Leehola came up to her after that and asked where he was and Vesteva couldn't give an answer. She picked her up in her arms and brought her upstairs to her room where the two of them sat together but wondered alone. Vesteva put all the blame on herself but she couldn't come forward and say it. She didn't even want to deal with what her mother would say to her if she told her, she would probably agree. If it wasn't for her, her family wouldn't be tearing apart and they would have been a normal family with the regular issues.

When it reached the end of their meal and the sky grew dark, her mother breathed out a sigh as she stared at the empty chair with her chin in her hands. Vesteva began to clear the table, collecting the dishes in one hand and gathering the cups by sticking a finger in each. She glided her feet against the tiled floor as soon as she reached the kitchen. Placing the dishes in the sink she turned on the hot water and began to rinse everything off, watching as the water sprinkled all over her light gray tank top. When she was wiping the spaghetti sauce off of one of the plates, the phone began to ring.

Ignoring it and thinking that her mother was going to get it, she called out, " Vesteva, do you think you can get the phone?" in a moan.

Rolling her eyes, she sluggishly dried her hands off on a towel near by and walked over to the living room where the phone was in the small hallway. Waiting until the third ring, she picked it and answered it slowly.

" Vesteva, it's dad." her father called, sounding like beautiful music to Vesteva's ears.

" Are you coming home? Please tell me you are, please," Vesteva begged into the phone with a tint of sadness in her voice.

" Could you put your mother on the phone?"

Not listening to his command, she stayed on. " Please? Come on dad, please?" the sound of her voice was almost on the rage of tears that formed in her eyes.

" Ves... baby, I can't answer that right now. Just put your mother on the phone."

Her chin trembled, placing the phone down on the counter as she walked slowly into the dining room.

" Dad wants to talk to you...," she dragged out while continuing to walk into the kitchen. Her undying wonder if she's going to wake up happy tomorrow rang through her mind, all depending on the answer that her father couldn't come up with.

Abby sifted through her old things from high school, looking for her senior yearbook. Throwing notebooks and papers across her bedroom, her head bounced the beat of the music being played out of her small boom box that she had since 5th grade. Joe's music flowed through the room, always soothing Abby. All of a sudden she became very aware that a familiar voice was filling the room. She dropped the pile she was looking through and grabbed the cover of the cassette off the top of the boom box. Scanning down the track listing, her eyes gazed upon the song playing. "I Believe In You (Featuring *NSYNC)" Abby read.

"Of course...he just always shows up doesn't he?"Abby huffed out loud.

How did she not know they were on this tape? She had listened to it a thousand times, but never paid attention. Sighing, she continued to sort through the mass of papers. Finally, her fingers grasped something hard. Abby pulled out the hard cover yearbook, covered with green and white lettering, spelling out York Grove High School. She flipped the book open, landing on the Honors page. Tears welled up in her eyes as she saw herself staring back at her, small lettering under her name explaining the scholarship she won. 'I am not going to bring this up now' she told herself.

Abby slowly tore her eyes away from the page and flipped to the back where the autographs were. She skimmed the page looking for Audra Thomas. Some how she had to get Vesteva tickets for Homecoming, without her knowing about it. Audra was a cheerleader, but became friends with Abby after they had creative writing together when she was a senior and Audra was a junior. Eventually Abby's eyes landed on the circular handwriting in one corner of the page. Decked out in little flowers and hearts, Abby reread the pink autograph. Right under he signature was the information Abby was looking for.

Picking up the only phone in the house, Abby dialed the numbers, saying them out loud after reading them from the page. After three rings, a cheery voice picked up.

"Hello?" Audra said into the phone.

"Audra?" Abby asked receiving a confident answer. "This is Abby Imeron. Remember we had creative writing together?"

"Oh my gosh! Abby! How are you?" she almost screamed into the phone. The two exchanged a small conversation about what they had both been doing since Abby had graduated. After about 10 minutes, Abby changed the topic before it got to any recent events.

"Well Audra, the reason I'm calling is I need a favor. Do you think you could buy me two Homecoming tickets?" Abby said hopefully.

