“It’s just…”

Emily gave her an encouraging smile that just melted Bette’s heart. She gave up.

“Alright. There’s this thing I haven’t told you and it’s been going on for a while. I don’t really know how to explain it, or where it came from and how I got it in my head – it’s never going to happen. And I haven’t told you because I was afraid I might lose you, and I don’t want that. Not at all. The whole… situation’s not worth losing another friend.”

Emily saw Bette’s struggle and decided to make things easier for her. She stood up to sit down next to Bette on the bed. She took her hand, caressing it. It made Bette feel calmer.

“Bette… don’t worry. I feel the same.”

For a moment, Bette was confused – how on Earth could she feel the same? She barely knew ms Kennard. Okay, so did she, but still, it was different. They had some kind of relationship to another, some things in common. But then again, she had cherished those feelings long before the contact had even been there. Then, the anger took over, generated by Bette’s possessiveness.

“What?” she almost shouted jumping up, having a hard time keeping her voice down – it was one of those rare occasions where Melvin Porter was home.

Now it was Emily’s turn to be confused. “Wow – easy Bette. It’s not a bad thing, right? Shouldn’t you be… you know… happy that I feel the same?”

“How on Earth could I be happy about the fact that you have feelings for her? Since when? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I don’t have any idea what you are talking about but it sounds to me like there is something you didn’t tell me.” Emily was clearly getting a bit annoyed at all of this.

Bette almost burst out in tears – the feelings she had kept to herself, the anger and panick, the confusion, it was all too much. She sat back down, studying her trembling hands.

“How can you feel the same?” Bette whispered softly, a single tear wandering off her cheek. She realised full well how this changed everything, how the chance of her and ms Kennard ever getting together got smaller by the minute. Emily had much more courage and she would tell ms Kennard how she felt, and obviously Emily was way better looking and persuasive and they would become a couple and marry and have a bunch of beautiful babies and Bette would be all alone, watching it and cursing herself for not having had the guts to tell ms K how she felt.