Bloom

8. awoken

Zephaniah

Three am. I wondered why I woke up at this time, tiredly staring at my alarm clock. Usually, I had no problem sleeping through the whole night as the many impressions of the day I would get- exhausted me.

Rolling onto my back as I had slept on my stomach, I quietly sat up and glanced at Cooper, who was sleeping beside my bed. I frowned, huffed and lied back down onto my stomach, until I heard a retching sound.

Slowly sitting up again, I narrowed my eyes and scrunched up my nose, stepping out of my warm bed. Slipping on my joggers as I usually slept in an oversized sweater and my underwear only, I tiptoed over to the bathroom.

"Mama," I whispered, walking over to her as she was crouched down in front of the toilet. "Mama, are you okay?" I slightly furrowed my eyebrows and stared at her, crouching down beside her.

"I'm okay, Zeph." She wiped her mouth with some toilet paper and looked at me, a soft smile appearing on her face. "Go back to sleep. You look tired."

I shook my head and looked at her in concern, "What happened?" I wondered, staring at her pale face.

"Just nauseous, sweetheart. Happens to the best of us. It's nothing." She reassured, briefly stroking my cheek, but I felt sad because of the situation, and something made me not believe her.

"Is- is it your stomach?" I briefly touched it, making her gulp. Quickly removing it because of her reaction, I gave her a skeptical look. "Mumma,"

She gave me another smile, standing up as she grabbed her toothbrush and started to brush her teeth after adding some toothpaste onto it.

I couldn't lie. I was worried, but I didn't really know how to express that in the right way, in the right words, so I simply reached for her hair as I watched her through the mirror. Playing with her golden locks, I pulled my hand away when she was done.

"Zephaniah, I'm okay, love." She pressed a kiss to my forehead and softly pushed me outside the bathroom. "Go to sleep, okay? You don't want to trigger your mind to a seizure."

"Okay," I said sadly, fiddling with my fingers as I stared at her for a while, then returned to my bedroom. But as I noticed her getting back into the bathroom, I couldn't help but make my way over to Baba.

Entering their room, I saw him sleeping deeply, soft snores leaving his mouth. I stared at him for a while, playing with my fingers as I didn't know how to wake him. Looking up, I noticed that some paint was wearing off, making me frown.

The sound of their clock was different from mine, and I wondered how dad could sleep through it, as it was rather loud to me. But then again, he probably heard it differently, he always did.

Baba turned around, waking me up from my distracting thoughts. "Zeph?" He mumbled sleepily, making me aware of the whole situation going on again.

"Baba, is mama sick?" I whispered, crouching down in front of the bed so I could see his face.

"Why?" He answered shortly, making me gulp, but then I realised he was probably still sleepy, he had told me that before. Not mad.

"She is throwing up, uhm, now?" I fiddled with my fingers and looked into baba's eyes, who rubbed them tiredly.

He rolled onto his back and briefly looked at his left side, sitting up after that. "Hannah?" He said loudly, making me flinch and fall down onto my bum, leaving my crouching- down position. "Sorry, Zeph."

"It is fine," I whispered, looking up when mum came back into the room, crawling back into bed.

"I'm okay, Zayn. Zephaniah, go to sleep. Sleep deprivation isn't helping you," She said quietly, her back facing baba.