We're gonna fast forward here a little bit. This is four years after the last chapter around mid April.

Drifting Apart

Four long years passed and everyone's life was going by without a problem. Bugs and Lola's children were growing up so fast, Kristy was four years old now and Jacob was almost six. Lola and Bugs loved the two of them more than life and they loved each other too. It was mid May now and despite how well their lived were going together; things were starting to get a bit unstable.

"Shut up Bugs!" Lola exclaimed angrily one evening. Bugs was making them dinner and Lola was leaning against the counter.

"I just asked you a question; you don't need to get mad all the time!" he yelled back at her.

"There's a difference between asking a question and commanding me to do something for you. 'Oh there's no salt left, go get me some Lola'. What am I, your fucking maid?"

They glared at each other for a moment. "You bitch," Bugs said.

Lola looked at him in disbelief. "You know what; don't expect me to be down here for dinner you bastard!" With that she left the room and he heard her go upstairs.

One afternoon Lola went into her bedroom and slammed the door behind her. What was happening between her and Bugs? They used to be so happy together and now they couldn't even talk to each other without yelling at each other. She felt like she was losing him. She couldn't lose him, she loved him more than anything in the world but she was finding it harder and harder to say those words after everything that had passed between them.

The night before her and Bugs were sitting on the couch watching a movie. His arm was around her and she rested on his shoulder not exactly paying attention to what was going on in the movie.

"I love you Lo," he said hugging her. He expected her to say 'I love you' back like she always did but she didn't say anything. "Lola?"

She loved him, and she always would. None of that would ever change, but love wasn't what she was feeling right then. After a few seconds she sighed and just settled on it. "I love you too Bugs."

Tears poured down her face as she thought of this. Soon those tears turned into full blown sobs. She lay down on their bed and continued to cry. She buried her face in his pillow and took in the smell of him on it. She decided she'd try to be nice to him, and let him know she was still in love with him.

Bugs was walking past their room and he heard sobs. He pressed his ear against the door and heard Lola crying. "Lola? Are you okay?" She didn't respond. "Lola?"

Suddenly she came out and kissed his lips as hard as she could, surprising him.

"What the hell Lola?"

Lola's face turned into a glare. Here she was trying to be nice to him and he was pushing her away. Her eyes welled up with tears again and she turned away from him and headed downstairs. "Forget this shit." She didn't want to have anything to do with him.

Bugs followed her. He didn't mean to hurt her feelings like that. "Lola," he called after her. She went out the back door and he continued to follow her.

"Leave me alone!"

"Lo, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." She kept walking away from him. "I just want to talk."

Lola turned around and glared at him with tears pouring down her cheeks. "Why? You never want to talk to me anymore. All you ever do is yell at me! You act like you don't even love me anymore!"

Bugs looked at her surprised by what she just said. He pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly to him. "I'm sorry Lola. I didn't mean to make you feel like that. I love you." The stood there in silence for a moment. "You know…sometime I feel like you don't love me either."

Lola looked at him and wiped her face. "But I do love you Bugs." She kissed his lips. "I love you more than anything."

Bugs kissed her back. "I know you do Lo."

It was early the next morning. Bugs was at Acme Looniversity in the teacher's lounge drinking coffee. He had papers in front of him he needed to finish grading but he just couldn't concentrate. He wanted Lola in here to talk to like they always did before the school day started but she was in the gym ignoring him. The apology from yesterday didn't last long and he ended up snapping at her without meaning to. Then they got into an argument and now she was furious with him.

Wile E came in looking pretty down as well.

"Hey Wile."

He came over and sat across from him. "Hey Bugs."

"What's wrong? You're engaged, you shouldn't be sad." Wile E had met this girl, Taylor, a while ago and they'd been dating for about a year. He proposed to her and they'd been engaged for almost a month now.

Wile E shook his head. "Not anymore."

"What happened?" Bugs asked concerned.

