”She looked so happy” Bette stated in a quiet voice.

Marcus turned his head to look at the brunette. After watching her for some moments, the man sighed and averted his eyes towards the city panorama.

It had been two in the morning when Bette woke him up by a call. Before her call Marcus also had been trying to reach her for several days, having been worried about her after Helena and Shane told him what happened at The Gyre. Marcus could guess what Bette was living through, but after meeting her at the Hills the man was stricken. His dark-haired friend seemed more low-spirited than ever, and there had been a lot of occasions when she was having a really rough time before. But never ever he remembered her to be that bad.

He glanced once again at the brunette, who took her head into her hands and shook it as Marcus’s silence allowed her to speak out further.

”So happy…like nothing has ever happened”

”You saw her?”

”Yeah, from the distance” Bette answered, not wishing to go into the details of her spy taxi ride to Tina’s house a day ago.

”You know she’s hurting, Bette”

The brunette sighed softly. ”I guess…” She uttered then, opening a beer can.

”Have you called her?”

Bette shook her head.

”Why not?”

”She wouldn’t answer anyway. She hates me.”

”And you won’t try to change that?”

”Do you think I can change that? I would never forgive myself if I were her.”

”You need to try, Bette. I mean you haven’t even tried yet, maybe she’s waiting.”

”Marcus, she found out that her girlfriend is a criminal, moreover she now thinks that I’m cheating on her. Could a person still wait after this? No. I just said – she hates me and she does the right thing.”

”What? Cheating?” Marcus inquired, furrowing his brows.

”You heard me right”

”Where did that come from? You cheated on her?”

”Are you fucking kidding me?” The brunette fired off back at him.

”Bette” Marcus said, looking pointedly at his now indignant friend.

Bette chuckled bitterly and stood up, placing her hands on her hips. ”I did not cheat on her, I would never, alright? That pathetic cunt, Jodi Lerner, accused me of fucking around on Tina, just like that, out of nowhere! She was just having her fifteen minutes of revenge, but Tina’s clueless about it, Tina doesn’t even know who Jodi is and what a person she is.”