"Um sure...but why?" Audra asked confused. Abby quickly explained about Vesteva and what she was doing. "Oh Abby...that's so sweet. She really deserves to go." They finished making details and then Abby said goodbye. She stepped away from the phone and took a look at her room, strewed with paper.

"This is going to be a long night." Abby sighed.

Walking home from school that afternoon the day after her father's call, Vesteva dragged her feet behind her from the terrible day. Her mind couldn't concentrate on anything academic, it was all centered on home issues. If her father left the house, wouldn't he understand that it would hurt her more than she already is? He was the only one who took the time to understand her and help. He stayed with her at night when she couldn't sleep or calmed her down in the mornings. He kept her sanity within her, and he gives more help than the counseling was doing.

When reaching her block, she kicked a stone that was on the gravel along with her, keeping it on the sidewalk. When she heard the dog bark from her neighbor's back yard, her concentration was ruined and it rolled far ahead of her and into the grass. When glancing up to see where it went off to, she some a human figure standing on her front porch. Coming closer, the features came into vision, seeing her father was standing there. Taking a step, she then raced up the stairs and ran into his arms. Swinging her arms around his shoulders, he easily picked up his daughter and moved a couple feet to the side. Her bag whipped around, smacking the other side of her body while he placed her back down.

" Are you home for good now?" she whispered as soon as her feet reached the ground.

" Let's just say I hope so." he smiled. Placing his hand on her back, he lead her to the door where it was now open and they both walked in with a large gap sealed in their life. Vesteva never told her small selection of friends what had happened, not even Abby. She didn't want them worrying more about her, adding more problems to her life.

After a slow week, Friday finally arrived. Abby prayed all day that Vesteva wouldn't ask any questions about why she wanted her to bring her dress tonight. They had plans to sit at Abby's house and watch Forces of Nature, one of Ves's favorite movies. Vesteva had to supply the movie and unfortunately the VCR too. Since Ves had to carry all of the items to her house, she picked Vesteva up at her house after school.

At home, Vesteva sat up in her room with video in hand. She grabbed the telephone number of the hospital off of the refrigerator and brought it up with her. Sitting on her bed she wondered if she was doing the right thing. Her mother didn't know that she was going over to Abby's house, she though that Abby was just taking her to the meeting today. Deciding for the last time if she should do wrong or right, she picked the phone up and began to rustled her throat, sounding clogged up. The person on the other end picked up and directed Ves to her counselor. Lying, she said that she wasn't feeling well and couldn't come to today's meeting. In return, her counselor offered a get well and then hung up. She was now free until the next meeting.

Making her way quietly down the stairs so that her father wouldn't see her with the VCR or dress in hand, she opened the door and waited on the steps outside. When Abby came, honking the horn out front, Vesteva called through the door that she was leaving and headed towards the car with a terrible feeling of guilt.

Back at Abby's home, the girls sat around in her living room. On the way here, Abby was lucky that Ves didn't give her a hard time about bringing her new dress, but did offer her a few questioning looks. Abby made up some excuse how that they were going to dress up for fun, just so she wasn't missing out on anything. Not believing a word she said, Vesteva just nodded her head as if she understood but she knew something was up her sleeve.

Abby recalled telling JC to be at her house by five, so he could take her out to dinner before the actual event. If they were going to do this, Abby was going to make sure it was absolutely perfect. Instinctively she glanced at a clock on the wall and saw that it was almost four. Time to get Operation: Homecoming under way.

"Hey Vessie? Go put the dress on! I just have this urge to give someone a make over." Abby called out to her friend who was in the small kitchen preparing something to eat. She dabbed her cigarette on the side of an ash tray. Abby had finally scored another pack.

"Abby...no. This is not make over time. This is Ben Affleck time." Ves laughed pointing to the movie and mass of electronics and tangled cords. Abby tried her best not to smile and was so far keeping a pretty straight face. Then with all her might, she put on her begging look. Vesteva took one look at Abby with her stuck out lip and cracked up. "Okay...okay...I'll do it. But once your done with your little make up fetish, I'm taking a shower."

