Dead
By Gennia and Alice

Chapter 2

For the whole afternoon, they asked me the same questions over and over again; Mr. Littrell, what was your relationship with the victim? Where were you on Friday night? Mr. Littrell, when did you last talk to the victim? By the victim, they meant Nick. Nick, my bandmate, my friend, my brother. Nick’s dead. At first, I wanted to laugh at them and tell them that Nick’s not dead, he didn’t die! He’s gonna be at his birthday party tonight, I’ll show them then! They even made me look at photos of Nick. I was pretty sure normally I would have threw up after seeing something like that. But somehow, I managed to convince myself that Nick was pulling a prank on me. Just makeup, a lot makeup. Now, however, I’m not so sure anymore. Maybe it’s because they kept on saying it over and over again, now I’m starting to believe them. Or maybe it’s because I saw AJ crying outside when I went to get a drink of water. Whatever it was, I was really starting to think Nick was dead. But he can’t die! We all agreed that we were gonna give each other some space during our one week break in Atlanta. I went home, Kevin went to his new house which he bought with Kristen in Atlanta right before the tour. AJ, Howie, and Nick went to some hotel, to supposingly "enjoy their single lives". Tonight, we were going to have a surprise party for Nick at his favorite club. That reminds me, we still have to call all the guests and tell them not to come tonight. I mean, what would be the point if the birthday boy don’t show up, right? No Brian! Stop think like that! Nick’s going to be there, you know he is! They’re just messing with your head! Nick’s going to show up!

"Nick’s going to show up." I suddenly realized that I had said it out loud—barely above a whisper but the detectives still heard it.

"Mr. Littrell?"

"Yes?" I answered, it came out like a squeak. I guess I must have looked pretty vulnerable, because he deceided he was done with torturing me.

"You can go now, Brian. We’ll call you if we need you to come back. Thank you very much for coming here today. Once again, we’re really sorry about your friend." The fat man patted me on the shoulder as he escorted me toward the door of the small room. I forced a tiny smile and nodded.

When I walked out, I came face to face to Kevin. For a split second, I saw a look of panic flash across his eyes, but it was gone so fast and he was back to the calm and collected Kevin Richardson.

"Uh…I was just going to check on you. They just let me out too." Kevin said quietly, almost a little too fast. I just nodded, never looking up. I was afraid if I tried to speak, the lump in my throat would do something stupid. I was still standing there in silence when Kevin’s strong arms took me by surprise. They engulfed me in a firm bear hug, almost painfully strong. But I guess I needed it, because I suddenly felt so much safer. And all the overwhelming emotions kind of bursted out in the form of wet, salty tears.

"Nick’s dead Kevin. Nick’s dead."

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