Angelica came into the kitchen after walking the long way from shad’s house. The bleeding had eventually stopped but the pain hadn’t. She waddled just a little bit. She found Bette in the kitchen.. ..was angie really that long? Bette looked up inot angie’s face and felt her stomach clench…she couldn’t believe that she had hit Angelica. The bruise stod out like a glaring accusation. Angelica quietly came in and sat at the kitchen table opposite Bette. Bette swallowed and clasped her hand “Angei…im sorry” Angelica looked at her feet, the world felt different and Bette smacking her no longer fel drastic. “its ok…i was asking for it” Bette shook  her head but didn’t say anything. She had pushed Angelica even further away and had no idea how to fix it. Bette had come home to take Angelica to see Tina. At that thought Bette closed her eyes, what she had seen burned in her mind. Bette spoke quietly, drained..”i spoke with your principal, told him what happened so we had our conference over the phone. Angie that girl you beat had a broken nose, your lucky nobody is pressing charges…but there has been complaints and the school decided to throw out your suspension and expell you instead. im too tired to be angry but im more than dispointed in you….if tina…if your mom wasn’t so sick i’d send you to reform school or something” Angelica hung her head, “sorry”…”sorry isnt good enough” Bette closed her eyes…this all couldn’t be happening to her. “angelica…are things ok with you? your not doing anything stupid?”   “no” “no drugs no funny things with boys or other stuff?”  “no” “good….because mom is going to need us, she is going to need us so bad and we have to be strong for her”   “ok”  Bette got up, there was nothing else to, nothing else she could do except say   “come on lets go, i came back to get you because she wanted to see you” Angelica hung her head looking at her floor, nodding. Bett took a deep breath ” And i called your aunt she is flying first thing tommorrow morning to take care of you, im not doing a good job obviously, your staying over at Alice’s meanwhile, she just visited tina and is readying the apartmnet for you to sleep over now…” Bette said this softly, slowly. It felt like everything had been knocked out of her and any extreme emotion went out of the window. In fact it was true. angelica and Bette were exhausted in every way. neither had the energy to fight so Bette took her keys and Angelica followed her to the vehicle.