A Sweet Disaster

Chapter 2- Part 2

Gabriel withdrew into the study for his tuition and Stephanie went back to her room. If she’d ditched the first half of the day, then ditching the second wouldn’t make much of a difference.

From what she knew about Oakland Town, downtown was an area where all the fancy restaurants were. That meant she had to wear decent clothing, like a dress or something.

She opened a bag and poured the clothes inside out onto the bed. They consisted mostly of ratty shirts and jeans. She hung them up inside the wardrobe and emptied the other bag.

She found a few pieces of formal clothing. There were three dresses, a gown, and some jewelry in a box.

She examined the 3 dresses. The first was maroon and reached up to her knees, sparkling dully in the light. She put it on the bed and reached for the other one.

This one was black and short, skintight. It extended halfway down her thighs and the material was soft and comfortable. It gave… nice cleavage but at the same time wasn’t too sleazy.

The last one was white and lacy. It looked like the sort of thing a Victorian girl would wear, and Steph ruled it out immediately.

She looked back and forth between the maroon one and the black one for a moment, indecisive. Then she hung the maroon and white dresses up in the wardrobe. She’d go with the black one.

She was bored out of her wits. There wasn’t anything to do and like hell she was gonna go to class. The clock ticked by at an alarming slow rate that sometimes Steph thought it wasn’t moving at all!

It seemed like an eternity before it finally became an hour before 7, she jumped off the bed and took the black dress, handling it as if it were a snake. She didn’t want to get any crinkles in it. She made her way excitedly to the bathroom, a little nervous. All her anger had gone for the day and she was determined to make this evening a blast, like all those crazy parties she’d gone to back at Fairview.

Slipping into the folds of the black material and feeling strangely sexy and confident, she proceeded to do her hair. She twisted it up into a loose bun and secured it in place with a bobby pin.

Now for her face. Squinting in the mirror, Stephanie was unsure. A bottle of mascara caught her eye and she applied some on her eyes, making sure not to over-do it. Over-doing it would spell D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R.

Some subtle make-up and she was done. Glancing at the clock, she realized she still had half an hour before 7. That time was spent fussing over herself in the toilet, then BOOM, it was 7.

She hurried out the door before realizing she wasn’t wearing shoes. Dashing back in, she scanned the small shoe rack she had. No heels. No pumps. Only…

Sneakers.

Stephanie let out a frustrated groan and, before she had time to even think about it, she yanked on a pair of socks and shoved her feet into the sneakers. And damn, they were neon green.

She made sure she arrived at exactly 7.03pm. 7pm sharp would make her look desperate, and any later than 7.05pm would make her look tardy. 7.03pm was perfect. (Such is the way girls think.)

Gabriel was already there, looking handsome in a black V-neck shirt and jeans. He gave her a hesitant half wave as she approached, which made Stephanie sure that he thought she was still stewing over that afternoon’s events.

“Hello,” she said, deliberately making her voice cheery. He relaxed a bit.

“Hi,” he said warmly. “Ready to go?” They were walking halfway to the car when he suddenly doubled over.