Author's Chapter Notes:
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“Get me outta here, cause my eyes are burning from these silly tears, that you brought when you show me you don’t really care, and you never loved me, someone get me outta this place!”- Esmee Denters
Esmee laughed a little as Thaddeus laughed at her. “Stop making fun of me!”she said
“Im sorry, your just too cute”he said to her. “So you’re serious about this theme?”he asked her. Thaddeus suggested to Ella and Suzzette that Esmee’s opening night performance should have a theme. Suzzette gave him a ‘thumbs up’ and some suggestions but Esmee already had one picked out and it was one that he didn’t expect.
“I am serious, Thad”Esmee said genuinely,”My life is like a fairy tale right now, my wishes are coming true all because of you, that’s why I want a fairy tale theme”
“Great now you are making me feel bad for making fun of you”Thaddeus said with a smile
“An ‘Im sorry Esmee, your wish is my command’ would have been a better response”Esmee said and winked at him
“Your wish is my command”he said as he got out his iPad and started making notes. “So Im guessing a horse and carriage, princess gown and a prince are on the list then?”he asked her and winked
*
Ella was working on details for Esmee’s opening night as well as other errands when her cell phone beeped yet again with a text message of some sort. She wasn’t going to check it because she was in the middle of something but she was glad that she did. Facebook sent her a notification that a Thaddeus Channing added her as a friend. She smiled and logged onto Suzzette’s computer and logged in. She accepted it and then put a hello greeting on his wall. Then an IM popped up in the bottom right hand corner of the screen and sure enough…
Thaddeus Channing: hey there, thanx 4 the add
Ella Fontaine: ditto! How are you?
Thaddeus Channing: Busy w/ Esmee of course. I didn’t kno ur last name was Fontaine, very pretty
Ella Fontaine: :) aww thanks
Thaddeus Channing: Lemme guess, your busy?
Ella Fontaine: Im in the office right now, yes, working on paperwork for Suzzette and Esmee’s opening night. Its gonna be super cute!
Thaddeus Channing: Super cute!? OMG! U girls & ur fairy tales lol
Ella Fontaine: Lol. We cant resist them. We grew up on all of them!
Thaddeus Channing: Well @ least I know there will b a club filled with fairy tale obsessed females
Ella Fontaine: Yes there will
Thaddeus Channing: Oh I didn’t tell you, little Esmee has got a date, guess who it is
Ella Fontaine: You?
Thaddeus Channing: Nope
Ella Fontaine: ……um, just tell me, lol
Thaddeus Channing: Justin Bieber!
Ella Fontaine: Wow! Go Esmee! What a catch!
Thaddeus Channing: I bet you are screaming like a schoolgirl right now ;)
Ella Fontaine: You wish! Maybe we can get him to perform a song for everyone?
Thaddeus Channing: Great idea!
Ella Fontaine: I’ll make sure to let Suzzette know
Thaddeus Channing: So will you be escorted by a prince on opening night?
Ella Fontaine: no, I’ll be working of course
Thaddeus Channing: I’ll only accept that if you dance with me once. You owe me one dance
Ella smiled and then typed: Oh so I owe you stuff now? Your lucky that Im so nice ;)
Thaddeus Channing: You’ll be the lucky one, Ella ;)
Ella smiled and was about to reply when Suzzette walked through the door, she quickly typed: Brb
“I just faxed the Gruberstein’s their forms”Ella said as she handed her a copy and minimized her Facebook window
“Good”she said as she took the copy and set them back down without a second glance. “We won”she said with a satisfied smile
“We won what?”Ella asked
“Ella, don’t be so stupid, whats the one thing that I needed to win? The one thing that’s been stressing us out?”Suzzette said as she got out a cigar
Ella gasped,”The Kim Kardashian case?”she asked her. She nodded proudly,”How? So fast?”
“That bitch loves money and attention always has”Suzzette said with a roll of her eyes as she lit the cigar and puffed on it. “I paid that bitch off, case closed”
“She just wanted money? She dropped it just like that? Winter White wont be pulled off the shelves??”Ella asked. She was surprised that it was closed so easily since she was the one up late at night while Suzzette vented, actually yelled, at her about the allegations.
“Huney”Suzzette said and then paused as she puffed on her Cuban,”What no one knows is that Kim and I go way back. We used to be friends….well party friends, she was my wing girl for the hottest parties. She was real young then though 17, 18 but she got into some adult shit if you know what I mean”she said to Ella. Ella stared at her blankly, not knowing what that meant. Suzzette sighed,”Your fucking hopeless Ella, I got some shit on that girl that is much worse than that sex tape with Ray-J, I’ll tell you that!”
