Teach Me - Brollins

6.

The silence that filled the apartment was almost deafening. Where was this conversation about to go? What was the story that was about to unfold?

Rebecca didn't want to push Colby because she knew him well enough to know when she pushed he would just shut down. She knew from the very few conversations she had with him over their time together that Heather died when Cali was a month shy of her fourth birthday, she knew that he had a career before coming home to be a full time father and he gave it all up to be there for the little girl that desperately needed him. She knew Heather had been sick for awhile before she eventually passed but what exactly happened and how it happened she was never told.

She looked over at him as he stared at the wall, she could see him trying to process, trying to think of how to start this story.

"Do you need alcohol?" She asked and he looked over at her with a sympathetic smile

"You can't drink" he shook his head

"Just because I can't drink doesn't mean that you can't" she shrugged "and I can see you struggling"

"I have to go get Cali after this" he said and she nodded "Okay" he took a deep breath "Are you sure you're ready for this?"

"I will listen to whatever you want to tell me, for however long you want to talk" she nodded and he leaned over placing a gentle kiss to her lips before he grabbed her hand in his

He took a deep breath and thought back, he was going to give her the whole story, but in a fast forwarded pace.

"Heather and I met when we were sophomores in high school, we were both 16 and we were at a friend's party on a random Saturday night. We both sort of started having feelings for one another after that but neither one of us made a move until we were seniors. It was the start of senior year and I finally got up enough courage to ask her out and we just hit it off immediately. We were inseparable, She knew the entire time throughout school that I was wrestling around with my friends in the backyard and she knew I was serious about it" he nodded "She supported me 1000% and it was the same with her, she wanted to go to school to be a pediatric nurse because she loved kids. I supported her just as much as she supported me. After our graduation, maybe a week or so after I decided that I couldn't just let her get away, I had to do something so I proposed and she said yes. We got married a few months before we both started college" he laughed "Now of course I was at the local community college and she was at the state university because she was always smarter than I was" he shook his head with a laugh and looked over at Rebecca who had a small smile on her face "I started wrestling on the independents, really making a name for myself and then I got the opportunity of a life time, I was going to be signed to a developmental deal with the biggest wrestling company in the world at the time and I couldn't turn it down, Heather knew that. So we packed everything up and moved to Florida without a second thought, she finished her classes online and got her degree while I was training and then buzz started happening down there that We were going to be moving again and we moved from Tampa to Orlando and once again without a second thought Heather put everything she was doing on hold for me to chase this dream. Whatever it took to make me happy" he nodded

Rebecca could see his face that was once filed with happiness slowly starting to fade and she knew this is where this story took a turn.

"Then I come home after a long day and she's standing in the kitchen, tears streaming down her face and she told me she was pregnant and our whole lives collapsed around us"

"Why?" Rebecca asked in a whisper "Did you two not want kids?"

"No" he shook his head "We wanted them, but we agreed we would never have them, out of Heather's body anyway.. we were going to look into adoption, or a surrogate once we had the money saved up"