Having A Place

Emma

Tomorrow is Prom and I couldn't be more excited. Josh and I have hung out a few times by ourselves in the last few weeks. Things are going really well. My Dad is not too keen on the idea of me dating especially after what happened with Jake when I was fourteen. Jake was my first boyfriend, but I was only fourteen and things feel different with Josh. I really like him. I was hanging out in my room since I finished home school and I was watching some TV while Elijah was down for a nap. I saw a figure out of the corner of my eye standing in the doorway. I turned my head and saw my Dad standing there.

"Hey kiddo, you have some mail" he said quietly. It's Friday, so I'm assuming it's another letter from Sara. I've been getting letters from her every Friday for the last couple of weeks. I haven't been opening them. I'm kind of afraid of what they might say. All of the unopened letters are sitting in a pile on the corner of my dresser.

"Thanks" I said when he handed me the letter. I stood up and set it in the pile with the rest of the letters.

"You haven't been reading them?" he asked and I shook my head no.

"Is there any particular reason?" he asked. I looked down at the ground and was silent for a minute.

"I'm scared" I said just above a whisper and looked up at him. I started to get tears in my eyes and he looked at me sympathetically. He walked in the room further and pulled me in for a hug. I buried my face in his chest and tried to stop myself from crying even more.

"It's okay to be scared" he said softly and rubbed my back.

I calmed down and pulled away and took in a deep breath. We sat down on the foot of my bed and he wrapped an arm around my shoulder.

"You know you can talk to us about all this right?" he asked.

"I just don't want you guys to worry anymore. So I just pretend it doesn't bother me and that's why I don't read the letters because if I don't read them then I know they won't make me upset." I said then he let out a deep breath.

"Sweetie, don't worry about your mom and I. If you need to talk or want to talk about this, we will be there to listen. It's not healthy to keep it all bottled up" he said and I nodded.

"Thanks Daddy" I said and gave him another hug.

"No problem sweetie and I mean it. Talk to us. Don't shut us out" I said.

"Okay" I said with a smile. Then he walked out of my room and I went back to watching TV. The rest of the day was pretty calm and relaxed.

The next morning, Mom came in my room around 8:45.

"Come on sweetie, time to get up. We have to be at the salon at noon" She said.

"Okay" I groaned and rolled out of bed. I hopped in the shower and got ready. When I was done, I went downstairs and got some breakfast. Dad made eggs and hash browns. I grabbed a plate and served myself.

"Morning kiddo" Dad said.

"Morning" I said with a smile.

"Do you want some orange juice?" he asked.

"Yes please" I said and he poured me a cup.

I ate my breakfast and hung out in the living room with Elijah until it was time to go.

"Em, let's go, we don't want to be late" I heard Mom call from the kitchen. I grabbed my shoes and slid them on. Then we got in the car.

We pulled up to the nail salon. I got my nails painted with the same color of my dress with a floral design on my ring fingers. Then we headed to the hair salon. Mom made me an appointment where she gets her hair done for award shows and stuff, and I'm pretty excited. I decided on leaving my hair mostly down. First they trimmed my hair so it would all be even. Then they curled all of my hair and did a waterfall braid that wrapped around my hair like a headband. She slid some small bobby pins with crystals on the top of them, in the braid. They sprayed my hair with hairspray when they were done.