“So you blackmailed her?”Ella asked
“Hell yes because there is nothing else more sacred than her fucking reputation and her celebrity status now, fucking D-List…..thats why she’s single now and that’s why she acts like the victim in every scandal that comes up”Suzzette said. “Her reputation is #1 and telling people about orgies in a tell-all book will ruin it and she will pay anything to save it”
“A tell-all book? But most people don’t even believe those”Ella said, she surely didn’t and she was surprised that Suzzette would stoop so low.
“I have pictures to prove it huney and I wasn’t the only one there. Many people will hop in on the circus if money’s involved. But alas, she didn’t give me any shit, she’s just going to pay me and I am fine with that”she said righteously
“Well that’s great, the fragrance will survive after all and actually since the scandal broke out, Winter White is our highest selling perfume. Look at these figures”Ella said as she pulled up a spreadsheet.
“Interesting”Suzzette said. “Gossip sells huney, always remember that”she said to her. “Lets keep quiet about our win so we can have a record for our quarterly”she said as she patted her on the back as Sasha walked in.
“Where’s my UPS package? Has anyone seen it?”Sasha asked anxiously
“I just got home Sash….ask Ella”Suzzette said,”Get up”she said to Ella,”Ive got work to do” and Ella did so.
“Um I’ll call UPS, Sasha”Ella said to her as she followed her out the room.
Suzzette opened up her email and noticed that another window was blinking. She maximized it and saw Ella’s facebook page and she was chatting with none other than Thaddeus. There were unanswered chats from Thaddeus and then he logged off.
Thaddeus Channing: k, make sure to come back tho w/ ur cute self ;)
Thaddeus Channing: don’t kno what brb means 2 u where ur from but it means be right back here, lol, where u @ ma?
Thaddeus Channing: k, ur playing hard to get. i’ll c u soon….u win :)
Thaddeus Channing: bye
Was this the reason that Serena cried all the fucking time to her about Thaddeus not being interested!? She thought that maybe she was just impatient and expected to get in his pants on the first date and they were both surprised that it didn’t happen. But it was true. Thaddeus was breaking her daughters heart because of Ella!? How could Ella do this to her sister! She copied the whole conversation, pasted it and printed it out for evidence, just in case. Ella knew better than to play around on her computer anyway. “That girl….she never fucking listens”she said to herself.
*
“Make sure to come out to our opening night! Esmee Denters will be our new nightly performer and Justin Bieber will be her special guest! Tickets on sale now”Ella said repeatedly as she passed out flyers to the many partiers that walked into their club the last few nights.
“Oh huney, you are my fairy godmother in disguise! You got rid of the screaming cat!”Belle said as she walked in with a different set of friends. They were all tall and dressed to the nines just like her.
Ella laughed,”Hey there Belle. Good to see you back again. Serena wont be performing until her debut album is finished”
“Ugh, she got signed? What am I doing wrong, huney, what am I doing wrong?”Belle said dramatically
“You sing too?”
“Huney, I do everything. I model, act, sing, dance. Theres nothing I cant do”she said proudly
“And no one she wont do”one of her friends snickered and the rest of them laughed
“Britney, you just jealous because I got to that cop before you did, ok?!”Belle said with attitude
Ella stood there awkwardly, not really wanting to hear about their sexual conquests,”Well thanks for coming back ladies, oh and half off on any ‘pink’ alcoholic drink. Its to promote the fairy tale theme”
“Great, pink martini’s on me hunies”Belle said and her friends cheered. “Oh and huney, what did I tell you about that damn bun”she said as she took Ella’s pin out of her hair with one huge fluid motion, her hair falling around her shoulders,”Im gonna go and burn this, let your sexy out girl!”she said and then she was lost in the crowd.
“Hey sexy, what you got there?”a guy came up to her
“Oh fliers for our welcoming opening night party for Esmee Denters and special guest, Justin Bieber!”Ella said with a smile on her face
“Will you be there?”he asked her with a flirty smile
“Yes I will, I work here”Ella said shyly. Men never hit on her here!
“Then I’ll be there”he said and walked off with his friends, who all had fliers as well.
