The Upside of Falling

At Lovers’ Lake, Becca and Brett make their way through the marshy, mosquito-infested woods to join the other students from Eastwood High School. Brett’s football team won their second game, but once again, Brett’s parents didn’t attend because Brett’s dad had just left for Ohio. Becca runs into Jenny and thanks her for handing out the flyers for her mom’s bakery, and she tells Jenny that she didn’t tell her about Brett because she “didn’t think [she and Jenny] were friends anymore” (113). Jenny apologizes for her past behavior. Becca rejoins Brett, and they resume their couple charade. Becca asks why Brett hasn’t told Jeff the truth about their fake relationship, and Brett demonstrates Jeff’s untrustworthiness by sharing a false rumor with Jeff and watching it spread throughout the woods. Becca kisses Brett, and she feels something “stirring inside [her]” (119) that worries her. Becca and Brett discuss their plans after high school, and they both admit they want to leave Crestmont.

Brett invites Becca to go to a diner in another town. He explains that he used to come to this diner with his dad when he was a kid, and they talk about their parents and careers. Brett’s father is the chief financial officer of a big hotel chain, and his mother doesn’t have to work. Becca explains that her mother used to be a nurse before she opened the bakery. As they enjoy their food, an expensive car pulls up next to them, and Becca sees “an older couple holding hands” (126) inside it. Brett notices the car and the couple and looks shocked and horrified. He speeds away from the diner, and once Becca calms him down, Brett explains that the man in the car was his dad, and the woman with him wasn’t Brett’s mom. Brett starts to panic and asks Becca to read to him to distract him. Becca reads from one of her romance novels, and Brett listens intently and tries to process what he saw.

Brett tries to come to terms with what he saw in the diner parking lot. He tries to convince himself that maybe the man he saw wasn’t his father: After all, “it was dark,” and he still feels “a shred of hope” (132) that maybe this is all just a big misunderstanding. Still, he wonders if all of his dad’s “business trips” were a lie. The next morning, Brett calls Becca and asks her to come to his house while his mom and dad are away. They investigate Brett’s dad’s office, looking for clues that might reveal his whereabouts. They call the hotel Brett’s dad would have stayed at in Ohio, but no one named Thomas Wells is staying there. Brett becomes frantic, searching his parents’ room for any sign of his father’s infidelity. Becca tells Brett how hard it was to deal with her parents’ divorce when she was younger. She reminds him that it’s not his fault that his dad is having an affair, and Brett is still reeling from the shock. He remembers all the times he found his mom crying when his dad left. He realizes that his family’s perfect life was “just a facade,” and “if [he] pull[s] back the curtain, there [is] a whole lot of shit hiding behind it” (140).