OMG. I can't believe you guys would think I'd make them get a divorce. I'm appalled. Lol. I would never stoop that low. In fact, I was just setting up Mitchie's fears. Believe me, the Smitchie plans for future chapters are… bouncy. Haha. Don't ask. I won't tell. So, many of you had mixed feelings about the last chapter. You liked it, but you hated Mitchie. Or you could agree with Mitchie but you could also agree with Shane. Or you thought they were both being stupid. Welcome to real life. Lol. There's always multiple sides. And, yes I know you are all going to hate me at the end of this chapter. But, I have a teaser to piss you off more at the end. Haha. No, Mitchie isn't pregnant. I swear. There's another reason. Hasn't come out yet, okay? And ya'll are lucky my brother took my stuff early -he's taking all of my college stuff tomorrow night in his truck and me and Dad are driving up Sat morning- cause he took Jensen -the desktop- so I couldn't do anything but write on Jason. Grrr. I wanted to play with my art program too, cause I made two sketches I wanted to work on.

Chapter 33:

Caitlyn glared at me, again. We'd been fighting for almost 3 weeks nonstop. The guys would be home in two weeks and nerves, emotions, stress, and hormones were ruining high.

"Are you sure you're not pregnant?" She asked with narrowed eyes. "Cause all of your mood swings are seriously getting on my nerves."

I sighed. "I'm sorry, Cait. I don't know what's wrong or why I'm so bipolar lately." Most of the fights had been my fault.

"More like multipolar." She laughed. "Something's bothering you. We never fought like this when we lived together in high school. Why are we at each other's throats now?" She asked seriously.

"I don't know. I just… I don't know." I placed my head between my knees, trying to control my emotions. "I can't seem to settle on one emotion anymore. I'm worried about my grades, I'm worried about Stas, I'm still fighting with Nicky which is still awkward… Things with Shane have been… off… ever since that fight… it just… it feels different. It scares me, Cait." I whispered the last sentence, willing the tears not to come again.

"I haven't seen you like this since December of Junior year." She commented. "When you cried for three weeks straight over Shane and you fighting."

I sat up and groaned in frustration. "That was simpler! I was afraid I'd lost him. I was sad. There was only one emotion. Now I'm sad, and afraid, and worried, and I'm still angry. I can't let it go. Cait, I just want to let it go." I yelled slightly as a lone tear trailed down my cheek. Angrily, I wiped at it. "God, why am I crying so damn much? It seems like all I've done for the last month was fight and cry."

"Mitchie, maybe you should go see a doctor. Maybe the 'separation anxiety' is something more serious. Maybe your like, seriously depressed or something."

I sighed. "Maybe." I shrugged. "Maybe he's right…" I said softly.

"Who?" Caitlyn asked.

"Shane… he thinks there's something wrong with me since I haven't been singing or writing music much. He says I'm not the same person I used to be. I'm starting to think he really only loves me because of his music." I paused. "Again."

"Nonsense." Caitlyn replied instantly. "I mean, he's right. You are a bit different than you were at Camp Rock, but that's not why he loves you. It's like… he fell for you as a person, and he was inspired with you as that voice. He fell in love with you when he realized that you were this amazing person and you taught him who he used to be without even meaning to. He loves you because you make him whole. He just wants you to be happy." Caitlyn tried to convince me. She did a little. "Why don't you call him? It may seem off, but the only time I ever see you smile anymore is when you talk to him or read his blog or stare at his picture."

"Yeah, okay. That's if he can answer. I think they had a show tonight." I reminded her.

"Right. Well, voicemails work, too." She said with a knowing smile.

Ever since the voicemail she left Nate were she started crying, things had been much better for them. Caitlyn was trying to express her feelings and so was Nate. They really were a dangerous combination, considering their lack of emotional expression.

I smiled and took her advice, calling Shane. I did get his voicemail. "Hey, It's Shane. I'm probably on stage or in the middle of nowhere with no service. I'll get back to you as soon as I can. But my wife will definitely be called first, so it might be a few days. Later!"

I smiled at the message. He changed it after our fight. "Hey, pop star." I sighed into the phone. "Cait said I needed to smile, so I called you. I know you're on stage right now, but I wanted to call you." I sighed. "I know things are off with us right now, but the only time I feel happy is when I talk to you. Just thought I'd let you know." I paused. "I love you." I hung up and looked at Caitlyn. "Happy?" I asked.

"Very, thank you." She replied laughing. She looked at the calendar hanging on the door. "Gah, two weeks still." She complained.

"Yeah. Thanksgiving is next week. I don't want to go." I whined.

"It'll be fine. You ignore her, she'll ignore you." Caitlyn tried to reason.

"That just makes it worse. I don't why she's still being a bitch about it. It was over a month ago and she's still ignoring me." I sighed. "I wish she would just grow up already."

