Chapter 9

Sunday brought an early awakening for Alice who struggled to find her robe and get to the door.

Peering through the peephole, she unlocked the door to allow Bette in

“’lo” Alice grumbled hoarsely as she struggled for coherence.

“What the fuck Alice?”

“Huh?” Alice asked, starting to get her bearings more quickly.

Meanwhile Bette tried to reconcile the urgency and frustration she felt with the need to remain relatively as calm with her friend.

She took a deep calming breath…then she took another.

“Calm is good, go with that.  I’m going to make coffee”  Alice announced and proceeded sleepily down the hall with her oversized pjs struggling to stay up on her thin frame.

Bette followed her and sat down at the table. She waited as patiently as she could so that Al could finish making her coffee but the morning’s conversation started to work its way into her head again causing her emotions to start re-percolating.

“Alice, what did you do last night?”

Al was like a deer in the headlights at the subdued tone with which Bette asked the question.

As she normally did when nervous she started playing with her hair as she took a large gulp of coffee – using the time to try to create a strategy but the brain was still in neutral.

“Oh, you know.  This and that.”

“Uh huh.  Funny thing.  When I came out of the house this morning, I was virtually assaulted by Jenny.”

“Bitch” Al mumbled.

“So I ask again Alice, what the fuck?”

Alice plopped down heavily in the chair across from Bette and dropped her head into her hands.

“Bette, you know the saying that no good deed goes unpunished?”

“Yes.”

“Well that was last night.”

“Not helping Alice.  I want to know what the hell Tina was doing with Candace and why I had to hear it from Jenny.”

“Look Bette.  Tina, Papi and I…”

“Papi again ?!”  Bette interrupted.

“Yes, Papi.  Did you want to know ‘what the fuck’ or not?” Alice shot back. 

“Go on.” Bette conceded.

“Ok we went to Sweet Pea so that we wouldn’t run into anyone we knew.”