Three in the morning.
Four.
His mother told me he wouldn’t stop.
He missed schoolwork.
Stopped resting his hands.
But he didn’t stop sewing.
He had been sewing since childhood.
But this was different.
This wasn’t practice.
It was purpose.
For illustrative purposes only
What He Was Really Making
On the sixth day, I made a mistake.
I tried to buy shoes for prom.
When Hazel saw it, everything collapsed again.
“Why won’t you stop?” she whispered.
“You’re trying to bring her back.”
“She’s gone.”
That night, I walked to Eli’s house.
And found him asleep at the sewing machine.
Behind him stood the dress.
Ivory fabric.
Covered in stitched roses.
But inside those roses—
there was something else.
Words.
Hidden.
I didn’t touch it.
I covered him with a blanket instead.
And understood something I wasn’t ready for.
This wasn’t just a dress.
Prom Night
Eli arrived holding the garment bag like it mattered more than anything else in the world.
Hazel refused at first.
“I can’t.”
But then she saw it.
And everything changed.
The dress wasn’t just beautiful.
It felt alive.
“Eli… how?”
“Just wear it.”
“Hazelnut,” he said softly.
That name broke something open inside her.
“I promised your brother I wouldn’t let you disappear.”
And she finally said yes.
