When Worlds Combine - A WWC Sequel

34; Tea, fights, and Brazil

Violet

 

I had never before seen Avery so distraught.

When we were about sixteen, Avery hit a rough patch in her life. She was having problems with Niall, struggling at school, and her father was very sick. She wasn’t all too close with her father, but his newfound sickness triggered the sadness within her. And when he died, that was the saddest I’d ever seen her. Up until now.

“Thanks for being here, guys.” Niall walks into the lounge and sets a mug of tea down on the table in front of Avery, who just sits hollowly looking ahead. She hadn’t moved since Zayn and I got to the flat, and something told me she wasn’t going to move anytime soon.

We all move from out of the lounge and shuffle into the kitchen, making sure to lower our voices so that she doesn’t hear.

“What happened?” I croak.

Niall looked tired. It was about eight at night and he looked exhausted. I admired him, as I always did, because despite everything he was still trying to stay positive. It was his baby too. It was his loss too.

“She started getting pains around seven,” he says, leaning against the kitchen counter as if he can’t support himself. “I took her to the hospital and we had to wait for a while, and the pain just kept getting worse.” He stops talking for a second and I notice he physically has to make himself breathe. He shakes his head, trying to muster a small smile. “They knew what had happened straight away.”

Zayn has barely spoken since the phone call, and I look to him now. He leans against the counter about a metre away from us, his head down. The atmosphere is dull. Everyone is upset. In a typically happy home, there is no happiness anywhere.

“Niall, I’m so sorry,” I say, because I don’t know what else to say. What do you say? What can you say?

“Yeah.” He just nods. “Yeah. Me too.”

When I look at Zayn again, he’s gone.

“I was too excited,” Niall speaks up, making me turn back to him.

“What?”

“I was too excited,” he repeats, staring off into the distance. “I got myself too worked up. I was out shopping when we didn’t even know the sex yet.” He shakes his head. “I was too excited.”

“Niall, you can’t apologise for that. Of course you would be.”

“I shouldn’t have been so excited. Because the things you look forward to the most never happen.”

“Niall-“

“Maybe it’s a sign,” he continues. “That we’re just not cut out to be parents.”

“That’s ridiculous, Niall.”

“Is it?” He looks at me, a red rim around his eyes that shows me he’s been crying. “Do you think this would be happening to people who are meant to be parents?”