorway of her office. The little four year old with a head full of dark brown curls rubbed her eyes, shuffling her feet in her footie pajamas over to where Grace sat in the oversized plush leather office chair.

She picked her niece up, setting her down in her lap. “Can’t sleep?” Grace asked, looking down at the girl’s bright blue eyes. She hid the pain that she felt in her chest, knowing that those bright blue eyes looked so much like Jimmy’s.

“No,” She mumbled, resting her head against Grace’s chest. “I keept havin’ nigh-murs.”

“About what honey?”

“Muh Daddy isn’t comin’ ta get me.”

Grace smiled down at the young four year old, smoothing her hair back on her head. “Sweetie, your Daddy will be here tomorrow morning. He told you that when you got off the phone with him, didn’t he?”

She nodded.

Grace let a heavy sigh blow past her lips. “How ‘bout I tell you a story?”

“Okuh.”

“But first, you’re going back to bed,” Grace said, standing up with her niece in her arms, carrying her back to the guest bedroom that she had claimed as her own since she had got there.

Grace tucked her niece in under the covers and sat down at the edge of the bed.

“Stowwy.”

“Story,” Grace repeated with a kind smile. “Hmm, alright, how about the one with the prince and the princess?”

Her niece nodded.

“There was a beautiful princess named Haley,” Grace started out, seeing the beaming smile form across her niece’s lips as she heard her name being used in the story. “And she was in love with the prince of Musicland, where he played the most beautiful music that made all the girls fall for him.”

“Then one day, Haley got enough courage to tell him how much she loved him, only when she got to his castle, he was already with another princess.”

“I don’t like thus stowwy,” Haley whined.

Grace just chuckled. “But you don’t know what happens next!”

“So?”

“So, Princess Haley decided she would still tell the prince how much she loved him, even if there was another princess there. Haley thought the princess he had with him was a bad person and she made fun of him behind his back.”

“When the other princess was visiting her parents in another town, Haley ran into the castle and found the prince.”

“Did she kuss him?”

Grace smiled, closing her eyes for a minute, letting the images flash before her eyes. When she opened them back up, she looked down at Haley. “She kissed him,” Grace spoke. “And they ended up falling in love.”

“Whut bout the uhthur princuss?”

“She got really mad,” Grace explained. “Then the prince had a choice to make, because he loved both princesses very much.”

Haley stared at her aunt, wanting her to finish the story.

Grace looked down at the four year old, knowing that she shouldn’t crush the poor girl’s happy ending that she was waiting for.

“The prince chose Haley and the other princess got jealous and ran away,” Grace finished up. “Then Haley and the prince lived happily ever after.”

“Thunk you Auntie.”

“Goodnight sweetheart,” Grace sang sweetly, kissing the top of Haley’s head before walking out of the room and shutting the door behind her.

Grace made her way back in to the office, sitting down in the oversized leather chair with the great view of the beach once more. She sighed knowing that the real ending to the story she had just told Haley wasn’t a happy ending.

The prince never chose Haley, instead he chose the no good whore that he claimed to love. But little did the prince know, that no good whore that Grace had warned him about, was cheating on him while he was away making hundreds of fans happy every single night with his band. He and Grace had stopped talking after the night he chose Ashleigh.

And after Jimmy passed, things only got worse.

Jimmy was Grace’s connection back to the band. The only thing keeping her tied to them. No matter how desperately she wanted to break free from them, Jimmy would always remind her that they were her family. Even if her and their lead guitarist had had a fling, if you would even call it that.

Sixteen summers. Over a dozen strippers.
Countless numbers of shots.
Thousands of camera captured memories.

All given up for a whore who spelled her name incorrectly.

Grace leaned her head back against the headrest on her cheat, letting out an audible sigh. “Why couldn’t he have chosen me Jimmy?” She whispered, looking out the window at the dark waves crashing against the shore.

Almost like she was being pushed out of her chair by someone, Grace reached for her notebook from her desk drawer, finding a pen and quickly scribbling words down on the paper next to the note she wrote to Jimmy.

This was a new thing she had taken on lately. She would write a letter to Jimmy and then get an inspiration to write down a couple lyrics.

This is me praying that this was the very first page, not where the story line ends. My thoughts will echo your name until I see you again. These are the words I held back as I was leaving too soon.

I was enchanted to meet you.
Please don't be in love with someone else.
Please don't have somebody waiting on you.
Please don't be in love with someone else.
Please don't have somebody waiting on you.

This night is sparkling, don't you let it go. I'm wonderstruck, blushing all the way home. I'll spend forever wondering if you knew. This night is flawless, don't you let it go. I'm wonderstruck, dancing around all alone. I'll spend forever wondering if you knew. I was enchanted to meet you.

Please don't be in love with someone else.
Please don't have somebody waiting on you.

She glanced down at the words she had just written down, feeling her heart break into tiny little pieces in her chest. Even if those words had just come from her head, she knew that he was probably already in love with someone else.

Grace gasped, scaring the shit out of herself when she heard the soft knock coming from her front door of her home. Reluctantly, she had gotten up to answer it; though the thought of it being a robber on the other side did cross her mind a couple of times as she made the walk over to it.

She quickly retracted the thought when she saw the pair of light brown eyes staring back at her underneath a light amount of kohl black eyeliner smudged around his eyes.

“Bri—“

His hands automatically cupped her cheeks, rubbing his calloused thumbs softly against her silky skin. He could see the confusion displayed clearly on her face and knew that he was going to have to explain soon if he didn’t want to be screamed at.

“I made the wrong choice,” Brian said, still cupping Grace’s face. She looked down at the floorboards beneath her feet. She wanted to make sure she was still in reality right now.

“Ashleigh wasn’t good for me. You were right.”

Upon hearing these words, Grace lifted her eyes up, meeting back in the middle with Brian’s warm brown ones.

“I should’ve believed you,” He spoke quietly, dropping his hands from her face, but she caught them just before they fell beside him. She took his rough hand in hers, lacing their fingers together.

“I love you Brian,” She said no louder than a whisper.

Faster than she could comprehend, Grace was being pulled in to Brian’s chest by her waist with the hand she had laced with hers. His other came back to her cheek, holding it softly in his palm. He licked his lower lip and she bit her bottom lip, knowing that only Jimmy would’ve thought to do something like this.

Pushing that thought aside, Grace felt as if she were floating on top of a cloud when Brian’s lips finally reached hers as they had once done many years ago.

Hungrily, he kissed her harder, pressing her back up against the door of her home. Maybe it was something in the salty air that had brought him back to her, but whatever the cause was, she didn’t really care at this point anymore.

“I need you right now,” He spoke huskily next to her ear, feeling her shuddered breath on the piece of skin that was poking out of the collar of his v-neck shirt.

“Haley’s in her room,” Grace said, eyes clearly becoming glazed with lust. “If you’re quiet you can come in.”

Brian just smiled with an added smirk and let Grace down off of her cloud so that she could open the door and she could get that happy ending to her fairytale instead of the dream crushing one that she had originally gotten.