Sleeping Beauty, and I Was Her Prince (3168 words)

Author's Note: I asked for prompts on Tumblr and got this one: An unreliable narrator retelling the story of the first time they kissed their romantic interest. I had a hard time coming up with something at first, but then I started thinking about the Princess and the Frog and somehow ended up with this. Enjoy!

Sleeping Beauty, and I Was Her Prince

Rosie was ahead of me on the paved footpath when it happened. She likes to jog and I like to walk behind her and watch her jog—she’s mesmerizing when she’s bouncing on the pavement with her ponytail swishing back and forth and her breath coming out in cute little huffs. She had her earpods in. Listening to music or a podcast or whatever helps her focus on her run and I don’t mind not being able to talk to her. I just like being near her, you know? But I wasn’t near enough to her then, and she was listening to her music or podcast or whatever. So when I heard the tell tale crack, she didn’t. And when the cottonwood branch fell, I was too far away to push her to safety.

It was like watching a movie in slow motion. I keep replaying it in my head. She’s just up ahead of me, maybe twenty yards away. She’s wearing her new, lavender workout set that makes her skin look like bronze. I’m reaching out my hand at 60 frames per second as the branch inches down through the cool, evening air, on a collision course with her head.

My heart stopped when it hit her and she crumpled.

Everything after that happened in a blur. I thought she was dead. I was on the phone with 9-1-1 and panicking because I was so sure she was dead. I was afraid I was going to drop dead myself. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. One of the earpods had fallen out of her ear and I could hear what she had been listening to when the tree branch fell. It was some true crime podcast. I really don’t like those kinds of podcasts. I guess in this episode the guy was a stalker, but I could only hear bits and pieces as I told the 9-1-1 operator where we were and checked her pulse. I almost started crying when I felt it beating against my fingers, nice and strong.

I didn’t even know who she was a few weeks ago and now I feel like I can’t live without her.

You know, we hadn’t even kissed yet before she went to the hospital. Our evening jaunt through the park was the first time I had seen her since I confessed my feelings to her a couple days before. I was so nervous about telling her, I couldn’t even do it face-to-face. I messaged her instead.

But I’m getting off topic.

I rode with her in the ambulance to the hospital, then sat at her bedside once she was admitted.

I didn’t have phone numbers for her friends or family yet, but I already knew I could find them through her socials. She has a good relationship with her family. I figured I could probably just message her mom and let her notify whoever she wanted to share the news with.

What an awkward message to send. “Hi, Maria. You don’t know me yet, but I’m Rosie’s boyfriend. There’s been an accident.”

In the end, I didn't have to be the one to reach out. Rosie had her ID and her debit card zipped inside a tiny pocket in the waistband of her leggings—she always gets a latte on her way home from her run so it makes sense she’d brought her cards—and the hospital was able to look her up and call her emergency contact.

I appreciated it. I could have pulled up Maria’s facebook in less than a minute under normal circumstances, but my Rosie was lying in a hospital bed with a traumatic brain injury and possible spinal cord damage and I didn't know if she was paralyzed or if she was ever going to wake up or what.

Tears flooded my cheeks as I sat there and I kept letting out these humiliating, bitchy whimpers. All I could do was hold her hand and try to keep it together. Her palm was rougher than I'd expected and she had callouses. I still had so much to learn about her.

Rosie's mother and brother, Maria and Julio, arrived at the same time, and her sister showed up just a few minutes after. Rosie was in a room by that point and I, of course, was with her. I could hear Maria and Julio coming down the hallway. Maria was wailing, like, “Mi hija! Mi hija!” and a bunch of other stuff while Julio made reassuring noises. The racket came to a sudden stop when they stepped into the room and saw me.

I recognized them immediately. I felt like I knew everything about Rosie’s family at that point, especially Maria. She was a lover of cats and Selena Quintanilla. Every year on the anniversary of Selena’s death, Maria has posted a heartfelt memorial to her. She's got crosses everywhere and she writes gushing, maternal tributes to her children on their birthdays. She and Rosie are very close.

Maria glanced at her son and muttered something out of the side of her mouth. I didn't have to know Spanish to figure out that she wanted to know who the hell I was.

Julio looked at my hand on Rosie's with hostile confusion. I don't really know much about him, like what his relationship is like with his sisters or his mom, and he clearly didn't know what to make of me, either.

“Hi!” I hurried to say. “We haven't met. I'm Rosie's boyfriend. I was with her when…” I waved my hand at Rosie in her bed, strapped to a spinal board with a c-collar around her neck.

“We didn't know Rosie had a boyfriend,” Julio grunted.

“It's still pretty new,” I said. I was going to stand my ground and stay right where I was next to Rosie's bed. I deserved to be there as much as they did.

“Maybe she told Alejandra about him,” Maria suggested.

“Yeah, maybe,” said Julio.

Alejandra is Rosie’s older sister. She's not in a relationship and, from what I can tell, it seems like she never really does anything besides work and complain about the government and talk about what she's having for dinner. She's very opinionated and outspoken and she loves her duckface selfies.

