Brooke was sitting in the kitchen looking at the newspaper when she heard her cousin come barreling through the door.  As she turned around, she caught her cousin running up the stairs and then heard her bedroom door slam.

What the hell is going on here she thought as she ran up the stairs. She charged right into Alissa’s room without knocking and was floored by the scene in front of her.  Alissa was in tears and on the floor trying to drag a suitcase out from under the bed with her one good arm.

“What are you doing?” yelled Brooke.

“I’m leaving!” Alissa said through her tears and proceeded to pull clothes out of the closet and throw them into the open suitcase on the floor. “I have to leave now!”

“Where are you going to go? What happened?” Brooke grabbed her cousin by the shoulders and forced her to sit on the bed.  Sitting next to her, she pulled her cousin into a hug and heard her cousin’s tears turn into sobs.

“Shhhh. Please tell me what happened, why you’re so upset.” Brooke pleaded with her cousin. “I want to help you but I can’t do that until you tell me what’s wrong.”

“I’m leaving. I can’t stay here anymore.” Alissa cried.

“Can you at least tell me where you came from?”

Alissa was crying so hard she was gulping for air.  “I came from AJ’s studio. I took your advice and went over there to see if he would talk to me.” Alissa started crying again.

“What did he say to you? I’ll go over and kick his ass!” Brooke yelled.

“It wasn’t him. He wasn’t even there. Nick was the one who yelled at me. He was saying what an awful person I was and how I was hurting AJ and I didn’t even care. He said that I was taking advantage of AJ’s feelings and he wasn’t going to allow me to do that anymore.” Alissa wailed and jumped up from the bed. She pulled open drawers and started throwing clothes in the suitcase again.

“What an asshole! You didn’t even do anything to that jerk. Did you tell him that?”

“I tried to but he wouldn’t listen. He told me I could go to hell and that I should go back to where I came from!”

Brooke just sat on the bed stunned. “Where are you going to go?” she said quietly.

“I’m going back to Boston. I made a reservation for the last flight leaving tonight. Can you please leave me alone so I can pack?” Alissa whispered quietly and went into the bathroom slamming the door behind her.  Brooke knew that this was not the time to argue with her. She left her cousin in the middle of the mess and went downstairs knowing that there was no way to help her.