“Shane, you don’t know? Me and Dana broke up.”

“What?! Why, what happened?” Suddenly she was overcome by guilt, had
she been so lost in her own misery that she hadn’t even known her best
friends had broken up?

“I just realized I wasn’t in love with her,” Alice said with a slow shrug and Shane just stared at her in disbelief.

“What happened to the real Alice?” Shane asked, staring confusedly in
front of her until Angelica pulled her hair and got her attention back.
“Did you see where Al went?” she asked her and pulled her tiny hand
open to stop her from possibly tearing her hair out of her scalp.
“She’s definitely stronger than she looks,” Shane moaned.

“I kinda realized I had really strong feelings for someone else”

“*****!” Shane said quietly and their eyes locked for a moment. “How did Dana take it?”

Alice gave her a look that said “that’s all you have to say?”
but Shane didn’t see it. “She seemed to take it pretty well,” she said
aloud. “I think she wants to get back together with Lara so it was
probably for the best.”

“All of it sounds really fu hmm crazy,” Shane corrected
herself and looked suspiciously down on Angelica as if to see if she’d
heard what auntie Shane almost said. “Who’s that other person you had
feelings for? Someone I know?”

“I’m really not up for talking about that now,” Alice said and shook
her head, just then she realized that was exactly what Shane had been
saying about her own problems. “Can’t you just come over tonight and we
can hang out for a while like old times?”

“Sure, why not, right?” Shane looked up and smiled a little and Alice felt like her heart skipped a beat.

“Just try not to care about her, okay?” Alice got up from the couch
and shot a quick glance over to where Carmen and Gabby were. “If she’s
stupid enough to be with Gabby, then she’s a freak anyway.”

“Alice, you were with Gabby.”

“See? That’s what I’m saying!”

They both burst out laughing and for a moment all their problems were
forgotten. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine,” Shane assured her. “I’ll see ya
tonight then, right?”

“Yeah,” Alice smiled and left Shane with Angelica and all those thoughts that were spinning around in her head.

What was going on? Why was everyone just breaking up all of a sudden?
At least Bette and Tina were back together but still, Dana and Alice,
herself and Carmen Jenny had gone home, nothing was like it should
have been.

The world really was upside down.