Never Let Go

Chapter 5- Baby Love

~*Amanda's Point Of View*~

"St-tephanie?" I said, attempting to get my sobbing under control.

"Oh my god. Amanda, what happened?"

"I...an-nd th-hen a-a-shley.." I started, completely breaking down.

"Oh gosh, listen stay right there. I'll be over in a second." Stephanie said, then hung up the phone. I turned mine off as well. A few moments later I heard a knock at my door.

"It's o-open." I shouted through my sobs.

Stephanie came over and pulled me into a hug.

"Shh...it's all right. Whatever happened, it's all right. It'll be ok."

"No it's not."

"What happened?"

"Ash-Ashley b-broke up w-with me."

"Oh my god. Why?"

"He-he said t-that he cou-couldn't do this. T-that I deserves s-someone e-else." I had stopped crying now and I was attempting to get my breathing under control.

"I don't WANT anyone else. I WANT him. I want to be with Ashley, and I want Ashley to be our child's daddy, not some guy that I don't even know yet. I'm in love with him and that's not gonna change. Why the hell can't he except that?" I was starting to get angry.

"He says that he loves me but how the hell am I supposed to believe him when he doesn't even want to be friends anymore!? Huh? How am I supposed that he loves me and that he'll ALWAYS love me? I bet that the only fucking reason he broke up with me is because he wants to get back together with Shelli, that stupid whore. I hated her from the beginning!" I yelled, now extremely pissed.

"Amanda, I know that you're pissed off, but you've got to calm down. None of this can be good for the baby at all. I'm sorry that Ashley broke up with you but I promise you that things are gonna get better."

"They fucking better." I mumbled as I sat down on the couch.

~*Jacob's Point Of View*~

"How the hell could you do that to him?" Dan asked, well more so yelled rather than asked, Mike M.

"He brought this on himself." Mike said before getting up.

"Now if you all will excuse me I have to leave." He said as he walked out of the front door.

"Look, I know that you don't agree with what he's doing, but how can you just sit there and not do anything?" Erik asked Mike C. who was still there.

"There's not much that I can do. Mike is the predominant manger here. You guys know that."

"We know, but isn't there something that you can do?"

"No, at least not that I can think of right now."

"Do you think that one of us should go check on him?" Trevor asked.

"I will." I volunteered. I walked up the stairs and down the hall to Ashley's room. I knocked on his door before opening it and walking in.

"How are you holding up?" I asked sitting down on his bed.

"How do you think I'm holding up?" He mumbled, not moving from his current position.

"Ok, so it was a stupid question. Are you going to be ok?"

"I'll survive if that's what you're asking, but nothing will ever be the same again. You know that if it didn't effect all of you guys that I would've left to be with her. That's how much she means to me."

"I know. We all know and we’re all very grateful that you decided to stay. I'm really sorry about you and Amanda. I know that you guys just got back together. This can't be easy on you."

"It's not. I hate this. I was gonna be a dad. Do you have any idea how incredible it was to look at the sonogram today? It was so amazing. Our baby was on this tiny screen and we could hear it's tiny heartbeat coming through the monitor. Do you have any idea what that was like? No you don't and Mike doesn't either so he just needs to shove it." He yelled, turning over so that he was on his back.

" Wow. I can't even begin to imagine what that would be like."

"I have the pictures from the sonogram. The doctor gave them to me before we left and I forgot to give them back to Amanda." He said, then he pulled the pictures out of his pocket.

He handed them to me; they were in an envelope, which I took them out of. I flipped through the black and white pictures in total awe. You could actually make out the baby.

"Wow, Ashley I...that's really awesome."

"Yeah and I'm probably never going to meet the baby. Amanda probably hates me now. I'll never get to hold it or watch it grow up. I'll never get to give it advice or have them slam their door in my face. I'll never have that with this baby."

"Never say never Ash. Things might work out."

"Do you honestly think that Amanda is going to take me back again. This is the second time this year that I've broken her heart. I wouldn't be surprised if she never spoke to me again."