"Have you tried apologizing for smacking her?" Caitlyn asked.

"No." I said simply. "I don't intend to. She deserved it. She needed some sense knocked into her. Literally."

Caitlyn laughed slightly. "I still can't believe she made up with Riley but still won't speak to you."

"Yeah, well. She likes to hold grudges." I commented indifferently. "She's the spoiled brat. Not me." She didn't want to start another argument, so she let it go.

Shane called me later on, while I was finishing up a paper. "Hey, I didn't think you'd be up." He commented sleepily.

"I have to finish the paper before the holiday. If I turn it in early, I can rewrite it during the break. I need an A on it." I explained, wishing I was in my bed instead.

"Ouch. How bad are your grades, babe?" He asked worriedly.

I sighed. "It varies. I'm not in danger of failing out, I'm just struggling to stay passing."

"So, what did you mean in your message? Things have been off?" He asked.

"Ever since that fight, I've been feelings like there's something different between us." I admitted.

He sighed. "You don't trust me." He said plainly.

"I don't know." I whispered. "I just want you to come home so everything can go back to normal."

"Nothing is ever normal with us." He reminded me.

I groaned. "Humor me?" I asked.

He chuckled. "Fine. But you have to humor me on something then." He bargained.

"What?" I asked trying to ease the tension in my neck.

"Make up with Nicky?" He asked.

"Your sister is the one holding the grudge." I replied.

"You did slap her." He argued.

"So? One day you're telling me, good for you she needed it. Now you're telling me I have to apologize for it because she won't let it go?" I demanded angrily.

"Baby, calm down. What is wrong with you lately? You've been snapping like crazy. Are you okay? Is school stressing you that badly?" He asked worriedly, ignoring the fact that I was being unreasonable again.

"I don't know." I admitted. "I'm sorry for snapping. Cait wants me to go to the doctor. I'll probably go over Christmas break."

"Should you wait that long?" He asked.

I shrugged though he couldn't see. "I don't know. I don't care. It's not on my top priorities."

"Which are?" He asked.

"Making you happy, surviving dinner with the demon sister, and school." I recited.

"School should be first." He corrected. "I should be last right now. Your health is more important."

"My marriage is more important to me, Shane." I sighed. "I'm scared." I admitted softly.

He quickly became alarmed. "What? Why?"

"I'm afraid we aren't going to make it out of this tour." I whispered.

"Don't say that." He commanded weakly. "Please don't think that."

"I'll be fine come December. When I see you." I promised.

"When it goes back to normal?" He asked hoarsely.

"Yeah." I answered.

"Finish your paper. I need to… eat." He cleared his throat slightly.

"Yeah. I think I need a mid-night snack, too." I replied, feeling the tears threatening once again.

"Love you." He said softly.

"Love you, too." I replied.

Despite the tears that were now spilling down my cheeks, I had to smile. Things were going back to normal with Shane.

Caitlyn rolled over in her bed sleepily and smiled. "You alright?" She whispered.

I nodded. "Yeah. Go back to sleep, Cait."

She laughed. "Gladly.

This year for Thanksgiving, my parents were coming up to the Grey's. Because the boys would be home a week later, we were saving the big feast for then. We would be having a small Thanksgiving dinner, with just my in-laws, my parents, and Caitlyn. Elisha had begged Anastasia to go with her to her family's, since her new boyfriend was coming as well. Elisha's, not Anastasia's. Elisha's family can be a bit… overbearing. Elisha was hoping that Anastasia would be able to break the tension a bit.

A week later, I was headed to my Sociology teacher's office to pick up my paper I turned in early. I was going to grab it and meet Kevin out in the parking lot. My teacher looked up as I knocked on his door.

"Hello, Mitchie." He smiled at me. "Here you go." He handed me back my paper, adorning it was a big fat F. My face fell to the floor. I had worked really hard on it.

"Thanks. Um, Mr. Van Vliet, is there something that I'm doing wrong? Like, in general with your papers? I can't seem to get past a C on them." I asked.

"You lack a personal touch. Part of sociology is observing the world we live in. Discussing it in objective terms is great, but you need a personal perspective sometimes, too. You need to be a little more subjective. Personally involved." Maybe it was just me, but I think my teacher was leering at me.

I shifted my weight uncomfortably. "That's um, difficult for me to do." I replied. "Your course takes a specialized look at sociology involving music. So, obviously, getting personal with certain topics are difficult because of my husband-"

His eyes narrowed a bit and I saw a look of disappointment flash across his face. "Who is your husband, again?" He asked indifferently, beginning to fiddle with the papers on his desk.

