“It’s not that simple. First of all, your dad and Kirsten would hardly approve.” She’s about to say something, but I lie my finger on her lips. “Second of all, it’s complicated at home. My parents always took care of me so well. I remember doing so much together when I was a kid, we were a really happy family. They do so much for me, more than other parents would do. I’d feel so guilty if I left home, so selfish. And I don’t have a place to go.”

“Tina, it sounds like your mother does a lot for you but wants everything back a thousand times more. It’s not because she does much for you that you have to take that crap. And you know, after high school, I could get a job and we could rent a place, maybe share it with someone. It wouldn’t be easy, but we would be together.”

“It sounds so tempting… but I can’t let you do that. You are so smart, you have so much potential, you have to go to college. And I love you so much, and I’m sure we have a great chance together, but well… we don’t know what the future brings. What if something happens and we’re breaking up? I’d be alone again.”

“Nothing can make me leave you and nothing can make me letting you go.”

“That’s what you say now. But Bette, when you go to college, there’ll be other girls. Gay girls. You’ll be around them every day and they’ll be so beautiful and so are you, and they are gonna hit on you and you’ll have to resist… I mean, I don’t want to put any limits on you.”

Bette frowns her eyebrows and sits up, leaning on one elbow, stroking my hair.

“What are you talking about? How could I possibly want anyone else? Look at you… you’re all I need. You do something to me I can’t describe. All I need is your love. This, between us, is something so right. You’re my home, Tina, you’ll always be. I don’t care about others. Look at all those girls yesterday night, hitting on you and me or on both of us. There was not a single one of them that brought me into the slightest degree of temptation. You’re my girl, T, and you’ll always be.”