Alone This Holiday

"What's up, man?" Johnny asked, opening the door to his house and inviting me inside. I don't know why he is still talking to me, I'm always an arsehole to him, pushing him around, punching him in the shoulders. Yet he is still there for me nomatter what. "Anna get the kids?"

"Yeah, she did. Aedan didn't want to go, but she made him," I followed him inside to the kitchen where his girl was making what looked like dinner. "Hey," I greated, receiving a smile as a 'hello'. Lacey was always cooking food for Johnny, it was amost a hobby for her to get up in the morning and make breakfast for him.

"Beer?" Johnny offered, nodding I took it, cracked it open and took a small mouthful of the cold beverage.

Lacey asked me to stay for dinner, which I agreed to as I didn't have any energy to make my own dinner, and by nine at night, we'd eaten and Lacey was cleaning the kitchen. The conversation seemed to be mostly about the band, Johnny was concerned that Avenged wasn't together anymore as Zacky was still wanting to bash the living crap out of me. I pointed out to Johnny that if it came down to it, I'd leave the band, Zacky was, as childish as it sounds, there first, it was his band before it was mine. Sighing Johhny told me that he wouln't bother being in Avenged if it wasn't the five of us.

I left Johnny's by about eleven in a taxi, and upon arriving at my house I noticed that it was the same way I'd left it, nothing was missing despite me not bothering to lock it up. By the morning I was prepared for another day wandering around the house, cleaning, washing clothes, and even ironing them, all the domestic things Anna used to do, I was now doing on my own.

The doorbell ringing bought me out of my cleaning of the kitchen, I pulled the gloves off, dropped them in the sink, and answered the door to see Zacky holding Aedan.

"Anna says you can take him, for a few days. He hasn't stopped crying since he left here," Zacky didn't make eye contact, or even speek with emotion of any variety, it was like he were a robot. I took Aedan into my outstretched arms, holding him closely as he snuggled into my shirt. "She says she'll call you tommorow, maybe, or something. Bye," And with that he left my house.

I held Aedan for a few minutes, just hugging him, telling him how much he meant to me, and listening to him ramble about things that don't even make sense. Within the hour I'd finished cleaning the kitchen, gotten Aedan lunch, then decided we'd go to the beach. Over the phone I'd invited Matt, who invited Val, who invited Anna without me knowing until I arrived there to see all of my kids playing, or sitting, in the sand with Anna watching them.

Anna was wearing a swim suit that showed the fact she'd lost all the baby weight, and didn't have many stretch marks from it all, and I spotted a tattoo on her lower back. A guitar with our kids names along the strings, and their date of birth next to it, which made it pretty obvious she'd decided never to have more kids.

"No Mummy," Aedan said to me, his big brown eyes looking into mine. "No Mummy," He repeated.

"You don't want to see Mum?"

"No Mummy," He said, a little frustrated. I chuckled a little bit, and put our things down next to everyone elses, then sat in the sand nearest to Matt.

"Where's Scotty?" I asked anyone who felt like answering.

"Just there," Val pointed to a little boy sitting near the water, playing with some shells.

"Um, no, that's not him. That kid is fat," Anna's head shot up, and before anyone could say anything, I was searching the beach for Scotty.

I found him a little while later, while everyone was searching, he was sitting near a rockpool, poking things inside it with a stick.

"You're alright," I rejoyed, giving him a hug. "We couldn't find you,"

"I know,"

"Why don't you and Mum love eachother anymore?"

"Um, well," I looked down the rocks to the ocean, thinking, how to explain what was going on. "We just are growing appart, now,"

"Do you still love me?" Nodding, I pressed my lips to his forehead.

"I'll always love you, Scotty. No matter what happens,"

"I love you too, Dad,"