“You said you were with her when it happened?” Maria asked, inching towards me.

“I called the ambulance,” I said.

That won her over. Maria and I began to chat while Julio went to stand at Rosie's bedside on the opposite side from me. He didn’t look my way, just watched Rosie and scowled.

I didn't realize Alejandra had joined us until Julio looked up and almost barked, “Ale, do you know anything about Rosie having a boyfriend?”

I looked over at the doorway. Alejandra was standing there, already in her pajamas for the night, with her purse over her shoulder. “Uh, she did say she met a cute guy at a party she went to a few weeks ago. I think they've been hanging out.” She frowned at me, her brow creasing as she looked me up and down. “You’re Rosie’s new guy?”

“Hi,” I said with a self-conscious laugh. “Sorry, this is such a weird way to meet her family.”

Julio folded his arms over his chest and raised his eyebrows, but Alejandra seemed satisfied. While she went to hug Maria and talk to Julio, I looked back down at my Rosie.

Sitting with her in the hospital wasn’t how I had hoped for our evening to go. She always ends her run at this little cafe outside the park and I was going to catch up with her there and flirt a little while we got our coffees. I wanted to tell her again in person everything I had said in my messages a few days before. I wanted to cup her cheek and brush the pad of my thumb over her soft, plush lips and gaze into her fathomless, thick-lashed dark eyes and kiss her.

It would have been our first kiss.

I believe there is something transformational about a first kiss.

I’ve always been a romantic. Prince charming, looking for his fairy tale princess. My last name is even Prince. I was fated for love at first sight and happily ever after.

When I saw Rosie at that party, I was overcome. I don’t really know how to describe the feeling, but it was like something shifted. Time froze for a moment and the air sparkled with the promise that my whole life would change because now she was in it. I could tell she felt it, too. Another guy was talking to her at the time, but she kept darting shy glances at me. I grinned at her and raised my drink in a toast from across the room and she blushed and gave me this tiny, bashful smile back. God, I had never seen a girl more feminine or more beautiful.

But that guy would just not leave her alone. She kept moving around the party, trying to get away from him but he would not get the hint. He went where she did, yapping at her non-stop. I know because I didn’t want to leave her unattended with him so I weaved through the party-goers, keeping her in my sight to make sure he didn’t try anything.

I don’t know. He just had a really bad vibe.

She finally got a break when he left to go to the bathroom or get another drink or something. I sidled over, beer in hand, and took the spot he had left open.

“Hey,” I said.

She giggled, grabbing her hair and averting her eyes. “Oh… Hey.”

“Was that guy bothering you?” I asked. “I, um… I noticed you seemed uncomfortable. You kept moving around like you wanted to get away.”

“Oh, yeah? It was that obvious?” she asked with an awkward laugh. “I guess I’m a pretty open book, then. Easy to read.”

“If you are a book, I’d love to read more,” I said, then I know I flushed bright red because I could feel my face burning. I’m not a natural smooth talker. “Sorry, that was so cheesy. I don’t know where that came from. You’re just so beautiful.”

She smiled into her drink. “Thanks.”

“Sure,” I said with a self-conscious chuckle. “Also. Hi, I'm Phillip.”

“Rosie.”

We couldn't talk long because she had work in the morning so she had to go home but the time we did spend felt like something out of a movie. We just vibed. I'm not a funny guy, like at all, but she laughed at all my jokes. I told her about my problems with my landlady and she told me she still lives with her mom.

That other guy came back right as she was getting ready to go and tried to follow her out to her Uber, but I tagged along so he couldn't try anything.

She shot me an annoyed glance as she got into her car and I knew exactly what she was thinking because I was annoyed, too. We'd already had so little time and he'd cut it shorter.

I messaged her the next day, though. Just something cute to let her know I was thinking about her. She replied back just a few minutes later.

The rest is history.

Or, it will be, once Rosie's out of the hospital and back to her old, sweet self. I don’t believe that branch did lasting damage. I know she’s going to get better and everything will be perfect again soon.

When the nurses showed up to take Rosie for imaging, Maria went with her, leaving me with Alejandra and Julio.

Alejandra sighed. “Manny is with the kids. I'm going to call him and give him an update.”

“‘Kay,” said Julio. “Tell him hi from me.”

On her way out, Alejandra stopped by where I was sitting and said, “Rosie seems to like you a lot. It's nice you could be here for her. Dean, was it?”

“Phillip,” I said.

“Oh,” said Alejandra with an apologetic laugh. “I'm sorry. I'm usually good with names.”

“Don't worry about it,” I said, waving her away to make her call.

Across the room, Julio snorted, but he didn't say anything and neither did I. Instead, I got up to look around the hospital room. There wasn’t much to see, but I needed to stay busy. I was frustrated. This wasn’t how I’d wanted it to go when I finally met her family. I wanted them to welcome me with open arms, and have them see how perfect Rosie and I were together.

