We Go On

Chapter Five

A few weeks went by and Carter was doing okay. She seems at ease. She stopped cutting for a while, and she even allowed herself to smile more.

She and her friends had a four-day weekend and so they decided to take a trip upstate to spend a few days at the beach and do some shopping.

While Carter insisted on spending her day visiting all the shops on the Main Strip, everyone else was at the beach, enjoying the sun and waves.

Carter was walking out of a bookstore, eyes on the pages, not paying attention to where she was going when she ran into a man walking in her direction.

"Oh, I'm so sorry-" Carter quickly apologizes

"Excuse me-" the man says at the same time as she spoke.

That's when they truly saw each other. Time froze and the world stopped spinning.

"Dad...?" Carter could barely speak, her eyes growing wide, it was almost as if someone punched her in the stomach, she couldn't breathe.

"Carter? What are you doing here?" he asks

"I... I'm uh, here with my friends. W- what are you... doing here?" she asks, struggling to find the words.

His eyes were frantic as he looked around, "I uh... I live here. Is your mother here too?" he hesitates to ask.

"No, she had to work this weekend..." Carter says, she wasn't aware of how close her dad had been this whole time.

"I should get going." her dad says, trying to move past her.

"No, wait-" Carter tries to stop him.

"No. I can't. I need to go." he says, finally getting around her.

But Carter wasn't ready to say goodbye just yet. She chases after him. He was walking so fast, bumping into the people on the sidewalk. Needing to get away from her.

"Dad, wait. Please." Carter called out, but he kept going.

"Dad!" she tries again, this time a little louder, but still no reaction.

"So you know what's happening and you're not even going to pretend to care?" her voice loud and firm. Loud enough to cause a few people to look in their direction and that made her dad stop in his tracks. However, he didn't turn around.

"What did I do to make you stop loving me? Why are you running from me? I'm your daughter!" she yells, grabbing the attention of more people.

Normally having so many eyes on her would make her crawl out of her skin, but right now, all she can see is her dad turning around and pulling her into the alley by her arm.

"Why won't you talk to me?" Carter says once they were clear of all the staring.

"Carter, I don't know how else to explain it to you-" he begins but she stops him.

"You have a new family, don't you?" she says

He rubs the back of his neck and looks to the ground. "I do. A wife, 2 little ones, and a 16-year-old from her first marriage."

"Do they know about me?" she dares to ask

"...No." he answers in a hushed tone, not being able to look her in the eyes.

"So that's why you didn't want to talk earlier. You were afraid someone would see you. They would ask who I was." Carter took a step back from him. Pain is starting to set in her heart.