Tina: “Wow, you act like you know a good deal about art. You don’t seem like the type.”

Helena: “Well, I should. My mother forced me to minor in art. She said it would culture me.”

Tina: “Really? Bette never mentioned that you had any affiliation with the art world.”

Helena: “That’s probably because she doesn’t know it. No one does unless I tell them….it’s not something I’m known for. As much as I despised it, it actually proved to be a good thing….sort of.”

Helena couldn’t believe how open she was with Tina. She was normally very closed off and withholding. She liked to only let people see what they wanted to, but talking to Tina, everytime her mouth opened out poured her thoughts and emotions. She definitely felt a connection to Tina. Meanwhile, Tina was thinking how nice Helena seemed. She was nothing like Bette described her.

Tina: “How’s that? How was it good if you still don’t claim it?”

Helena: “Well, it brought me out of the closet. The art department was where I met my first girlfriend….(reminiscint) I used to think she was the one.”

Tina: “Really? I didn’t know you were a *****.”

Helena: (matter of factly)”100 percent”

Tina: “You said ‘first’ so I’m assuming there were more after her. What happened?”

Helena: “Well, her name was Cate Strickland. We were so different. I think that’s what attracted us to each other to begin with. I came from a posh english family in London, she was from a single parent home in Chicago. I was a level-headed business major dressing in suits, looking to carry on the Peabody fortune. She was an eccentric art major covered in paint, looking to live day to day on what meager royalties her paintings afforded her. I’ll never forget the first time I saw her….strokes of paint on her pants where she had cleaned her brushes on them. Her fingers were literally black from the charcoal she’d been drawing with. My first inclination was to wash her hands. It’s funny now, how much of a brat I was. I don’t know, she was just so different from anything I’d ever been exposed to. She was so careless and…..free. I wanted her immediatley. I guess the thought of harnessing something so beautiful and uninhibited was so appealing to me because I’d never known what it was like to submit control. Now looking back I realize it’s impossible to attain those things which are so far beyond our reach. She started helping me with my art classes because none of that stuff came naturally to me. Then we….fell in love.”