Bette and Tina arrived outside of Angelica’s door and stared at it, willing it to open. After a few seconds, Tina sighed and slumped down with her back against the wall. She took a sip of her wine and closed her eyes briefly.

“Long day?” Bette asked smiling at her ex-wife.

“When isn’t it with a 13 year old?”

“I was thinking more of work, we can get through this. My father had a saying that I recently made my mantra. It’s ‘small people, small problems, big people, big problems’ and I repeat it at least twice a day.”

“We’re use to running into this type of thing, but to a 13 year old this is catastrophic Bette. This is her entire life since she spends most of it at school. Oh and no offense, but I hardly take advice from Melvin on parenting. You’ve said so yourself he was completely unapproachable.”

“Look, I’m not minimizing it,” Bette looked down at Tina with a serious look on her face. “I never thought at 13 she’d face bigotry and prejudice, but she has, and we’ll confront it. I’d rather that she experience the world then to be so sheltered she misses out on things because we want to protect her from this kind of stuff.”

Tina just closed her eyes again, leaning her head back against the wall trying to construct the perfect sentence to have her stubborn daughter magically open the door.

“Want me to try?” Bette smiled as if reading Tina’s mind.

“Be my guest, nothing I’ve said gets through.”

Angelica had wiped the tears from her eyes as she struggled to gain control of her breathing. She ran her fingers over her soft teddy bear that she got as a baby from her mothers on her first Christmas. She had remained quiet listening to the conversation occurring on the opposite side of her bedroom door.

She laid down with her teddy bear thinking back to what was said at school. Some of it she didn’t even understand, she just knew it was negative in nature and being said about her mothers. She was startled when Bette knocked at her door.

“Boo,” Angelica smiled at the affectionate nickname her Mama B uses often. “Can you unlock the door so we can talk to you?”

Bette’s request was met with silence.

“Angie we’re not mad, we just want to talk,” Bette’s continued plea fell on deaf ears.

“I told you to get rid of that lock how many months ago?” Bette looked at Tina with a raised eyebrow.

“I know, rubbing it in isn’t going to help,” Tina smiled up at her. She knew that in flashing one simple smile, Bette would typically smile back lessening the tension between the two.

Angelica sat up now as she listened to Bette continue to ask her to open the door to facilitate a conversation. It did mean a lot to Angie that Bette took a break from her gallery to try to help her. She knew how busy she was before a show, adding to that her current demanding girlfriend Kristen, Angelica knew Bette’s time came at a premium.

Angelica had a habit of meeting the women Bette dated and instantly deciding at least 10 reasons why she didn’t like them. At the top of every list was that the woman was not Tina. She longed for her parents to be reunited and often plotted to get what she wanted. Angelica counted how many times she’d had a conversation with Bette about why she was dating other women when she loved Tina. Bette always dismissed it, often telling Angelica not to be concerned with her dating life.

Bette saw the distressed look on Tina’s face as she bent down to get eye level with her.

“It’s going to be okay, trust me.”

Bette stood back up and knocked again.

“Angie, I’d like you to open the door now.”

Bette had enough of trying to nicely ask her daughter to open the door. Her legs were close to where Tina sat against the wall and without thinking, Tina wrapped her arm around Bette’s calf as she had done so many times when they were a couple. She leaned her cheek against her thigh in an effort to relax, warding off the headache that was threatening to come to the surface. Bette effortlessly tangled her hand in Tina’s hair, massaging her scalp as if she was told that Tina had a headache. The level of which both of them knew the other was astounding.

“Honey?” Tina started slow. “Can we come in please? We want to talk to you. Your friends told us a little about what’s been going on and we need to talk to you about it. We know it’s a confusing and upsetting time, but maybe we can help.”

Tina looked up at Bette and met her eyes. She shrugged her shoulders in near defeat causing Bette to smile at her and pull her cheek closer into her thigh.

Tina took a deep breath in missing the closeness with Bette she was now experiencing.

“You smell good,” Tina said smiling into Bette’s leg.

“Who told you what happened?” Angelica asked in an angry voice. Tina whipped her head up and stared at the same door Bette’s eyes were transfixed on.

“Why does that matter?” Bette asked confused.

“I have no idea.”

Angelica was not only upset at the happenings at school, she had also had a traumatic weekend 3 weeks ago when she was staying with Bette. The only person that knew what happened was her best friend Cathy. She was wondering if her mothers had talked to Cathy, how much did they know about school and what she now called ‘the weekend from hell’.

That weekend from hell started out like weekends normally did, Bette picked her up from school and they met Kristen for dinner at The Planet. Angelica was thankful that her Aunt Kit always took time to eat with them when they were there. It served as a distraction from the woman currently dating her mother. It made Angelica uncomfortable when Kristen tried to hang on Bette, holding her hand, kissing her in public, and she rolled her eyes at Kit every time any affection was shown. Kit would laugh and pat Angelica’s hand, a sign that she understood and felt the same way about Bette’s current girlfriend.

The drive home was annoying at best. Bette drove with her hand on Kristen’s thigh, and while Angelica couldn’t stand to see that, she couldn’t take her eyes off of it the entire ride home. When they got to Bette’s house, the one she shared with Tina for so many years, Bette told Angelica it was time for bed. Technically it had already past, but she wanted to stay up and talk to her mother about her feelings regarding Kristen. It had been a conversation they had already had numerous times in the 8 months that Bette had been seeing Kristen.

Angelica spent the better part of the next 3 hours tossing and turning. Her mind was contriving ways to break Bette and Kristen up. She wanted her mothers to reunite and vowed to stop at nothing to get that. After the third hour passed and she had no ideas and still no rest, she got up and switched on her laptop. She had one in her room at Bette’s house and one in her room at Tina’s house. Both houses had the same rule, it was to be used only with adult supervision. However, Angelica was desperate and needed to call in reinforcements.

She logged into her IM account and saw her best friend Cathy online as available, which brought a smile to her face. She was counting on her being available to talk. Cathy was often the reinforcements Angelica leaned on.

Boo: Cat, you there? Bet you’re sneaking on the computer again aren’t you?

Kitty: Hey you! Shhhhhhhhhh, no telling! I was playing a game, nobody else is on and I’m bored!

Boo: I am so bugged right now I am gonna barf!

Kitty: What’s ↑

Angelica laughed when Cathy started to use symbols instead of words.

Boo: Mama B’s barfy girlfriend came to dinner and she hasn’t left yet…*barf*

Kitty: Oh sorry

Boo: I hate her!

Kitty: Is she being mean?