Disclaimer: I don't own them. If I did we would already have new episodes. :)


The last bell had rung dismissing the students from school. Seventeen-year-old Alex Eames had planned to meet her boyfriend Justin at his car and go out to eat with him before a movie.

She came out of her classroom and made her way through the sea of people in the halls to her locker. She put away the books from her last class and took the ones she needed for homework.

She started to head to Justin's last class to surprise him knowing that he took a long time getting out of there. She rounded the last corner, headed straight into the classroom, and stopped dead in her tracks.

There was Justin standing in the front of the classroom making out with Stacy Hann.

"You asshole!" Alex screamed.

Justin and Stacy immediately broke apart, shocked. "Baby, it's not what you think." He pleaded.

"Not what I…? What is there to think about?! You're making out with Stacy Hann! I think I understand pretty well what's going on! We're through!" She screamed and stormed out.

Justin stared after her for a moment, but made no move to follow and she was glad.

When Alex finally arrived home, she slammed the door so hard the pictures on the wall almost fell to the floor. She ran right up the stairs to her bedroom, thankful no one was nearby to try and talk to her.

She flung herself down onto her bed and placed her head in between her pillows and the wall.

"I hate all boys." She thought to herself. "They've never done anything good."

She then felt a lump in her throat constricting her airway, her nose got stuffy, and water started to well up in her eyes. "No, no way. I'm not crying over some stupid boy." She told herself. A few stubborn tears fell against her will. She sat up and got a tissue. She wiped her eyes and then blew her nose.

"That's it. This is the last time I'm going to cry over some stupid boy." She then walked over to the mirror hanging on the wall by the door. She fixed her slightly messy hair and made sure she was presentable before she went back downstairs to face the world.


Present day Alex Eames sat on her couch in a dark apartment covered in a blanket eating forbidden chocolate ice cream straight out of the carton. There was a bottle of wind half gone on the table next to an empty glass. The television was on, but she wasn't paying attention. Her mind was elsewhere tonight.

Tonight had been another failed attempt at a date. The man tonight had three kids and a wife. He was going through a "rough patch." He figured Alex would be okay with him getting away for a night. She wasn't. She walked out on him half way through dinner.

Alex poured another glass of wine and took a long sip.

"Boys haven't changed. They're still the same as they were when they were seventeen. They've just gotten older and found better ways to hurt and lie to you. The only one I can trust is Bobby." She mused silently. "Shit… I told him I would call tonight." She thought about it for a moment. "Shit… I hate to do this, but I think I'll call him in the morning. I'm in no mood to talk and it'll just make him worried knowing how my evening went." She then downed the rest of the glass of wine.

As she began to fill the glass back up she thought she heard a very faint knock on the door. She put the glass and bottle down and padded to the door. She looked through the peephole. "Bobby. Great. I should have known."

Alex unbolted the deadlock and opened the door. "Hi Bobby, I'm so sorry I didn't call, I just completely forgot. How about I make it up to you by buying you coffee tomorrow morning? I'm sorry, but I don't really feel like talking now. Maybe we could do this in the morning." She said in one quick breath.

Bobby was stunned for a moment at Alex's sudden speech. He then took in her slightly disheveled appearance and he smell of wine. He looked behind her to find the bottle of it and the ice cream. "I can't let this go." He thought to himself.

"Ea- Alex. You're upset, I can't just leave." He told her.

Alex sighed, knowing defeat when she saw it. She opened the door all the way and let him in.

"Is this what you do after every date?" He asked her.

"No… not every date." She retorted. "Only the bad ones." She sighed, knowing she had just opened a new can of worms.

"Well, I haven't heard of a good date in a while. This can't be good for you." Bobby told her caringly.

"Yeah, I suppose it's not. But it's my coping mechanism. I promised myself when I was little I would never cry over a boy again." Alex almost smacked herself in the head. "Why did I just tell him that?" She asked herself silently.

Bobby seemed to sense her awkwardness and chose to ignore her last statement. "What was wrong with this one?" He asked sympathetically.

Alex paused for a moment to try and not let anything else slip. "Married, three kids. You know, the usual." Alex told him.

"I'm sorry." He said sincerely. "Soon enough you'll find the perfect guy. You'll be happy and you won't have to do any of this." He said with a wave of his hand to the wine and ice cream.

"Yeah, but for now it seems like I'm just not destined to have a good date with a good guy." She sighed.

Bobby was silent for a moment before he opened his mouth tentatively. "Alex… do you want to go out to dinner with me tomorrow night?"