Valerie knocked roughly on Cole's apartment door. He sounded surprised when she buzzed in. He probably thought she wouldn't show. But Valerie had a few words to have with him.

Cole opened the door to his apartment slowly. He glanced at her and scratched at the back of his neck. "Hey," he said.

Valerie could feel how uncomfortable he was. She could see he didn't know how to approach this at all.

She didn't even greet him back. She pushed through him, into the apartment.

"Explain." She folded her arms.

"Look," he started with a sigh. "I never meant to cheat on you. My parents - they said a couple things about dating a girl like you and I just let it get to me."

"A couple things to say?" Her brows knitted together. "Like what?"

His lips pursed. "Does it matter?"

"Yes," she said firmly. "I want to know what things they could have said that made you think I was low enough that you could fool around on me - or made you want to."

"Valerie..."

She just gave him a look.

"You know, what you guys act like."

"Actually, I don't know. Enlighten me."

"How much experience you girls tend to have and how you guys really don't get anywhere in life."

She was livid. She was foaming at the mouth.

"Are you kidding? I'm two years away from a degree and if I'm allowed to point this out - you were the one getting freaky with some other chick on the dance floor. Guys with no experience don't do that."

"I know, I know," he ran his hands through his hair. "It was stupid. I let them get to me. But don't tell me you're all innocent either. You and Jack?"

Valerie shook her head. "Jack? Jack's family and even if I felt something for Jack I didn't fucking act on it because I'm a better person than you."

"I see how you guys get along," Cole continued. "He calls you everyday."

"So what?"

"So what? You have a boyfriend that's what,"

"Had." She butted in. Cole rolled his eyes.

"You were stringing us both along. Don't act like you weren't."

Valerie stayed quiet.

"I knew when we went to ElectriK. My father told me some things - how he went around with a girl like you when he was in high school and she screwed him over and was always dragging him down. I didn't want that to be me."

"So your dad had a bad experience with a girl and it's okay to generalize half the damn city of Detroit because one girl was a sleaze?" Valerie said, an edge to her voice. "That's insane."

"You aren't apologizing. You're justifying it. You fucked up. There's no excuse you could give me that would make it alright. You could've just dumped me if you thought I was some sort of white trash."

"I don't think you're white trash," Cole paused. "It's just the people you're around and the stories..."

"I can't believe it, I can't believe we were dating," Valerie laughed but it lacked the usual humor. "If you don't like them, you don't like me. You get to hide away in your pretty little suburb and shut the suffering out. But if you drive even three minutes, you can see people suffering. When you're desperate you make mistakes. It doesn't make them bad people."

Cole scoffed. "Like you could tell what makes a good person. You hang out with the Mercers."

"You wish you could be half the person any four of those brothers were because maybe they got messed up in some shit before but they always clean it up in the end."

"I'm sorry for cheating on you," Cole mumbled so low she hardly heard him. "You're right I can't justify it and I'm just gonna make things worse if I keep talking like this - I'm sorry."

She nodded. "I'm not going to say it's okay - because it's not - but for what it's worth other than feeling disrespected I'm not that upset. I don't think we got all that serious yet."

"I guess not," he agreed. "I think we both just wanted somebody but we probably weren't the somebody either of us needed. I don't even think we'd get along anymore."

Valerie chuckled. He was probably right. They both had very different opinions on things.

"You're a dick," she told him. "But let's just leave it at that. I'll see myself out."

Valerie stepped back into the crisp November air and slid into her car. She was relieved Stef and Jack would be home tomorrow because she didn't know if she would survive being alone much longer. She was dreading the thought of them leaving again already - she didn't even have Cole anymore, just Jamie. She was going to be on her own a lot when they left again.

Valerie thought she had been driving back to her apartment but she ended up two blocks away from her childhood home on Evelyn's doorstep.

Evelyn opened the door and smiled. As soon as the door opened Valerie got a waft of sugar cookies and cinnamon.

"Valerie," she said warmly. "Come in. I'm just baking some things for Thanksgiving. I like to do it early because the turkey and things just take so long."

Valerie helped Evelyn with her baking. They didn't say all that much. Evelyn talked about the guy she was seeing, only after Valerie promised to keep her mouth zipped.

Valerie was happy for her. Evelyn was the sweetest woman she knew and that meant she deserved someone to make her happy.

"I just broke up with my boyfriend actually," Valerie said while they were on the topic. Evelyn looked up at her, intrigued by what she said. "I did it just before I made my way over here."

"Well, wow," said Evelyn. "I'm surprised. What made you do it?"

"I saw him with another girl," Valerie said quietly. "It didn't really hurt me but just made me sad. I don't know how to do this stuff, the relationship thing. Four out of my five boyfriends all cheated on me. Do I have like a curse or something?"

"I don't think so," Evelyn laughed softly. "I think you're just looking in the wrong places, dear."

"Well then, where are the right places? Because I'd like directions." Valerie said with a groan.

She rolled out the shortbread dough and began to stamp it with a leaf-shaped cookie cutter and then laid the finished cookies on the greased pan.