“Wow, your bringing sexy back to get a full house huh?”Thaddeus asked as he came up to her
“What are you talking about?”Ella asked with a smile
“You got your hair all down and silky like and I saw how that guy was looking at you”Thaddeus said. “Then I’ll be here”he said as he mocked what the guy said, sounding just like him
“Are you jealous?”Ella asked and winked
“You got me”Thaddeus said and winked back at her,”Full house tonight huh? Any pre-sales?”he asked her. Ella was passing out flyers as well as selling early bird tickets for the show.
“Yeah we are doing pretty good actually”she said as she showed him the totals so far on her laptop. “I even created a facebook event and a lot of people are confirmed as ‘yes’”she said with a smile
“And you know if its on facebook, its official, like our friendship”he said with a smile
“Yea we were just acquaintances before facebook came along”she said with a laugh
“Miss Ella, Miss Browne needs you to check on Sasha…she hasn’t seen her and her set should be starting in 5”a waitress said to her
“Ok can you man this table for me?”
“I can do it”Thaddeus said,”Its for my event. Cant be hard”
“Ok thanks, I’ll be right back”Ella said. Soon she was on a wild goose chase, she checked the various green rooms, the VIP room and Suzzette’s office. She then checked the ladies restrooms. She looked around and called for her, maybe she was sick and upchucking in the bathroom. She wasn’t there. She checked outside to see if she was smoking and she didn’t see her, but her car was there. She approached the car and was shocked at what she saw. “Sasha!? What the hell are you doing?!”she said as she pounded her fists on her window. She knew what she saw and Sasha just did a line of coke through her nose. A guy was in the passenger seat. He saw her and got out the car and ran away. “Hey, you get back here!”she shouted at him
“Shut the fuck up, Ella!?”Sasha said as she got out of the car and pushed her. “You trying to get us arrested?!”
“You are doing just fine without me!”
“You’re the one calling attention to us!”
“Get inside and start your set! Your late!”Ella yelled at her,”Im not even going to comment on how stupid your being doing that shit!”
Sasha glared at her and then pushed her against her car,”You have no right to yell at me! Your not my mother, hell, your not even my fucking sister. You’re a fucking charity case! Ma should have thrown your sorry, bathroom cleaning ass on the street! Snitch on me, Ella, and I’ll fuck you up. Understand?”she said to her. Ella nodded. Sasha released her,”Keep your fucking mouth shut”she said again and went inside.
Ella sighed as she watched Sasha run inside. She wanted to cry but tried to calm herself. “She didn’t mean it….thats the drugs talking…it has to be”she said. She then went inside.
“Ella!?Where have you been!? It’s a mad house right now!”Suzzette said to her
‘And how is that my problem? Why is it always my problem!?’ she wanted to say. Ella didn’t say anything though.
“Thaddeus is at the registration desk….why?”
“He offered to take over for me while I-“
“Oh sure he did. Or did you just pawn it off on him so you could take another 10 minute break, which by the way, you already used?”Suzzette said. “Don’t fuck this up for me. After the fucking Kim fiasco we gotta save our ass. Everything has to be in tip top shape. Thaddeus doesn’t know what hes doing up there. He doesn’t know the system! Just because you flirt with him doesn’t mean anything, ok?”
“Im not flirting with him, Suzzette, he offered-“
“As a nice guy, he offered, yes. But just because you flirt on Facebook it doesn’t mean that he actually likes you ok? How could you do this to Serena, knowing that she likes him?!”
“I-“
“I saw your Facebook chats, which disgusts me because you are not supposed to play around on my computer, got me? Not in my club either. If you have a problem, you can live and work somewhere else, huney!”Suzzette said threateningly. “Get to work!!!”she said to her. “And clean the upstairs bathroom, I got Corrine covering the desk”she said to her and stalked off.
Ella nodded and went upstairs to the bathroom. Luckily it was empty but slightly dirty. She cleaned up as the tears rolled down her face. “She had no right, huney, no right”Belle said to her as she walked in. Ella turned to her. “Oh huney, she made you cry? Now stop that right now, don’t let her know that she won. That’s how she wins, knowing she has power over you”
“She does. She controls everything. Im just her minion. A nobody”Ella said. “I work so hard…and they don’t notice…”she said as Belle brushed her hair
“You wanna know how to make them notice? Having power of your own. Stand up for yourself and let her know that she needs you and not the other way around”Belle said to her as she put lipgloss on her. Her cell started to ring,”Im needed downstairs. Keep your head up kiddo. I’ll check up on you later”she said to her. Ella nodded,”Do you notice that Suzzette speaks to you rudely when that cute boy is around. She’s threatened by you and so is your screaming cat sounding step sister”
“They always yell”
“Maybe, but I just find it interesting”Belle said with a nod as she walked out of the bathroom and walked right into….the cute boy.
