Title: Prince Charming...Not

Fandom: Popular

Author: Carla

Email: cmfloresfd@yahoo.com

Rating: PG

Pairing: Brooke/?

Disclaimers: Not mine never have been.  Never will be. NO profit made, no harm intended.

Archiving: This complete delusion can be found at The Realm http://www.realmoftheshadow.com/carla.htm.

Feedback: Well sure but I'm not counting on it. cmfloresfd@yahoo.com

Author's Note: What can I say it came to me in a flash and took about 45 minutes to write so if it's good writing and high quality that you are searching for then I suggest you look elsewhere.  This isn't beta-ed so any and all mistakes are mine.  Alan and Louise thank you both for the correspondence that first brought this to mind.

Enjoy

In all the books I’ve read, in all the cheesy romance novels that I take such pains to hide from Sam, who’d surely mock me if she knew, the main character always knows instantly when she’s met the love of her life. How is that because I can’t figure it out for the life of me, in the books they touch hands, briefly always briefly, and the sparks fly and they just know. Okay so in most of them they spend the next hundred or so pages trying to fight it but in the end true love wins and they are together against the odds. Of course he’s handsome, rich and incredibly sweet, a real gentleman. She’s beautiful, smart and poised, a lady in other words. Or some other such nonsense and I know its nonsense but still I did learn something from them. I learned how to flirt, how to pretend what to say to make it look like everything on the inside matches the perfect outside.

What I didn’t learn from them was what to do about you. What to do when Prince Charming is most definitely not. I mean who’s ever heard of a Prince Charming who plays chess, who thinks Tess of the D’Urbevilles is the best book ever and who watches every movie and TV show with an eye out for the homoerotic element. Who ever heard of a Prince Charming that was shorter than the Princess, poorer than the Princess and well with hair that would make a Princess cry. Who ever heard of a Prince Charming without a car. Prince Charming is not supposed to walk five blocks from the bust stop to your house to pick you up for your…date I guess.

But I’m looking out the window right now, while I brush my hair, and I can see you walking down the street towards my house. And I can feel my heart start to race. Your hair looks different it’s been tamed somewhat by your sister in an inept braid. Of course you are reading a book, a thick one from the looks of it, probably something I would never want to read. I read Tess, I liked the movie better but I liked talking to you about the book even more. It took me two weeks to read Tess. It took you one night to read my favorite book, Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady.

No one even knows we talk. No one knows that after practice I go to the library to meet you. No one knows that in the stacks, between "M" and "Mc", is where we first met, really met. No one knows that it was in the "How to" section of the Barnes and Noble by your house where I kissed you for the first time. No one knows that you’re teaching me to play chess and I am teaching you how to braid your hair. No one knows about the CDs you burn for me with everything ranging from Cole Porter to Simon and Garfunkle, from The Clash to No Doubt. No one knows about the tape I made for you of me reading your favorite children’s books because you like to fall asleep listening to my voice. No one knows about the late night phone calls that last until two. No one knows about the soft spot right behind your left ear. No one knows that sound you make when I kiss you there. No on knows we kiss even.

The doorbell is ringing. I race downstairs in time to hear you introduce yourself to the rental units, "A pleasure to meet you sir, ma’am." Your voice, it sends my pulse racing. I just want to kiss you, now. So I grab your hand pulling you towards the stairs and my room. Sam is in the hallway, to say that she is surprised to see you is an understatement but it’s nothing compared to her surprise when she walks into my room later to say that dinner is ready and finds us on my bed. Your hair is out of its braid, my hands are tangled in it and we’re kissing.

Sam says something like holy shit and you respond, "Actually I prefer to be called April."

And I throw my head back and laugh. I guess people are going to know soon enough and I just realized that it doesn’t matter what the books say. Sometimes Prince Charming is a princess and sometimes Prince Charming is a dork but really as long as this Princess Charming is my dork it’s okay.

_______________

Carla

It's a one time thing...it just happens a lot (Suzanne Vega, Cracking)

Schizophrenia, like charity, begins in the home. (Florence King, Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady.)