"She came to my house last night and said her ex called her and asked her to dinner. She said she shouldn't have left him in the first place and took him back. She gave me back her ring that I spent a hell of a lot of money on and said the wedding was off."

"Ouch. I'm sorry Wile E. She just wasn't the one."

"I wish she could have been."

"I felt that way about Honey until she cheated on me. Now I have Lo. You'll find someone better than her."

"Speaking of that, what's up with you and Lola lately?"

Bugs pretended to be confused by the question even though he knew good and well what he was talking about. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know, you've just seemed a little distant from her lately. Is everything okay?"

Bugs tried to think of a way to put it without telling every little detail. "You know how you have one little fight with someone that turns into something big, and soon it gets out of control?"

"So what, are you gonna leave her?"

Bugs shook his head. "Of course not. I love her. There's just some things we need to work out."

"I hope you do work it out with her. You two are a good couple. When you started dating her, she made you happier than I'd seen you in a long time."

Bugs nodded. He was right. When he met Lola she brightened up his world. He had so much happen to him back then and she really turned him around. "You're right Wile E. I'll take care of it. We'll be fine."

They apologized and it lasted…the rest of the night. But the next morning they were yelling at each other all over again for reasons neither of them actually knew. By the middle of the day Lola needed to get out of the house. She went to Miranda and Max's house that afternoon.

Her and Miranda were sitting on the living room couch drinking carrot smoothies while Miranda did most of the talking. Lola was distracted though. She was thinking about what she thought every second of her life, Bugs. Things between them weren't getting any better. That morning they were practically screaming at each other. Maybe she really was losing him. Before she knew it, she'd take it too far and he'd leave her.

The thought of Bugs leaving was too much to bear. A lump formed in her throat and her eyes welled up with tears.

"So anyway I was like…Lola, are you okay?" Miranda asked noticing how uneasy she looked.

A tear rolled down Lola's cheek as she shook her head. Another one came and then another until they were uncontrollable. She put her face in her hands and sobbed.

Miranda stared at her for a moment surprised. She'd never seen Lola cry like this. She knew Lola was sensitive, she cried all the time but she never let anyone see her because she didn't want to seem weak, but she never cried like this in front of Miranda. "What's wrong Lola?"

Lola tried to wipe her eyes but that apparently was impossible. "I-I don't think Bugs is…in love with me a-anymore…"

Miranda was surprised to hear her say that. "What do you mean? Of course he's in love with you."

Lola shook her head. "It wouldn't surprise me if he wasn't. I've been so mean to him he has to hate me now."

Max came in drinking a carrot smoothie. "Hi ladies." He paused when he saw Lola crying. He sat down on the couch next to them. "Why are you crying?"

"She says Bugs doesn't love her anymore," Miranda said.

"Why?"

"Because I've been horrible to him. I've called him so many bad names and yelled at him. Every time we talk to each other we just end up screaming at each other." Lola started sobbing uncontrollably again. "I love him more than my own life; I don't want him to leave me. But I-I don't know what else to do."

"Then just be nice to him," Max said as if it were obvious.

"I try but…it never works."

"Lola, men are sensitive as much as we try to hide it. We need sympathy too. It's not that he doesn't love you, he just feels like you don't care about him anymore. If you treat him with respect then he'll know that you feel the same about him like you always have. The saying 'do to others what you want to be done to you' is true."

Lola and Miranda stared at him for a moment surprised. "What are you, a relationship specialist?" Miranda asked.

"You're right Max. Maybe it's my fault and I should be the bigger person and try to fix it," Lola said.

"That's the spirit," Max said.

Lola tried to take Max's advice, she really did. And it worked for a little while. Her and Bugs were in the bed cuddling together for a few hours after she got home. But then after dinner things just went downhill and they ended up mad at each other again.

It was almost eleven thirty, her and Bugs hadn't said more than three words to each other since six o clock. She took a hot shower that night, usually hot water made her feel better but tonight it didn't. Instead of feeling better she felt worse, like her heart was slowly shattering into a million pieces that could never be put back together. She wanted to talk to him and yet she was still furious with him and didn't want to even see his face.

