Caroline Murphy grew up in time. I forgot her entirely. I don’t think I even remembered that she existed. Dawn had to remind me who she was when we met in the Pleiades. But I don’t truly forget things. I just file them away in the dark recesses of my mind and forget where they are. I began recovering some of my memories of her as time went on. Her family had a nice pool, and they hosted lots of parties back in the day. The entire junior varsity cheerleading team would spend weekends lying out there, baking in the sun and going for the whole “no tan lines” thing. Ah the things that get the attention of a teenage boy. I should have spent more time with Caroline and her friends. I shouldn’t have passed them by because they were a year younger. I should have realized that her older sister had her sights on far more important men than I. And you know the really important thing? The more I remembered about Caroline, the more I realized that she never bought into all the Great Family nonsense. She left enough clues for me that I should have noticed that, amongst other things. But I was young and stupid back then.

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