"Lena."

"Hi Bette." she said looking down at her feet unable to bring her eyes to meet Bette’ s.

"Why are you following me?" Lena’s response was to shrug her shoulders and avert her eyes from Bette’s.

"Why can’t you look at me?"

Lena brought her face up to see Bette’s eyes searching her face for some sort of emotion. Bette took one look at her and saw that she was physically and emotionally drained from something. The deep dark circles around her eyes telling Bette everything she needed to know.

"Where is she?"

"She’s… she’s at Alphonso’s place." as soon as Lena finished Bette’s heart sank and she involuntarily let out a frustrated groan.

"How long has she been there?"

"Since the last…" Lena was mumbling.

"What!" Bette interrupted and took a hold of Lena’s shoulders.

"Since she saw you last!" Lena said breaking free from Bette’s grip before she lost her resolve.

"She’s been there for two days?!"

Lena just turned her head and nodded her response, she couldn’t take looking Bette in the eye. Lena knew Bette’s reasons for her hatred of drugs and what it had done to her family. She couldn’t face Bette the first time she told her Alicia was using and she couldn’t face her now.

"Bette you have to help her."

"What do you want from me Lena?"

"I know she’ll listen to you. You’re the only she can see right now. I can’t get through to her." Lena was pleading for some sort of rationality from Bette.

Apart of Bette wanted to go to her right now and take Alicia away from all the bad things surrounding her. And give her every bit of the peace she was searching for in that needle. But the other part of her was screaming for her to see the trickery behind it all. Maybe this was another ploy to get Melito?, maybe she was trying to get back into Bette’s heart again?

"Bette please?"

Bette brought her eyes up from the ground and found the strength to speak what was burning through her "I can’t."

"Bette you have to…

"I have to what? Be used by her again, see what a mess she’s made of herself and be thrown back to the fact that she craves that fucking needle more than her own fucking flesh and blood! I can’t do it anymore Lena, I just can’t do it to myself or Melito."

Bette calmed herself and straightened her back "Now my family and I are getting ready to eat dinner, excuse me." her final response was cold and completely devoid of any emotion.

Lena was left standing there wondering where the Bette she used to know went. The Bette she knew was compassionate and caring. The type of person who loved helping people just to see the joy it brought them. What had her cousin done to Bette to make her heart close off to someone’s suffering? Sure it was self imposed but that didn’t matter, or it didn’t use to. What amount of pain did Alicia leave Bette with?

TBC………………………………