Tina cleared her throat and everyone averted eyes, not wanting to say what needed to be said. “Are we all going to be okay? Should we- well you know,” Tina gestured, not wanting to make anyone feel uncomfortable. It was implicit that she was asking if they should talk.

Jenny stopped muttering to herself for the first time and looked up. She nodded with wide, sparkling eyes. Shane knew she was close to tears. She got up for the first time, she had been dreading it because she knew doing it would admit her fears, that even though it hadn’t happened yet, it was just the beginning to some major ***** flinging. She somehow managed to engulf Jenny in her slight arms and the smaller girl clung to her friend as if for dear life. Jenny peaked out from between Shane’s arms to look at the rest of them. Carmen sat, trying to fade into the background of things, but she was pulled out with one look into Shane’s eyes. Which were directly on her. Comforting and scolding at the same time. Comforting her for obvious reasons, but scolding her for thinking about attempting to handle things on her own. Carmen smiled and laughed at the two of them. Shane could berate her for things she hadn’t even done yet or even spoke of doing yet, and all just with one look. Sometimes she thought they were a little too ***** cute, even for herself!

“She’s leaving in two weeks,” Shane said reasonably. Everyone seemed to accept that they were talking about this. But first, the newcomers would have to have some things explained to them.

*

“And that’s how that wonderful woman broke my heart,” Jenny sighed into Shane’s forearms, she was thankful her best friends arms were still firmly around her. Shane sat on the top of the chair, with her chin resting on the top of Jenny’s head and her arms around her shoulders protectively. Everyone sat back in their seats, not realizing they had been sitting forward intently as Jenny spoke, which was something that happened every time the doe-eyed writer told a story. Carmen looked at Moe out of the corner of her eye and squinted, she was becoming too much like Shane everyday, it was even starting to get to the point where she couldn’t even tell when she was doing things just like Shane would anymore. She was trying to gage Moe’s reaction to Jenny’s heart wrenching story. She could do an alright job, but she could never accurately pick up on the things Shane picked up on almost instinctively.