Chocolate Eyes

"Will you stop at Walmart with me?" Brian asked Zacky as they headed towards Monterey Park, California. They had barely been in the car fifteen minutes, but Brian's nerves were already on end as he drove. His fingers tightened around the wheel as he glanced over at his best friend, waiting for a reply .

"What for?" Zack asked in return, fiddling with his cell phone.

Brian shrugged nervously. "There's just something I want to get for the kid. Something to make him like me a little more when he meets me."

Zacky looked up to Brian and chuckled. "Sure, but he'll like you even without presents. You're his dad," he said with a shrug.

Brian smiled at the name. "He's four, Zacky, presents aren't going to hurt anything," he added, knowing it would at least distract the kid from everything going on around him.

"Yeah," Zack agreed with a smile, nodding towards the turn that would lead them out to Walmart. It was a little out of their way, but if it made Brian feel a little better, Zack would attempt to drive across the Atlantic ocean with him.

Brian and Zacky ran into Walmart together with hoods on their heads and large overly-priced sunglasses covering half of their face. Brian hurried past the aisles of assorted items and back to the electronics department and found what he wanted right away seeing as it was a large case pushed up against the end of a video game aisle.

"An iPod?" Zacky asked as Brian stopped in front of the display case, "You're getting a four year old an iPod?"

Brian nodded and crossed his arms over his chest. "Music and games, Zacky. Kids love that kind of stuff."

Zacky rolled his eyes but flagged down an employee to open the case for them. "Plus," Zack added with a laugh, "It'd be wrong for a musician's son not to have an iPod."

Brian shoved Zacky's shoulder as the employee asked which kind of iPod they wanted. Brian looked to Zacky for some feedback. "If you're getting him one, you might as well go all out." Zack pointed to the new and shiny iPod touch. "Then, you can bring him back here and buy him the entire store."

Brian grabbed the iTouch case from the employee before he could tell him that it'd be waiting at the check out for him. When the joke finally registered in his mind, he shoved Zack roughly and chuckled. "Shut up, man. He can have whatever the hell he wants."

Zacky laughed loudly and shook his head. "Man, Bri, your son is going to be become so spoiled. He wont' know what to do with himself."

Brian thanked the employee as he locked the iPod case and then he shoved Zacky in the general direction of the checkouts. In his mind he was wondering if there was anything else he could get for him while they were here but he quickly shook off that thought, knowing there were a lot of things he would need.

A woman behind check out number two rang up the iPod and started a friendly conversation with Brian. "Is this for yourself? My daughter has been begging me for one for months." She asked with a smile in their direction as she typed in a couple numbers from the back of the case.

Brian figured that she didn't look like the usual fan, so he smiled and told her, "My son." He pulled out his credit card to pay for the expensive device.

"How old is he?" she asked pleasantly, as she took the sliver of plastic from his fingers.

"Four," Zacky interjected, grinning smugly at the look on her face.

The woman was surprised. "Wow, what a lucky little thing. Deana would be so mad at me if she heard about this."

Brian smiled and shrugged. "It's no big deal. I have the money."

The lady just nodded her head and finished ringing up his purchase. "Do you want it in a bag?" she asked, holding the case towards him.

"No, thank you," Brian said as he grabbed it from her hand and shoved it in his pocket, realizing that they were already running late.

"Goodbye, I hope your son likes it," she said warmly as Brian and Zack walked away. They walked out to Brian's SUV and Brian rung his hands, his nerves kicking back in now that he was actually getting ready to make the drive.

"What if he doesn't like me?" Brian asked his best friend before he started the car. "I mean, what if he refuses to come with me?" Brian smacked the palms of his hands on the steering wheel, frustratedly.

Zacky buckled up and glanced to his friend "He's four. He doesn't really have a choice, Bri," he said simply.

"And that's supposed to fucking help me how?" Brian questioned rudely, glaring at the green eyed guitarist who stifled his laughter, realizing that his poor attempt at a joke hadn't calmed Brian down any.

Zack reached over and rested his hand on Brian's shoulder. "Relax man," he sighed, "He might not want to come at first, but when he actually gets here, he's going to love it." Zacky nodded reassuringly and gave him a smile when Brian met his eyes.

Brian sighed and bit his bottom lip between his teeth. "You seem so sure," he told his friend, shaking his head because he wasn't sure at all. He felt like the world had flipped itself around in the span of just a couple days.

Zacky grinned and nodded once. "I'm completely sure, man," he confirmed, "Now lets get out of here before they think you're not coming and send your son off to live in fuckin' Oklahoma."

With Zacky's confidence in mind, Brian started up the car and headed out towards the Long Beach Freeway. It would take the duo alway to the outskirts of Monterey Park and there they'd follow the looping road until it turned into Highway 10, taking them into the city. And because of his GPS he would know exactly where the Child Welfare building was when they got into Monterey.

Brian and Zack entered the freeway. When they picked up speed, Zacky turned up the music to try and distract Brian in order to keep him calmer. The trip would take them under an hour. As he drove Brian kept looking back at the empty car-seat that he had purchased this morning when he woke up, so that his son could legally ride in his car.

Zacky turned the music down about 40 minutes later when they entered the city. Brian took a deep breath and turned the GPS on, telling Zacky the address as he typed it in. The woman's voice called out a direction and Brian followed.

Brian's heart was pounding as he pulled up outside a large, white building about ten minutes later. He parked in a spot in front and looked up at the place. It was a completely white, two story building that only had one window that was tinted so dark that Brian couldn't see in. Above the door, a sign read: "California Family and Child Welfare Services".

Zack sat still and turned to look at Brian as the man's eyes raked over the building in front of them. "What do you say, Bri?" Zack asked as he undid his own seatbelt, "Do you want to go in and meet your son?"

Brian sighed, his eyes still trained on the building, and nodded. "Lets go, Zacky," he stated as he undid his seatbelt, "Before I lose my nerve."