Oh, Dakota

37- State of Grace

“Wow.”

That word can mean a million different things. It can mean things like “Wow, I’m pregnant” or “Wow, I hate my life” or sometimes even “Wow, my boyfriend just slept with my best friend”. It’s a word of surprise and sometimes, that surprise might not be a good surprise. Wow can mean that you just got evicted or you just got mugged or maybe you just got engaged or married. It’s a magical word in the way that it can be used in a vast sea of ways.

However, when I heard it come out of my boyfriend’s mouth as I walked down the stairs of my house, finally revealing my prom dress to him, I think it said something along the lines of “Wow, she’s really beautiful” or “Wow, that girl is my girlfriend” and it made me blush and giggle a little bit, even though my dad was right there too.

And I didn’t read the words behind his breathless ‘wow’ just because I was conceded or something, because I really wasn’t, but he also had this look on his face, you know? It was one of those looks that made me believe all of the ‘I love you’s that I’d heard him say. It was one of those looks that made me fall even more in love with him because he was looking at me like I was the most important thing in the entire world and whatever happened- no matter what- we’d make it through because he was looking at me with that look.

“Where’s Nikki?” Levi wondered, ending the magic reveal of my golden floor length prom dress.

“She’s uh, she’s coming,” I informed him. We planned out our decent of the stairs so that we would each have our own little moment because that was a really cool thing, the decent and official dress reveal thing. It was probably just us being girls, but it was still really cool to me.

I was going to prom with Braeden, Owen, Nikki, and Levi in our expensively rented limo and we were picking up Bridgett and Cody on our way there. We were also picking up Owen’s mystery date, because he still wouldn’t tell me who it was. Probably because I didn’t really ask him about it because if he didn’t want to tell me then that was fine. It wasn’t that big of a deal, I didn’t think.

My dad started snapping pictures with Nikki’s mom’s expensive camera because she had to work that night but she still really wanted pictures, so my dad agreed to get some. He wasn’t really a picture man himself, however, so he only took a few of just me and Braeden. After he took the pictures, though, Nikki was downstairs and Levi was giving her the corsage that he bought her.

“Okay, you guys need to call me when you get to your hotel rooms,” My dad instructed after pictures and corsages were complete. “And girls and boys are staying in separate rooms, right?”

“Yeah, Dad,” I sighed at the same moment as Owen responded with the same thing, even though we both knew it was a lie. Almost everyone I knew was getting a hotel room to share with their date tonight, and that included Braeden and I. I obviously wasn’t going to tell my dad that though, because he wouldn’t let us do it if that was the case. I hated lying to him, but this time, it was a necessary evil, I think.

“I’m just making sure,” He defended lightly. “Now go have fun and stay safe.”

“Thanks, Daddy,” I chirped as I walked hand in hand with Braeden out of the house. Nikki, Levi, and Owen were all following behind us and when we got to the limo, the driver guy already had the door open for us which was nice but I think Braeden was  a little bit disappointed that he didn’t get to open the door for me himself.

“You look incredibly beautiful tonight,” Braeden says under his breath as we enter the limo.

“Thank you,” I giggled, taking a moment to appreciate his mouthwatering tux. “You look pretty amazing yourself, hot shot.”