“Right on time.” Helena smiled as she crawled inside the small car. “What ever is the matter Alice? You look a fright!” She exclaimed when she saw the state the other woman was in. Her eyes were red. So was her nose, and the colour of her skin was paler than ever before.

“Thanks.” Alice let out a hollow chuckle.

“I am sorry, Alice. That didn’t come out right. You just look so pale. What happened? Is there some sort of problem with Dana?”

Alice chuckled again. “You might say that.” She noticed the other woman observing her very closely. “We had a fight. At least I think we did, I’m not sure what it was actually. But anyway, I don’t wanna bore you with that. So Where should we go?”

Helena looked Alice straight in the eyes as she spoke: “You’ve been incredibly patient with my embarrassing emotional outbursts. Let me return the favour and listen to you now. It’s obviously something that’s bothering you.”

“Helena” Alice sighed.

“To me you’re already a very dear friend, Alice, but I understand if you don’t feel ready to confide in me yet. After all, we’ve only been friendly for a short while and”

“It’s not that, Helena. Really. I mean, I trust you, I do, but the whole thing is just so fucking humiliating.” Alice said, unable to look at the heiress directly. Since she was a child Alice had closely avoided eye contact whenever she felt uncomfortable. Instead she focused all her attention on the steering wheel. A silence followed, Helena was not sure if Alice wanted to say anything else, but did not want to ask because she felt that Alice should decide for herself when and about what she wanted to talk. They sat in complete silence in the car outside Helena’s house for several minutes. The only thing you could hear was their breaths, and occasionally a very quiet sob from Alice. Helena silently moved her hands to Alice’s right one, took it between her palms and stroked it in a sort of clumsy but yet comforting way. She just had to do something to assure her friend that she was there for her. Alice tried to sigh, but it just sounded like a giant sob. “I don’t know why I feel this way, Helena.” When Alice finally spoke it almost came as a surprise to the dark haired woman, who was still silent, but also still very focused on the woman next to her. Alice’s voice was a mixture of many things, anger and frustration and despair.  “You know When we got together for real, I couldn’t believe how happy I was. So fucking happy. Like if you were to describe happiness and love that was it! You know what I mean? That was IT. I didn’t know I could feel like that, feel so much. But now I’m just Every time she goes to see her, or even mentions her name, I feel sick Every time. It started out that way, but now I almost can’t even look at her without my stomach just turning. I can’t even look at the my own girlfriend, my best friend for years without that feeling of I dunno, future betrayal, or something.”