AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I can’t believe this weekend is prom. It seems like just yesterday I was preparing to go to this very dance with Sebastian, and now here I am an entire year later.
How has it already been a year?
It feels like just yesterday I was in the dress shop with my two best friends at the happiest point of my life. Bree was still here, Courtney and Ant were still going strong, and of course, I had Sebastian—the one person who tied it all together and made my life feel like a page out of a fairy-tale.
Of course, that was before everything fell apart—my last normal day before the ground got ripped out from beneath my feet.
Nothing has been the same since.
I stare at myself in the floor-length mirror on the back of my closet door, taking in the strapless pink gown that I purchased all those months ago. I shoved it into the back of my closet after everything happened and had yet to look at it since. But tonight, I don’t know, I just felt like it needed to be worn.
Going to prom with someone who isn’t Sebastian feels wrong on every level, but after some major convincing from Courtney, I decided it was time. It’s time to let go, time to move on, time to stop letting a dress haunt me from the corner of my closet.
Tonight is the night I say goodbye to the girl who bought this dress and hello to the woman now wearing it. It’s crazy how much older I look in just one year, how much older I feel. It’s even crazier to think that in just a few short weeks I’ll be packing up and moving to New York City.
I don’t think I actually ever expected to get into Columbia, especially since it took them so long to contact me. But opening that letter, knowing that I actually did it, was probably the only real highlight of my senior year and even that happiness was muted by the fact that I wasn’t able to share it with Sebastian.
“Hey, Tess.” I hear my mother’s voice just seconds before she appears in my doorway, her hand going to her mouth when she catches sight of me. “Oh my god, you look so beautiful.”
“Thanks, Mom.” I look back at myself, wishing I felt beautiful.
Pretty pink dress, just the right amount of makeup, my long brown strands pinned up on the sides and hanging down my back in thick curls; everything is as it should be, and yet it’s such a stark contrast to what I feel inside. Inside I’m fighting the tightness in my chest and the voice in the back of my head telling me I can’t do this.
Forcing a smile, I look back at my mom just as the doorbell rings, signaling Courtney’s arrival. I insisted that she and I meet the boys at the restaurant so that I had an escape plan if I needed one. The last thing I want is to be stuck somewhere I don’t want to be with no way of leaving.
“I’ll get that,” my mom practically sings, skipping toward the door.
Within minutes my mom has her camera out and she’s snapping pictures like crazy, making me and Courtney turn one way and then the other.
Courtney, like me, opted to wear the prom dress she bought last year and never got the chance to wear since she and Bree skipped prom to be with me. I know she’s been dying to slip into the beautiful floor-length red gown that looks like it was made for her for months, and tonight she finally gets to show it off.
I can tell she’s excited about prom, and lord knows my mom is thrilled that I’m going; I just wish I shared in their enthusiasm.
By the time Courtney and I make it out the front door and down the yard, my mom has taken at least two hundred pictures and continues to take more from her place on the porch.
“Someone’s excited.” Courtney chuckles, gesturing toward my mom as we climb into the car.
“You have no idea.” I sigh, closing the door and sliding my seatbelt in place. “I think she’s just happy to see me getting out of the house and doing something normal.”
“Can you blame her?” Courtney throws me a quick sideways glance before pulling out onto the road.
“It’s been a hard year,” I admit, letting out a slow breath.
“I know, which is why I’m so happy that you decided to come to prom with me. Ricky is really excited, too. I think he thought he was going to have to be mine and Dave’s third wheel after Jess broke up with him.”
When Courtney got the bright idea for us to double to prom, she pawned me off on her new boyfriend’s best friend who recently split from his girlfriend. I guess it shouldn’t bother me that I’m second choice considering I have no desire to go with him in the first place.
I should’ve stuck to my guns and not let her talk me into it, insisting that if I was going to go to prom I would just go stag, which is what I would’ve preferred. But per usual, Courtney just has a way of getting people to do what she wants. Though truthfully, I think she knew that either she needed to make it where I couldn’t back out so easily, or I would’ve most definitely done so and probably opted to spend prom night vegging out in my pajamas.
“I couldn’t imagine doing this without you, Tess,” she adds, her voice falling serious. “With Bree gone and everything that’s gone down this past year, we’re all we’ve really got left.”
“It seems weird, doesn’t it?” I ask, my gaze locking on my reflection in the passenger side window. “How much everything has changed.” I finish the sentence before looking back at Courtney.
“It is. But I don’t want to think about that tonight. I just want to focus on being a wild, crazy teenager just one last time while I can still get away with it.”
“Wild and crazy?” I sigh dramatically when she throws me a knowing look. “I knew I should have driven myself.” I chuckle, thankfully starting to feel my nerves settle a little.
Who knows, maybe tonight won’t be so bad after all.
