Tina walks gingerly into the room. ‘God, its dark in here’ she thinks to herself. ‘Maybe Bette isn’t here.’ Tina looks for the lightswitch. “Bette? Are you here?” Tina finds the switch and turns on a light. “Bette?”


As Tina’s eyes adjust to the light, she looks around. She walks over to the unmade bed and touches the sheets. As she reaches for the pillow, Tina looks to the corner beyond the bed. Bette is curled up on the floor in a ball.


Tina stands frozen for a moment. ‘She’s not…she couldn’t have…’ she thinks to herself. Panic begins to set in. “Bette? Are you okay?” Tina starts around the bed. By the time she reaches Bette on the floor, she is trembling.


“Bette? Baby, please answer me.” Terrified, Tina reaches out to touch Bette. “Baby are you okay?” Tina gently and timidly touches Bette’s hand. “Bette?” As she lays her hand over Bette’s, she notices that it is cool. As she begins to panic, Bette wraps her fingers around Tina’s hand. “Bette! Baby please say something!”


——

Bette lies in the floor. She suddenly feels a presence in the room. ‘No one’s here, Porter. No one misses you. No one needs you.’ Bette doesn’t even bother lifting her head to see if she is alone. She heaves a sigh. Suddenly she feels someone touching her. Instinctively, she closes her hand as if to feel the touch.

——

“Bette, baby it’s me. It’s Tina.” Tina reaches over to Bette and moves her hair from her face to look at her. Bette’s eyes are open, but she doesn’t look up at Tina. She just stares straight ahead.


“Are you okay, baby? C’mon, let’s get up off of the floor.” Tina reaches under Bette to help her up. Bette pulls away from Tina and drunkenly walks to the other side of the bed.


“How the fuck did you find me?” Bette sits down on the bed, leans over, and puts her head in her hands. “Why are you here?” Bette’s head is spinning. How in the hell did Tina get here?


“It’s not important right now how I got here. I need to know that you’re alright.” Tina lowers herself in front of Bette and places her hands on Bette’s arms. “Are you okay? Look at me, Bette.” Bette will not raise her head. Tina places her hand under Bette’s chin to lift her eyes from the floor. “Baby, look at me. Are you okay?”


“Yeah, just great.” Bette replies sarcastically. “I’m fine. Fabulous. You can get on with your life now.” What is she doing here? Why is she calling me ‘baby’?


“How much have you had to drink?” Tina looks over at the nearly empty minibar.


“As much as I could find. Not enough. Funny, I still remember everything, though.” Bette falls back onto the bed. “Every fucked up second of it.”


Bette props herself up on her arms and looks at Tina. “So, what brings you here? Come to finish me off? Twist the knife deeper? Wanna tell me how I fucked up your entire life and drove you back to men?”


Tina walks over to the minibar and pulls out a bottle of water. She walks over to Bette. “You’re really drunk.”


“No shit?” Bette stared at Tina.


Tina hands the bottle to Bette. “I think you need to drink some water.”


“I don’t need anything anymore,” Bette falls back onto the bed. “Except maybe another drink.”


Tina gets up and walks across the room. She takes a deep breath and crosses her arms. “Bette, the last thing you need is another drink. Please just drink the…” She turns around to look at Bette, who is sound asleep on the bed.


Tina removes the bottle of water from Bette’s hand and places it on the nightstand. She sees a pill bottle on the desk, and walks over to look at it. ‘Alice’s prescription,’ she says to herself. It looks as if Bette did not take any. As she replaces the bottle on the desk, she notices something sticking out from under the bed near where Bette was laying. Tina walks over and kneels down. She picks up three pictures that were sprawled on the floor. One is of her, one is of Angelica, and the third is an ultrasound image of their lost son. Tina looks at the pictures and covers her mouth as if to prevent a sob. The tears come anyway and she sobs. “Oh, Bette…”