“Don’t strangle the mouse Al, just let it breathe.”

And that’s what Alice had done, though seemingly impossible, she had pushed aside her insecurities enough to let Dana breathe. It didn’t seem like she had any other choice when it came down to it. She wanted this relationship to work so badly, more than anything she had ever wanted in her life, and apparently this was what it would take.

But she was wrong. It took three weeks for Dana to decide that she wanted a little less of Alice and a little more of Lara. It took a further two weeks after this decision for Alice to finally find out, through Shane…

“She didn’t want to see you get hurt,” Shane tried to explain, secretly cursing Dana for putting her and Alice through this. ‘She should be doing this, she should be apologising… it means nothing from me,’ she thought as she watched Alice‘s composure slowly collapse.

“I thought she was different,” whispered Alice, her head down, tears slowly dropping onto the lounge room carpet. “I thought that maybe, maybe our friendship would have at least stopped her from treating me like everyone else. But she’s the same, she’s just the ***** same.” Her words were almost inaudible, but the pain and loss that filled each word echoed through Shane’s ears. It doubled when Alice slowly looked up at Shane, her brown eyes puffy from crying, and full of hate. Not hate of Dana, but hate of herself. Alice hated herself for being so dependant on Dana throughout their relationship, for pushing them faster than Dana had obviously wanted, for starting this whole thing in the first place. She cringed. ‘Maybe Dana had felt this way all along. I was just a novelty, maybe not even that – maybe because I was her best friend she thought we would just muck around a bit and that was it.’ Alice slowly walked backwards until her back rested upon the lounge room wall, allowing herself to slide down onto the floor, devoid of any energy. Shane quickly walked over to her from her position on the sofa, engulfing her in a hug. That was how they both spent the night, Alice sobbing into Shane’s shoulder and Shane wondering how on earth Dana had let someone like Alice go so easily.