F L O R E N C E
When I woke up things changed.
The night before, I went from asking Massimo to get me a therapist, to now, waking up, with the house in chaos's purest form. I woke up to the sound of loud footsteps outside my door, so I walked out of my room. People I have never seen before stormed up and down the halls, carrying black sealed cases containing something not visible to my eye. They hurried past me like I was invisible.
The amount of people who I do not know in my home right now makes me queasy with nerves. An unsettling feeling in my belly that something is very very wrong. My armpits, boobs, and legs are sweating lakes, and my hands tremble with every man that walks past me. My heartbeat drums in my ear.
I cannot tell if it's my anxiety or if my blood sugar is low.
All I know is that I need to find someone I know. I hurry down the bedroom corridor, making sure to open each of my brothers doors to see if they are in their rooms. They all were empty.
I pick up my pace down the hallway, swerving past each man and woman that walks past me and ignores my existence. When I reach the main floor the air is knocked out of my lungs when I see the amount of people in all black swarming the main foyer. Tears well up in my eyes with every body that bumps into mine as I try to get to the kitchen.
If they aren't in the kitchen I will have a full blown breakdown.
Pushing the swinging doors open, I see the kitchen empty, minus four bodies casually sitting around the counter. I breathe a sigh of relief when I see Lucien, Emilio, and Dominic. The fourth person isn't Massimo though.
"Hey Florence!" Emilio greets me, acting as if a million men and women are not moving about the house. The others turn to look at me but I can only stare at this new man. "How was your sleep?" Emilio asks as he traps me in a suffocating hug.
I don't answer.
He pulls away with a small understanding smile and gestures to the unnamed man. "Flo, this is August Young, he's our cousin."
August smiles at me and stands from the barstool he was sitting on. He walks over to me and bends down to around my height. Sticking out his hand he speaks, "you have grown so much since I last saw you Florence. It is so good to see you again." His voice is smooth and calm. It puts me at ease.
I still don't say anything.
I shake his hand back.
Lucien then beckons me over to the empty barstool in between him and Dominic. He kisses my head and wraps his arm around my shoulder.
"How was your sleep princess?" Dominic asks me after he kisses my forehead. I shake my head. "It was bad?" I nod.
"Bad dreams or did something wake you?" Lucien chimes in. I point to the foyer outside of the kitchen.
"Dammit were they being loud?" Emilio says as he sets the boy's coffee's down. He acts like they aren't causing pure chaos in the other room.
"Massimo told them to be quiet so they wouldn't wake you up." August says shaking his head in disapproval. "Figures they don't listen."
"Sorry about them Florence. Something came up at work and our house seems to be Massimo's meeting place of choice." Lucien says bitterly. Clearly he is just as happy about this as I am. "We don't know what's happening. Massimo hasn't told us yet."
I shrug again as Emilio hands me my purple mug full with orange juice. He winks at me before resuming conversation with August and the boys.
My leg bounces every second I have to sit in this packed house. Massimo comes into the room when I have exactly three sips left of my drink. He ignores everyone as he walks over to me and gives me a big hug. He kisses my cheek and hugs me from behind my chair.
"How's everything going Mo?" Emilio asks him. He shrugs and shakes his head. Maybe he is following my path of silence? That would suck cause he always has good things to say.
"It's busy and we will need to set up multiple meetings to discuss what to do moving forward and how we should proceed. I just came in here because I went to your room Florence and you weren't there. So I checked down here."
"Are you taking her somewhere?"
"Yeah, of sorts."
I love more than anything when they have conversations about me right in front of me. As if I'm not a person with ears.
"You ready Florence?" Massimo asks me letting go of the hug. I look down at my pyjamas and up at him. I try to muster up my best 'you just annoyed me face'. "I am going to take that as a no." He laughs and picks me up off my stool before I could even finish my drink. He walks through the crowd of people who part for him as if they were the sea and Massimo was Moses.
Too bad they didn't do that for me.
When we get to my room he plops me down on my bed before walking into my closet. Wordlessly he plops my outfit onto my lap and pushes me gently towards my bathroom. "Hurry." He says before shutting the door.
I take as long as possible to get ready.
I brush my teeth for three minutes instead of two. I wash my face and do my entire skin care routine. I braid my hair into two braids and carefully decide which perfume spray I should put on today. I have two, one is Marc Jacobs Daisy and the other is Prada Candy.
"Are you almost done?" He asks impatiently through the door.
I ignore him and weigh my options. The Daisy one is really pretty scented, but so is the Candy one. I put those aside for now and put on my clothes. He chose green cargo pants and my navy blue quarter zip sweatshirt.
I choose Prada Candy.
As I exit the bathroom I am bombarded by Massimo. "Are you ready now?!" He looks at his watch. "Ten minutes, what if the house was on fire?"
