“Bette? You’re being awful quiet.” Kit says to me.

“I was just thinking that we’re sitting here all sad and angry with one another. I should feel pissed and remorseful. But it’s still the coolest night of my life. The girl I love loves me and my big sister’s here.” Tina gets a twinkle in her eye. And now I really and I can’t stress that enough, that I don’t care if my brother and her friend are staring daggers at me.

“Eric?” Kit says. Yes Eric top that.

“This is bullshit. All that time wasted. Tina I thought you liked me…. I’m outta here.” then he left. Not like I could’ve stopped him. He hates me…again. When I get home, he should be good and pissed. Well, I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. Just then my baby speaks, but not with love in her eyes. Their narrowed again and aimed at Grace.

“You’re so spoiled, Gracie. Always pouting when you don’t get your way.” She arched her eyebrow and crossed her arms, daring Grace to say something. I would really hate to be on her bad side. But Grace jumped, accepting the challenge. Before round two could begin, Kit stepped in.

“Ok, since, none of you could handle this the mature way, I’m gonna tell you like it is. Grace, Bette’s not your girlfriend. She’s wasn’t promised to you and the thick-headed girl has her own mind. Bette, you should have been honest with your brother. The first night it happened. If you felt something for Tina, then you should have been up front about it. I don’t want to hear about what happened in Philly as an excuse anymore. And you.” She turns to Tina.

“You seem to be the central figure in this circus. I know you didn’t plan it, and I heard about your family situation. But the fact is, you have Bette’s heart in your hands, you have got to be delicate with it. And she’ll be good to you.” You tell her sis, I’m a sensitive soul here. But she turns to me. What did I do? She gives me a look, of, what’s that? warning? I think she’s serious.

“Or I will kick your little ***** back to the East Coast. Understand?” Damn, there’s no room for interpretation with that statement. But it’s a fair warning. One that’ll I’ll be sure to heed. She turns back to Tina.

“No more hiding Tina. You took the big step, time to follow you bliss.”

“Thank you.” she says, a little shakily. That’s the affect Kit has one people, she’ll knock some good sense into you, but never fail to let you know that she loves you despite your foolishness.

It got eerily quiet after that. Everyone went into their own heads, absorbing all that went on in these last few hours, the last couple of days. But I gathered the way Grace jumped off of the couch before Kit could stop her, her thoughts took her to a place that pissed her off. I watched in horror as she threw the last of my drink in Tina’s face and chucked the empty glass towards her head, it smashing against the wall behind her.

“*****!!!! you’ll be sorry Tina. I swear to God, you’ll be sorry!!!!!” She ran out of the room, knocking down the props that were settled backstage. The very ‘active’ bouncer followed her out. What good was he, if her could let something like that happen. He just wanted to see what was going on with the four of us.

“Well that went OK.” Kit said, adding a bit of levity. Damn that was a ***** way to end the night. For Grace anyway.

“Yeah great. We should do it again sometime, right T?” But Tina wasn’t laughing. She wasn’t even crying. Her face was white and her eyes her completely dilated.

“Oh my God, Kit help her!!!!!” I heard myself scream. I couldn’t move after I looked at her. My face of horror and fear matched Tina’s and I just couldn’t move.

“Oh my God. Bette go get SOMEONE!!!!” Kit screamed at me to move or blink or something. But I couldn’t. It didn’t help matters that Tina had just fainted. When Kit touched to back of her head to move her, her hand came up covered in my T’s blood.