“With the happiness comes the hurt, with the hurt comes the love. Try it and you will see that being hurt is worth all the love that comes with it. And who knows, maybe the candybox you picked does not include hurt.”

Bette shot her parting words and started to make her way back to her house. Shane looked on, still processing the words. Suddenly she jumped up and ran to Bette.

“Hey Bette, wait up!”

“Yeah, Shane?”

“Thank you, for being my friend.” Shane drew Bette into a tight embrace and held her for a long moment. Bette hugged right back, her tears threatening in her eyes. When Shane finally released her grip on her friend, Bette gave her arm a reassuring squeeze and nodded towards her house, indicating that she had to go.

Shane silently watched her friend walk off.

—————————————————————-

“Shane seems to be a cold, heartless player who don’t do relationships. But you know wat, I think that is exactly what she needs right now. And you are just theperson for the job. She also needs a smack on the head for being so dumb. But that is besides the point.” Tina had said.

Carmen chuckled as she looked at Tina inquistively, needing the reaffirmaton that she knew Tina could provide.

“What is it like? With you and Bette?” Carmen asked in a soft voice, afraid to offend Tina. Tina just smiled reassuringly at Carmen.

“Well, we have been through alot. The sweetness aplenty but there was a fair amount of bitterness too. I am not ready to forgive her totally just yet. But I am willing to try, because I know that deep down, she will always be the one for me. Of course, a smack on the head is also in the cards too.”

Carmen sipped her tea, pondering Tina’s words, trying to apply them to her own situation. She shook her head suddenly.

“No… There isstill Jenny. I.. hurt her too much. I can’t hurt her anymore.”

Tina smiled sadly at Carmen, understand the difficult position that she was in. Tina gave a reassuring pat on Carmen’s lap and decided it was wiser to let Carmen sort out her feelings. This was not something someone else could decide for her.

Carmen continued to sip her tea quietly, not aware that Tina had left the couch and went into her room. She thought of Shane and her feelings, then the thoughts jumped to Jenny and her fainting at the driveway. As she set her cup down, she heard Tina calling out to her.

“Come, it is time for work. Rome was not built in a day, and this is not going to be solved immediately. You need makeup for work, use the stuff here.” Tina held out a makeup pouch to Carmen and ushered her back into the washroom.

——————————————–

Shane dragged a last puff out of her cig and threw it into the beer can she had for an ashtray. She picked the cig pack up and realised that she had finished the whole pack in that one sitting.

“*****….” Shane sighed. She stood up, strolling back into the kitchen to look for more mind numbing activities. As she searched around for more alcohol and ciggerattes, she heard footsteps and looked up just in time to see Jenny walking into the kitchen.