She didn’t even look up at first. “Prom dresses are a ridiculous waste of money.”
“Mom left money for things like this.”
That made her glance at me. Not kindly. Just enough to let me know she’d heard me and planned to hurt me with it.
“That money keeps this house running now.”
I stood there, trying to keep my voice even. “Dad said it was ours.”
She laughed then, one of those tiny cutting laughs that somehow hurts worse than yelling.
“And honestly?” she said. “No one wants to see you prancing around in some overpriced princess costume.”
I felt the words hit like a slap.
“So there is money,” I said. “You’re just not letting me use it.”
Her chair scraped back against the floor. “Watch your tone.”
“You’re using our money.”
Her face went flat in a way that always meant danger.
“I am keeping this family afloat,” she said. “You have no idea what things cost.”
“Then why did Dad say the money was ours?”
“Because your father,” she snapped, “was bad with money and bad with boundaries.”
I went upstairs and cried into my pillow like I was twelve again and the world had just cracked open.
Two nights later, Noah came into my room carrying a stack of old denim.
I looked up and froze.
Mom’s jeans.
Not just one pair. Several. Folded carefully in his arms like something sacred.
He set them down on my bed and asked, “Do you trust me?”
“With what?”
He nodded toward the denim. “I took sewing last year, remember?”
I stared at him. Then at the jeans. Then back at him.
“What are you talking about?”
He hesitated, suddenly looking much younger than fifteen. “I think I can make you a dress.”
