Bette Porter paced back in forth across her room, phone in hand. She muttered a few things to herself, looking at the clock and then back to the phone. It had been a good 3 days since she had gone to school, and it wasn’t the missing of her classes that bothered her. It was Tina. She hadn’t talked to her since after the play, after the small incident with Tina’s angry family. Sure, she missed the tanned blonde, but the distance was doing her a bit of good. It gave the intellectual brunette the time to discover feelings, and forget some of the problems that plagued her over time.

She quickly and almost regretfully dialed the number that she had memorized since day one. A quick sigh slipped past her cracked lips as a tired hand rose the phone to her ear.

On the other end, Tina Kennard was fast asleep in the basement, which had quickly become her new room. The Fairbanks’ didn’t want their ***** niece to be spending much time around their sheltered ‘straight daughter’. If only they knew. A shrill ring shook the blonde from her slumber, and she blinked in her dark surroundings, managing to read the time on the clock parallel to her bed.

“*****.” She muttered, her voice laced with drowsiness. She stumbled across the room, grabbing the phone before the answer machine stole the call from her. “Hello?” She asked upon pressing the ‘talk’ button.

There was no response, only shallow breathing on the other end. This only sent chills down Tina’s spine. “Hello?” She repeated.

“T.” Bette said quietly.

“Jesus, Bette! It’s 5am!” Tina couldn’t help but smile. 5am or 12pm, she’d take a call from Bette. The realization quickly hit her that this was the first time she had talked to her girlfriend in 3 days, “Where have you been? Is everything okay?”

“Everything…” She hesitated, “Is fine… I guess.”

“Well what’s on your mind?” Tina replied, falling into bed. “I’ve missed you this week, have you been missing school?”

“Yeah I have.” She nodded. Bette seemed to find that short answers worked best in this situation, because if she were to start talking, she’d probably end up crying. “I’m okay though, don’t worry about me. My dad wants me to go check out colleges next week too.”

Tina replied,”Isn’t it bad to miss this much school?”

“Yeah, but I’ve got all my credits. I just stayed this year for friends and stuff.”

Tina was so confused. Bette used to be so happy about school; about coming to see her each day. Something was wrong, and Tina sensed it. Bette was so vague, she spoke in short sentences which was never something Bette Porter did. “Well I’m happy you stayed. I can’t even imagine life here without you.”

‘Well you might have to…’ Bette thought. “T, what’re you doing tonight?” She asked spontaneously.

“Well I was going to have movie night with Alice and Shane, and quite possibly Dana. Why, did you have something in mind?”

“Shane?” Bette asked with a confused look. “That ***** who tried to kill you and ended up busting my lip instead?”

“Yeah, but she’s really nice. We’ve been talking these past 3 days, she’s really sorry about hitting you by the way.” Tina added, “Anyway, what did you have in mind for tonight?”

“Well I’m going to this party with Karli, Drew and some other people. It’s going to be huge, and I thought we should spend some time together before I go off to look at colleges.”

“That sounds fun, do you think I could bring Shane along? Dana and Alice could use the alone time anyway.” Tina laughed.

“Yeah, go for it. I’m sure she’ll find something to do there.” Bette smiled wryly. “I’ll come pick you up at 7.”

“Sounds good.” Tina smiled. “I think I need to get back to sleep now, though. I don’t mind taking calls from you this early, but I still need sleep. I’ll see you later, baby. I love you.”

“I love you too.” And those were the words that ripped the heart right out of Bette’s chest.

TBC by 2:30pm today. I promise.