“Dane,“ Alice took a step closer to try to explain.

“No,” she put her hand up to stop any further movement from the writer. “No Alice. I don’t want to hear it. I didn’t want to hear it last time, or the time before that, and I really don’t want to hear it now.” Alice opened her mouth to protest, but the brunette thwarted her. “And don’t make any promises you can’t keep. I’m sure there will be a next time…as long as you keep taking those pills the way you are.”

“I need the pills,” was Alice’s only reply. And it was stated almost more to reassure herself than as a response to Dana’s previous statement. Dana scoffed at this and shook her head.

“You don’t need the pills Alice. I can’t believe your Dr. keeps prescribing you all this shit. It’s making you crazy. It’s making you…into someone you’re not.”

“Well it doesn’t really matter who I am, Dana. I’ll never be Lara, will I?”

“What?

“I know you wish she was your girlfriend, and you weren’t stuck in this thing with me.”

“Alice, what are you saying right now? Do you even hear yourself?”

Alice stared blankly at her for a moment. Dana tried as she could to figure out what Alice was thinking, what she was feeling, but her face was completely blank. It was as if she didn’t even hear a word she said.  

“Alice. Please. Just stop this. I’m with you. Why do you have to make it so hard?”

“Why do you have to spend every free second with that manipulative little chef of yours? She just wants to get into your pants Dana…,” Alice quickly glanced down at Dana’s legs and took note of the Adidas tennis shorts she was sporting. “…or shorts, in this case. Whatever.”

“Alice, we’re friends, Lara and I.”

“Dana, she obviously still loves you. And I bet she’d like nothing more than to steal you away from me so she can go make you egg soufflés and serve them to you naked in bed, or whatever it is she does.”

 “Alice,” Dana took a step closer to her girlfriend and grabbed her shoulders. “Look at me.” Alice reluctantly met Dana’s eyes. “You have to stop doing this. You’re killing yourself over something that just isn’t there. And you’re pushing me away in the process. Now I know you were at The Planet spying on me this morning. And for the umpteenth time, it has to stop. I know this isn’t you, Al. You’re not this crazy person who doesn’t trust anyone. It’s these fucking pills. Please. Just stop taking them. You don’t need them, you have me.”

For a moment Alice’s blank stare seemed to dissipate and some kind of thought process began to register on her face. She furrowed her brow as she considered what Dana was asking. When she started taking the pills 2 months ago, they were helping with her anxiety over Lara’s re-emergence in their lives. But maybe lately they’d started to create more harm than good? Maybe if she could just talk to Dana about how she felt…about all her fears and insecurities and how Dana spending all this free time with her ex wasn’t helping her overactive imagination any. Maybe if she told Dana and made her understand, than Dana would reassure her and Alice wouldn’t need medication to numb herself so much. Maybe—

Dana’s ringing cell phone shook Alice out of her thoughts. She glanced over at the vibrating phone on the dresser and noticed Lara’s name on the screen. Suddenly, the pills seemed like her only hope. Dana noticed the change on Alice’s face after she saw who was calling and she quickly grabbed the phone to turn it off.

“Al…what do you say? No more pills?”

“Whatever, Dana. You don’t understand anything I’m going through right now and you want me to just stop?”

“Yes!” Dana yelled, louder than she intended. “Al…if I don’t understand than please, make me understand. Talk to me…”

Alice glanced down at the phone in Dana’s hand. “You better go return that call. Don’t want to keep our little Chef Boyardee waiting!” And with that, Alice grabbed her clothes, along with a bottle of pills off the dresser, and walked out of the room, leaving an exasperated Dana nearly at the end of her rope.