Last Bandit: Book 1 in The Bandits Series

Sweet Child O' Mine

Chapter 18: Sweet Child O' Mine ~

She sits there upon the couch, hands folded in her lap and a soft smile upon her face. She looks at me with sparkling eyes. She looks just like I remembered her, yet something is different.

I sober up real fast. I can almost feel all the alcohol burn out of my system in so little time. It's dead silent as I stare at Mary Ann, unable to speak a word. God, she's so beautiful, so gentle. She's like an angel with long, wavy blonde hair, an exquisite face, and an all around serene appearance. She's clothed in a cream colored dress that reaches just above her knees while she sits. And her crystal eyes gleam with something I've never quite seen before.

There is so much to say, but I can't speak a word. She doesn't talk either and decides to stand first.

And there it is. The thing that makes her appear a bit different to me. She sets her hands on her slightly rounded belly. Oh, what have I done? What have I done to this poor, innocent seventeen year old girl?

"Don't cry, Johnny," she tells me.

"I got you pregnant."

"That's no reason to cry."

"I'm so sorry."

I feel as small tears trickle down my cheeks. I can't help but let them fall. What a horrible man I am for getting a teenager pregnant. I'm five years older than her, considered an adult, yet I've done something foolish. Something absolutely weak and horrible.

I can't remember when the last time I cried was. Probably when my mother died all those years ago. Now here I am weeping for a huge mistake. God, how could I be so fucking stupid, so careless? With a poor seventeen year old girl?

It all makes sense now. Why her parents and everyone else began to hate her. She's a pregnant teenager. People must think of her as a slut, a whore, when really, it's all my fault.

She approaches me slowly, keeping her hands on her belly and a smile upon her face. When she reaches me, she wipes away the tears and embraces me tightly. I try to return the secure hug, but I'm afraid I'll damage the precious cargo.

Mary Ann stays in my tender arms for a good while. I try to stop crying, but frankly, it's very hard to. The hell I must've put this woman through... It must have hurt her. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt her.

"It's okay," she says. "We'll be alright."

We are now soon to be parents at young ages. She will be a mother at seventeen. Seventeen. She's still a child herself. And now she's expecting a baby because I was so stupid. So fucking stupid.

"Shh. Don't cry."

So fucking stupid.

"I'll put your bags in the bedroom, Mary Ann," I hear Athena whisper.

"I'm so sorry, Mary Ann."

Everybody must think of me as a jackass. My brother and his girlfriend are older than me and Mary Ann, and they haven't got any kids. Oh, we're not even married. And we're going to have a kid.

Mary Ann pulls away from me and looks directly into my eyes. I'm sure they are blood shot and watery like a little boy's who had just taken a fall. I'm sure they show regret and sorrow.

As I look back at her, I realize that the only good thing to come of all this is the child itself. We will be loving and raising our own very child that we created together because we are in love. I'm very happy for that, but very sad for all the pain I have put this child's mother through and all the pain she might have to experience in the coming months at such a young age.