Chapter Fifteen

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

        The waves crashed up on the shore and the sound woke Annie from her sleep.

    “What the?” she questioned with a start.  She had forgotten where she was until she rolled over and looked who was sleeping beside her.  Annie smiled at the sleeping figure beside her and brushed a piece of hair off Nick’s forehead.  She smiled at him and began remembering what had happened the previous night.  The vision of Paul at the party made her whole body start to shake.  Annie got up from the sand, shook the sand off her clothes and walked towards the ocean.  She took a deep breath of ocean air, and the tears began to roll.
 

    Nick rolled over in the sand and got a mouthful of it.

    “Aww fuck,” he mumbled.  He opened his eyes to see a cloudy, but not ominous sky.  He also saw Annie staring at the ocean and he smiled at the thought of her. I hope she’s doing better than last night, he thought.  Nick got up and dusted the sand off his clothes and ran a hand through his hair to get the rest out.  He walked down the beach towards Annie, putting his hand on her shoulder and caused Annie to jump.

    “Oops, sorry,” he said with a chuckle.  Annie just looked at him and walked away.  Nick looked strangely at Annie as she walked away.

    “Ann, you okay?” he asked.  Annie just stared blankly at Nick and wiped away tears falling from her eyes.  Her hair had become disheveled and was in her face so Nick decided to brush it out of her eyes, but when he tried to do this Annie grabbed his wrist and threw it down to his side.

    “Don’t touch me,” she said angrily.  Annie turned her back and walked away from Nick.  What the hell happened? Nick thought glumly, and  ran after Annie to catch up to her.

    “Ann, are you alright?”  Annie looked at Nick angrily,

    “Is that your only fucking question? Think of something new Carter!” she said as she glared at Nick.  Annie stalked off towards Nick’s Durango and left Nick standing there as bewildered as he had ever been.  He shook his head and asked himself aloud,

    “What the hell just happened?”

He ran back up to where Annie was standing.  She was slouched up against the Durango with her shoes in her hand.

    “Take me home, now!” she bitingly said to Nick.  She opened the door of the car and climbed in, Nick muttered “Okay,” and got in the car as well.
 

    Throughout the drive back to Annie’s house Nick kept trying to make small talk with her.

    “The weather is nice today…” he’d say as he got no response from Annie.  He wanted so badly to pull the car over the side of the road and shake some sense into her.  They’d come so far together and he thought that maybe things were actually picking up for them.  After the kiss he felt closer to her than ever and he was having extremely intense feelings for her.  He thought she felt the same way, but maybe he was wrong.  They arrived at Annie’s house and she was just about to jump out of the car when Nick grabbed her by the arm.  This scared Annie and she yelled,

    “Don’t touch me!” and got out of the car.  Nick unbuckled his seat-belt and jumped out of the car after her.

    “Wait,” he said.  He grabbed Annie by both arms, and she did her best to wriggle free from his grip. “Annie, what is wrong?  What did I do?” Nick pleaded.  Annie just stared at Nick and then told him calmly,

    “Get your hands off of me, now!”  Nick dropped his hands from her arms and gave her a defeated look.

    “Ann-“ said Nick before Annie cut him off.

    “Nick, leave me alone.  Don’t call me and don’t come around for a while,” she said as she walked in the house.  Nick stood in her driveway and watched her walk inside.  He couldn’t keep it in anymore, and he shed a few tears.  Damnit, what did I do?  This thought kept running through his mind.  Nick got in his car and as he was pulling out whispered,

    “Goodbye Annie.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~


        Brooke woke from her peaceful sleep with the sun shining brightly in her eyes.  She momentarily forgot where she was, but remembered with a smile when she saw Kevin curled up on a chair, snoring softly.  She sat up and stretched her arms above her head and began to stand up when the shooting pain in her ankle reminded her she was hurt.  She stood up more carefully, not putting much weight on her left foot, and hobbled towards the bathroom, pausing a  moment above Kevin's sleeping figure and laying a gentle hand on his face, pulling the blanket that had fallen on his lap onto his shoulders.  Brooke slowly made her way to the bathroom,  she didn't think Kevin would mind if she had a shower, she wanted to wash off  last night's events, she still felt dirty.  She sat down on the toilet seat, unwrapping the bandage off her ankle.  She frowned when she saw the ugly purple bruises that surrounded the swollen joint, and set the bandage on the floor, standing and stepping into the shower.  The hot water felt good on her skin, although it made her sleepy but at least she finally felt clean.

Brooke grabbed a towel that hung on the back of the door, wrapping it around her body as she stepped from the shower.

    "Brooklyn?" she heard along with a knock on the door.  She opened it to Kevin who seemed to breathe a sigh when he saw her.

    'What?"  She asked.

    "I thought you might have left again."  Brooke frowned at his admission, placing a hand on his arm.

    "I don't plan on leaving you ever again."  She said seriously, and she could see the happiness her statement brought Kevin, like his heart was finally at ease.

    "Hope you don't mind me taking a shower."  He looked at her like she had three heads, suddenly realizing something.

    "Brooke you shouldn't be on that ankle."

    "Kevin, I'm fine, now let me get back into my dress so I can go home and change."  She tried to shut the door but he held it firmly open.

    "Nope, sorry.  You can't leave yet!"  He said stepping into the bathroom.

    "Why?"

    "Because you are staying for breakfast."  He said insistently, grabbing the dress and darting out of the room.  "I'll be right back, don't go anywhere... and get off your ankle!" He yelled as his footsteps thumped up the staircase.  She laughed as she sat back down on the toilet seat, holding the towel shut with her hand.  She heard the footsteps come back down the steps and he entered the bathroom almost breathlessly,

    "Here."  He said handing her some clothes.  She sorted through them, a T-shirt, a pair of pants and a big wool sweater.  "The pants are going to be too big, but I figured you could just pull the drawstring on them tight."  He grinned.  She said thank you and shooed him out so she could change.

Brooke left her hair wrapped up in a towel and limped her way back to the kitchen where Kevin was cooking.  He immediately went to her side so she could lean on him and he helped her sit down at the table, Brooke was annoyed at his gallantry to her but humbled at the same time, he cared about her a lot and that made her feel better about everything that had happened.

    "i'm not a big breakfast person Kev." She said as he served pancakes to her plate, ignoring her with a smile.  She gave in and poured some maple syrup onto her food, starting to eat as Kevin sat down across the table from her.   After a few moments he noticed the look on her face had changed, she stopped eating and was pushing the food back and forth across the plate.

    "What is it Brooklyn?"

    "Nothing." She said, staring aimlessly at her plate.  He got up and moved to her side, kneeling by her chair.

    "Tell me."

    "I'm scared to go home, to face David.  I have to do it sooner or later." He noticed the tears beginning to fall from her cheeks again.

    "I know." He said, rubbing his hand on her back.

    "I don't know how to do it, to end it without hurting him more than I did last night."  Kevin didn't say a word, he just stood up and pulled her into a comforting hug, stopping her tears.

 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Chapter Sixteen
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