"Why do you say that?"

"I kinda told her that I thought it would be best if we didn't talk for awhile. It'll be to hard." I nodded in understanding.

"Jake?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you do me a favor?"

"Sure, what do you want me to do?"

"I promised Amanda that we would take a two day trip down to San Diego and then to Redding to tell her parents and mine about the baby. I was wondering if you would go for me. You guys don't have to tell my parents if you don't want to, I'll tell them when we go to Redding, but I don't want Amanda to have to tell her parents alone and you're one of her best friends, so will ya?"

"Sure, when were you guys planning on going."

"Well, I was going to ask Mike if we could stay here an extra two nights so that we could go down to San Diego and then Redding. However, San Diego isn't that far, you guys could go ahead and go today, if she anted to, stay the night down there and then come back earlier tomorrow."

"I'll go call her now and see if she wants to go." I said before getting up. I smiled and left his room. I went down to the kitchen and used the phone in there.

"Hi, Amanda?" I asked when she picked up.

"Hey Jake, what's up?"

"Uhm, well Ashley mentioned to me that the two of you were gonna tell your parents this weekend and I was just wondering if I would be an acceptable replacement."

"Oh Jake, thank you. This means so much to me. I thought that I was gonna be stuck telling them by myself and I really don't want to do that."

"Well, do want to go today?"

"Uhm, I guess so."

"All right, well I'll pick you up in about half and hour ok?"

"Sure. Thank you so much for doing this."

"Your welcome."

.::Three Hours Later::.

.::San Diego::.

"Oh god. I don't know if I can do this." Amanda said as we sat in her driveway.

"Yes you can. I know that you can."

"No. No, I can't."

"Do you wanna tell my parents first?"

"Huh?"

"Well, I asked my mom if we could stay there tonight and she said that that was fine. So if you want to we could take all of our stuff to my house, tell my parents, and then come back and tell your parents."

"Ok." I backed out of her driveway and drove over to my house. It wasn't far from hers, only a ten-minute drive.

"Well here we are. Why don't you go ahead up to the door. I'll grab our stuff ok?"

"OK, thank you so much for doing this for me Jacob. It means so much to me."

"What are friends for?" She smiled and walked up to the front door. I saw her ring the doorbell and my mom opened it a few moments later.

I grabbed our two duffel bags from the trunk and closed it. Then I walked into the house, setting our stuff down by the stairs before going into the living room.

"You didn't tell me that Amanda was pregnant." My mom said as I walked into the living room.

"It's nice to see you too mom." I said rolling my eyes. Bryan, my brother, laughed. He was sitting next to Amanda on the couch. My mom was sitting on the love seat and I opted to sit in the recliner.

"Oh Jacob. You know that I'm happy to see you. I was just surprised to see Amanda pregnant; that's all. How far along are you anyways?" She asked Amanda.

"Four months."

"Aren't you a bit big for four months pregnant?"

"Yeah, somewhat, but my mom was really big when she had me too. It just runs in our family, I guess." My mom nodded in understanding.

"So who's the father?" My mom said with a smile, she gave me a knowing look.

"Before you get your hopes up, it's not Jacob."

"Oh, well then who is it?" She asked, visibly disappointed and slightly confused.

"Ashley." Manda said, tears coming to her eyes.

"Angel? Ashley Angel?" My mom asked in surprise. Amanda nodded and started crying. She brought her hands up and wiped her eyes. Bryan wrapped his arm around her in a comforting hug.

"Oh honey, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's just that well, Ashley doesn't want to have anything to do with me and the baby. I just, I don't know what I'm going to do."

"Oh Amanda. I'm so sorry." What Amanda said bothered me. Not to mention it confused me. Why would Amanda think that Ashley didn't want anything to do with her and the baby? Unless, of course, he told her that he didn't want anything to do with her and the baby, but why would he say something like that?

"It's ok. I'm sure that I'll be fine. It's not like I'm incapable of raising this baby alone. I just didn't want to."

"Can I talk to for a second?" I asked " alone." I said as an afterthought hoping that Bryan and my mom would get the point.

