Page 117 of Spring Awakening

Zach hums. “He does?”

His mum nods, and Zamina nods like she’s met him before. “He does. Today is not about him, but he asked if you got his letters.”

Zach chews on his lip. “Yeah. I haven’t read them yet.”

“That’s okay,” his mum replies. It goes quiet for a while. Well, it goes quiet for Zach. The rest of them are discussing summer plans. Mali wants to take Zach camping, and he’s trying to figure out how to tell the love of his life that sleeping in a tent is not his idea of a good time. Mali’s setting up some summer camps for children, and he wants to help her. He wants to spend his mornings teaching kids how to throw a rugby ball, and then he wants to have lunch with her, sitting cross-legged on the field.

Zach’s not sure what his life looks like without having to check on his mum three times a day. All he knows is that Mali and he are not having children yet, because they wanted to see how it all went with his mum moving in. Now, she’s not. He’s not sure what his life looks like with a brother that’s taking ownership of his life. Mali has kept the spare room free, and she never told him why, but he knows it was for Devon. He’s not sure what anything looks like apart from Mali.

Maybe his life is multi-coloured now. Maybe during the week, everything he looks at will be purple, and then on rare days, it’ll be orange, or green, or pink. He tucks the few pink curls that are blowing in her face behind her ear, and she looks up and smiles at him.

“Hey,” she whispers, just for him.

He looks down at her with a smile. “Hi, baby.”

“I love you.”

He smiles, pulling her back against his chest. “I love you.”

And she’s the only thing he needs. It doesn’t matter what his life looks like. It doesn't matter what colour it is, as long as she’s right there, with her hand in his.

THE END

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