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She likes Audrey, Laura thought with a strange tingle in her stomach. Donna was watching Audrey with a rueful little half smile, as she moved across the diner. Audrey leaned over the jukebox, with a little half smile of her own, accompanied by a darting movement of her own eye towards Donna. Audrey knew Donna was watching her. Clearly, she liked it.
There was no reason to be jealous. There was no reason for the ugly roaring inside her head, a roar that sounded too much like BOB.
“Mine!” The roar longed to escape from her mind and lunge at Audrey. “Mine! Mine! Mine!”
“Laura?” Donna’s attention had returned to her. “Are you all right?” She was all innocent concern, completely clueless about what had happened. She probably didn’t even realize she was attracted to Audrey.
“I’m fine.” Audrey was looking at her, now. The expression in her eyes was both provocative and challenging. She’d found something to take from Laura, something that got under Laura’s skin.
A sigh escaped from Laura. Audrey’s hostility was exhausting to deal with. She didn’t really want to deal with it, because she understood only too well how Audrey felt.
“Go talk to her,” Donna urged.
“Donna, she hates me,” Laura said, feeling old and tired, as she often did around Donna. “She needs to hate me.”
“I don’t understand,” Donna said, leaning forward. “Why? Why does she need to hate you? Why can’t you just smile and make peace with her, like you do with almost everyone who dislikes you?”
“It’s more complicated than that,” Laura said, taking a drink from her coffee cup. “I have too much respect for Audrey to smile at her.”
“You say the weirdest things,” Donna said, shaking her head. “If you respect her, you should be nice to her.”
“You be nice to her,” Laura suggested, putting down her cup. “She’d appreciate niceness from you. It’s real.”
“Are you saying your niceness isn’t real?” Donna asked. She was watching Laura intently.
“Not always,” Laura said, staring at the glass pane. She could see the trees lying beyond, where, as always, the owls were watching.
Leave us alone, BOB. Just go away and leave us alone.