“Don’t throw this in my face like that Alice. Something important happened and I forgot. I messed up alright?” Dana’s voice was almost as loud as Alice‘s, and she realised that she probably wasn’t going down the right path with this conversation.

“Well this was important to me Dana,” Alice whispered bitterly, utter hurt evident in every word she said. “This was really important to me and I didn’t even get a phone call.”

Dana was taken aback by how much this had hurt Alice, how much she had hurt Alice.

“I, I’m sorry Alice. I really am. There was just someone else who needed me tonight.”

Alice looked up at Dana, who was standing close to her, and pushed past her to the door, opening it.

“I know that too Dana. Because I went to your house after you stood me up, to find you snuggling a god damn guy outside! What the ***** do you take me for? You can treat me like ***** right up till the day I die Dana, trust me, I’m use to it. But don’t you dare decide that I’m too ***** stupid to put two and two together.” Alice was yelling at this point, tears streaming down her face. She left the open door and walked past Dana once again. “Just leave Dana. I don’t want to see you or hear you or think about you right now. I don’t want to be around you. You had your chance and you fucked up. What’s worse is that it didn’t even matter to you. I don’t even matter to you.” Alice walked into her bedroom and slid down her closed door. She was crying, loudly, but she didn’t care. Dana had hurt her too much to care right now.

“Alice…” Dana called from the bedroom door. Silence. “Alice.” Even though there was no reply, Dana knew Alice was listening. She could hear quiet sobs from the bottom of the door. “Alice you don’t understand how much this meant to me. I couldn’t wait to take you out. I couldn’t wait to be with you but…” Dana sighed as she too tried unsuccessfully to stop tears falling from her eyes. “Alice that man was my brother Howie; he arrived here a week ago. My mother was taken to hospital yesterday. Sh-She’s dying Al.” Dana’s voice began to get croaky as talked. The truth was this was the first time she had admitted to herself what was happening, and her heart was almost breaking at the idea of losing her mom. “I won’t stay any longer; I just wanted you to know that I’m sorry. For everything.”

Dana walked out of Alice‘s apartment, down the steps and out the door. Her whole body was numb, and her heart was aching.

“Wait”

Dana turned around to see Alice running down the pathway, her eyes still full of tears, but no anger. Just a pure, vulnerable sadness.

“Alice, I’m so sorry,” Dana mumbled as the blonde threw her arms around her, holding her as tightly as she could. Dana could feel Alice‘s cheek hard against her own.

“I’m so sorry baby. I’m so sorry,” Alice whispered over and over into Dana’s ear, causing the brunette to simply hold on tighter to Alice. Alice could feel Dana’s hot tears on her neck, and she could hear her sobbing. She kissed Dana lightly on the cheek once, then again and again. Finally Dana looked into her eyes, still holding on ever so tightly to Alice, and kissed her on the lips, a simple, lingering kiss.

“I’m sorry Al.” Dana’s apology was greeted by another simple kiss.

The two eventually walked back to Alice‘s bedroom where they lay, still in a tight embrace, and eventually fell asleep.