“Have you seen Ella? Um, she was at the registration desk?”
“Light chocolate skin, pretty brown eyes, long hair as smooth as silk, cutest smile you ever seen?”Belle asked him
“Exactly”Thaddeus said
Belle smiled, she knew what was going on here. “Your girl is in there. Crying her eyes out. Go and be a prince charming and get her outta there”she said and winked and walked away.
“But-“
“Its empty, don’t worry”she said and continued walking.
Thaddeus walked up to the door and knocked. He felt bad. He was only trying to help then a big group of Justin Bieber fans wanted tickets and he didn’t know how to work the register. Suzzette blew a gasket and knowing her, she made Ella pay for it. “Ella? Are you alright?”
“No”she said weakly. He opened the door and she was sitting on a stool and wiping her eyes. He walked in,”Thad-“
“We aren’t going to be in here for long. Im getting you outta here”he said,”Im sorry. Its my fault”
“No its mine”Ella said. “Its always my fault”she said. “Yea lets get outta here”she said and walked out. He followed her. She got into the elevator and pressed the basement button. They walked out to the parking lot where her car was and just stood looking at it in a daze. He looked at her. “I wish I didn’t have to deal with this. I wish I didn’t have to be here anymore”
“Then quit”
“No, I don’t wanna BE here anymore. I wanna be with him instead”
“Him? Him who?”
“My father”
“Where does he live?”
“He’s dead. He died. I saw it. All of it. I was there and every fucking day I wish that I could have went with him”she said and started to cry.
This startled Thaddeus, he didn’t like that she was thinking this and then admitting it out loud. “I take talk like that seriously, do I need to call someone?”he asked her sternly.
“No”she said as she cried
“Then don’t talk like that”he said as he held her close. She sighed, she couldn’t even remember the last time someone hugged her like this. Not them, they never showed her gratitude, love or comfort like this. “The club’s closing soon”he said as he noticed a crowd of people getting into their cars nearby. “Lets take a walk on the beach. Lets clear that head of yours…or do you wanna be alone?”
“I gotta help close up. She’ll literally bite my head off if I don’t. I cant just leave”
“I’ll wait for you”
“You sure? Its almost 3am…and its gonna take me a half hour at least-“
“I’ll wait for you”he said, more seriously this time.
“Ok, thanks Thad”she said to him. They stared into each other’s eyes for a moment and then she went back inside. She stayed out of Suzzette, Sasha and Serena’s way and closed up in record time. Thaddeus was her motivation to get the fuck outta dodge. She took off her button down shirt and adjusted her pink tank top, got her purse and ran outside. He wasn’t standing by her car anymore. She saw a note on her windshield.
‘Meet me on the dock’
She walked down to the beach and toward the dock. She saw him sitting on a big towel with a bottle of wine and a couple of plastic cups. She smiled,”I know it all looks kinda cheap but this is all I could get at 3am”he said to her
“Thanks you didn’t have to”she said to him as he poured her some wine.
“Now you trust me, right?”he asked her, she nodded,”You wanna tell me whats going on? I wanna help”he said to her
“Just don’t tell Suzzette”
“That means you don’t trust me. I wont tell anyone. It wont leave this dock”he said to her.
Ella nodded, she took a few huge gulps so that it would go straight to her head. She didn’t even remember the last time she got shit faced. She was always the DD lately. They sat there in silence and then she poured her heart out to him about her mother, then her father remarrying to Suzzette, her relationship with him, his death and how everything’s been since. “I hate my fucking life but I cant change it. I have nowhere to go. Im fucked if I do, fucked if I don’t. If I stay, I’ll die a miserable death waiting on those three hand and foot. If I don’t, I’ll be homeless”
“I’ll see what I can do”he said to her.
“You don’t have to do anything. My life is like this because I went on this path. I have to do this myself”
“No one goes on a path like this, no one asks for a life like this. What they can do is change it and accept help from the people who care about them”he said to her. The wind blew and her long hair billowed around her. He moved a few strands away from her face. “I care about you, Ella, and I wanna help you”he said to her. He then took her hand and held it in his.
“Thank you, Thad”she said to him as she put her head on his shoulder. They both stared at a lighthouse that was miles down the beach. Thad was like her lighthouse. He helped her to see a bright light when she felt so lost.
*