If Alice thought she was confused and surprised by the kiss, it was nothing compared to what Dana was feeling.

Dana watched Alice’s retreating figure hurry down the sidewalk.  She brought a hand up to her lips and touched them gingerly.  What was that?  Alice just kissed me…and I kissed her back.

She dumbly stepped back inside and closed the door softly behind her.  “She kissed me,” she murmured aloud, her hand on the deadbolt.

“Who was that, pookie?” Tonya’s sleepy voice asked from behind her.

Dana winced.  I’ve asked her to stop calling me that so much.  The first few times it was cute, but after the next hundred times it got tiring.  “It was nothing.  Just someone who was lost.  Go ahead and go back to bed.  I’ll be there soon.”

“But pookie,” Tonya whined.  “I want you to come to bed with me.”

Dana bristled at the tone of Tonya’s voice.  Has she always sounded this annoying?  How did I not notice it before?

“Dana-kins,” Tonya said suddenly, putting a hand to Dana’s forehead.  “You look a little flush.  And you feel warm.  Are you getting sick?”

Dana pulled away from her hand.  “No, I – um, yes, actually, I am feeling a little sick, now that you mention it.  Maybe I’d better sleep on the couch.”

Tonya nodded.  “Good idea.  I don’t wanna get sick.  And I want my little pookie to get better.”

Clenching her teeth, Dana gave her a quick peck on the cheek.  There’s that word again.

As Dana settled into the couch with her pillow and blanket, her mind replayed the events from earlier.  Alice kissed me.  But why?

Pulling her legs up to her chest, she laid her chin on her knees and wrapped her arms around herself.  She was suddenly seeing both Tonya and Alice in a new light.  Dana had to admit that the only reason she was with Tonya was because she made her feel safe and loved, which was something Dana had been yearning for at that point in her life.  Suddenly, she was beginning to wonder if that was the best thing to do:  to settle for someone who was safe.

Dana sighed.  Safe, and annoying, as she’d just recently begun to notice.  After what had just happened, she couldn’t help but compare Tonya to Alice, and she now was beginning to see what seemed to bother all of her friends so much about the woman.  And suddenly Alice wasn’t just her best friend anymore; she was the best friend who had just kissed Dana at four a.m.

And it wasn’t just any kiss.  It had been full of passion, feeling, and yearning.  But was it real?  Dana wondered.  Did she kiss me because she likes me, or just because she hates Tonya so much that she’d do anything to get rid of her?

Dana’s hand went to her lips again, rubbing them and remembering the kiss.  But you can’t fake a kiss like that, can you? 

She was full of questions and not a single answer.  Confused, Dana lay back on the couch.  Hearing Tonya’s loud snores from the other room, she scowled and buried her face in the pillow to try to go to sleep. But sleep would not come.  All she could do was think of Alice and wonder what that kiss had meant.