"Ready to go, my dears?" Mitch's stepmother asked her daughters.
"Yes, Mother!" Kirstin answered excitedly. "Oh, I'm so excited!"
"Why? You're never going to be the Prince's wife. Once he lays eyes on me, why would he want you?" Candice spat.
Kirstin scoffed. "I don't know why he'd want to marry someone like you, though. You might be pretty, but your beauty's only skin deep."
Candice made sure to irritate her stepsister by not acknowledging her comment. "I'm ready as well, Mother," Candice sneered.
The stepmother smirked. "Very well. Off to the ball. The carriage is waiting."
"Wait!" Came a shout from the stairs. Mitch's stepmother clenched her teeth as she saw her stepson trotting down the steps. "I'm ready as well, Madame."
Mitch smiled when he saw that his stepmother was fuming. She didn't actually believe that Mitch would be able to find something to wear. She had no intentions at all of letting Mitch attend the ball, but here he was, dressed and ready, as if he was going as well.
"Candice," Mitch's stepmother said. "Isn't that your shirt, sweetheart?"
Candice looked up at Mitch. "Oh my God, it is!" She shrieked. "You stole my shirt, you fag!" Candice stomped over to Mitch and shoved him.
Mitch gasped as he stumbled backward, too frightened to do anything else.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid little pansy!" Candice screamed, shoving him again.
Mitch had never once seen Candice this angry. He felt tears prick the corner of his eyes as Candice began to hit him. She hit him over and over again, probably bruising his arms as she continued to punch him.
Candice shoved him onto the ground and began to repeatedly kick him. "You stupid fag!" She screamed between kicks. "You're such a disgrace to this family!"
Mitch looked at Kirstin with pleading, watery eyes, but Kirstin did nothing. She just stood there, looking petrified.
"Stupid!" Candice shrieked again. She began to pull at Mitch's -- or rather, Candice's -- shirt. She ripped it apart with her manicured fingernails, shredding it and ripping all of the seams. Her nails also scratched Mitch's back, which Mitch assumed was no accident. He hissed at the pain.
"Please stop!" Mitch squeaked, tears rolling down his cheeks. His makeup was running now.
"And you're wearing makeup?" Candice boomed. "I can't believe you! Stupid gay! Stop pretending you're a girl! You're going to die in hell!"
Mitch whimpered, looking at Kirstin again for help. But Kirstin was still stood frozen, too terrified to move.
Candice finally stopped hitting and kicking Mitch long enough for him to stand up again. When he finally got upright, Candice kicked him one last time in the stomach. Mitch doubled over, sobbing at the throbbing pain in his stomach, on his arms, and on his back.
He risked a glance at his stepmother. She was smiling. Sure, she'd forced Mitch to do the chores over and over, but he never thought that she'd allow her daughter to do something so cruel to him. She was even happy about it.
"Let's go then, girls," his stepmother said, her voice even and calm.
Candice regained herself with an inhale, and then waltzed right out of the door, unapologetic of the pain she had caused her stepbrother.
"Mitch..." Kirstin began. But Mitch couldn't stand to hear her voice right now. All he wanted was to be away from this family that never even pretended to love him.
So he ran. Mitch ran the opposite direction of Kirstin and his stepmother and into the backyard garden to be by himself. As he ran, tears rolled down his cheeks, and his arms throbbed with newfound bruises. All he wanted was to be alone. Alone. Alone. The word echoed in his mind. Being alone had never sounded more appealing.
When Mitch reached the garden, he ran to a stone bench and collapsed on it, sobbing and shaking.
"Mitch!" He could hear Kirstin shout. He heard her footsteps grow nearer, her heels clicking on the stone floor of the garden. "Mitch, I..." She didn't finish her sentence. She couldn't. She had no idea what to even say to him.
She sat next to him on the bench, and put her arm around him to comfort him. He shoved it off.
"Get off of me!" Mitch yelled.
Kirstin gasped in surprise. "Hey, I'm just trying to help!"
"No! No you're not! You're just making everything worse!" Mitch shrieked, taking his head out of his hands to look his stepsister in the eye. He looked scary; his makeup was running and his eyes were red from crying, his cheeks flushed with anger. "If you really wanted to help, you would have helped back there, when your sister was beating the shit out of me!"
Kirstin looked appalled. "I was scared, Mitch!"
"Yeah? How do you think I felt?"
"I know how you felt!"
Mitch glared at Kirstin. "Can you tell me that your sister has left bruises on your arm and scratched you until you bled?"
Kirstin shook her head. "No, but I--"
"Then don't even talk to me." Mitch boomed. "Kirstin, don't even pretend that you know what I'm going through. You've never been abused. You've never been forced to do housework until your entire body was aching. You've never been patronized because of who you are and how you love. You don't know what I'm feeling, so don't even start with me."
Kirstin balled her hands into fists, growing angrier with Mitch's every word. "There's a reason I've never told you about my past, Mitchell. Stop assuming things about me!"
Mitch was shaking with rage. "Wow, and here I was thinking that we were going to talk about me for once!"
"Mitch..."
"Stop it! Just leave me alone!" Mitch yelled. "Just go to your fucking ball without me. You don't even care about me anyway."
"That is not true!" Kirstin screamed. "I love you like a brother and you're my best friend!" Kirstin fought back tears.
"Then you'd better start acting like it!" Mitch retorted.
Kirstin just stood there, in shock. She wanted to cry. Mitch, her best friend, her only friend, was so furious at her that he couldn't even look her in the eye.
"Just go. Just leave me alone," Mitch sniffed.
Kirstin stayed for a moment, but after Mitch was silent, she just left him.
And there he was, all alone, in the garden. Good.
Mitch buried his face in his hands and listened as his stepfamily's carriage departed and started toward the palace.
He stayed still for a few minutes, just letting the tears fall from his cheeks onto his lap, staining the work pants with dripping makeup.
He was all alone.
His stepmother never cared about him. Candice thought he was a fag. And he had yelled at Kirstin, which he now regretted.
After all, Kirstin was all he had. When she came back from the ball, she'd probably ignore him and start treating him the same way as her mother and sister did.
There was nobody keeping him here.
"I just want to get out. I want to go away," Mitch whimpered to himself. "I want to get out of this stupid goddamn country!" He sobbed into his hands.
"Well, I can't get you out of the country," a voice said. "But I can get you to that ball."
Mitch jumped, looking up.
A man stood before him. Well, kind of a man. He was in full drag, with a poofy dress and big blonde wig. He held a sparkling wand in one hand.
Mitch didn't recognize this man, nor did he know where he had appeared from. Had he snuck up on Mitch while he was crying?
Mitch wiped his face quickly, trying to compose himself. "Where did...? What...? W-who are you?" He sputtered.
"My name's Todrick," the man answered. "And I'm your fairy godmother, Queen."