The early Sunday morning sunshine peered through the drawn curtains onto the two sprawled out figures in bed.  Bette woke to find the half naked Stevie lying on her side with her leg draped across her body and her own arm lying across her torso.  She awed at the Asian/Black/Italian beauty next to her.  She marveled at the fact that such a mix could produce the beautiful results that lay before her.  She always felt so alone when trying to explain to people of so called one race what it was like to be interracial.  They tried their best to understand but unless you came from the exact opposite of the spectrum, you just couldn’t understand what it was like.  As a kid it was hell trying to identify herself to the kids in school.  To the “white girls” she was too dark and her hair was just a little too kinky.  To the “black girls” she thought she was too good for them and wasn’t “black enough.”  So she was left in the middle and alone.  Even to herself.  Who does she identify with alternative or rap, or in her time, rock and roll or rhythem and blues?  She always thought it best to not pick sides and instead of choosing one, embracing both.  But that still wasn’t good enough for either.  All or nothing was how the outside world put it.  Even as an adult it was a hard thing to verbalize and handle.  Try as she might Tina never quite got it.  She just accepted it and moved on, but never once did she try to truly understand.

So now she lay in the bed with her counterpart.  One of the few and possibly even only people she knew who not only understood as much as she did but more.  Stevie was pulled in 3 different directions so it forced her to create a thick shell and a not caring attitude.  Deep down she did care and wanted to fit in where she “belonged”.  But as before stated the world around you tends to not be so tolerant of the unknown.  That coupled with a family that also couldn’t handle the cultural difference, created a care free to the point of wreck lace individual.  Bette felt she has calmed the savage beast within Stevie.  She no longer had to pillage for what she felt was hers because Bette would give it to her.  And not out of sympathy but out of genuine human connection.  They understood each other on a level no one else could.