Shane began to smile too. “Yeah but you want to. Shit Bette almost choked on her lunch today when I told her about all this. You all are cruel to me.”

Carmen laughed. “Well maybe we can convince that brother of yours to give us a night alone and I can show you how cruel I can really be!” She kissed Shane on the check and pulled her close.

Shane let herself be pulled in and buried her head in the Latina’s hair. Carmen held her close for a quick minute but then pulled away. She smiled as she looked at her lover.

“Baby, we need to go talk to Shay—together. Yeah?”

Shane nodded in reply.

The two women quickly formulated a plan about what to say to Shay and walked hand-in-hand to his room.

Shane knocked on the door with her knuckle.

“Shay, it’s me and Carmen. Open up.”

No response. She tried the handle—locked.

“Shay? Can you open the door?” Carmen sweetly asked.

Silence again, then:

“No! I’m not opening the door. I hate you! Go away!”

Shane dropped her head back and sighed.

“Shay, we need you to open the door so we can talk about this. Shane really regrets hurting your feelings and she would like to apologize to you, but you have to open the door.”

“Come on—please, Shay?” Shane pleaded.

Silence.

Then a loud thud against the door as Shay threw a shoe at it and a “Fuck off!”

Carmen stiffened; Shane raised her eyebrows in shock.

“That’s it. You do not get to be rude to your sister and I, Shay. If you can’t learn to respect the people who take care of you then I’m afraid we can’t respect you either.”

Carmen stormed off. Shane looked after her in confusion.

“Carmen,” She whispered. “Carmen—what the hell are you doing?”

Carmen stopped and whispered back, “I’m getting the toolbox to take the hinges off. He doesn’t get to ignore problems, Shane. That’s a bad habit to get into. I’m not letting him turn out like you.” She gave a small grin towards her lover.