Hopeless

XV

"Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there's no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic." –Laini Taylor

We quickly finished our breakfast and ran excitedly to my aunt's bedroom. It had not been the first time I entered the room, but it was certainly quite odd. My aunt hated it whenever she found me there, even if she, herself, had asked me to go fetch something from in there. The room was as cold and impersonal as she was. White walls, no special decorations. There was just a bed, a nightstand and a TV. Of course, aunt Maria's bedroom had the best view; breath-taking really. I felt like I was floating through New York's buildings every time I walked in the room.

Across from the large glass window were two white, wooden doors. One led to a significantly rich bathroom; white and gold handles on the small windows, marble floors and sink. And the other door next to it opened up to a, rather small but beautiful and extremely well-organized, walk-in wardrobe. In the small sized, yet classy, room was hung high a golden poll that went around the sides of the room and carried hundreds of red-carpet-worthy dresses of all shapes and colors, t-shirts, blouses and many more pieces of clothing. On the top of said poll were built in several white shelves that carried all types of pants, jeans, trousers, athletic wear. And finally, across from her door stood marvelously a large open closet that carried my aunt's shoes graciously. The amount of pairs of shoes my aunt had in her possession was questionable and the cost of all of them together must have been bigger than my life's worth.

Hannah was astonished when she entered the walk-in wardrobe and noticed the collection of my aunt's shoes.

'I swear these shoes are worth more than my house!' she had excitedly said. We sat in there looking for the perfect dress-shoes match for the New Year's Eve party for almost two hours before Hannah screamed in shock and excitement, claiming she had found the one. I got up from the ground where I had been standing admiring my dear aunt's shoe collection, and met eyes with Hannah's bright, shining ones. She was already standing and holding the hanger with the dress on. Hannah had picked a very beautiful and very elegant dress.

'This is the one.' She said smiling. 'Oh, Zoe you will look beautiful with this dress on!' I was admiring the dress, not quite imagining myself looking beautiful in it. Alone the piece of clothing was indeed quite exquisite. It started off with an eye-catching, black corset top that had a heart-shaped, low cleavage and that seemed extremely tight in the waist area. The corset had many small, yet lovely, embroidered roses all over it. It did not have any straps to hold the rest of the dress which only scared me as to how tight it would actually feel around me; if I wore it that was. The clothing went on with an ankle-long, voluminous layered skirt that was attached to the corset. The first layer of fabric seemed to be just a simple, heavy it seemed like, black skirt. The next layer, though, had a gorgeous-looking pattern fabric of countless small, deep red colored roses. The third, and last, layer was a very thin, veil-resembling, black fabric that hugged the skirt gloriously making the whole dress look, to all intents and purposes, dreamy.

But on me, it would look ridiculous.

'Hannah...this dress is gorgeous.' I said wide-eyed. She furiously nodded, smiling. 'I could never wear such a thing.' Hannah's face fell.

'But, Zoe, you will look divine in it.' She argued, pouting. I was absolutely set in my mind that I would not arrive at the ball with a dress like that. I thought that it would look so out-of-place on me; like it did not belong with me. After all, I was nothing more than a lazy failure. How could I wear something so elegant?