“Who cares?”, Carmen throws her hands in the air, exasperated, “Who fucking cares at this point, Shane? Jenny tried to kill herself and they saved her. Why aren’t you with her? Why are you here talking to me?”.

“Why I’m not with her anymore is something we will not discuss. I’m here to talk about you and me. To talk about us”, Shane says, glaring at her.

Carmen chuckles bitterly, shaking her head.

“There’s not an us, Shane. Us is gone. It has been gone for a long time”.

Shane’s shoulders slump and it’s an almost imperceptible movement, but Carmen notices it. And she immediately hates herself because what she feels is painful. It’s guilt, and she shouldn’t be feel guilty. Not at all. Not with Shane.

But she can’t help it. She’s helpless in front of her. Always. She’s always been. Some things never change.

“Look…”, she says, softer than she intends, “…I was sad because I couldn’t banish the porno movie of the two of you from my mind and it was gross. I was sad because I was jealous. In fact, I wasn’t only sad. I was pissed as hell”.

Shane’s eyes snap up and they’re confused and questioning. They narrow a little, trying to study her. Carmen looks down immediately. She doesn’t need to be scrutinized by Shane. She doesn’t want to.

“That’s the truth you wanted to hear”, she murmurs, bitterly.

“That’s what you think I wanted to hear or that’s the real truth?”, Shane asks.

Carmen shrugs.

“It’s the real truth. Are you finished? Can you go now?”, she gives in and sounds tragically funny.

Shane struggles to hide a smile and rubs her mouth.

“Do you want me to go?”, she whispers.

Carmen doesn’t look at her. She plays with the small jar of peanuts and doesn’t reply. She looks pensive and Shane becomes bold.

“Can I have one?”, she asks, stretching out her arm and plunging her hand into the jar. She grabs a peanut and her forefinger lingers on the back of Carmen’s hand.

“Now that you’ve had your peanut, can you please go?”, Carmen moans.

Again, Shane represses a smirk. She tosses the peanut into her mouth and chews it appreciatively.