Is That Your Reason or Your Excuse?

So maybe life wasn't suppose to be perfect, or even easy for that matter, and that was all okay for me. I knew that if I were to stay with them it would be a long difficult journey for me but I was willing to take that risk. For some reason Zacky kept me so attached and I couldn't pull away. Or at least, I didn't want to. I didn't really want to admit it, because I knew Zacky was a bad seed to be around. Still, that only made me want to help him more, even if I knew I couldn't.

"You done yet?" Zacky asked. His tone wasn't rude or spiteful like it had been earlier. It really was a question of curiosity.

"Yes," I said wiping the side of my mouth with the disposable paper napkin.

"I guess we can go now," he said as he placed the money on the table. I didn't really know how much he placed on the table that was covered by our recent lunch, but I knew it was more then what we were suppose to pay. I never knew anyone could be so careless with money. Once we walked out of the restaurant we began making our way back to a Wal-mart parking lot, which is where we left the van. We didn't make it to the gig we were suppose to so we had to figure out a place to settle. A 24-hour Wal-mart was all we could seem to find.

"How much trouble are you in?" I asked him as we walked steadily down the sidewalk.

"You mean with Valary? Psh, I'm surprised I'm not dead yet."

We continued to stroll by all the building and colorful people. It was comfortable unlike when we first walked to the restaurant. This time, I wasn't so anxious and slightly afraid. I even managed to realize that the day was beautiful today. Blue skies and brilliant rays from the sun. I didn't realize I stopped until Zacky spoke.

"What?" he asked. I blushed slightly and shook my head.

"Nothing, its just really pretty today." He looked up at the sky.

"Heh, I guess it is. Wow, didn't even notice."

We stood there in the middle of the walkway just staring up at the sky and looking at the few pigeons that flew by. I wonder if we looked insane in any other person's perspective, but at that moment I didn't care. I was going to enjoy the vast beauty of the day and just think about that moment. I felt so enormously tiny as I looked up at the big blue sky. I almost felt like I could sore up and join the clouds at any moment.

"Hey," I heard Zacky's voice.

I looked down and over towards him with a questioning look.

"You wanna go some place?" he asked.

"Where?" I asked.

"I know this park down the road. Its pretty nice, I don't know if still up but I kinda wanna go see what shape its in now."

"Sure," I said a little suspiciously.

The park was something that probably didn't catch anyone's attention. No kids, no adults, no one. It was abandoned along with any care that the citizens used to have for it. Graffiti and unkempt grass surrounded the play ground equipment but, you could still see the beautiful park it once was. Certain wild and gorgeous flowers bloomed in the tall grasses and vines around the brick wall that surrounded half of the tiny park. I began wondering why Zacky choice to come here.

"It's…nice," I commented which caused Zacky to laugh.

"Yeah a real sight, isn't it?" He said smiling as we walked over to the old swing set.

I began to sit down on one of the swings cautiously, I feared that the chain just might break under my weight, but once I sat down it didn't even seemed to be affected by me and I began swaying my legs.

"Having fun?" Zacky asked, a smile radiating off his face.

"Yeah," I said. "I've never swung on one of these before. Its pretty fun." His face turned to pure shock.

"You've never swung on a swing before?" I began to laugh because of the childish voice that came out of him. I shook my head no.

"Sorry," He said as his face softened. "I keep forgetting what circumstances you were in."

I shrugged. "It's fine."

"I guess we should go back, huh?" He asked.

In reality I didn't want to go back and so I voiced my thoughts. "How about we just stay for a few more minutes?"

"Uh, alright." He said.

I began swinging myself back and forth on the swing. I always wondered what it would be like to be a normal child, a child who had the freedom and innocence. A child ignorant of work.

Zacky began walking towards me and finally settled himself in the swing next to me. He was also cautious when he sat down, luckily, that swing didn't break either.

"You used to go here?" I asked as I tried to remove the silence.

"Yeah, with my parents. They used to visit L.A. a lot for business, of course back then they actually cared about the fact that they had kids. That was back when Matt was still a baby. I used to swing on these swings for hours, trying to see how far I could jump off them, until one day I scraped my knee and began bawling like a big baby." He laughed.

"How old were you?"

"five."

"You're lucky," I said.

"Yeah right," he snorted.

"No you really are. I never really had the chance to see the light of day."

Zacky was silent for a while. I looked over towards him and could see he was pondering, I waited silently for him to speak.

"I guess I'll have to make sure you see the day as much as you can." He said.

"What?" I asked with an arched brow.

"You heard me. I mean you did decide to stay with us and since I was the one that technically kidnapped you, that makes you my responsibility. I'll make sure this becomes the best road trip of your life." He said smiling.

And for the first time I finally trusted that smile.