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Just when things were looking up, just when everything was going perfectly, something would happen out of the blue to knock off this balance in life. At least, Carmen thought so.

"Anna…­ and Momma." Carmen said in a small voice.

The four of them had been staring at each other for a long time. Anna and Mercedes in the living room, Carmen and Shane in the kitchen. The hurt, the anger in Anna’s eyes didn’t go unnoticed. And Carmen wanted to sob as she saw the disgust and the disapproval mixed in as well.

Mercedes cleared her throat. "Anna told me that Shane wasn’t home, and so we brought your car back and thought that we would keep you company."

Shane tried to pull her girlfriend closer to give her support, but Carmen jerked away, putting some distance between herself and Shane. Clenching her fist as her arms dropped back to her sides, Shane felt deeply hurt at the rejection that came from her girlfriend. She knew that she shouldn’t feel this way, but she couldn’t help but think that Carmen didn’t even trust her enough to let her support her. Instead on dwelling on this, Shane put on a brave front and smiled at Mercedes. "I appreciate your concern, Mercedes. I did tell Carmen that I would be out."

Anna winced as she heard Shane speak, as if just the voice of Shane was enough to cause an epidemic. She hadn’t said a word yet, hadn’t taken her eyes off Carmen, hadn’t moved from that spot she was standing on. But as if anger was a color, Shane could tell that the air around her was turning a deep red.

Shane took a good look at Anna, taking in this younger version of her girlfriend. She was pretty, almost as pretty as her Carmen was. But sadly, at this moment, the only words that could describe her look was ‘wrinkled with disgust’. Shane decided to make a first move; she knew Anna was homophobic from what Carmen had told her. She didn’t want Carmen to face her alone. Desperately, she thought that maybe if Anna got to know her, she would learn to accept Carmen for who she really was.