Ashley sat at the piano. She played some notes and with them still in her mind wrote them down. Toby walked in with a sandwich in hand. "Whatcha playing?" he asked.

"Mind your own business," she said.

"Fine, Madame Grinch," he replied. He took his sandwich and went upstairs to his room. Ever since Craig had went psycho and slapped her she had been a pain to live with. Toby walked into his room and sat down. He picked up an anime magazine and flipped through it.

Downstairs, Ashley played some more on the piano. Even though the slap (that she deserved) was a while back she still felt it across her face every time she thought about Craig.

She thought about the song he had written for her, before he had sex with Manny. It was beautiful and it was written just for her. She got jealous thinking that Craig is probably writing songs for Sammy and playing them on his guitar and singing them for her. Her muscles tightened and she stopped paying attention to the notes, she let all her anger flow into her fingers, let them fly across the keys, playing notes, some of them repeatedly if she liked the feel of it. Craig was probably going to marry her and start a family with her, Gabriel, and the baby. Ashley had her whole wedding to Craig planned out, the colors, the flowers, the church, the whole nine yards. She even had names picked out for their children (they were going to have two, a boy and a girl) and then adopt some from China, Japan, Asia, Africa, different ethnicities. She even had names picked out for them. But thanks to Sammy, her dreams were killed. She played harder on the keys and faster, playing loud instead of soft. Tears filled the back of her eyes. SHE HATED CRAIG MANNING! SHE HATED Sammy THOMAS! SHE HATED THEIR UNBORN CHILD! SHE HATED EVERYONE! She hit the last of the keys, nearly jamming them. She snapped back to reality and looked around. She had been so lost in her thoughts and music that she forgot she was in her living room.

She was breathing heavy by now and she stood up from the piano and gathered her sheet music and ran to her room and slammed the door. "Everything's going to be ok, Ashley," she told herself. "Things will only get better."

But she knew that they wouldn't. Her definition of "better" was being with Craig. And that was never going to happen.