“Sydney?” Lila whispered.
I looked down at my dress. My hands were trembling.
“Hey,” she said softly. “Look at me. You look beautiful.”
A boy from my history class stepped closer. “I heard your dad made that? Really?”
“Yeah,” I said. “He did.”
He let out a low whistle. “Then your dad’s a genius.”
And just like that, everything shifted.
People stopped staring at me like I might break.
They smiled.
Someone asked me to dance.
Lila grabbed my hand and pulled me onto the floor before I could refuse.
And for the first time that night, I laughed—truly laughed.
When I got home, Dad was still awake.
“Well?” he asked. “Did the zipper survive?”
“It did. But tonight… everybody saw what I already knew.”
“What was that, hon?”
I smiled at him.
“That love looks better on me than shame ever could.”
