Have Hope

Prom Night (edited)

Tonight is about perfection. Everyone always says prom night is supposed to be this spectacular and flawless occasion where nothing goes wrong.

But perfection is impossible, and I am just naturally unlucky.

"Do not cry, Helaina!" Leah scolds me as she puts her hands on the zipper of my dress again, trying to yank it up. I'm fighting tears because it is not going to zip, and I have literally nothing else to wear besides this almost-perfect dress.

"It doesn't fit," I moan. If I cry, the makeup Leah worked hard on would smear all over my face. And then I'd cry more because my makeup was ruined.

"It does fit, the zipper is just caught on the dress. I am going to get my mom. If I come back and you're crying, I'll punch you and give you a real reason to cry." Leah's not at all a violent person, but I know she's not lying about punching me if I cry.

I plop down at the end of my bed while Leah goes to get her mom from downstairs.

When I bought my dress two months ago, I fell in love with it instantly. I knew from the second I laid my eyes on it that I had to have it. If I couldn't have this dress, I didn't want to go to prom at all. But I got it, and now the zipper is threatening to break the night of the dance.

"Oh, good, she's not crying." Mrs. Isabella, Leah's mom, lets out a sigh of relief when she appears in the doorway of my room.

Mrs. Isabella has always loved fashion, clothing, and sewing, so she knows how to work her magic when it comes to these situations. I'm sniffling with my back to her while she wiggles the zipper around and uses a needle for something. In a matter of seconds, the dress is zipped up.

"See, all good!" Mrs. Isabella beams at me when I turn to face her. "You look beautiful, Helaina. You both do." She nudges Leah, who has been in her dress for the past 20 minutes, to stand next to me, and she sighs when she takes in both of our appearances for the night of our senior prom.

I found my dress at a boutique in a neighboring town. It's a light graphite grey with sequins on the top half that hugs my upper body and flows down from my waist with a slit on my left leg that stops midthigh. It is the type of dress that is a perfectly equal balance of beautiful and sexy.

Leah's dress is all black, hugging her figure all the way down to the floor, also with a slit that exposed her left leg to the middle of her thigh. The dress has a lacy mesh cleavage and around her waist, accentuating her curves and model-worthy body.

"Now," Mrs. Isabella says, clapping her hands together excitedly. "You both have handsome dates downstairs waiting."

Despite Drew's desperate pleas, I refused to show him my dress in advance. Instead, I showed his mother, and she picked out a matching tie and corsage.

The fact he has yet to see my dress makes me ten times more nervous, yet excited, to descend the stairs.

I peak over the railing to get a view of my handsome as hell date. Drew is wearing a tie that perfectly matches the color of my dress with a black suit and white button-up under his jacket. His hair is in its usual dishevel, but it looks like he did actually run a comb through it for once. He looks jaw-droppingly perfect.

Next to Andrew is my brother. Brennan's wearing a black suit with a black button-up and a bright red bow tie, which matches Leah's corsage and her shoes.

Brennan and Leah have been on-and-off and kind of-on and kind of-off since sophomore year. He shocked us all when he insinuated to Leah that he wanted to go to our prom with her, considering he didn't even ask her to his prom two years ago.