Chapter 10: Chapter Ten

The two girls sat up late talking and giggling until Lorraine's mother finally came up and told them to go to bed or there would be "dire" consequences.

"So who are you going to the dance with?" Sarah asked Lorraine from the cot set up next to her friend's bed.

"Calvin Klein," she said with a wistful sigh. "He's a dream boat."

"How come I've never heard of him?" Sarah asked. She was totally unaware that Calvin Klein went to Hill Valley High; maybe it was just a coincidence.

"He just transferred here; he's friends with George McFly," Lorraine said.

Wasn't Marty's dad named George? She thought to herself. "Not going with George?"

"He's such a wimp," she said rolling her eyes. "He never stands up to anyone. Why would I go to the dance with him?"

"He's kind of cute," Sarah offered. "And really smart."

"True… He is smart," Lorraine agreed. "Who are you going with?"

"No one's asked me yet," Sarah said with a smile. "And I don't have a dress either."

"We'll get you a dress," Lorraine said. "We can go tomorrow after school."

"I still don't have anyone to go with," Sarah lamented.

"You mean Biff didn't ask you?"

"Why would he? He's obsessed with you," Sarah said. Even in her time Biff was still entranced with Lorraine McFly.

"Well, he is… you know?" Lorraine suggested. She didn't want to insult her friend, but she knew "Marlene" was right; Biff was borderline obsessed with her. To be honest, it was starting to get a little creepy. Lorraine didn't know why Marlene let Biff near her to begin with. "So if Biff's so in love with me, why'd you and him… you know?"

"I don't know," Sarah said with a sigh. The truth was she was wondering the very same thing. From the stories she had heard around town, Marlene spent much of her teenage years living in Lorraine Baine's shadow. Perhaps Marlene sincerely loved Biff, it would certainly explain the desperation she clung to him with in 1985.

That must be it, Sarah thought to herself. Her mother was in love with Biff, and he was obsessed with her best friend, the woman whose shadow she had been living in since the first grade. Perhaps getting Biff was Marlene's way of getting the lime light from Lorraine, meanwhile having sex with, and later marrying, Marlene was Biff's way of "getting" what he wanted when he was in high school. Namely: Lorraine.

Sarah thought of these things as she was drifting off to sleep.

That had to be the answer.

What other answer could there be? It was all about Lorraine; about living in her shadow, about lusting after her for years. About two people who couldn't get out of her personality's gravitational pull.