"I'm coming! Hold your horses!" yelled Zac to the ringing phone. He picked it up and very casually said hello.

"Hey, little bro! It's Jacob."

"Oh, hey Jacob." said Zac.

"Listen, is Taylor there? I gotta ask him something."

"Um... no. He went to the movies with Cara."

"Oh, that's right!" Jacob said almost in a laugh. "Tonight is the big night! How could I forget, saying as Taylor was reminding me every second!"

"Yea." said Zac.

"Zac, is everything okay? You don't sound normal. Even for you."

Zac took this as the ultimate opportunatey to ask Jacob the question that had been burning in his head ever since he had come back from Cara's. "Jacob?" he asked very slowly. "You have known Cara for a long time, right?"

"Yea, for about 12 years. Why?" answered Jacob.

"Um... did she... ever have... an... eating problem... or something?" There he did it. Now all he had to do was wait for an answer.

Jacob was silent. "Jacob?" asked Zac after a moment.

"Zac, what gave you that idea?" he asked.

"I don't know," he said. "It's just that... well... I thought..."

"No!" said Jacob. "I wasn't saying no. I was just asking what gave you that idea. Zac, if something is up, please tell me. God damnit, PLEASE!" Jacob sounded like he was about to cry.

"Then it is true?" asked Zac. "She does have an eating disorder?"

Jacob sighed. "Zac, if I tell you this, then you have to swear not to tell anyone."

"Okay," said Zac.

"And the only reason I am telling you this is so you can protect her for the next time around."

"Okay," Zac agreed again.

There was a pause on Jacob's end of the phone. "A while ago... well I don't have to get into all of that. Um... about five years ago alot of changes in Cara's life took place. And she was having trouble dealing with them. Um... at the dance studio she went to, they knew she had potential to go all the way. So they tried to keep her weight down. You know, so she wasn't fat when she got old enough to go places with her dancing career. Um... I guess one day we all walked into the lobby and Cara had been eating a candy bar, or something. Her teacher came out and yelled at her. She took the candy and threw it away, telling he she was fat. It somehow got into Cara's head. So first she stopped eating candy. Then she stopped eating sweets in general. She still thought she was fat, so she quit eating meats and vegtables. Every day she would have an apple and a glass of water for dinner. That was it. It finally got to be too much for her and she had to go to the hospital. They had to put foods into her body constantly. It was terrible. If that ever happened again, I don't know what I would do."

Jacob waited for Zac to say something. Waited for a while. Finally something came out. "She hasn't eaten anything all day!" Now Zac was pouring it out. "I was over at her house and her mom came in and told her to get ready and eat something. Then Cara said she had just eaten, but that wasn't true because I was with her for a long time. And she told me she was going to eat something with Taylor, but I didn't believe her, and..."

"Woa! Zac! So what you are saying is that Cara hasn't eaten all day?"

"Yes."

"And she lied about it to her mother?"

"Yes."

"Damn!" yelled Jacob. He sighed, trying to control himself. "Well, there is nothing we can do now. Just pray that she will eat... at least something..."