“Yeah Tina, I know, that was the only way I could fly out here, ya know. Only if I knew the whole story. I know you’re mad at her and I know that she is in the wrong a thousand and one times but I think that in your heart you still want her in your life.”

“Does she expect me to forgive and forget everything I’ve learned about her this summer. I don’t know if I’m ready to…”

“No, Tina she’s not asking for you to forgive and forget by the end of this summer but she at least wants… I don’t know what she wants completely from you by the end of the summer. But I do know that she is not asking for all your forgiveness this summer. She knows that it’s gonna take some time all she is asking is that you’ll hear her out.” Tina’s eyes shifted from worry, to angry, to just sad. The look she was throwing at Alice was painful. Alice used every bit of will power she had not to cry with Tina.

“What the hell does she mean by Bette is hindering her progress with me? Bette is not the one who hit me when I came home? What the hell is she talkin bout?” Through tears and a broken voice she spoke.

“I don’t know what she’s talkin bout completely with Bette she just said that it feels like your trying to protect Bette from something instead of listening to her. But I think that maybe she’s just afraid of the clarity you and Bette have in your relationship.”

“What!?”

“Ok listen, you and Bette understand that you’re gonna be friends at the of the summer right?” Tina just nodded her head still not quite so sure where Alice was goin with this argument. ” ok but you and her where will y’all be at the end of the summer?” Tina just looked at her and shrugged her shoulders. “Exactly I think in some way she is just jealous of the relationship you have with Bette, see?”

Tina could only sit and think about all the times she was around Bette and her mother at the same time. And it all of a sudden made since to her, the whole time all the hostility her mother was expressing was really aimed at Bette. But she felt the wrath of it all. Was she an easy target? Or was she still upset that Tina was gay? What was the real reason for Bette and Vanessa to have such hostility towards each other? To many questions were racing through her head for her to process them at this moment.