"Alex," Bette’s said, interrupting Angelica’s thoughts, "Could we sit down for a minute?"

"Yeah, sure." Alex responded, offering them to sit down on the sofa, "Angel, are you okay?"

Angelica wished, he would stop calling her that. "Yeah, yeah…fine." she responded quietly.

When she sat down, the pain shot through her once more. Wincing, she gripped her head with her hands.

"You want an aspirin?" Alex asked, hurrying towards the kitchen.

"Please." Angelica said, looking down at her knees when she noticed her mother’s disapproving look. Angelica assumed she must not be a pretty sight just now.

When Alex came back, handing Angelica a glass of water and the pill, Bette started talking, addressing Alex.

"I just wanted to tell you," she said in a most neutral voice, "that you are not going to see my daughter over the next few weeks. I know you two are together and I’m okay with that…"

Angelica stared at her mother in shock. She had told them Alex had left her. Her mothers had obviously seen through this lie.

Meanwhile, Bette continued:
"…yet, she has pulled some really stupid stunts over the last approximately 48 hours, so Tina and I think there should be some consequences; one of them is being grounded for the next month and that includes not seeing you. You understand?"

Alex nodded slowly. "Of course, Mrs. Porter, that seems fair…"

Angelica scowled at him. "Fair, yeah?" she snorted. Even though, she did not love Alex, she could not believe he was not taking her side in this.  "How can being grounded for a month be fair?! I didn’t even get a chance to -"

"You better not get me started, young lady." Bette cut her short sternly, "I can easily add another month to your being grounded…"

Angelica looked into her mother’s eyes. Behind the anger, she could discern fear and worry so she deemed it best to leave before Bette would act on her threats.

Angelica got up aprubtly and marched over to the front door and out of the house, also because she
felt an enormous rage coming up inside her.

Once outside, she breathed in the morning air, sat down on the front porch and let her tears of anger and frustration fall free.

The truth was, she knew she deserved being punished, she was just mad at herself for having let things go out of hands and for having gotten caught.

More images streamed through her mind now, and she remembered Jean again, which gave her a jolt of happiness first, and then her stomach clenched together as she remembered the last words Jean had said to her:

"I swear, if you do this, I will never talk to you again…"

Angelica wished she had not ‘done it’, and Jean would still talk to her. Still, Angelica’s heart seemed to melt when she thought back of their kiss…

The front door was opened again and Bette walked out of it, coming over to Angelica who was still sitting on the ground. When Angelica turned to face her mother, Bette could see her tears.

"How’s your head?" Bette asked, her voice much softer now.

"Hurts pretty bad." Angelica sad in a feeble voice.

"Then let’s just go home, honey, okay?" Bette’s said, touching Angelica’s hand and giving her a small smile. "We can talk about everything once you’ve had a good sleep."

Angelica nodded, relieved her mother had stopped showing this cool side of her.

She took Bette’s offering hand and they walked towards the car together