"Shane Grey." I replied. "The lead singer of Connect 3. Biggest pop group in the country and various others." I explained. "I'm sure you can see why writing on the way today's society glorifies celebrities and invade their personal lives is a bit touchy of a subject for me to write about."

"No I don't." He replied, looking me in the eye. Challenging me.

"For a sociology teacher you don't know much about what you're teaching, do you?" I asked rhetorically. Okay, so I shouldn't be mouthing off at my teacher, but he just pissed me off. "Maybe because I've had my life pried apart by them? Because my wedding night was reduced to a scandal? Because I've been accused of cheating on my boyfriend with his best friend, my best friend. Because I've become a prisoner on my college campus because of press following me? Because Shane writes one sentence in a blog and everyone is in my business about me fighting with my sister-in-law? Because I can't live a normal life and be happily married because the media has to twist and destroy and ruin everything in mine and my friend's lives." I yelled at him by the end.

"Now, that, Ms. Grey is the type of passion and personal experience I want to see if your paper and hear from you in class." He smiled at me.

"It's Mrs." I corrected him. "I took my husband's name. It's Mrs."

He smiled, looked me up and down for a moment. "I'm sure. Rewrite the paper and we'll discuss it after the break."

"Thank you." I began walking away.

"Oh, and Mitchie?" He called. I looked back at him. "If you still can't write the paper higher than a C, I'm sure there are other… options we can work out.'

"I plan on getting an A, thank you." I replied and walked away again.

I was seriously skived out when I met up with Kevin and Caitlyn.

"God, what took so long?" Kevin moaned in boredum.

I shoved him as I climbed in the passenger's seat, with Caitlyn in the back. "My skive of a teacher hitting on me." I replied,

"What?" He demanded, getting ready to climb out of the car and beat some collegiate butt.

"Chill. I handled it. I kind of ending up yelling at him about why it's hard for me to write some of his papers. So, now I have to show that kind of passion in my writing instead of the safe boring papers I've been writing." I explained.

"You sure I don't have to hurt him?" He asked.

"I promise." I smiled while Caitlyn tried not to laugh.

The mood had been relatively light in the car. Once I entered the house, it shifted. Nicky was in the kitchen helping our mother's cook. "Hey." I said, dropping my bag, Caitlyn right behind me.

Mom rushed over and hugged me tightly. "Oh, I've missed you. How are you?" She asked holding me at arms length to look me over.

"Fine, Mom." I assured her. I felt bad lying to her, but I didn't want her to worry.

"Where's Dad?" Caitlyn asked after going through the same process.

Mrs. Grey replied, "Steve and Dylan are in the living room watching a football game."

"Ah. That's why Kevin was complaining." I laughed as Caitlyn and I headed into the living room. We received similar greetings from Mr. Grey and Dad as we had from Mom and Mrs. Grey.

Everything was going smoothly until we were forced to sit and eat. Nicky and I hadn't spoken two words to each other. Wait, that's a lie. I said, "Hello, Nicky." And she glared. Okay, so we hadn't said more than two words to each other.

At dinner, Nicky and I were next to each other. Kevin and Caitlyn smiled innocently at us as we sat. She reached across me to grab the potatoes.

"You could say excuse me." I informed her. "It's proper manners. You also could have just asked for me to pass them."

"And?" She replied indifferently.

I plastered a fake grin on my face and tried to keep things civil. Or as civil as they were.

"Nicky, would you please pass me the carrots?" I asked. She ignored me, of course. I sighed and reached across her, "Excuse me." I said with fake politeness.

"There isn't one." She replied with equal fakeness.

"Excuse me?" I asked offended.

"Again, there isn't one." She repeated.

"What is your problem?" I demanded turning to her.

"You are. Why are you even here? Shane's not, so why are forced to have you here?" She demanded right back, turning to face me head on.

"Like it or not, Nicky, I am part of your family." I replied. "Everyone else likes me except you. You're just pissed I put you in your place. No one challenges you or calls you on your bullshit. That's what this is all about."

"Well you need put back in your place. You're not my sister. You don't have the right to slap me." She argued. "No one has that right."

"Maybe if you weren't being a spoiled little brat at the time, I wouldn't have had to. Personally, I thought you were too old for a spanking. Maybe I should have done that instead." I replied.

"You didn't have to smack me." She glared.

"You didn't have to be a complete and utter bitch to everyone." I retorted. "Especially not to Riley. It wasn't his fault."

"I forgave Riley." She replied.

"You shouldn't have had to." I told her. "You shouldn't have had your head so far up in the clouds that you couldn't see what lying about the two of you was doing to him."

"Like you're one to talk?" She demanded. "How often do you upset Shane? All the time. And you always let him take the blame."

"I'm not the one who's too proud to admit that I overreact and that I screw up, Nicky. There's the difference. I admit I'm wrong in the end. Do you?" I challenged her.

