She was gone and he just had to accept that fact.

It had been months since he had last seen her, since he had last seen his love.

He had written a song about her. No one knew that it was about Christine, but Alex knew. Jack knew as well but Jack knew everything about Alex.

Jack knew how broken hearted he was when he realized that she had left him. Jack knew that Alex had cried almost as hard as when Tom had died. Jack knew that Alex would do anything just to get her back.

~~

Christine had been planning it for months. She didn’t know why she had left with Jason, be it her feeling guilty and went with him in the heat of the moment, or the fact that he held such a big part of her life.

All she knew is that she regretted it the second she walked into the apartment in New York that Jason had bought for them.

And so she planned.

~~

Sitting in the back of the tour bus, Alex had his knees pulled up to his chest with a pair of headphones blocking out all sounds of his band mates and crew members partying after another, in their eyes, successful show.

He knew that he needed to lighten up, to let loose and have fun, but he couldn’t get over the ache in his chest that drove him to do most of the things he did.

The bus was on route to New York and he knew that he would have to put on a happy face since they would be recording for Straight to DVD.

~~

“I’m done!” Christine shouted. “I’m fucking done with this bullshit.”

“You call this bullshit? How about you cheating on me like a whore?” Jason spat back rolling his eyes as if his wife was the most ridiculous thing.

Ever since they had moved all they did was fight and he was starting to wonder why she even bothered to come in the first place if she was just going to fight with him over everything.

“You’re never fucking here. It’s even worse than when we were in Baltimore!” She yelled. “At least I got to see you once or twice a week then.”

“And the rest of the time you were off fucking that pathetic loser.” He said laughing without humor in his voice.

“If you would have been around maybe I wouldn’t have had to find someone else to make me feel something.”

~~

“Alex come on man,” Jack sighed pulling his best friend up off of the couch in the back of the bus. “You have to try and at least be somewhat happy man.”

Alex just shrugged, standing there and looking around, anywhere but at Jack. He wouldn’t let him see the weakness in his eyes.

“Lex,” Jack pleaded, hating to see his friend in so much pain. “Talk to me Lex.”

Alex only looked down, feeling the tears bite at his eyes at the sound of desperation in Jack’s voice. But in an instant he felt a pair of lanky arms wrap themselves around him, holding tightly at him.

Jack felt Alex hug him back. Jack felt the tears on his shoulder. Jack felt Alex’s pain.

~~

“Don’t fucking blame me for you being a slut!”

“This is exactly why I’m leaving you,” Christine said throwing her hands up in exasperation. “You said you wanted to forget about it, like it never happened, but you’re the one who won’t stop bringing it the fuck up.”

“I should have just left you when I had the chance. I should have told your parents about what a disgrace you are.”

“You say that like it’s supposed to hurt me, but you know what? Being with you is what really hurts me, not anything you say or do, just knowing that I left something amazing for this utter shit.”

“Yes, because that fucking musician was going to make you happy.” He said rolling his eyes while pointing a finger in my direction. “Could he provide you financial assurance? Could he keep a roof over your head? How about when he’s on tour? What if he’s fucking a groupie at this very moment?”

~~

Jack held him tightly as Alex cried against him, his body shaking as violent sobs erupted from inside of him.

“I fucking love her Jack, I love her so fucking much and she picked him.” Alex sobbed.

“Lex calm down, come on.” Jack tried to sooth, knowing that the entire bus could hear the crying.

None of them knew just how broken Alex had been since Christmas. They all say the change in him, but none of them knew why, or how bad things really were.

“I can’t just move on from something like that. I can never forget her.”

~~

“You walk out that fucking door and I never want to even see your fucking face again.” Jason yelled as she turned to retreat, not wanting to deal with him anymore. “You leave and the last five years of your life will have been a waste.”

“You’re wrong about that.” She said, turning to face him once more, “Because this last year has been the best thing that could have ever happened to me. Not the lying or the cheating or even you. He’s the one who made things perfect for me.”

“Then why don’t you go to him.”

I turned and walked out the door.

~~

There was a knock at the small door blocking the hugging duo from the rest of the bus.

“Uh guys,” Rian said timidly, not knowing what to say. “We just got to the venue and we need to start getting set up and ready for us to film.”

Alex pulled away from Jack, wiping at his face to rid it of the traces of his weakness and tears.

“Let’s go Lex,” Jack said putting an arm around his friend.