Bloom

38. silent friends

Zephaniah

"Perhaps, dark grey would be too dark, even when it's kinda the theme of our room too." Dad mumbled out more to himself than to Mum.

Mum hummed and ran a few fingers through her hair. She seemed to be deep in thoughts, her eyebrows were furrowed lightly, her upper lip between her teeth. "Yeah. We should probably just go for light grey."

From where I was lying on my bed, I could see my parents discussing things for the baby room. My door was slightly ajar, I could see them standing near their room. Mum didn't like to have a blue or pink theme, she disliked the colours- I silently agreed.

Dad said he hadn't done that for me either. I had slept in his room back at my grandparents house when I was a baby- until I had turned one. That's when Dad bought a house for him and me only. My room had been grey too, like the house, but they had changed it when I was seven.

My eyes roamed around my room, the dog borders were still up, another wall was completely painted with a specific black paint you could draw with chalks on. It was empty, though. The drawings had been wiped away ages ago- I don't even think I had the chalks somewhere, anymore.

"Maybe we can paint Zeph's room as well. He most likely grew out of the dog borders now." I heard Baba mumble. I glanced at him.

I had grown out of it, but I knew how much money it costed to re-do a whole room. Well, not precisely, but I did know it costed a lot. Therefore, I hadn't mentioned anything about it before and simply took people that visited me to my parents' room, like Haven.

Not that many people came over for me, though.

"Let's save for that." Mum wrapped her arms around Dad's waist, their lips pressed together. They both smiled, Dad's hands moving to her- still growing- stomach. "I'm so excited for the baby to come."

"So am I." He smiled, his eyes squinting lightly. "It's going to be a girl, I feel it."

Mum rolled her eyes lightly, pushing him away. "It's fifty- fifty, Zayn. You can't know." She chuckled, her attention going back to the baby room that was across the bathroom- the nearest room to mine.

My eyes averted to Cooper, a heavy feeling appearing in my guts. Why couldn't I feel happy about it? I stared at the present Dad had brought upstairs not too long ago, I wondered what it was, but I was a little nervous to open it.

Why would somebody buy me a present?

I yawned softly, my tongue hurt. I had bitten it harshly while having the seizure last night. It felt swollen, but Mum told me it didn't look like it. Cramps were still felt in my hands, I had unconsciously pushed so much strength in them when they were in a strange position.

It was almost dinner time, and although I had slept the whole morning, perhaps, until two in the afternoon, I still felt extremely tired.

Sitting up, I stared at the present again. I nibbled onto my bottom lip and decided to simply open it.

Neatly taking off the small tapes, I piled them up and watched as the wrapping paper fell open, a book appearing.

Turning the book around, I read it was about the strong friendship between humans and animals, dogs to be specific.

Slowly sliding off my bed, I came down with a soft thud, lying down beside Cooper. "Hey, look." I whispered, shoving the book in front of him. He sniffed, squinted his eyes and went back to resting.

"Who gave me it?" I frowned still, smiling lightly when Cooper laid his paw down onto my stomach.

Raising my arms in the air, I opened the book- a note falling onto my face. Sitting up, I carefully took the paper into my hands and unfolded it, my heart secretly thumping while my free hand flapped.