You know, when you’re young…when you’re so young that you think everything is just…it’s just as real as it gets… When you’re that young, it’s hard to make sense of right or wrong. I was like that when I was seventeen. I was just young and foolish. I thought that the world would just work the way that I wanted it to. I figured that I wouldn’t really have to try and things would just come together. It wasn’t that way, though. Andrea was a dancer. She was just vibrant and full of life. She was so beautiful and amazing, you know? She was that girl. The one the other guys always fawned over and checked out. Any guy that was with her…the other guys were jealous. I was that guy. I was her guy, and she was my girl. [Pause] We were so in love—or at least we thought we were. Every time I saw her it was like being in the presence of an angel. I was smitten. She was amazing. We met at a musical theater camp. I know, I know. I was in it for the girls, and, well, there she was. She could really sing. And she could dance like nothing you’ve seen before. Everything about her was just it, you know? We didn’t get together for a few months. It took her a while to fall for my charms. She did, though. [Pause] We had been together for almost six months when the accident happened. I remember the call. It was a weeknight. I think it was Tuesday, or Wednesday. Not like it mattered. I was on the couch watching TV, and my cell rang. I didn’t recognize the number, but I answered. All I heard was sobbing, then her voice. It was soft, sad, distraught. She told me that he dad had been in an accident. A traffic accident. He was hit head-on. The police had called her mom to tell her…he was gone. [Pause] Have you ever had one of those moments? Like you’re on top of the world. Everything is perfect. Nothing could knock you down. And then it’s like someone just pulls the rug out. Everything falls at once. I felt like I was riding an elevator and the cables snapped. I had that feeling in my gut. Like I was falling at terminal velocity. It was the worst feeling of my life. [Pause] It took me a bit to recover from the initial shock. I remember the silence was just…deafening. I tried to say something, but all that I could get out was “I’m so sorry.” I said it a few times before I understood how pointless it was. What do you do? I mean, I offered her comfort and I tried to help, but there’s really nothing to do. She was only sixteen. It’s got to be the worst time possible to lose your father. [Pause] Her mom lived out of state. I saw her once after that to say goodbye. [Pause] I was so young.