"Closer than you think. You don't need directions, you'll just know." Evelyn finally said.

"I hope so," Valerie replied. "I know I'm young but I feel older than I am. I want to settle down. I don't want to be like my mom and dad. I want to get it right."

"You will," Evelyn smiled. "I have faith in you."

X X X

Valerie sat on Stef's couch, tapping her fingers along her thigh anxiously, waiting for the tour bus to appear as she stared out the apartment window. Waiting with Gina made her uncomfortable. The bus could have dropped them at any of their houses, she wished it didn't have to be Stef's.

Gina tried to make small talk and Valerie entertained it at first but after awhile it just got sickening. They had nothing in common (except for Stef) and Valerie still didn't like Gina at all, just hated her slightly less.

A car honked and Valerie was off the couch, peering out the window in less than a second to get a better look. She recognized the bus from when it had picked them up. It had just turned up Stef's road.

Valerie grinned and swiftly made her way outside to greet the band.

She wrapped Stef into a hug immediately, squeezing him as tight as her skinny arms would allow.

"Missed you, baby brother."

"I missed you too," he laughed. "Until you called me that."

"You know you actually love it." She told him, not breaking the hug.

"I actually don't."

Valerie laughed with him and slipped out of his embrace when she saw Gina make her way down the stairs. Stef ran to her and picked her up in his arms, pulling her tight. Valerie begrudgingly tried not to smile but failed as seeing her brother happy, no matter the circumstances, made her happy:

Valerie gave the other boys, Eli and Austin, a hug each and congratulated them of their first tour. She hadn't spotted Jack yet.

She was talking to Austin about the trip when two arms wrapped around her waist from behind her. At first she was startled but she smelt the familiar cologne and looked down at her waist, spotting a pair of familiar fingerless gloves interlocked tightly around her waist.

"It's good to see you." Said Jack, he mumbled it into her hair.

Austin smiled between them and stepped away. Valerie struggled out of Jack's grip.

Valerie turned to face him. His hair was as messy as usual, he had on his leather jacket which she loved on him, and he had a sloppy grin on his face.

"Good to see you, too, Jack," she said crossing her arms. "But what was all that about?"

He shrugged. "I wanted to give you a warm welcome. But I forgot you were off-limits, aren't you?"

Valerie should have corrected him but she didn't.

Instead she gave a light shove which made him smirk. "You are such a dork. Thought you were supposed to be all hard and punk."

"I can be both."

Valerie side-stepped him to walk back to the stairway. She made sure to look down at the ground to hide the fact her lips had curled into a broad grin because of him.

Gina and Stef were sat on the porch steps holding hands - Valerie tried her best to ignore that.

She put her hand on her hip. "Where are my gifts?"

Stef groaned.

He kept true to his word. He gave her a Red Wings jersey with Yzerman's name scrolled on the back. He also gave her a fridge magnet from every city they went to. When she got home she excitedly put them on her fridge door. Jack poked fun at her excitement but she didn't care.

Jack had gone to see Evelyn before coming back to their apartment. Two hours after he did, he returned home.

"How does it feel to be home, rock star?" She teased. Jack flung himself on the couch right next to her.

"Relaxing." Jack told her. "Touring is fun, just as great as I thought it would be. But I am definitely on board for a break. I'm beat out."

"Poor baby." She pouted.

Jack coughed. "I see you cleaned my room. I thought we had a privacy rule?"

Valerie nodded. "We do but you left it a mess Jack. I couldn't have that. Especially since our landlord paid a visit."

"Don't lie," he said, amusement laced in his voice. "You just wanted to go through my stuff while I was gone. You're obsessed with me."

"Caught me." She said sarcastically.

Jack was quiet for a moment and got up and stepped into his room. A moment later, he came back out. His hands were placed behind his back.

She raised a brow.

"What are you doing?"

Jack looked sheepish. "I got you something, too."

Jack took his place on the couch again. He still hadn't exposed whatever he had hidden behind him. Valerie was waiting, not so patiently, anxious to know what it was. She hadn't expected anything from Jack.

"When we were in Cleveland this band was doing a meet and greet. I had shit all to do and all the boys were being useless at the hotel," Jack explained. "So I lined up, bought the CD, and got it signed."

Jack handed her a CD. She read it quickly: Healthy in Paranoid Times, Our Lady Peace. When she opened the case - the inside was scrawled with signatures of the boys in the band. She closed it again.

"You know, that line was pretty short. They don't have many fans." Jack said. She could tell he was just trying to sound more indifferent and not like he had just given her a very sentimental gift.

She had annoyed him with the Our Lady Peace album Gravity for close to a year but she didn't know he had actually paid attention to who they were other than just telling her that 'Somewhere Out There is a garbage song' a million times. He had remembered her favourite band and he had gotten in line at a meet and greet, for a band he had no interest in, so she could have this.

"Thank you." She said softly, still clutching the CD tightly.

"It was nothing."

Maybe, she thought. But it felt like everything.