I mean, Maria and I had hit it off when we were chatting earlier and Alejandra seemed to be warming up to me, but Julio didn't trust me at all and I didn't like that.

Eventually, they wheeled Rosie back from getting her MRI and then the doctor came in to go over the results. She hadn’t broken any vertebrae and her skull wasn’t fractured. She didn’t have a brain bleed. The outcome was looking good.

Maria was so relieved she started to pray.

Julio closed his eyes and let out a long breath, then left to go get drinks for everyone but me from one of the vending machines.

Alejandra came over to look at Rosie and brush her hair away from her forehead.

“I would have expected a falling branch to do a lot more damage,” she said.

“The branch wasn't too big,” I said. “I picked it up no problem.”

She shot me a confused look. “Why–?”

“To get it off of her,” I hurried to explain. “After it fell on her, I moved it off of her.”

“Oh, okay,” said Alejandra, nodding. “That makes sense. For a second it sounded–” She laughed at herself and shook her head, then looked down at Rosie. She rocked back and forth on her heels. “Nevermind.”

Eventually it got late, well past visiting hours, and the nurses came to let us know we couldn't all stay.

There was some arguing back and forth, but in the end Julio took Maria home, I got myself an Uber back to my car, and Alejandra the control freak settled in to stay the night.

I had wanted to be the one to stay in case Rosie woke up. I wanted mine to be the first face she saw.

I woke up early and got to the hospital a half hour or so before visiting hours started. I guess I could have waited until I was officially allowed in, but I'd been tossing and turning all night, thinking of my princess imprisoned by sleep, and I needed to see her.

If you act like you're supposed to be somewhere, people don't question it. I went inside and breezed past the nurse’s station without getting a visitor’s badge and headed straight for Rosie’s room.

Alejandra wasn't there. It was just the two of us.

I sat on the edge of her bed and gazed down at her. They'd removed the spinal support board and her neck brace since she didn't have any fractures or breaks so she looked normal again. Her eyelashes fanned across her cheekbones and her lips were parted. Her chest rose and fell with each breath she took. The monitors were quiet as readings ticked across their screens.

I imagined that she wasn't in the hospital. We were in her room, in her bed, and I had simply woken up first and was watching her for a few moments before I woke her up with a kiss.

It was a silly notion, but suddenly I was convinced that it could work like that. My kiss could free her from her coma.

After all, there is something transformational about a first kiss.

I cupped her face in my hand, brushing my thumb across her cheekbone and then her bottom lip. I could swear I saw her eyes move beneath her lids when I did it. I thought maybe it would actually work. Maybe I wasn't making stuff up for once. And when she was finally awake and she saw me and realized how devoted I had been to her and how much I already loved her, she would want to be with me.

So I bent forward and kissed her.

Nothing happened at first, then she began to stir. My heart started pounding. Had I done it? Was this it?

I kissed her harder and she began to squirm, making muffled noises and grabbing my arms.

I sat back. “Rosie,” I breathed. “You're awake.”

She was staring at me with wide, stunned eyes. “What are you–? Why are you–?”

She was confused, I realized. One minute she'd been jogging and now she was in the hospital with a traumatic brain injury. Her hand crept down the arm of the hospital bed toward the call button for the nurse.

I grabbed her wrist. “It’s okay,” I soothed. “Everything is fine now. You're awake.”

“But who are you?” she said.

My heart dropped. How could she not remember me when she had been seared into my very consciousness? “We met at Eric’s party,” I said. “I'm Philip. I'm just_a_prince1999. We met at the party and we've been messaging online?”

That's when Alejandra showed up, in her pajamas still and carrying her purse like when I'd first seen her the night before. She was holding a paper bowl of oatmeal from the cafeteria.

I was relieved to see her. She could back me up with Rosie, who was trying to get her wrist out of my grip even though she shouldn't be exerting herself.

Alejandra’s face twisted. “What the hell are you doing here? They weren't supposed to let you in,” she shrilled. “Get out.”

“I'm just here to see Rosie,” I said.

“Security!” she shouted. “Security!” She turned to me. “Something felt off so I checked our messages,” she spat. “I didn't get your name wrong, Phillip. I don't know who you are, but you're not the guy my sister's been talking to. You're some freak pretending to know her.”

“I do know her!” I said, whipping around to look at Rosie. “Please, don't you remember me? We talked at the party. I was messaging you every single day until you blocked me.”

She shrank back from me, recognition dawning. “Oh my God!”

“Security!” Alejandra screamed.

“Rosie,” I pleaded as footsteps pounded down the hall. “Why did you block me?”

I never got an answer. They dragged me out of there. The last I saw of Rosie was Alejandra running over to her while she trembled in her hospital bed.

But you have to listen. I'm not a liar. It's a misunderstanding. Rosie’s not thinking straight. She has a head injury. When she's back to normal, she'll vouch for me and she won't want to press charges.

Don't you see? I'm supposed to be her prince.

I'm destined for happily ever after.