“Yeh shit I suppose we need to. Eh I have Lenore’s number somewhere.”

Shane took over, “It’s cool Dane, I’ve got it covered, I’ll do it.”

Dana smiled, remembering the so called kissing incident with Lenore and Shane a few years ago

“Sure thing Shane”

Bette kissed Alice’s gently on the cheek before giving Dana a quick hug and leaving with Shane.

“Back soon Al” Shane added as she took her phone out of her pocket and followed Bette outside.

Bette drove home carefully but as quickly as she dared, just wanting to be near Tina and Angelica as quickly as possible. Angelica had been sleeping well through the night for the past few weeks and Bette found Tina fast asleep in bed when she arrived home.  Exhausted from the previous days experience Bette just climbed in next to her, waking Tina in the process.

Tina sat up immediately,

“Bette where the hell have you been?”

Bette just stared at Tina in disbelief

“What?”

“I was in a meeting that ran late, I got a voicemail from you saying you were going to find Al and could I go round to Dana’s till you phoned then I got a message from Shane saying not to bother. I had to pick Angelica up from Angus myself then finally get home and nobody answered at Dana’s and your cellphone was off.”

It took all of Bette’s self control to interrupt and scream at Tina.

“So you want to know where I was do you Tina?”

“Well Bette that would be handy.”

“If you had managed to overlook my failing in being home on time you might’ve wondered why neither Shane or Dana or myself answered your calls? If you had not been so fucking wrapped up in your own life then you might’ve heard about the massive fucking accident on La Cienga yesterday afternoon and the fact that one of our best friends was involved and that I’ve been sat by her bedside in intensive care all night long watching Al’s every breath not daring to fall asleep in case she isn’t alive when I woke up. Dana had fucking chemo yesterday and spent all night with her doing exactly the same as me ”  Bette was now becoming hysterical and collapsed on their bed in floods of tears.