Fifteen minutes later she was sitting in their bed not really watching what was on the flat screen. Bugs came over and sat next to her a little hesitantly. "Hey Lola." She didn't say anything. He put his arm around her. "What are ya watching?"

"You're not blind, see for yourself," she said harshly.

Bugs didn't let it faze him. "Look, I know what I said to ya earlier was a little harsh."

Lola glared at him. "A little? A little harsh? So what, now you're going to go apologizing and expect me to forgive you like I always do? And for what? So you can start yelling at me when I did absolutely nothing to you and start calling me a bitch and an asshole? It doesn't work like that! You can keep your fucking apologies to yourself because I don't accept it! So you can quit acting like a bitch now!"

Bugs stared at her for a moment truly hurt by what she said. Then he glared at her. "I'm not the one who's the bitch." He lay down facing away from her and pulled the covers up to his face.

Lola sat there for a moment staring at him. She was starting to feel very guilty for what she said to him. She knew it wasn't necessary and she didn't mean any of it. "Bugs?" He didn't say anything. She kissed his cheek and stroked his ear. "Sweet heart? You know I didn't mean any of that." He still ignored her and that's when she knew she'd gone too far this time. She sat up and her eyes welled up with tears and her heart filled with extreme guilt. She didn't want him to know she was crying so she got up and left the room.

After hearing the door slam Bugs sat up and sighed. Yes what she said really hurt his feelings, but he couldn't be that mad at her because she was right. He got out of bed and went to go look for her. He found her sitting on the futon couch in the hallway by the French doors to the back porch. She had her face in her knees and her arms wrapped around them crying. He sat down next to her and hugged her tightly.

She wiped her face then looked into his eyes. "Bugs I am so sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I…"

Bugs kissed her lips. "It's okay. I forgive you. And I'm sorry too, for everything." Lola kissed him back and soon they fell asleep right in that spot.

On Sunday Bugs was in the living room playing the piano. It was one of his favorite songs by the Temptations. Then Jacob came over to him. "Hi daddy."

"Hey kiddo." Bugs put him on his lap. "What's up?"

"Can we go to Chuck E Cheese?" Jacob gave him a sweet innocent look and Bugs suppressed a laugh.

"Sure, we can go."

Kristy came in after hearing the words "Chuck E Cheese" and "We can go". "We're going to Chuck E Cheese?" Bugs nodded. She jumped in the air. "Yay!"

This time Bugs laughed for real. "Go get ready to go. We'll leave in ten minutes." With that Jacob and Kristy left the room to go get ready. Bugs got up and went to look for Lola. He found her sitting in the windowsill next to the front door looking out at the sunny sky. He sat next to her. "Hey love."

She gave him a half smile. "Hey."

He put his arms around her waist then kissed her neck. "What's wrong?"

She shook her head. "Nothing."

Bugs wasn't convinced. "You sure? You look a little sad."

Lola kissed his lips. "I'm fine Bugsy, honest."

Bugs kissed her back. "Okay. I'm taking the kids to Chuck E Cheese. You wanna come?"

Lola shook her head. "No thanks, I'm kind of tired. And there's stuff to do around here."

Bugs ran his hand through her hair a little concerned. "You sure you don't want to come? I'll need some company watching all those little kids running around with no adult supervision."

Lola giggled. "Seriously Bugs. I'll just stay here. I think you'll be okay without me."

"Okay." Bugs kissed her lips passionately. Lola wrapped her arms around him tightly and her tongue roamed his mouth craving his sweet taste. She found herself disappointed when he pulled away. He looked into her eyes. "I'll see you later."

"Have fun." He got up and she soon heard the door close. She looked out the window and watched as the car backed out of the driveway. She waved to Jacob and Kristy then once they were out of sight she went to go fold some clothes.

