"Were you happy?" Nick asked.
"Oh my, we were the epitome of love. Truely disgusting to be around, ya know." Nick smiled, silently wishing he could be that happy. "Everything was cool, until I came home a few weeks ago." Her voice begain to falter, as she recalled the events that changed her life.
"Annie, you don't have to go on if you don't want to. I don't want to make you think that I'm trying to pry this out of you." She looked at Nick, and tears threatened to fall. His eyes were pleading his sincerity. At that point in time, she didn't think that she had ever met someone as sweet as him.
She smiled halfheartedly at him. "No, Nick, I need to do this. What happened to me has made me the person I am, and in order for you to understand who I am, you need to know. But I need this for myself too." Nick just nodded his head, and patiently waited for her to continue. "I came home from the hospital, after just completing a shift. I noticed my sister's car there, but I didn't think anything of it. I opened the door and saw clothes and a half eaten bowl of strawberries and an empty bottle of chapaigne."
"No way...he didn't," he said in disbelief.
"Yeah, I heard muffled noises coming from the bedroom. So when I opened the door, I...I saw...h-him and Alexa......" Annie couldn't contain herself anymore and broke down in a fit of tears for the second time that night.
Nick rushed over to the other side of the table where she was sitting. He sat himself on the bench next to her, and gathered her in his arms, rubbing her back. It was tearing him up inside, seeing her in so much pain. He had never met Cory, yet he never hated anyone so much in his life.
After a few minutes, her sobs began to subside, and she looked up at Nick, with fresh tears still glistening in her eyes. Nick could feel his heart breaking for her. He so bad wanted to kiss her, to take all her pain away, but he thought better, and decided against it. "So after I saw them together again later that day, I packed up and moved down here. I lost everything, my only sister, my boyfriend...." She broke down once again.
Nick cupped her chin with his hand, making her look at him. "Granted you lost that, but to me, it doesn't sound like you lost all that much. I know that's kind of harsh to say, but family shouldn't treat you that way, neither should your boyfriend. And think of it this way, you just gained 5 friends. We all think the world of you, even though we just met you a week ago. I can't speak for the rest of the guys, but I'm gonna do my damnedest to make sure that you never get hurt again. Ok?"
Annie sniffed, and took a deep breath. "Thank you Nick, so much. You don't know what it means to me to hear you say that." She reached around his neck and gave him a hug, silently telling him what words couldn't convey.
Nick returned the hug, revelling in the vanilla scent of her hair. He could have stayed like that forever. "You're welcome Annie-bear. I'd do anything to make you happy." Annie smiled graciously at him. "Hey, I have an idea. Let's do something tomorrow. Just me and you." Nick looked hopefully at Annie.
Annie smiled. "Sure, that sounds like fun. But what shall we do?"
"Disney!"
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