But now, Jenny wasn’t around and Shane had only Alice and Dana to count on. Thank god they worked out their differences.

She rushed out when her friends arrive, rushed through her job, and rushed all the way back home. She had hoped that maybe being away from her might get Carmen to open up, maybe talk to her friends. But when she got back home, her friends met her at the door with the same depressing news.

“Not a word, Shane, she even refused to eat her favorite cheese treat Dana brought.”

Not even Alice’s quirkiness or Dana’s goofiness had rub off on Carmen, and Shane was getting as depressed as Carmen was.

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With Alice and Dana around, it seemed like time passed even slower. They tried, tried really hard to talk to her, and with the two of them, it was never difficult to draw laughter from everyone around. But it didn’t work, seeing them together, as a couple made Carmen cringe a little. Why can’t she be the same? Dana outed herself to the world, and Alice, Alice never had a problem with sexuality, going where her heart tells her to. Why can’t she go where her heart told her to, why can’t she tell the whole world, “Hey look at me! I am Gay!”

But Carmen knew she can. She could tell the whole world that she was gay. She just couldn’t tell her family, and now they had abandoned her.

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Every night, Shane would watch TV on the couch, beside her girlfriend who was sleeping the effects of the drugs off, and when Carmen awoke, Shane would bring her some food to eat. At best, Carmen would nibble at her meals, but most of the time, the food remained untouched. They would watch TV together in silence for awhile. And then Carmen would walk back into the room to sleep.

The only indication of hope, the only motivation to continue fighting on, was the way Carmen would kiss her on the cheek goodnight.

On the first night, Shane was ecstatic; she had mistaken Carmen’s little show of affection as somewhat of an invitation, a show of opening up. She quickly washed up the dishes and made her way into the room. But she realized to her dismay that Carmen had changed and fallen asleep in bed. Well, at least she was trying to show that she was sleeping. Shane could tell, from the way Carmen wriggled her toes, that Carmen was feigning sleep. Whenever they fight, and Carmen didn’t wanna talk to her, she would feign sleep and she always wriggled her toes.