Not then.
I simply held the papers and felt something stir inside me.
For the first time in a long time…
I wasn’t helpless.
When I walked out that door to go to the prom, nothing was ever the same again.
Not the house.
Not the people inside.
Not even me.
They had laughed at the dress.
But they didn’t understand.
It wasn’t about how it looked.
It was about where I came from.
What I carried with me.
What I refused to lose.
That night, I didn’t feel invisible.
I didn’t feel small.
I didn’t feel like someone just trying to survive in a house that wasn’t mine.
For the first time since my father died…