She could have gone with them. Her and Bugs always found a way to entertain themselves at Chuck E Cheese. They didn't have to play the games, sometimes they'd just sit around jokingly criticizing everything and everyone they saw. But to be honest she just wanted to be alone. All she needed was one hour to be away from everything. With all the crap between her and Bugs she just felt like she had some internal struggles to work out.

After putting the clothes in all of their rooms, she lay down on the living room couch and went to sleep. Almost an hour later the phone woke her up. "Hello?" she said sleepily.

"Hey Lola!" said Penelope. "Did I wake you up?"

Lola sat up. "Kinda."

"I'm sorry. Melissa and I are going to get our nails done. Do you want to come?"

"I don't know…"

"Please?"

Lola sighed. "Alright fine. I'll go with you. And I'll drive."

"That's nice of you. Well we're at Melissa's house whenever you get here."

"Okay. Give me fifteen minutes." After hanging up Lola quickly combed her hair and grabbed her purse, then went out to the garage. Her Ferrari wasn't there, Bugs must have taken it. She didn't mind, her and Bugs used each other's cars all the time. She jumped into his Volkswagen then went to Melissa and Penelope's house.

They went to the nail salon that was in Hollywood. Afterwards they stopped at a smoothie shop and got some smoothies. Now they were on their way home with the Supremes blasting on the radio.

"Stop, in the name of love!" Melissa sang.

"Before you break my heart!" Penelope sang.

Lola laughed. "Would you guys shut up? Don't try out for American Idol!"

Melissa poked her shoulder. "Look, just because you have the voice of an angel doesn't give you the right to insult those less fortunate."

Lola smirked at her. "Yeah it does." She looked back at the road and saw another car headed straight towards them. She tried to swerve out of the way but it was too late. "AHH!"

SMASH!

"Are you two okay?" Penelope asked.

Melissa nodded. "I'm fine." She saw Lola with her head down gripping the steering wheel practically shaking. "Lola? Are you okay?"

"Maybe she's in shock," Penelope suggested.

Lola slowly sat up and looked around. She was alive thank goodness. She was really scared of car accidents due to witnessing a bad one when she was very young and this one scared her a lot. "Yeah, I'm okay." Then she quickly got out of the car to see the damage. When she saw it she gasped. Almost the entire front of the car was smashed. "Oh my god!"

Melissa and Penelope got out and looked. "Whoa that looks nasty," Penelope said.

"He's not gonna be very happy about this," Melissa said.

Lola gave both of them irritated looks. "Thanks, that's encouraging," she said sarcastically.

A police officer came over to them. "Are you ladies okay?"

Penelope nodded. "Yeah, we're fine officer."

"The man that hit you was driving drunk. We've taken away his license so he won't be driving for a while."

"Um, sir, that's very nice and all but what about my car?" Lola exclaimed.

The officer went over and examined the car. "Lucky for you I'm also a certified mechanic." He examined it and checked under the hood for internal damage. "It's not as bad as it looks. The engine isn't damaged, so you should still be able to drive it. I'd get it to a mechanic as soon as you can though. Anything else I can do for you?"

They looked at each other then shook their heads. "We're fine," Penelope said.

The officer tipped his hat to them. "Have a nice day." He went back over to his car.

Lola rolled her eyes. "'Have a nice day'," she repeated. They all got back in the car and she dropped Penelope off at her house. Then she went to Melisa's house. Just as they got home Daffy pulled up in the driveway.

He got out and looked at the car with an amused look on his face. "Whoa. What the hell did you do to his car?"

"It wasn't her fault, a drunk guy crashed into us," Melissa said.

"Seriously though, he's gonna be freaking pissed. That's his favorite car," Daffy said, the smirk on his face growing.

Lola's shoulders slumped as she realized he was right. Bugs was going to be really mad. Things were just starting to get better between them and the last thing she wanted was for him to be mad at her. She sighed and opened the door. "They're probably home by now. I have to go," she said sadly.

Melissa noticed the tone of her voice. "You okay Lola?"

Lola nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Bye." With that, she drove home dreading what would happen when Bugs saw the car.