"Hayley! C'mon, babygirl, we gotta go!"
Andie cannot help but shake her head at the all too predictable, mumbled reply coming from down the hall, her own path leading her to the kitchen to seek out the other person in the home that she needs to wrangle out the door. True to form, she finds him, still sitting at the kitchen table. Staring into open space like it is the most fascinating thing in the world.
A lurching sensation rolls through her gut, but Andie does what she can to prevent herself from allowing any visible hint of such a thing to show in her expression. To avoid even the barest look of concern. She knows all of that will just push Taylor farther away. Farther into himself.
The walls her stepbrother is building only seem to grow stronger every day, and it would be a lie to say Andie isn't beginning to wonder if she will ever be able to reach him again.
Something that only seems to have her voice softening, despite her best efforts to appear neutral, as she finally opens her mouth to bring him out of his reverie as best she can.
"Time to go, bud."
Chair legs scraping against the tile floor cause Andie to wince, but Taylor is standing and heading toward the door, even if he bumps roughly against her shoulder to do it. He shoulders his way through the front door, and the knob smacks against the wall not long after while he takes the porch steps at a jog. The sound draws her attention like a magnet, and for a moment, Andie feels the startling burn of tears at the corners of her eyes.
Or at least she does until Hayley's pounding footsteps pull her back to the present, and shift her attention to the soon-to-be-ten year old, instead.
"Have you seen my ballerina necklace?"
"Did you check—"
"Under the bed and in the bathroom. Yeah."
"What about—"
"Andie, I need to find my necklace! It's like my lucky charm!"
The sheen of tears in Hayley's eyes as she pleads her case has Andie's entire body grinding to a sudden halt, because in her distraction over getting Taylor up and moving, and the guilt she feels over exactly how badly she's failed him, she'd somehow momentarily forgotten the significance of the necklace in question in the first place. She had neglected to think of exactly why losing one simple trinket could possibly equate to a life or death situation. A fact that is made abundantly clear as soon as Andie glimpses the out and out panic in her stepsister's expression.
It was a gift from their father. An early present for Hayley's tenth birthday.
A birthday that the younger girl will now be celebrating without either of her parents around.
"Okay. Okay, um—did you check the living room?"
Hayley wastes no time dodging back down the hall, her footsteps fading as soon as she hits the carpeting, and Andie shoves aside the flare of anxiousness that threatens at the thought of being later than she already is in favor of heading back into the kitchen to try and find her stepsister's necklace, herself. Her fingers curl around the car keys in her hand, while the other rifles through stacks of bills on the table. Bits and pieces of crafts Hayley started, but hadn't yet finished.
Her teeth are starting to worry at the inside of her cheek, to the point of pain, but she persists in shifting things around. She darts occasional glances at the clock on the microwave to check the time.
They should have been on the road ten minutes ago, but clearly that had been a lofty goal from the start. Probably the same as every other idea that had led her back to New Lago to begin with. But Andie knows there is no way she would have made any other choice. Not when her father had called, uncharacteristically shaken. Not when he'd funded her flight out for a visit, despite numerous protests on her end that she could pay her own way.
And especially not when she'd landed. When he'd dragged her into his arms for a bone-crushing embrace, and then died with his wife—her stepmother—in a car wreck a mere two days later.
It would be so easy to get lost in those memories. To let them pull her down until she is drowning, with no way out. But she can't do that. She can't, because Taylor is in the wind more often than not, and Hayley?
Hayley might be the sibling that is easier to reach, but that certainly doesn't mean that she won't need someone watching her back. And no matter how many times Andie's own mother calls, urging her to reconsider her choices—practically begging her to move back home and get back to her career—she can't do it. Won't do it.
Regardless of her mother's opinions on her ex-husband's second marriage, Andie had always adored her stepmother. Taylor and Hayley too. And the idea of leaving them behind now that everything is falling apart?
It is more painful than she thinks she could bear.
"Found it!"
The exclamation effectively draws Andie out of her own internal musings in seconds, a fact for which she is abundantly grateful, even if she knows she can never admit to such a thing out loud. And as Hayley jogs back into the hallway, necklace securely laced around her neck, Andie places a hand on the younger girl's shoulder to gently usher her towards the door, only pausing for long enough to ensure the front door locks securely behind them before heading off to join Taylor at the car to clamber inside.
Only to receive yet another reminder of exactly how much she and her siblings have lost.
The tiny crystal heart pendant hanging from the rearview mirror draws Andie's gaze as soon as slides into the driver's seat, just as it always does, and habit has her brushing her fingertips against it while her breath snags against a sudden knot in the middle of her throat. It takes a minute for her to successfully place the keys in the ignition, because her eyes are once again burning with unshed tears.
She can still remember the day she'd seen it for the first time. Dangling from the fingertip of a man she loved—loves—beyond reason. Her fiancé had given it to her before his last deployment. He'd brought along little keepsakes for her siblings, too, because even when she had assured him time and time again that she didn't expect him to take on the responsibility of trying to parent two kids before they were even married themselves, he hadn't been inclined to listen. He had promised they were as much his family as hers. That the two of them would make it work.
But then he had never come back home.
Losing him—losing her father and stepmother—had nearly ended her. It had taken everything she had to claw herself back up to standing, but she had done it. She had done it, because Taylor and Hayley needed her, more than she needed time to wallow in the rubble signifying what is left of her life.
They still need her. Andie knows that. She knows allowing herself to get lost in her own thoughts is only going to make matters worse.
Shaking herself, and finally turning the key in the ignition, Andie forces herself to focus on the present. She turns to Hayley in the passenger seat, and tries to ignore the slight furrow that mars her stepsister's brow. It's hard, but she offers the younger girl what she hopes will be a convincing smile.
Even when her words come out far shakier than she wants them to, Andie does not allow her smile to waver, and mercifully, Hayley does not seem to pick up on anything out of the ordinary at all.
"Your turn with the radio, babygirl. Pick somethin' good."
Her sister's ready smile is nearly enough to chase Andie's worries away. Nearly enough to have her willing to keep believing that everything will be alright, in the end. And it is because of that smile that Andie is able to ignore the lingering dread in the pit of her stomach over what the day ahead might entail.
Work at the small hotel in town barely allows her to pay the bills. It means dealing with men who seem to enjoy using the lobby as a regular hang-out, whether they knew they were interfering with her own job, or not. But there weren't any opportunities for Andie to find a job within commuting distance that would allow her to come even close to using her degree, and she isn't about to take her siblings away from the only home they had ever known.
And if giving them a sense of familiarity—of belonging—requires staying put in a place that only serves to throw memories of what she can no longer have in her face, then that is precisely what Andie is going to do.
Even if it tears her apart completely along the way.
…
Hi darlings! And welcome to yet another story I couldn't find a category for on this site, but just had to post, because...Val Kilmer. Yes, that's right. The chokehold is still going strong. And with that said, I hope at least a few of you out there enjoy this little introductory chapter? The pairing, of course, is an eventual Will 'Spooky' MacPherson/OC. And I would absolutely love hearing your thoughts if you are so inclined!
Thank you all so, so very much for sticking with me in this apparent hyper-fixation, and for giving everything I toss out into the ether the time of day! I appreciate you all so, so very much more than you know! And I hope I can convince a few of you to join me on this ride?
Until next time...
angstytalesrx