Wilting Laurels

“ How could I! How could I be so childish, naivete, stupid, to-to think that I could do this... I was stupid to think that anyone would listen to me” The princess paced back and forth, hot tears streaming down her face.  Her hands clutched angrily at her proposal, a month of blood, sweat, sleepless nights and missed plans to making all shot down in flames and sunk down the drain. She'd worked hard, so very hard, to come up with plan for the Bathhouse that her mother would except, destroying her original dream for fear of it being too “risky” or “modern”, but such preparations were in vain, Her Highness still claimed they were too out there to even be considered.

Laurel ripped up the papers, casting them aside like an angry giant as she stomped about her miniature-filled office. She was mad that she was still treated like a child, mad that she wasn't allowed to fully run what was rightfully her's and mad that she believed it could be any different.

“ I'm sorry this happened Princi, but you can't blame yourself. I've got half a mind to go give her a sound thrashing.” said a small woman sitting cross-legged in the middle of a miniature train set. She watched her mistress's pacing, angered on her boss's account. The pale cherry-tinted woman looked at Laurel, “ Princi, you can't let this eat you up. You can't let her get you riled up.”

Laurel turned to her, anger and sadness filling her exposed eye, “ I wasted a month of my life and now have nothing to show for it. I made sure all my wording was perfect, the plan reasonable, and cost efficient. I had twenty pages of notes. Twenty. I lost five nights sleep just on the notes. I've not actually slept more than ten hours in almost a month and I get told that, ' Sweetheart this is a child's dream, you couldn't ever accomplish this. Now let the grown ups talk.' I am a grown up! I could've gone out with friends, I-I could have slept. I could have actually lived life like a normal nineteen year old, but no- I have to write up pointless proposals that I know won't be accepted no matter what I do!” She groaned, slumping back in a chair. “ Coral, please leave, I feel that I am about to get very destructive.”

Laurel could feel heavy, suffocating stress overwhelming her. Her head hurt like it had been struck, the muscles along her back and spine were so tension-filled that it'd take hours to even attempt to work them out, and worst of all she could feel the dizzy and soul crushing crash from her self-induced caffeine high coming on quickly.

Coral looked at her tired and angry boss with sympathetic eyes. “ Laurel, I don't mind. But I don't think you should do it. I know how it goes. You take out your anger on your beloved miniatures for a good thirty minutes and then spend the rest of the night crying and trying to fix what you broke. It's not good for you. Come on, don't let her win. Don't let her be right. You know that she's a cruel, unfeeling, selfish, old bird, so do I. So please, don't do something that we both know will hurt you to try and get out your anger.” The tiny woman walked over to her boss, climbed up on the desk, patted her head like an affectionate mother and wiping a few tears from her face.

“ Coral, why are you petting me?” Asked the confused princess as her anger started to fade and the cold hand of sleep began to overwhelm her.

“ Hush. Your mom is crap, so I'm your new mom.” Coral responded. “ Now get some sleep. Tomorrow, I'll tell her you're busy and then you can sneak out to go get your muscles fixed before your next meeting.”

“ Thanks Coral. You're the best assistant and best friend, I could ask for.” And with that the tired princess succumbed to sleep a month in the making, thankful that even in her dark moments, there was someone there who wouldn't blame her for her lack of perfection.