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llamangos4eva

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            “Yeeee ahh! I’m up! I’m up!” Annie jumped a mile in the air. “I’m awake! Don’t yell!”

            Brandon calmly looked over at Annie. “What are you talking about babe?”

            Annie blinked and looked around. She’d fallen asleep on the couch. The phone rang again, and she jumped up, catching it on the second ring. “Hello?” She said groggily into the receiver.

            “Annie?” Her mom’s voice came shakily over the phone.

            “Hi mom.” Annie gave Brandon a frantic look. He turned the TV down for her. “What’s up?”

            “Honey, you might want to sit down for this…” Her mom cautioned her first.

            Oh snap! Annie thought, but sat down. The last time she told me to sit down before she told me something was when she told me about Evy being taken by the cop cos they thought Dad had touched her. “Okay mom, I’m sitting.”

            “Honey,” Her mom started

            Why does she keep calling me that?! Annie thought bitterly.

            “Your dad put us in the ditch again.”

            Annie paused momentarily, then replied. “You had me sit down for that?” Annie tried not to scoff at her mom’s overly protectiveness.

            “Honey, your sister is in E.R.” Her mom added.

            Annie’s blood went cold. Evy? She couldn’t move. Evy’s in E.R.? The blood was pounding in her temples. What the hell did he do this time? Flip the van entirely?

            “Annie?” Her mom asked.

            Annie couldn’t respond. She felt frozen to the seat.

            “Babe,” Brandon reached over to touch her. “Are you okay?”

            Annie jumped at Brandon’s touch and looked at him.

            “What’s wrong?” He asked, noting the petrified look in her eyes, and moving to kneel down in front of her. “What’s wrong?” He lightly shook her leg.

            “Annie?” Her mom asked again, more frantic.

            “Mom…” Annie was finally able to say

            “Honey, it wasn’t the accident that hurt your sister.”

            Annie’s blood began to boil. “It was him wasn’t it?” The venom on the word ‘him’ flowed through every inch of Annie’s body, and Brandon pulled his hand away from her leg as though it had stung him.

            Her mom sighed, and replied hesitatingly. “Yes.” She said it quietly, though, as though someone were listening to her.

            Annie didn’t move, she was so angry, she didn’t even realize she was gripping her own arm so tightly, that when she looked down, a couple drops of blood were running down her arm from the puncture her nails had made.
            “He was hitting one of the drivers, and Evy ran to him, he ended up hitting her, and she fell,” Her mom explained, sobs rising in her throat again. Annie heard the beeping of a heart machine somewhere in the background and knew her mom was calling from the emergency room. “She’s unconscious.”

            Everything faded out. Annie couldn’t see, her hearing fuzzed, and she dropped the phone. She couldn’t see Brandon in front of her, picking up the phone. She couldn’t hear her mom shouting her name on the phone. She didn’t hear Brandon speak to her mom on the phone, or him write something down on paper next to him. She didn’t see him hang up the phone, nor hear him calling her name.

*************

            “Annie?” Brandon shook her by the shoulders gently. “Annie!” He took her face in his hands. “Annie! Speak to me!” He started panicking. There was a glazed look in her eyes, and she was white. “Annie!” A tear formed in Brandon’s eye. Oh God! Let her be okay! Snap out of it! Snap her out of it! He tried again. “Annie!” He lightly patted her face, trying to snap her out of the trance she’d fallen into.

            That seemed to work. She blinked a few times, then finally saw Brandon in front of her. She burst into tears, and buried her head into his shoulder, sobbing loudly. In between sobs, she managed to tell him. “Evy… Evy’s …unconscious!”

            Brandon stroked her hair. “Shhh… it’s going to be okay.” He held her closely in his lap, not letting her go. “I know, babe. I know.”

**************

            After half an hour, Annie seemed to be calming down. Then Brandon looked down at her. “Babe, your mom told me where they’re at. Do you want to go see your sister?”