Shining among Darkness

Chapter 38. Nothing's going to stop me

Shining among Darkness

By
WingzemonX

Chapter 38.
Nothing's going to stop me

The same day Carrie met Matilda in that park and encouraged her to accept Tommy Ross' invitation, he appeared in front of her house. Tommy intercepted her on the sidewalk as she made her way there from the park, just at the time she knew her mother would return. Carrie was quite surprised by this sudden encounter. Still, she was also quite nervous at the idea that any vehicle that turned the corner was precisely her mother's.

Tommy quickly made his intention very clear: he wanted to ask her again about the dance, questioning that her first response had not been favorable. This somewhat cheered the young White, but his insistence also added a little more discomfort to the situation. Normally, it would be hard enough to convince her mother to accept the whole idea. However, it would be without a doubt impossible if she sees her standing next to a boy right in front of the house. Carrie imagined the thousand and one things she would say and do to him, and the prom subject would be totally put aside forever. A bit by the nerves of that happening, but mostly buoyed by the talk she had just had with Matilda, she decided to quickly accept the invitation, hoping Tommy would leave as soon as possible.

The boy looked happy for her answer; happier than she expected. He agreed to pick her up on Saturday at 7, and then he left. And it was then, just when she was alone again, that the whole reality of what was happening fell on her. But... it wasn't unpleasant, really. In fact, for the first time in a long time, she felt tremendous emotion and joy coursing through her entire body. She would go to the dance with a handsome boy... like an average teenager. That was real; it was really happening.

That night, she did not touch the subject with his mother. She had to see the right way and time. But she couldn't let time pass; the day of the dance would come in the blink of an eye, after all.

The next day, after school, Carrie did not meet with Matilda, but she did not walk straight home as she usually did. Instead, she went to the bus stop and took the one that took her to Westover, a town near Chamberlain. Her intention was to head straight for Main Street, where all the big stores were located. That was the kind of places she knew girls would go with their friends to buy things they couldn't find in the more modest shops in Chamberlain. Or sometimes just to walk around and eat something. After venturing to take the bus to Boston at that same stop, going to Westover alone seemed like a child's thing.

It was incredible what she was launching to do in such a short time. Herself from a couple of months ago would surely not even recognize her current self.

Carrie walked for a while, looking at the shops' windows, admiring the dresses displayed in them, outlining the slim figures of the mannequins. She'd already imagined herself wearing something like that on a few occasions. Still, the idea of ​​actually doing it felt quite far away, like an impossible fantasy. But there she was now, about to make it happen. The dresses on the sideboards were beautiful, but she had a specific idea in her mind of what it must look like, and none of them satisfied her. In the end, the idea of ​​doing it herself, just as she imagined it, tempted her more than any other. If there was one good thing among all the things her mother had taught her, that was definitely sewing. Why not take advantage of it?

She used most of the money she had saved from odd jobs with her mother to buy a long piece of salmon-pink fabric, just the tone she wanted; that had to be fate. There was no way she could have gotten it in the Chamberlain stores where her mother used to buy fabrics. In none of them could something so beautiful exist.

By the time Carrie finished shopping and took the bus back to Chamberlain, the day was getting dark. Her mother had surely come home hours ago and had found no sign of her. At any other time, that single possibility would have scared her to death, but not today. She had to start working on the dress as soon as possible, and she couldn't do it secretly from her mother. For this reason, she had made up her mind to tell her mother about the prom that night and let what had to happen.