“Feed your woman, and we’ll talk some more.” Bette laughed because until that moment she hadn’t realized that she was also hungry. Bette sat up and tried to bring Tina’s face to hers but Tina pushed forward and dropped a soft kiss in the center of Bette’s chest. Tina knew that was a ticklish area for her and she still did it anyway. Bette managed to cup Tina’s face, she kissed her again and again until Tina was back on her knees and heels enough for Bette to stand up.

“I’m calling Luanne’s and ordering breakfast and lunch for us.”
Tina heard her but she couldn’t really get her mind right to get up and follow Bette. She’d put down a pivotal moment in her life and she didn’t know why or better yet, what to do with it. The only thing she did know at the moment was that she wanted to keep going. There was so much more to write about that she couldn’t keep the stories from running a dialogue in her head. Her father’s robust and boisterous accent was so loud now it almost felt like he was there with her. At times his voice was warm like a blanket, so thick and heavy she’d wrap herself up into his body when he read to her. Other times his tone and mood was so deciduous throughout the day it frightened her. In the mornings he was a great father, he engaged his daughters in warm debates and was genuinely there to parent them. Some days he’d start a spiral of depression and booze filled beatings of the walls and their mother’s tchotchkes. Tina’s little sister was so resolute and stubborn that’d she’d learned to ride these rage waves by staying in her room alone with headphones on, pretending to be somewhere else.

Tina snuck out of the house, her parents never noticed anyway.
……………………………………………………….

“Why did you do this?”

“What, order spare ribs?”

“Don’t be a smart ass.” Bette said hitting her with a few fingers full of lo mein noodles.

“I really don’t know.” Tina sat up a little bit straighter while she answered truthfully. “I wanted to write about something else, really I did but nothing was coming to me and I couldn’t dodge this wall anymore. They put up a good front but really they were monsters to each other, and rightfully so they were together because of the studio. They were brought together more as a merger and a gimmick to promote the movie he was directing. She was a young, soon-to-be starlet and he was to play the beautiful foreigner with an eye for beauty like no other. The truth was that my father never wanted my mother for that movie but they looked good as a couple and my mother would’ve fucked half the studio to get the part.” Tina smiled as she rolled her eyes. The thought of bringing two people together for money and publicity sickened her, so much so she started drinking at an early age once she came to the realization that her conception, and shameless media frenzied birth was all to keep her parents in the retreating limelight they’d become accustomed to.