She was sound asleep on the couch when she heard a door slam. She sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"Shane?" She called. "Shane, is that you?" She looked over and saw him walk into their room. She got up and followed him. "Shane! Where have you been? You haven't been home in three days!" She yelled.

"So?" He spat. She smelled the strong alcohol coming from his breath. "You've been drinking again." She frowned. She then sighed. "You know.. I'm getting so sick of you. You're never home, you don't even talk to me anymore.. The kids, Shane. They're always wondering where you are. You need to start acting like a man." She crossed her arms.

He looked at her with cold eyes. "You talk too much, you know that?" He rolled his eyes. She became furious. "I'm leaving."

He looked at her, his eyes wide open. "You're what?" "I'm LEAVING." He laughed. "No, you're not. You can't, you won't."

She looked straight into his eyes. "I am. I'm sick and tired of you." He got angry. "NO, you are NOT." He said, raising his voice. "Make me, Shane. You can't do shit about it."

He grabbed her wrists and shook her violently. "You're not leaving and that is final. Got that?" She struggled out of his grip. "I'm leaving." She repeated. He let go of her and ran his fingers through his hair. "Say it one more time." "I'M LEAVING."

She ran to the other side of the room. "ALEX!" He said, trying to grab her. She jumped over the bed and ran to the other side. "Get over here, NOW!" He said. "No!"

He kept chasing her until he pulled her by the shirt and grabbed her. Tears started flowing down her eyes as she gave up.

He wrapped his arms around her waist. "You're not leaving me, Alex. You just can't."

She sighed. "You don't care about me. You don't even know i exist. You're never home, you don't even look at the kids." His eyes began to soften. He started kissing her.

She pulled away. "No, Shane. You can't just act like nothing ever happened. You can't just start making me fall more in love with you." She looked him in the eyes. He was shocked and froze.

Flashback

It was about a month ago. Shane was hanging out with his new friends. One of them was Gigi. Gigi never liked Alex and swore to ruin her life. Well she did. Shane came in and fought with Alex. He said he liked someone else. Said he hated Alex. Alex broke down. She lost it. She fainted and woke up to see Shane putting a cold wet handcloth on her forehead.

"Baby, i'm sorry." He said, kissing her lips. "I don't know what happened to me." Alex giggled. "It's okay."

BIG MISTAKE. Since then, Shane has been going to bars, cheating on Alex and doesn't even come home most of the time. He sometimes abuses Alex too. Alex tries to keep their relationship from sinking but it seems like Shane doesn't even want to be in this relationship.

End of flashback

She sighed and got up, looking for him in the bathroom. Nope, not there. The kitchen. Nope. She began making breakfast as her 2 kids started running down the stairs.

"MOM! Adam keeps hitting me." Her 4 year old complained about her 6 year old brother. "Adam! Leave Alison alone and go wake up Hayley." She said, while frying eggs in a pan.

"Okay." Adam replied as he ran up stairs to wake up his older 11 year old sister.

They were all sitting on the table, eating.

"Mom, where's dad?" Hayley asked, taking a sip of her orange juice. "Oh.. he was just here last night. He left early to record some new songs for their soundtrack." She fake smiled. "

You've been saying that for a while now. I wasn't born yesterday, mom." "Hayley!" She said. "Stop talking and finish your breakfast." She started washing the dishes and cleaning up the kitchen.

"Now Hayley listen.. I'm gonna go check up on your dad, can you watch Adam and Alison for me? Don't fight with them, okay?" She said, grabbing her red peacot and her keys.

"I don't want to come home and see Adam stuck between the staircase again." "I got it, mom." Hayley said. "Alright."

Alex walked out of the house and to the car. She started up the car and drove to the place she knew where he would be.

She parked on Nate's driveway and rang the bell. He opened the door.

"Alex!" He smiled. "Hey." She smiled back and they hugged. "Come on in." He opened the door more for her, leading her up the stairs. "Thanks."

She smiled and walked into his living room. "So how have things been? Haven't seen you in the longest." He asked.

"It's been good." She said. They took a seat on the couch. "How have you been?" She asked. "Great, just great." He chuckled.

She smiled at the fact that he was happy. "So um-" "I know why you're here.. He's sleeping right now. He should be getting up any minute." She sighed.

"Do you mind if i wait?" "No no, not at all." He said. "How are the kids?" Nate asked. "Oh, they're good. They miss you a lot, always mentioning you." She smiled. "You should've brought them. I miss seeing them."

"Oh.. well you're welcome any time to come visit." He smiled. "Definitely, i'll come visit." He looked at her.

"Do they ask where he is?" "All the time.." She said, looking down. Nate got closer to her and rubbed her back. "I'm sorry.. I try to talk to him about it, but he keeps changing the subject."

Suddenly, they heard footsteps and saw Shane coming with his eyes half closed. He crashed on the couch.

"Thanks Nate for letting me stay here." He rubbed his eye. "Oh, it's no problem." He froze and looked up. "Alex? What are you doing here?" He turned to Nate. "What is she doing here?"

"We have to talk about this." She said. "I don't want to." He said, looking the other way.

"Shane.. what happened? Please, tell me." She said. He didn't respond.

She looked at his hand and got up and walked closer to him. "Where's your ring?" He looked at his hand. "Oh.. i lost it." She nodded her head. "I'm leaving. I'm so sick of this."

"No, Alex, wait." Nate said. "I'm sorry, Nate.. but i've had it." Nate glared at Shane. Shane rolled his eyes. "Look, Alex.. I'm sorry, okay?"

She walked to the door and turned her head to look at him. "If you really were, why are you here?" "Shane, get up. You're going with her." Nate said, getting up from the couch. "Nate, come on man." "No." He pulled Shane up. "Not until you two resolve things." Shane looked at Alex, then Nate. "Fine." He muttered. Alex and Shane both walked out the door.