The dress was laid over her arm as Vesteva walked in to the guest room, normally her room, at Abby's house. Staring around the room in a daze, it felt as if she's never been in there before. Darkness surrounded the domain while she looked around, not recognizing what was around her. Taking the dress off her left arm with her right hand, she held the bottom as she carefully placed it on the bed, having it linger on the blankets. Walking over to the closed curtains, she pulled each one back, creating a little bit of light in the room as the moon shone it's gaze straight in.

Stepping back over to the dress, she brought it up to her body and began to dance around in it. Feeling as if she was Cinderella, she wished that the dress would actually go to some special use. She pictured her crush, Eric, waiting for her outside on her doorstep with a white courage and a red rose in the other hand. Bringing her index finger up to her lips and closing her eyes, she could just imagine his lips brushing up against hers. It was all a dream, and it would stay a dream. Her smile turned into a frown then, breathing in the moment but at the same time wanting it to be over.

Abby searched her house for some makeup. A brush was sitting next to her as well as some hair products Abby had already found. Vesteva came gliding out of the room as she patted her hands against her stomach, feeling the silky material on her fingers. The dress lightly touched the floor, surrounding her legs but not touching. She went into the bathroom, standing and ready for Abby to do her make up. Abby joined her a couple minutes later, breathing heavily, with a few colors of eye shadow and lipstick.

"I knew I had this stuff somewhere." she huffed. Ves just rolled her eyes and let out a sigh.

"Why don't we just get this over with, so I can change. It's making me more depressed. Oh Ben, where are you when I need you?" The two giggled at the joke while Abby picked up the brush.

Slowly, Abby combed Vesteva's long, dark hair and watched it fall down her bare back. After trying a few different things, Abby finally had all of Ves's hair swept up in a circular bun, curled tendrils falling all around. She checked how much time she had and was startled to find it was ten to five. In a hurried fashion, she sifted through the makeup and found a gold eye shadow. Applying it with care, she took a step back and tried to figure out which lipstick would go best. She chose a light brown, that had a touch of shimmer in it. Right as Abby was done putting it on her, the doorbell rang. Instantly she shot up, heart racing.

"Who would be here?" Vesteva asked out loud. " What about Ben?"

"I have no clue. Hang on. You stay here, I'll be right back." Abby explained. Rushing around the corner in her casual blue bell bottoms and baby blue shirt, she opened the door, not having to even check who it was. Instantly she put her finger to her lips, to make sure they were quiet. After the door was shut, she finally took a good look at the both of them.

JC was wearing a black tuxedo, holding a box containing a corsage in it. When Abby laid eyes on Justin though, she immediately lost her breath. Although he was only wearing jeans with a flannel and shirt, he still looked absolutely gorgeous. 'No, I will not be attracted to him. He's a jerk.' Abby told herself.

"Who is it Abby?" Vesteva called from the bathroom still. Slowly coming around the corner, she stopped short when her eyes laid upon JC. "What is this?"

"Surprise?" Abby laughed going up to her. Vesteva just ran into Abby's room and slammed the door. "One second..."she nervously laughed looking at JC. He nodded then looked at the floor.

Abby walked into her room to find Ves just sitting on the bed staring into space. "Why?" were her only words. She wouldn't look at Abby, she forced herself not to.

"Come on Vessie. I know you want to go to this. Can't you just relax and have a good time once? Please? Do it for me? Or even better...do it for yourself." Abby said softly, trying to persuade her. Vesteva just sighed and slowly got up.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to at least try." she finally said. Abby smiled and then pulled out two tickets from inside the top drawer of her dresser.

"Go have fun, for yourself." Abby told her, while handing the tickets to her.

She watched, proud of her friend's strength, as she walked out of her room and headed back in to the hallway where she took less than fifteen feet away from JC. Abby came out of the room and leaned against the corner of the wall where she has a full side view of the moment. She watched JC place the corsage on her wrist and lead her out the door to the limousine that was waiting outside.