Chapter Eight: The More You Know

"Tell me more about my father," Alice asked in the darkness of her bedroom. Every night, before bed, she would ask this question. She didn't always get an answer, but when she did, she cherished the information.

"I guess I'll tell you more," Cara replied,"What do you want to know?"

"How long were you guys 'dating'?" Alice asked, rolling on her side to face Cara. The moonlight that filtered in through their tiny window shone on Cara's face. She pulled her blond hair out of her face and began her newest story.

"Well, we started in highschool. He was a football player-"

"Is football the sport with the bat and the glove and the little ball?" Alice interjected.

"No, no. Football is the one with the weird shaped brown ball that you throw across a really, really big field. Anyway, he was a football player, and I was this dorky girl on the newspaper committee."

"Dorky? You don't look dorky to me."

"Trust me, I was dorky. Compared to most other girls wearing high skirts and belly-showing tank tops, I was far from popular in the early 2000's."

"What year is it now?"

Cara sighed,"You're getting me sidetracked. It's probably 2025, or something like that. I don't know. How old are you again?"

"Fifteen. Well, probably sixteen now. I was born in the winter time."

"Anyway," Cara said again,"I was told to do an interview of the quarterback. Not knowing s**t about football, I interviewed your dad by mistake. And he didn't correct me. He pretended he was the quarterback, just so I didn't feel stupid, and when I wrote up my report, the manager of the paper, who was know-it-all Hailey Buchanan, ripped it to shreds and told me I was an idiot."

Alice laughed,"Even when I don't sidetrack you, you still get sidetracked."

"I'm getting to the point!" Cara jokingly slapped Alice's arm.

"So when did you finally start dating him?" Alice asked.

"Well, I went to the football field the next day, angry. He stood on the sidelines, waiting for the coach to arrive and tell them what to do. I pulled his arm and he swung around and I started ripping into him about how he embarrassed me and stuff, and the whole time he just stared at me in awe, like I was the most perfect thing to exist or something. I didn't notice it until I finished, and all he could say was,'Will you go out with me?' To which, I realized he might be the only guy to ever ask me out, so I said yes."

"Wow," Alice shifted onto her back,"So if you didn't confront him, he wouldn't have asked you out?"

"Maybe. I don't know. So, to answer your first question, we dated for about 6 years."

"6 years? And why did you break up with him? Weren't you know, happy?"

Cara sighed,"Maybe I should tell you another night."

"No, please. I want to hear it." Alice begged.

"Fine. We broke up for a lot of reasons. I didn't want to leave him, but he didn't seem as committed to our relationship as he used to. Mostly, we drifted apart. And there were...other complications."

"Like what?" Alice was eager.

Cara refrained for a moment, almost not wanting her to hear what she had to say. But then again, she had a right to know, didn't she?

"About sixteen years ago, I had found out he had an affair. That's what tore us apart. That's what drove me away. And then...then the s**t we deal with every day now, that happened. And people died."

Cara rolled over, facing away from Alice. She covered the pillow over her head, whispering a brisk goodnight before ignoring further questioning.

Sixteen years.

Alice put the two and two together.

And then, she felt sad again. But not for herself.

For Cara.