With very shaky hands Annie's number was slowly dialed into the phone.  The sound of quickening breath was the only thing heard in the house as the anticipation of someone picking up built with each ring.  Finally the line clicked.

    "Hello?"

    "Could I speak to Annie please?"

    "Ummm yeah, uhhh...who's speaking?"  Nick asked.

    "Tell her it's Kevin."  He said, knowing she'd probably know who he was.

    "Sure." he muttered.   Kevin heard Nick set the phone down and call out to Annie,

    "Hey babe, it's Kevin? ..... For you...."

    "Kevin? Kevin Richardson?" She asked, he said he didn't know, and then she picked up.

    "Hey Kevin!" She said happily, obviously sure of who it was.

    "Hi Annie."  He said quietly, finding it strange to be talking to someone he heard about almost daily, but who he didn't really know himself, except for a few memories from the summer they worked together four years ago.

    "It's so strange cause I was just about to call Brooke, I have a lot of  news to tell her, like big news! But first, how are you?  Long time no talk huh!" She said abnormally fast, finally taking a breath.

    "Um, I don't even know how I'm gonna do this." He said, more to himself than to her.

    "Don't know how you're gonna do what?" She blurted, his statement was too strange, and the way he spoke was hollow and strained. "What's wrong?"

    "Annie........It's Brooke."

    "What about Brooke.  What's wrong?" She cried, her heart beating faster and her breath quickening.

    "..........she, she never came." He said with a disbelieving tone.    "I didn't know where she was, I thought it was just part of her plans ......... I thought she was making me wait for her......" She heard his breath exhale forcefully and emotionally.  "I waited all night.........."

    "What do you mean she never came? Where was she supposed to be? Where is she now?" Annie said loudly with great urgency, Nick who was in the kitchen lifted his head to see what she was yelling about.

    "We were celebrating a sort of anniversary." Kevin muffled the phone receiver to hide his emotion from her.

    "Oh yeah, she said something about that..." her voice trailed off, as her mind sorted through the worst, the impending feeling she had sitting in her stomach rose into her chest.

    "The phone rang.  I thought it was finally her."  he could hear the crying that was beginning on the other end.  "But it wasn't her .................................... there was an accident Annie ....... a mini van didn't stop ......... it hit their car."   Kevin was silent.

    "Oh god," Annie said quietly, her heart sinking.  Nick saw Annie's face turn white and immediately came over to see what was wrong.

    "What?" He whispered, placing a hand gently on her arm

    "Annie, she's gone." Kevin finally blurted out, before he became too overcome with emotion to speak.   Annie heard the loud sobs coming from his end.  "Brooke's dead."   He cried.  Kevin couldn't keep it in any longer, finally hearing the words come out of his own mouth pushed him over the edge, his Brooke was gone, and here he was, having  to call one of the people that loved her like he did, and tell her what he didn't want to hear himself.  But he had to be the one that called, Brooke would have wanted it that way, and he knew it had to be him that told her.

Annie sucked in a sharp breath and gave Nick a panicked look.  She shook her head not wanting to believe the words that flew threw her brain and pierced her heart. "No," she said almost inaudibly.  She felt her legs get weak and her knees buckle.  Nick jumped forward and quickly grabbed her.

    "What is it Annie?" Nick said as he slowly sat down on the floor with her.  Annie shook her head back and forth repeating Brooke's name over and over again.  Tears flowed down her face and Nick rocked her gently, holding her sobbing body close.

    "Annie." Nick whispered trying to comfort her, not knowing what happened, although he had a sinking feeling of what it may be.

    "No, I don't believe you." She suddenly screamed into the phone.  "I'd know if she was dead, I'd feel it."  Annie paused her voice changing from loud and angry to soft and helpless.    "I still feel her, you have to be wrong.  She can't be dead, Brooke can't be dead, please tell me it isn't true. Oh god." Annie sunk deep into Nick's arms, his own eyes filling with tears as the news hit him and her body shaking so tremendously with tears that he shook as well.  Tears that came from the depths of her soul, and were forcing their way out.
 

 Kevin couldn't speak to even tell Annie he was sorry, or to tell her that it really happened, he could only sit silently on his end suppressing the emotions that seemed to scream out of him, words that yelled the exact same things she yelled, and wished to god that none of it was true.  Through the open phone line Kevin and Annie cried, every tear disbelieving and filled with unimaginable anguish.