She avoided my challenge with her own. "Tell me the last time you admitted to being wrong."

"I forgot his birthday." I replied, never taking my eyes off of hers. I knew the guilt and pain was showing in my eyes, but I didn't care. "I got mad at him for trying to get me to sing again because he resorted to secrecy to do it. I bitched at him in a voice mail on his birthday because I thought he was ignoring my calls not that he didn't have signal. See Nicky, I can admit when I'm wrong. I don't avoid owning up to it." I sighed deeply, closing my eyes. "Nicky, I don't want to keep fighting with you. I had no intentions of this getting to this point. Maybe slapping you was extreme, but it was the only way to get through to you. I won't apologize for it. Us fighting is hurting me, it's hurting Shane, and I'm sure it's hurting you."

I opened my eyes to see hers glistening. "I'm sorry. I should have listened to you in the first place. I do need to grow up." Nicky said, not looking at me.

"It's okay. You're only 16. You're kneejerk reaction is to run from problems and never face them head on. You think you're right and that's all that matters. Sometimes you have to be the bigger person and let things go." I explained.

"You're right." She replied.

"I'm sorry, too. I didn't mean to piss you off by what I said that day. I just let my protectiveness get the better of me. I didn't want to see Riley get hurt again because you were too afraid." I explained.

"I was wrong, anyway. I would have regretted it if I broke up with him." She admitted.

"Are we good now?" I asked uncertainly.

"Yeah." She answered half smiling.

"Come here." I hugged her tightly. "Sometimes a big sister has to call the little sister on her stupidity. And sometimes the little sister has to do the same." I told her.

"So… now that that's over, can you pass the rolls?" Kevin asked. I picked up a roll and chucked it at him.

The rest of dinner went by in a blink of laughter and amusement. By the time Caitlyn and I were crawling into Shane's bed, it was almost 1:30. Just as we were about to settle down my phone rang. Seeing that it was Anastasia I answered it on speaker phone.

"Hey Stas-"

"Mitchie? I think I made a huge mistake." Her voice cracked, tears evident.

"What happened?" I asked alarmed.

"I think I cheated on Jason-"

"What?!" Caitlyn and I yelled.

"It wasn't my fault! Bray-" She tried to explain.

"I told you to be careful! This is exactly why!" I yelled at her.

"Mitchie! Let me explain! That's not what the mistake was! I think he took pictures of him kissing me… but I didn't believe him. He told me to break up with Jason or he'd leak the pictures. I thought he was bluffing, so I called him on it. Mitchie-" She was crying even harder. "His cousin handed him a camera when he came in after me. I didn't think he really had a picture. He's going to ruin everything. I don't know what to do." She continued to cry.

"I don't know either." I replied. "Cait?" She shrugged helplessly.

"Just- hope he doesn't show them, and if he does, pray Jason will understand." Caitlyn suggested.

"Shouldn't she tell him before hand?" I asked.

"No!" Anastasia cried. "I can't. He won't believe me." She whispered. "He found out that Bray was the guy I had hooked up with during the break and told me he wasn't comfortable with me hanging out with him. He said he wouldn't forbid me, because he wasn't like that. That he trusted my judgment. He's going to hate me." She cried more.

I'd never seen or heard Anastasia cry so much in my life. I sighed. I didn't know what to do. "Well, I can vouch for you. I heard that conversation, Stas."

"Mitchie, I don't-" She started.

"Let's wait it out a few days. He may not be that heartless. He may realize that he's not going to get you either way." I offered.

"You need to tell Jaosn, Stas." Caitlyn sighed, clearly disagreeing. "Don't tell Jason until he's home." She suggested. "If Bray doesn't leak the picture before hand."

"That sounds like a plan." I agreed.

"Are you guys at the Grey's?" She sniffled.

"Yeah…" We answered.

She laughed slightly. "Good, come let me in since my cab just left."

We ran downstairs and let her inside, bringing her upstairs to Shane's room with us. Shane had a huge bed, so we all fit pretty well. We finally managed to fall asleep, though none of us peacefully.

So, I like the response I get out of you when I ask questions. Why I didn't think to do this 62 chapters ago, I don't know… Anyway: I'm not 100 percent on the Mitchie/Nicky fight but I hope you liked the Mitchie/Shane resolution. I was trying to play up every side you guys pointed out about her. So, she was seriously bipolar in places. And remember, have a little faith in me and my plots?

Spoiler:

"Marry me. Right now."

"No, not like this."

Oooh, what couple? Naitlyn? Janastia? Who proposes to whom? Next time on Life Keeps Going.

Haha. Yes, I'm a bitch. Because there's a slim chance of my updating tomorrow since I have to have my room clean and last minute stuff packed and be in bed early as I'm leave at 4 am Saturday.