Part 14- Walter 

Zelina’s laughter seemed to echo around their house alongside Walters mutterings of how weird she was. I heard shuffling of feet and gasps escaping before with a loud Bam, I heard something fall.

Walter shouted and I went rushing back into the living room, even though I knew it was futile.

Zelina lay on the ground holding her stomach, crying out in pain. Walter had wrapped his arms around her waist and was trying to get her to stand up.

“Baby just leave me here for a while. I’ll manage somehow, you needn’t worry.”

“Zelina, don’t you fucking dare. You’re my wife, and you’re in pain. Let me help you, let me take care of you.”

After a few moments of hesitation, she allowed herself to be enveloped in his embrace as Walter carried her into their bedroom.

All the while, little Saphira watched her parents and stayed quiet, almost as though she knew that right now her parents needed one another. She crawled her way into her cot and began playing with her toys like a good child.

For some reason, I felt compelled to just stay there and watch Saphira as she played with her toys.

My mind wandered about what could be wrong with Zelina, maybe she was on her period. But the way Walter had rushed to her side, the tone in which he had spoken to her with, almost as though he was choked with emotions. It must have been something much more serious.

I was still lost in thought when Walter walked back into the room, he went up to Saphira and carried her out of the cot and began to hug her. I didn’t notice it at first but tears fell from his eyes and he held his daughter softly whispering,

“Saphira, mama’s going to be all right. We are going to be all right. Mama isn’t going to go away from us, okay baby? No matter what the doctors say to us, okay baby? Mama’s going to be with us for a long time.”

With that, he exited back into his bedroom.

Suddenly I no longer felt envy at Walter’s life. How was he managing to stay so positive? How wasn’t he constantly a droopy mess? What I envied now was Walter’s strength, his strength for his wife and his daughter.

When I had known him, he was a senior. Hardly talked to anyone but even then, it was painfully obvious to anyone around him that him and Zelina we madly in love. He too was perpetually stuck in the friend zone, but in their last year of high school, she had finally approached him and they both had begun dating.

Ever since then, they were inseparable. Everyone in our school knew of their story, which was ironic because both Walter and Zelina had never been the type to become popular in a school like ours.