Lost It All

"Andy, you can't just leave. We have an album to record." Ashley was negotiating.

"My girlfriend and baby need me, Ashley. I can't just let Carolyn deal with this all on her own. It's my fault this happened. I need to own up to it." Andy reasoned. He knew that Carolyn's pregnancy was all his fault. He was the one who had wanted to do it in the first place. He was the reason her dream had come crashing down. It wasn't fair to her at all. "I'm going to see her. I'll be back as soon as I can."

He had no other choice. He was obligated to go and at least give Carolyn some emotional support. She had been through hell and back already. She was probably scared, upset and nervous. She had no mother to guide her through a pregnancy and no woman figure to help her along. All she had was her father and Andy.

It was going to be weird for Carolyn to see Andy again. She hadn't seen him since the day she found out she was pregnant and he still hadn't known at that point in time. More importantly, Carolyn was afraid of what her father was going to say to Andy.

There was a knock on the front door and Carolyn knew that the only person it could be was Andy. She opened the door to find herself being embraced by a strong pair of long, tattooed arms. She breathed in his leather jacket and felt his hands rub up and down her back. He breathed in the sweet smell of her hair and felt the small bump where her stomach was that would grow and grow as the months passed.

She didn't want to look into his eyes. She didn't want to look at his face. She just wanted to stay like that for a while. She wanted to be contained in his embrace until she felt it was safe to finally look him in the eyes. She knew deep down that none of this was her fault. It was all Andy. But she didn't want to admit to herself that the one person she learned to love was the reason behind her downfall. She wanted to blame it all on herself.

"Dad? Andy's here." Carolyn called out and her father appeared from the kitchen.

"Andy." He stated, glaring at him in his leather vest and tight black pants. "Carolyn, give Andy and I a moment, would you?"

Carolyn nodded and headed up to her room. She knew that shouting would ensue and she wanted to be as far away from it as possible.

Her father walked Andy over to the kitchen table and motioned to one of the wooden chairs. "Take a seat, son." He said as he took a seat at the table himself.

Andy sat down with Carolyn's father and braced himself for what was to come next. Andy had always known Carolyn's father to be a caring man. He always seemed very quiet and to himself.

"Listen, I'm sorry about--" Andy tried to apologize but Carolyn's father held his hand up and cut Andy off.

"You destroyed my child's dream." He said in a low, raspy voice. He sounded defeated but enraged at the same time. Andy wasn't sure what was to come next. "She has to throw her whole life away because of you." His voice raised to shouting and Andy's body was pressed back against the chair with just his words.

"James, please!" Andy begged. "I know what I did was wrong and I'm so--"

James stood up from the chair with such force that the chair stumbled over behind him. "Dancing was all that she had, Andy. That was it. I know she would have made it if it weren't for you to come along and screw up her whole life." He was practically in tears, still shouting at Andy. His hands gripped the edge of the table as he leaned towards Andy slightly to get his point across.

Andy backed his chair a bit and began to stand up as well. "I can fix this. I know I can. If you just give me a chance--"

"No." His voice trembled. "I think it's time for you to leave, Andy. You've done enough damage already. Carolyn can't afford to lose anything else."

Andy dropped his hands to his side and backed away from her father slowly. He wanted to say more. He wanted to keep apologizing for making such a stupid mistake. He wanted to be there for Carolyn. He wanted to be involved in his child's life. Because of his stupid mistakes, Andy wasn't going to be allowed to make any more stupid mistakes.