Jessica's Fate

Chapter 17

They dropped me off at home and I carefully carried the bags with the dress and shoes inside. "Mom?"

"Hi sweetie." She said, before beaming as she caught sight of the garment bag in my hands. "Can I see it?"

"Sure." I said. "Do you want me to model it or do you just want to look at it.

"Oh, you have to model." She said. "Just go change in your old room. That's a good place to get ready for prom anyway."

"Okay." I headed into the room, putting on the shoes and changing into the dress before I came out to show her.

"Oh baby." She sighed, her eyes studying me as she circled me to take it all in. "You're so beautiful. It's a wonderful dress." She came near me and framed my face before kissing my forehead. "You're so grown up, baby girl."

"Thanks mom." I closed my eyes and leaned into her when she wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug. "You should have seen the dresses Gabriel made me try on."

"Were they horrible?"

"I thought he had taste." I shuddered. "Sang finally saved me, reminded him I had to be able to go to the bathroom by myself and not undress just to do it."

She laughed softly. "You poor thing."

"Tulle, Mom. Tulle for days. I swear the first dress had all the available tulle in the world attached to it. I would have had to walk sideways through doors."

She kissed my forehead again. "He means well, dear." She reminded me. "This dress is perfect. It puts any other dress you could have tried on to shame. This one was meant for you." She said.

"Thank you." I said softly.

"You're welcome. Your boy's going to drop his jaw on our porch when he sees you." She smiled.

I laughed. "Possibly."

She kissed my forehead again before sending me to change out of the dress.

I ran upstairs and brushed my hair out before changing to a better pair of shorts and a tank top for my bowling date with Zack. I also ditched the flip flops for socks and converse so that I wouldn't have to carry around a pair of socks all night. My contacts were bugging my eyes so I took them out. Glasses tonight, it seemed.

Oh well.

Zack liked my glasses so it wasn't a big deal, really.

I went back downstairs and Mom was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee. I went and grabbed an apple and sat down with her. "What's the plan tonight?" she asked.

"He said bowling." I polished the apple on my shirt and took a bite.

"Sounds fun." She smiled. "I wanted to give you something. I know that I should really wait and give it to you for a graduation gift but if you wanted to put it in the bank and use it to sign up for classes or get things for baking... well, you can have it now." She slid an envelope to me.

I blinked at her for a moment before setting my apple down and opening the envelope. There was a cashier's check inside and I had to read the amount twice before I looked at her again, my mouth open in an 'o'. I closed it and tried to speak again but sighed softly and closed my eyes before looking at the check again. "Mom...?"

She flushed slightly. "I know that it seemed like we never had anything." She said softly. "I ... I had a few choices to make when your dad died." She rubbed at a spot on the table. "After all he'd put us through, I didn't want to just use the money on things that were important at that time but I wanted to make sure we had a future. That's the amount that Kota got when he moved out with the others so that he could buy a better car or chip in on the property taxes at their house." She shrugged.