"Then it is a good thing I would die smelling good." I respond.
-
"Where are we?" I ask him as he pulls up to a random house on the edge of the city.
"The second you fell asleep last night I started searching for a therapist that would best suit you. Somehow I was able to get in contact with this lady you'll meet. She's really nice and deals with teenagers who have underwent traumatic experience's in their childhoods." He says as he shifts the car into park. I nod slowly.
"If you don't want to do it today that's alright. I just figured with everything going on at home this distraction might be better."
"Thank you Massy." I smile. I don't want to talk to a stranger, but she's here to help me. I want to get better. I really do.
"Are you ready." He asks doing this weird knee slap thing. I nod and we both exit the car.
We walk up to the front porch steps and he rings the doorbell. I roll back and forth on the balls of my feet as my hands sweat with nerves.
The door opens and a beautiful middle eastern woman wearing a turquoise hijab opens the door. She's wearing a simple, green long sleeve, jumpsuit. Her smile is warmer than the sun.
"You must be Florence," she says not even acknowledging Massimo. Her only concern is me. "It's so nice to meet you." She holds her hand out for me to shake, and I shake her hand back.
"Thanks for seeing her on such a short notice." Massimo says.
"Of course any time. Please come in." She steps aside and motions us in. We follow her as we walk through her house, we pass by her three dogs that are sleeping in her living room. We reach her office space.
The room is well lit, the walls are light blue with grey undertones, paintings with soft neutral colours in all forms like abstract and modern are hung up on every wall. There are three seats. Two grey armchairs beside each other with a small side table in between, and another grey armchair across both chairs. Massimo and I sit on the two armchairs as she takes a seat on her chair across from us.
"So, my name is Juliette Murphy, I am a therapist that handles childhood trauma, anxiety, and depression. We will have one on one meetings together where we can talk through past events, figure out what we were feeling during them and how to identify certain situations, as well as how to cope with emotional distress."
"How does that sound Flo?" Massimo turns to me. He's asking me if I am still up to this. So I answer.
"Sounds good." I smile at him. It scares me but I know I can do this.
"Alright! It is time for me and Florence to speak so Mr. Young it should take about one hour." Juliette politely kicks Massimo out.
He nods and tells me he will be waiting in the parking lot. And with that he leaves me alone with Juliette. I start to feel awkward so I look away from her and down to my hands. It doesn't last for long because she immediately jumps in.
"So, Florence I want to reassure you that what we talk about in this room is confidential information that stays between us. The only case where I would say something to Mr.Young is if I believe you are a danger to yourself or to others." She stares at me while she speaks and it takes everything in me to hold eye contact with her.
"Okay."
"So, how old are you?"
"I'm fourteen."
"Oh lovely, so you're in grade nine?"
"I was in grade ten, I was a year ahead. But I dropped out of school."
"Why did you drop out?"
"Bullies."
"Oh I am sorry dear, bullying in high school, even elementary school can have very strong negative effects on a kid. Was it just one person?"
"No, there were girls who were really mean. They made fun of me because I didn't speak. There was this guy too, his name was Jake. He was the reason I left. He chased me down the street, threatened to kill my brothers." I shift in my seat, the thought uncomfortable and overwhelming.
"I am so sorry sweetie, you shouldn't have ever been harassed like that. Let's move on, speaking of your brothers, do you like living with them? Mr. Young told me about your living situation and other things over the phone when we spoke."
A smile draws on my face at the mention of my brothers. When I smile, her smile only grows. "Yeah I like it, at first I felt unwelcome but they are really nice and I love them a lot."
"What are their names?"
"There is Massimo, he is the one here with me today. He helps me a lot and gives me lots of cuddles when I feel sick or anxious. Sometimes he treats me like a baby, I don't love it but it does make me feel special.
Then there is Emilio, he's quiet but he also loves me a lot. He's smarter than everyone thinks, Massimo says he is an introvert with a massive brain because of all the books he reads. He's always there when I need him and he gives the best hugs ever.
Dominic is the crazy one. He and Lucien get into lots and lots of arguments, and it always ends up with him looking silly. He was the first one to welcome me at home and he's a hockey player for Canada which is so cool.
And Lucien. He's moody. He argues a lot, he tries to make people think that the only person he's ever cared about is me, which is nice but not true. He loves all of us lots he just doesn't show it the same. He also bought me a squishy stuffy that I sleep with at night." I huff a long breath after finishing my summary of my brothers.
I love them so much.
"You must really love your brothers."
"Yeah, they saved me. I still struggle a lot but I've never felt so safe and so free until I started living with them."
They helped me when no one else did.
-
Ayo, sorry for the wait.
I am in desperate need of book suggestions on wattpad. Same as songs. If you have any suggestions please feel free to comment.
I hope you all liked this chapter!
Lots of love 💕