Sweet Child O' Mine

10 YEARS AGO

ZACKY’S POV

“Higher Uncle Zacky! Higher!” my sweet “niece” called from down at my feet. I smiled as I picked up the small green eyed girl from her armpits and hoisted her up into the air. She screamed and giggled with glee as she stretched out her arms. “I’m an airplane Uncle Zacky!”

I laughed softly and I looked up at her and told her, “You sure are Hayley!” I swayed her from side to side, no matter how much the muscles in my arms screamed to stop, and made ‘whooshing’ and ‘zooming’ sound effects. She screamed aloud again, nearly breaking my eardrums. But then again, I would do anything to make Hayley happy.

Finally my arms gave out and I had to bring her down, but I kept her in my arms. God is she getting heavy. Her bright green eyes looked into mine. “I wanna go back up Uncle Zacky,” she whined, her eyes almost becoming wet. “My arms are tired. Let Uncle Zacky rest for a few minutes,” I told her. She seemed to not be upset but she kept looking at the grass. I guessed that she wanted to get down, so I began to set her down when her small arms wrapped around my neck. I hoisted her back up in my arms as I tried to look back at her. She buried her face into my shoulder and mumbled in a very high pitch voice, “I love you Uncle Zacky.”

Tears almost welled up in my eyes as I put one of my hands on her back, pushing closer to me. “I love you too Hayley,” I choked up as I closed my eyes. She reminded me so much of Casey; they act and look so alike. Then again, Hayley is Casey’s kid. And that means that she’s mine too. Oh God, how much I want her to know the truth.

A tear rolled down my cheek as Hayley pulled away from our hug. She seemed to have seen my tear because her small hand touched my face as she wiped my tear away. My frown turned into a smile as I saw her bright, cute smile. I practically saw Casey’s face in her eyes. Oh how I missed her. But I wasn’t going to get upset again, not in front of Hayley.

I forced myself to smile bigger as I hoisted Hayley back over my head, into the sky. She screamed out again in joy as she was once again an airplane. I hated how I only saw her every once and a while. I would love to have this kid under my care. After all she IS mine. My teeth grinded as the image of Johnny came to my mind. That bastard took my dear Zackie away from me.

And no matter what I did, I couldn’t get her back.

God, how much I wished Casey was here. If she was still with me, Zackie would be ours.

PRESENT DAY

AMBER’S POV

I watched as Hayley and Rose went out the door with their friend Jake. I looked over at Johnny and Lacey, their mouths curved into smiles. I glanced over at Zacky, his face grim. A pang of sympathy came over me. Zacky always gets this way when he sees Hayley. But I couldn’t blame him. He keeps watching his own daughter walk away from him like she doesn’t know him.

I remembered back to the day Zacky finally got out of jail. He was there for three months, but it took me that long to get the money to bail him out. I remembered the first thing he said to me when he took his first steps out from the jail.

“Amber, where’s my baby?”

His voice was full of pain and worry. But of course by then Zackie was no longer his baby. Zackie was now officially Hayley and she belonged to Johnny and Lacey. Every single one of the Avenged guys hated the idea of Johnny taking Zacky’s baby away from him, but no one ever stood up for Zacky. But I couldn’t blame them either.

When Zacky finally got out of prison, Johnny called a group meeting and told everybody that if anyone told Hayley the truth, she would be put up for adoption somewhere far away. We all argued and pleaded Johnny not to do that, but he stood his ground. And when we finally broke the news to Zacky, he just told us to keep our mouths shut. Poor Zacky.

I turned away from their faces and faced another face that always made me smile. I quickly pecked Andy’s sweet lips and stared into his bright blue eyes. I was so glad that I was finally with him again. I mean we have been together for a few years now, but still…I was crazy for this man.

Memories of me and Brian together flooded back to me, back when Casey was still alive. Brian was happily back with his wife, Michelle. Like me and Andy, they’ve been together for a few years. In fact, they never really broke up. They went through some marriage counseling a few years back, but they managed to work everything out. Just like me and Andy.

Then again, there were times when Brian would get drunk and he just became too irresistible. Sure, we’ve had plenty of one night stands over the years. I must say all of my most memorable nights have been with him. But at the end of it all, Brian would go back to Michelle and I would go back to Andy.

And life was sweet that way.