Chapter 4 - The Dress She Wanted to Destroy
On prom morning, Carla found the finished dress hanging behind my bedroom door.
For several seconds, she simply stared.
The bodice was fitted from alternating panels of dark and medium denim. Layered ruffles moved diagonally across the skirt, becoming lighter toward the hem. Noah had placed the flower at the waist and used Mom’s smallest pearl buttons along the back.
Then Carla burst out laughing.
“That is the most pathetic thing I’ve ever seen.”
Noah stood beside the dresser in his gray hoodie, his face turning red.
Carla stepped closer and lifted one ruffle between two fingers.
“You’re going to wear old pants to prom?”
“It’s not old pants,” Noah said.
She released the fabric as if it were dirty.
“If Emma walks into that venue, the entire school will mock her.”
Her phone was already in her hand.
I saw anticipation behind her smile. She did not merely expect me to be embarrassed. She wanted proof. She wanted a video she could show relatives whenever she needed evidence that Noah and I were incapable of making decisions without her.
“I’m wearing it,” I said.
Carla’s smile tightened.
“You’ll regret that.”
“No,” I said. “I think you will.”
I did not yet know how true those words would become.
That evening, Noah rode with me to Cedar Ridge High School. I wore my blonde hair in a soft updo, and the denim flower rested against my waist exactly where he had drawn it.
He wore the same gray hoodie because Carla had refused to buy him formal clothes. I offered to lend him money from my summer job, but he said he was not attending the dance.
“I’m just making sure you get inside,” he told me.
When we reached the decorated lobby, warm evening light glowed across the fabric backdrop and polished floor. Parents stood near the audience area while students in suits and formal dresses gathered beneath the stage lights.
Carla was already there.
She had dressed carefully and positioned herself where everyone could see her. Her phone was raised before I had taken three steps through the entrance.
She laughed loudly.
“You wore that?”
I flinched, but I kept walking.
Noah moved closer to me.
“You look amazing.”
May you like
Nearby students stopped whispering.
Then one girl began to clap.
