Shane woke up three hours later, of something hard and sticky underneath her stomach. It was the magazine she was still lying on. She threw it aside and snuggled close next to Carmen again. Carmen winded her arms around Shane’s shoulders in her sleep. Shane sighed happily into her touch and closed her eyes. But she couldn’t sleep. Her mind kept drifting off to Carmen and her family. She glanced over at the alarm clock, sitting on the nightstand near the bed. It was 4:34 am. Shane thought back at their conversation, more than three hours ago. She didn’t know a lot about Carmen’s family but she did know that if Carmen would ever lose them, that she wouldn’t be able to deal with it. Shane propped herself up on one elbow and watched Carmen sleeping. ‘What’s going on behind those beautiful eyes of yours?’ she thought. ‘What happened what freaked you out so bad last night? What did your mother tell you?’ All those questions wandered through her head as she looked at Carmen. She ran her fingers softly over Carmen’s chest but forced herself to stop, she didn’t want to wake her. She sighed softly. It made her feel so sad that Carmen was worrying. She wished she could do something to help her, but there was nothing she could do. A tiny part of her was happy too, happy that Carmen came to her last night. That Carmen had needed to be with her.

All of sudden Shane felt nauseous and weak inside. It was fear. ‘What am I scared of?’ Shane groaned softly as she got out of bed carefully.  She went to the bathroom and washed her face but it didn’t help to clear her head. She wanted to erase the reason of her fears, because she knew too well why she was scared. ‘Only drugs can make you go numb,’ Shane thought and she decided to take a bath. As the bath was being filled she closed the door, not wanting to disturb Carmen’s sleep with the noises of water running.

But Carmen wasn’t waken up by that, but because of the empty spot next to her, where her hands had reached out to, only to find slightly warm sheets. Carmen sat up straight in bed and listened to the muffled noises coming out of the bathroom. She got out of bed quickly, shivering at how vulnerable walking around naked made her feel. She opened the door to the bathroom. Shane was sitting in bath, her head resting on her drawn up knees.