Here, Darling.

Zack hadn’t realised how serious things were between him and Alaska until he walked into that kindergarten room, flocking their parents, grabbing them by the hand and dragging them to their friends, rambling about nonsense that barley any one could keep up with yet understand.

He thought he could handle it until people started rushing up to Ava and asking her if he was her daddy, something that he was not expecting. Zack didn’t want to come clean out to the children and tell them that he wasn’t because that would just sound cruel and harsh, something he did not want to do to the little girl.

But then again he didn’t want to handle the situation if he told them he was, knowing that the word would get back to Alaska and she might start seeing the relationship in a different way to what he was, because Zack was definitely not ready for marriage and any other kids, he was to young and to focused on his career to have other distractions about that.

Zack thought he was ready to handle a relationship like his but now he wasn’t too sure. Especially when it involved a little girl’s life, he knew that Alaska wanted stability for her bit that was definitely something that Zack couldn’t provide not with his music career and constant touring for months on end and then followed by weeks and weeks of long hours in the studio recording a new record before starting the whole process again.

That was something that he knew, in time to come, that Alaska wouldn’t want for her and her daughter, which made Zack regret rushing into things with her, knowing that there would be heartache with whatever decision, whether they ended things know or in years to come, everyone was to far involve know for things to work out differently.

After five torturous minutes of Ava making idle to chat to girl’s who she clearly did not have time for as her eyes continued to scan the room for Spencer, finally fleeing the girls and abandoning Zack as she ran over to his side, immediately telling him about a new game Alaska had bought her that she was so excited for them to play together, the teacher asked all the parents to come to the front and for the students take a seat.

Zack did not know what to expect, at first he was sure this seemed like a good idea, time for him to spend with Ava, allowing Alaska to get on with other business about having to worry about anything else and letting Ava down. But now it was coming to the crunch he did not know what to say.

Heck, ask any All Time Low fans and they would use the words ‘shy’ and ‘adorable’ to describe Zack, probably wishing with a sigh that he ‘spoke more during in concerts’ but Zack was never good with words, never knowing the right thing to say so only choosing to use his words when they counted.

Luckily with Ava’s last name starting with a ‘D’ instead of an ‘A’ it allowed him to sit and listen to the other parents, trying to use the prompts they were using to figure out what he was exactly going to tell the students.

He couldn’t tell them the truth, that it was a shitty job where you only saw your family and your love ones about a fourth of the time for a year, where people told shitty stories about you to try and get their five minutes of fame, and that was only when you were lucky and you have made it big.

If you weren’t the lucky ones you spent years in the back of a trailer, travelling around the country trying to get venue to let you play your music their while trying to scramble to get as many fans as possible to get as much money to survive on for the next week or so, having to live on a sustainable diet of soda and chips with the occasional fast food restaurant thrown in when your pockets could stretch to the price.

Zack was lucky they had made it, or so the critics had said, but to him and the rest of the guy’s it was like they were still in the beginning of it all, not ready to admit they had made it and sell out making some crappy pop music that will generate them an even wider fan base from all the radio play’s they would receive. No, if they were going to go out, they were going to go out as themselves.

The parent’s before Zack all had respectable professions, bankers, lawyers, the occasional chef or business owner thrown in here and there. Making him feel like the odd one out, he knew what people thought of musicians, heck, even his family thought the same thing when he first admitted to them that he wanted to join a band and have a career in music through that.

But he didn’t want to be judged by other people, not when he didn’t have to, not for people that he did not a couple of months ago, people who have turned his life completely upside down and thrown in the deep end and he wasn’t even sure if he was going to sink or swim yet.

Zack wasn’t sure if this was a risk he wanted to take any more, this time a couple of months ago he was a carefree twenty three year old man who’s biggest worry was the upcoming record for his band, now he had a girlfriend, if that was what she was, and a child that wasn’t even his thrown in.

He was having doubts on whether or not he wanted to accept the baggage any more, sure Ava was a sweet kid but was this all he wanted from his life anymore?