"Right, well Bryan and I have to go work on his homework. Come on Bryan." I mouthed 'thank you' to my mom as her and Bryan left.

"So, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Did Ashley tell you that he didn't want anything to do with you and the baby?"

"Yes."

"Well, that was a lie. Mike M made him choose between O-town and you."

"Oh, gee thanks. 'Cause that just made me so much better about everything."

"No, Mike made him choose between you and O-Town. If he left O-Town then there would be no more O-Town. Mike told him that if he left O-Town would be finished. Ashley didn't want to destroy everything that we'd worked for so he chose us. If it would've been something that wouldn't have destroyed the band then Ashley would've left in a heartbeat. He loves you so much Amanda and all he wants to do now is be a daddy."

"I always knew that I didn't like Mike. I can't believe that he would do something like that. I'm still kind of mad at Ashley for choosing you guys over me and the baby, but at least now I know why he did. Can we go tell my parents now? I just want to get it over with." I nodded my head and helped her off the couch.

"We're going to Amanda's! We'll be back in a couple of hours!" I yelled, letting my mom know that we were leaving.

We walked out the front door and over to my green PT cruiser and got in. Ten minutes later we arrived at Amanda's house.

"You ready?" I asked as I unbuckled my seatbelt.

"As ready as I'll ever be." She said getting out of the car as well.

I took her hand in mine and we walked up to the front door. I rang the doorbell and a few moments later the door opened.

"Amanda? Jacob?" Her mom asked in surprise.

"What are you two doing here?"

"Uhm, I have something to tell you and daddy." Amanda answered. Her mom opened the door wider to allow us in.

We walked through the door and went down a short hallway. Then we walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. Her mom went to go get Amanda's dad.

They came back a few moments later and sat down on the love seat opposite of the couch where Amanda and I were sitting.

"So what's this big announcement?" Her dad asked.

"I-I'm I'm pregnant." Amanda finally said.

"Well, that's wonderful!" Amanda's mom exclaimed.

"Congratulations my boy." Her dad said.

"Do when's the wedding?" Her mom wanted to know.

"Oh, no. Mom and dad you've got it all wrong. Jacob and I aren't together and we aren't getting married."

"Well then who is the father?" Her mom asked in a bit of a huff.

"Ashley."

"Ashley Angel?" Her mom asked.

"Do you know any other Ashley's?"

"Well, no, but I wasn't sure. I mean why isn't he here with you?"

"We aren't together anymore."

"Well why the hell not? What'd you do that caused the two of you to break up? Whatever it was you better make it up to him. The two of you are going to get married young lady. You're not going to raise this child by yourself and you're certainly not going to bring a child into this world out of wedlock." Her dad said, well more so yelled than said. Her mom burst into tears.

"I'm so disappointed in you Amanda. How could you let this happen? How could you ruin your life like that?"

"You know what? I don't have to take this. I don't have to sit here and listen to this. C'mon Jacob let's go." She took my hand and dragged me out the door before I had the chance to protest.

"Are you going to be ok?" I asked once we were in the car.

"I'm going to be fine. If they don't want to support me then fine they can be that way. It's not like this baby's going to have a daddy, so what does it need grandparents for?"

I didn't say anything, I simply drove us back to my house.

.::The Next Day::.

.::Sound Check::.

"So, how'd it go? How'd her parents take it?" Ashley asked me while we were backstage at sound check.

"It was awful. Her dad screamed and yelled. He told her that it was all her fault that the two of you had broken up and that she was going to make it up to you and the two of you had to get married. Her mom wasn't any better though. She cried the entire time and told Amanda how disappointed she was."

"Oh god. She's never going to forgive me for that."

"I don't know. I think she would. Although you should have heard what she said in the car. She said ' It's not like this baby's going to have a daddy, so what does it need grandparents for?' I felt so horrible for her."

"This is all my fault. If I had just stood up to mike then we wouldn't be here. I mean you know how much she means to me."

"Maybe there is something that we can do."

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