Dialing Shane, Tina waited. The silence between rings seemed too long and unbearable. After six rings, Shane answered.

”Hello.”

”Shane, hi, it’s Tina,” the blonde said self-consciously.

”I know,” the woman replied, her voice deep and a little bit drawled out if Tina heard it right.

”Um, I was wondering if you…if you could tell me how Bette is doing,” Tina managed to say, knowing how silly her request probably sounded. ”She doesn’t answer my calls, I’m very worried,” she attempted to justify herself.

There was a lengthy silence, which made Tina glance at the display to check whether the call was still on. After an amount of time that seemed an eternity to the blonde, a response from Shane finally came forth:

”Tina. I think she really needs you right now.”

***

On arriving at Shane’s house in Venice, Tina parked along the curb and hurriedly walked up the sidewalk to the front door of the bungalow. The door was ajar, so she let herself in. It was quiet inside, nearly too quiet, to the point when the sound of her high heels clicking down the hardwood floor was echoing in her own ears. When she entered the living room, she slowed her pace.

A familiar form was hunched over the bar counter, her shoulders slumped like she’d put down something heavy.

”Hi, Tina,” Shane said without turning to look at the visitor, apathy in her tone, in her movements as she lifted a glass of brown liquid to her lips. ”She’s outside by the pool.”

The blonde nodded and started toward the glass patio doors.

She found Bette lying limp on her side along the tiled edge of the pool with one arm dangling just above the water’s surface. Feeling tightness in her chest, Tina forced her legs to walk toward the woman. The nearer she got to her, the more she crumbled inside.

”Bette?” she uttered in almost a whisper. She knelt down carefully where the unresponsive brunette lay and placed her hand on her arm, giving it a slight shake. Bette’s clothes were wet like she had taken a swim fully dressed not too long ago.

”Turn around,” Tina asked softly.

Upon getting no reaction, the blonde rolled Bette onto her back, which Bette didn’t fight against. Her eyes were shadowed, the lids drooping as if they were too heavy to lift. Tina leaned closer and slid her finges across Bette’s damp, tangled curls before cupping her trembling hands around Bette’s face.

”Baby, please look at me… You’re scaring me…” Tina pleaded, her thumbs stroking the hollow cheeks as though she were wiping away invisible tears.

For just an instant Bette’s parted lips moved, forming some unregistered word. Tina lifted Bette’s upper body into her arms and pressed the woman close to her chest.

”I can’t stand it anymore… I can’t stand seeing you so broken all the damn time!” all of sudden Tina let out a cry only a creature in absolute desperation would make. Rocking back and forth, Tina looked up into the sky. ”Dear God, when is this going to end…when will it end…” she chanted.

Soon Bette’s shouldes shook with sobs, silent, hard sobs of a woman who had no hope left. Slowly wrapping her arms around Tina, Bette squeezed Tina’s dress so tightly in her fists her knuckles turned white. With her head buried against Tina’s chest, she finally started to cry as she shuddered intensely. A long, gut-wrenching wail of pure agony erupted from deep within her, a howl that shattered the night, death throes of a lost soul, a broken mind, a young woman pushed to her breaking point. A cry that pierced every corner of Tina’s heart.

Putting her cheek against the top of Bette’s head, Tina closed her eyes and prayed.