Dawn loses her grip on the situation.

Dawn parked her car in front of Jasmine’s apartment, letting out a nervous sigh as she turned off the ignition. Climbing the stairs to her door, she anxiously rang the doorbell and then turned around, afraid to look Jasmine in the face when the girl opened the door.

“Hey honey,” she heard Jasmine’s light-hearted voice exclaim. “Come here you silly girl.”

She turned to see Jasmine standing before her, arms extended for a hug. Dawn leaned in to return the gesture, her heart beating in her throat, her stomach gripped by a combination of excitement and nausea.

Dawn stepped into the apartment and much to her surprise found herself staring face to face with another girl.

“Dawn, this is Michelle. Michelle, Dawn,” Jasmine motioned as she made the appropriate introductions.

“Hi, nice to meet you,” Michelle said cheerfully.

“You too,” Dawn replied in a semi-shocked state.

Turning to Jasmine, Michelle reached for her coat and put it on hastily. “Well I’d better go sweetie. We’ll have to hang out again sometime soon. Give me a call.”

The girl reached in and gave Jasmine hug and a light kiss and turned to exit.

Dawn scooted out of the way, watching the scene through the thin layer of film coating her eyes, and nodded at Michelle as she said goodbye to her and walked out the door.

“Dawn?” Jasmine asked suspiciously. Not receiving any response she called the girls name again, a little louder.

Dawn couldn’t move as the anxiousness in her belly transformed to rage. Her body went rigid her mind filled with thoughts of betrayal at Jasmine for hurting her. As she stood anchored to her spot in the doorway. Finally Jasmine’s voice broke through and she turned the face the girl, fueled by a jealousy totally foreign to her sensibilities.

“So, new girlfriend I see,” she sardonically spit at Jasmine. “Are you sleeping with her?”

A look of bewilderment spread across Jasmine’s face.

“What?” she uttered in total confusion. “Dawn, what’s wrong? Michelle is just a friend. Ok, she’s a little more than a friend. But, since when do you care if I’m dating someone, let alone sleeping with them.”

Dawn breathed in deeply, praying for some way to erase the past five minutes. “Now I’ve gone and done it,” she thought to herself. “How am I going to explain this?”

Fighting for rationality, Dawn eased her glare and spoke a bit more calmly.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I’ve been really stressed out lately, and well, I guess some sort of weird over-protective best friend mechanism went haywire.”

“Ok?” Jasmine replied shaking her head still a bit thrown off by Dawn’s outburst. “Do you want to talk about it? I hate to see you so upset. This isn’t like you.” She reached out and reticently put a comforting hand on Dawn’s shoulder.

Tears welling in her eyes, Dawn looked back at Jasmine, aching to crawl into her arms and confess everything.