***An hour and a half later****
Tina pulled into her old driveway, got out the car and locked it. She walked past the front bushes and up the stairs to the patio. She knocked on her old door………..She felt to uncomfortable to use her old key………..Silence………She waited for five minutes, until the door opened slightly.
B: Who’s there?
T: Bette, Its me Tina.
B:Tina! What are you doing here?
T: I’ve come to talk to you…….. Can I come in?

The door opened and Tina walked through…………looking at her old life.
The house was a mess, clothes everywhere, mouldy food on the counter and the pool out the back hadn’t been cleaned for months……Alcohol bottles everywhere……. Rum, Vodka, Scotch.
Tina was shocked. She knew that Bette hadn’t been coping……BUT this, this was unbelievable.
Bette shut the front door quietly.
B: Sorry about the mess. I havent really had time to clean it up….. Work has been so hectic…I dont really have time for a social life anymore.
Tina flashed a half-hearted smile.
T: No thats ok.

Tina turned around to look at her ex-lover…..Bags of skin under her eyes, an old worn shirt and a pair of track-pants that hung off her hips…………Bette looked so thin……so weak.
Tina’s eyes filled with tears…..”what happened?” She whispered. Bette looked at the floor….”This is me……on my own.”
Tina pulled a little strand of hair, off Bette’s face. Then preceded to caress her skin…..It was tired and brittle. Her hand stayed there for a while……………Until she stepped closer and wrapped her arms around Bette’s Brittle shoulders……She cried on Bettes shoulder.
T: I miss you baby………I thought I could live without you, but I cant.
B: (Wraps arms around Tinas midriff) Tina I dont deserve you………..your kind and loving and I took advantage of that way too much……. Im a ***** and you should find someone better to be with.
T: But I don’t want anyone else……I want you.
Tina’s sobs grew louder as she thought about her relationship with Bette a little deeper.
Tina pulled away to look at her lover. She slowly slid her hands down her lovers shoulders, upper arm and lower arm and stopping at her wrists. Bette flinched in pain. Tina quickly let go…In shock that she might have squeezed her wrists a little to tightly.
She looked up to see Bette crying in pain.
T: Baby, I’m so sorry I hurt you…. I didnt know I was holding onto your wrists that tight?!?
Suddenly something caught Tina’s eye, which she looked down too………She couldn’t believe it……Bette was bleeding from her wrists……. In that moment…. time seemed to go into slow motion……. Tinas eye’s filled with tears at the sudden realization of what Bette was doing to herself. She grabbed the bottom of Bette’s bloodstained shirt and pulled it up, to see Bette’s pulsating flesh wounds…….. Self-inflicted wounds.
Tina started to cry hard…..almost not being able to breathe. Her knees became weak and she let go of Bette’s shirt and fell to the floor……. Crouched into a ball….. She cried hard.
Bette walked away, shielding her wrists with her shirt and running down the hall to the bathroom, to wash her bloody wounds…….. To make them stop.
Tina stopped her sobs; she tried to stop the pain that was hurting her on the insides. She got off the floor and resigned to the couch. Her hands covering her face.
Minutes later Bette came back into the lounge room, her wrists wrapped in bandages. She flew past Tina, not even noticing her there…. She went straight into the kitchen and got some paper towel, to wipe the excess blood of there wooden floor boards.
Bette got to her hands and knees and cleaned up the mess on the floor. Tina watched her in silence…She felt as though this was routine for Bette……cleaning up her own blood off the floor.
Bette walked back into the Kitchen and disposed of her her blood stained paper……. She just stood there….. Her arms lightly crossed, looking out the back window. It was about 12:30 in the morning….
Finally Tina got her voice back “Why are you doing this to yourself Bette?”
Bette turned around a sighed, letting her arms drop to her sides. “Because I feel that what I did to you was worse then anything, like I’ve said to you so many times Tina I DON’T deserve you and I rather die then hurt you again………….Why can’t you see that?”
Tina was gob-smacked……. She didn’t know that Bette could be capable of such pain to herself….. She also didnt know that Bette felt so much for her….. That SHE would rather die, and then to hurt her heart again……….Tina didn’t know what to do….. Her body became limp with fear………the fear of loosing Bette the fear of not knowing if Bette was going to be alive tomorrow…. Too many negative thoughts were running through her brain…. That she couldn’t concentrate on the problem that was before her.
Suddenly she looked at her own hands…. they were shaking…….. Her arms………her shoulders……. her body. She didn’t realize how much shock she was in….She looked around at the house…….. There house……. they made this housework….. As they did with relationship…….. Yet it was all gone……nothing.
Bette walked cautiously over to her……. Trying to figure out what to do and where to be. She knelt down next to the couch………in front of Tina. She laggardly stroked Tinas shins and then grabbed her hands………She observed Tina, watched her in pain………she was suffering. She loved Tina so much, why did she do what she did? She looked at Tina’s golden hair and slid her long skinny fingers over it…. feeling Tina was like an angel had come into her living room and showed her the way. She slid her hand down Tina’s face and rested her hand lightly on her neck. She got off the floor and sat on Tina’s lap, leaned in close to her partners ear and whispered, “Im sorry.”
Tina wrapped her arms around Bette’s pt it waist. And held her………….held her like she was dying then and there……………….and never wanting to let go. Tina’s voice was hoarse and low. “Bette dont leave me………….You can’t leave me…………..I love you.”
Bette pulled away a little from their intense hug……… “Tina I love you so much……. you sure you want to do this?”
Tina looked into her lovers heart-felt eyes. “Yes……. yes I do.”
Bette Kissed Tina’s Cheek…….. It was light and honest it was something that Bette had wanted to do in a long time. She finally had the satisfaction yet was discreet.
They stayed in each others arms for the rest of the night, telling one another that they loved each other over and over.