But I couldn’t. Because the most significant reason she carried all that wasme.
Standing at my side, her warmth seeped into me the same way it always had before.
It still felt… real. In the past, the moment I opened my eyes, my body drenched in sweat and my breath coming in gasps, I’d run straight to the house next door. I would wait for her, watch her sleep, and count every second until six, when she always woke up. And when the first thin sunlight began to rise, my lips would curl into a smile, because not long after, I would hear it again: “Zioh!! I dreamed about you!” It felt like a hug. Like someone was holding me, patting my shoulders, and whispering,“It’s okay.”
She was my guardian angel, a constant presence that made me so confident that I would always be okay. Even though, in reality, she looked more like a baby doll with her chubby cheeks.
A small amusement escaped me.
I used to know: even if the world broke and crumbled, I wouldn’t fall, because she was the ground I stood on.
You’re the best version of every superhero world ever made! If Marvel and DC knew you existed, they’d be battling each other to claim you, Zioh!Red. 14.
Every single damn night, I would pray for her not to disappear, leaving me behind. I’d doneeverything, always, to be the version of myself she loved most.
To keep her wanting to stay.
To be her Zioh.
Untilthey allbetrayed me.
Untilshechose to destroy what we had.
And Tshabina was something I had to avoid now.
Because her presence was like a hand pressed against my wounds, and everything around me became a loud, hazy blur. No matter how often I balled my hands into a tight fist, to stay unaffected when I saw her face… I failed. The thing left was to pretend she wasn’t there.
As though she was present and absent at the same time.
As though she were just another colleague.
It almost worked.
Until her text message flashed across my mind again.
I flinched when Natasha nudged my arm. She was offering the food she’d bought. She was busy at the desk beside me, neatly arranging packets. I sighed, shaking my head.
As she laid everything out, another tote bag sat beside the food, its logo branded with a phone shop’s name. I raised a brow. “You bought a new phone? I thought you said you only needed the tempered glass replaced.”
Her head snapped up, face flustered. She cleared her throat, lifted a shoulder in a vague shrug. She explained that she had tripped when I made her go back and forth to the mall that day and had found her phone lying on the street. Its tempered glass cracked.
“I just think… it was the right time for one?” she muttered. No, there was a bright pink flush on her cheeks.
I stared at her until she sighed in defeat. “Alright, fine. I… I ran into Tsabinu at the mall.”
Huh. Interesting.
Staying quiet, I let her continue. She straightened up, glancing between the phone bag and me. “It wasn’t planned. We bumped into each other and said hello. He saw the crack on my screen, thought I’d come to buy a new phone, and… Well, he offered to tag along.” She suppressed a smile. “Be helpful, since I’m not from around here.”
I frowned. “So instead of simply explaining you only wanted a glass replacement, you actually bought a new phone because that’s what he assumed?”
She went silent—looked away.
Sighing, I nodded. But then she cleared her throat again. “He wasn’t alone.”
My brow arched. “Meaning?”
“He seemed like he had finished a meeting or something. When I saw him, he was with quite a few people, office types. Maybe seven or eight of them?”
