The True Meaning of Life

Chapter 8: Winter Wonderland

Two weeks later. Today was the day of the winter formal. It had been two weeks since that awful conversation with Ms. Gasper and Mom. During that span of two weeks, my life was peaceful; there was no drama.

Will and I hung out whenever we had time while Jake and I met up after school everyday to get work done. Sophia, Justin, and I video called everything to catch up on the newest gossip.

I bought a floor length dark purple dress at Nordstrom for a whopping $200 but the beauty of the dress was too great to pass up. That afternoon, Sophia came over to get ready before the dance. "So what are our plans for tonight? I know we will be taking a limo with Crystal and Jake, but my question is, will there be an after party?" she asked curiously.

"I guess I never thought about an after party but we are going out to dinner with them before and then taking pictures at Briar Woods Park before going to the dance. Maybe we can go to Tea Leaves after for a late night snack."

"Sounds good to me. I'll send a message into the group chat."

It took us 2 hours to get our hair done and 2 hours to set up and put on our makeup. As we were putting on our finishing touches, the doorbell rang and I could hear Stanley's voice ushering our dates to the sofa. A couple minutes later Crystal and Jake arrived so Sophia and I decided it was time to head downstairs.

With the train of my dress dragging, Sophia walked down first as I quickly hemmed the back of the dress to shorten the length. I walked down slowly and saw Will waiting at the bottom of the staircase.

In my four inch stilettos, of course I tripped over a step and lost all balance. As I fell forward, I thought about all the horrible possibilites: my dress could rip, my hair could be ruined, I could get injured. I closed my eyes and tried my best to brace the fall.

However, once my eyes opened I was in the arms of Will and Jake. Carrying me similar to how Hagrid held Harry Potter in Deathly Hallow Pt 2., Will set me down on the couch.

"Are you alright Val? I know you fell for me, but I didn't want you to literally fall for me?" He chuckled.

"I'm alright. Thanks for catching me." I responded in a relaxing tone. "What would I do without you?"

"You look beautiful by the way," he responded casually. Meanwhile, corsages were placed on the wrist and boutonniere on the buttonhole. We gathered in the backyard to take a few pictures, waved goodbye to our parents and headed off to Briar Woods Park for the professional photoshoot.

Although the car ride was mildly awkward, everyone managed to make small talk until we reached the park. Right when we got there, Jake pulled me off to the side; "Thank you for everything! I don't know what I would do without you." He smiled and made his way back to Crystal.

The photoshoot lasted for about thirty minutes before we decided it was time to get dinner. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a glare from a white van in the distance. As my eyes zoned into the light, I noticed a man wearing all black with a heavy duty camera taking what seemed to be surveillance photos of all of us.

I didn't want to scare the rest of the group so I pulled Jake over to the side and motioned towards the mysterious man.

"Be subtle about it but is that the same man that was stalking you awhile ago?" I asked him quietly.

His body language changed. He went from being relaxed and happy to tense and cautious. "Where?" he asked as he scanned the area surrounding him. But, Jake found him and that was when everything went from calm to crazy. Making eye contact with the mysterious man, Jake began to walk towards him. "That's my father," he answered angrily. "I told him not to come here. I don't even know how he found me in the first place. When I'm done with him, my mom and I will be safe forever."