Tina drove mindlessly the rest of the way through Arizona and New Mexico. Only stopping to get gas and whether or not she ate was a true mystery to her. Tina had made it all the way to El Paso and began to feel drowsy. She’d been driving for several hours straight. She pulled off of the highway and found a bar parking lot to finish off her bottle. Tina put the car in park and shut off the engine. She reached over to the passenger seat and picked up the bottle that had been her only true source of sustenance since deciding where to go earlier today. She downed the remnants of the bottle, and closed her eyes for a while. As she sat with her eyes closed she felt the stinging and burning from the off and on crying she was doing on the road, she saw her face again. There was Bette with her face and stature fallen and broken, a part of Tina felt bad for causing such pain to her best friend. And another part of her felt that any and all pain she felt was justifiable by her inability to tell Tina the truth about Justine. Tina’s legs started to tingle from sitting down all day. She opened the car door and dragged herself up, immediately she felt the rush of the alcohol move in her system. Thankfully she had enough sense to catch herself.

The waitress on her break saw the car pull into the lot, she was impressed. She was even more impressed when she saw that it was a woman driving the car. She saw the dark circles around her eyes and knew right away that this was going to be another customer she was going to have to keep an eye on. As she passed her she smelt the alcohol on her but she was caught by the polite small smile that came her way.

“Hi.” she said as Tina glanced her way. Tina just kept on walking, all she really wanted to do was sit still for a while after driving her car to the point where she thought she was for sure going to crack the block, all she wanted was to be still and alone.