Eleanor's life is not exactly pleasant. She works for rich men, has to do all kinds of odd jobs, and if she does anything wrong she gets beaten, or worse. The men tell her that her parents left her, and they had debts to them and therefore Eleanor h...
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"How was school?" Riccardo asks as soon as I get into the car. I put my backpack down on the floor and fasten my seat belt.
"It was... different," I decide in response. Riccardo raises an eyebrow.
"So there was this boy-" I bite my lip to keep from bursting into laughter when I see Riccardo's face. With a jerk, he turned his head to me as soon as I said the word boy. He looks at me piercingly.
"A boy? You like a boy? Does Lorenzo know? Who is it? Where does he live? How old is he? Is he nice?" I sigh extra loudly for dramatic effect.
"No I don't like him," I roll my eyes and luckily Riccardo didn't see it because that's one of those stupid rules of Lorenzo. "But he acted differently,"
"Different? Good different or bad different?"
"No idea, but," I look at my hands and nervously weave them together. I know I should tell Riccardo about my little panic attack but I don't want him to worry.
"But?" Riccardo continues to ask. I sigh softly, I know I have to tell him.
"But he got really close to me, in my personal space and then I started having flashbacks, bad flashbacks," I explain softly. There is silence for a moment while Riccardo drowns out my words. Then Riccardo pulls his arm out and gives me a squeeze on my knee.
"It's okay kiddo," Riccardo sighs. "Maybe we should talk about this with-"
"No!" I quickly interrupt him. "I don't want to talk to the others about this, I already told you so you know, no one else needs to know," I rattle quickly.
"Eleanor-" Riccardo starts but I interrupt him again.
"This could become our secret, I don't want the others to worry and I don't want to talk about it okay? This can be our little secret,"
"Eleanor you are forgetting one thing," Riccardo answers quietly. I turn my head to him and look at him questioningly.
"What?"
"Nothing stays secret in the Ricci family,"
"Please, I don't want everyone to be worried over nothing. It's perfectly normal for me to be triggered, and I'm always going to be," I explain. A frown comes to Riccardo's forehead as we drive down our street.
"Okay," I sigh in relief. "But-" shit. "But if it happens again you tell me right away and we'll talk about it,"
