He gave me a sidelong look. “No wonder the tutors keep quitting; you’re a nightmare student.” He poked my cheek. “Annoying like this.” His tone was cheeky, but still soft.
I lifted my shoulders. “But you keep doing it anyway.”
“Because I love y—” he fell silent, and I looked at him.
He swallowed. “It.” He looked at me with wide, tender eyes.“Because I love it.”
“That’s why it’s free, anywhere, anytime, and only for me?”
“Sophie—”
His words broke off.
We snapped our heads forward together as the loud stomp of footsteps flooded the room. Mama Nadine appeared. Her face streaked with tears as she hurried past, her sobs loud and ragged.
She looked as though she’d just fled a room, her entire body taut. Her laboured breathing filled the room, thundering like a drum and thickening the air. Her complexion was pale, her eyes wide, and her lips trembling.
I stilled, stunned. The pencil slipped from my hand as I rose fast, my pulse pounding in my ears. Turning to Zioh, his face drained of colour.
His breathing grew shallow, his eyes fixed on his mother. “Mum…?” Zioh shivered, calling out with his shaky voice, sweat gathering at his temple.
I couldn’t look away from his tight expression. His hands clenched, trembling. His lips quivered as if holding back something.
Mama Nadine’s eyes turned toward us.
No—toward me.
Her gaze…
I retreated, shrinking beneath her stare.
Her stare… a look of shock, grief, confusion—then sharpness. Her reddened, tearful eyes locked onto me with something dark, something that made me want to hide.
I swallowed and glanced back at Zioh as his voice greeted me again.
His body trembled, and his jaw clenched. “Mum…?” Zioh’s voice cracked. He shook his head, like refusing something he couldn’t say, but Mama Nadine didn’t answer.
She turned, half-running away, her sobs rising louder, raw and piercing.
Moments later, Tsabinu came rushing from the same direction, panic etched across his face. He sprinted past us without a glance, calling desperately after Mama Nadine.
What—
What was happening?
I instinctively moved to follow, but Zioh’s voice stopped me. The firmness in his tone froze my steps. “Stay here.”
I could only watch as he turned and went after them, following Tsabinu and his mother.
“Mama Nadine…”
43
Tshabina
A new day, yet it felt the same as ever in my routine. My life revolved around editing, creating content, and following Zioh.
Repeat.
