Ellas POV:
8.. 9.. 10.. 11..
I count in my head as I play flappy bird on dads phone. We're in the kitchen and it's 11 am, Friday.
Me, dad, dads dad and Emily are all in the kitchen planning on what to do today.
Dad's determined to get me to a new room- probably the games room, but there's only one small problem with that. No one here knows how to work the consoles. Personally I know how to work the x-box 360 because that's what Lauren's brother owned and let us play on when he was away at college and so on, but I don't think they own an 18 year old gaming console- not in this house.
"You know.. I think it's that pt- five or whatever, I think Alex got it for the twins birthday a couple months back," dads dad says as dad snorts a small laugh, "you mean the ps five?" He asks as Stefano shrugs, "whatever,"
"-what about the library?" Emily asks turning away from the pan of sizzling bacon, "and do what? read a book?" Stefano asks closing his phone and looking to Emily as she scoffs, "don't sass me. But maybe we can play a board game or a card game- something that can get us to think,"
She says as we all look to each other while Emily goes back to putting the bacon onto the plate where now all of the other food sits and waits as dad speaks up, "what do you think Ella?" He asks as I look to him and nod before resting my tired head on his shoulder.
"I think that's a yes," he says as Stefano laughs softly.
—
I tap the fancy wood and resin table as dad hold the cards in front of me as they all play a card game, they're half way through and only didn't give me my own cards as I fell asleep on the way here.
So right now, as dad, Emily and Stefano play whatever card game they are playing I only admire the large circular shaped mystery wood and black resin table- similar to the ones I can remember watching on some social media- which matches the dark aesthetic of the library. The huge library.
When Emily first said about going to their own library in this house I thought it would be cute and small with a few books and a nice area to read- No- this library with dark oak and two stories- one of which acting as a cool balcony looking over a cool seating area where we are right now playing cards at the main table, is huge.
There's a double door that acts as an entrance that enters to three cool tables, the main big circle one and two rectangular tables that mirror one another. Also accompanying the fancy tables is some regular chairs and a couple sofas and armchairs decked out in blankets and pillows matching the dark and pretty aesthetic of the tables. Then not to mention the large two-storey book-library area filled with many, many books all alphabetically organised along with what kind of book it is- academic, fiction, nonfiction, fantasy and so on.
As Stefano picks the last card he sighs and puts it back down- a four- dad said the aim of the game was to get the lowest score possible with all of your cards in your hand, with dad's highest card being a five I don't think we've done very well.
"Okay Anthony, you reveal first!" Emily laughs as she excitedly waits to reveal her cards, "yeah, yeah, a five, a three, two twos and a king." He sighs as he shows them the cards while they both smirk at each other competitively.
In total, 12.
"Your go Emily," dads dad says as Emily giggles, "three aces and two kings," she smiles sweetly as stefanos smile falls, "shit," he sighs as he shows everyone his two twos, ace and two kings.
"Another round boys?" Emily laughs as she begins to shuffle all of the cards as dad and dads dad sigh, dad pulls me closer to him on his lap and places his chin on the crown of my head as Emily starts handing out cards, "Ella do you want to join?" She asks as as pauses and looks to me.
I think for a second before nodding and sliding off of dads lap and onto the chair next to him which is a chair away from Stefano and opposite Emily.
After Emily hand out everyone's cards I look at mine and order them into the largest numbers to the smallest. For me it goes; queen of hearts, ten of diamonds, ten of spades, nine of clubs and eight of hearts. Not very good.
Making sure to not let dad have a peak at my cards I watch as Stefano picks from the pile in the middle, places it into his hand and places a nine. Okay now it's my turn.
Holding my small hand of cards in my left I reach out to grab the card from the top with my right hand, bringing it back to me as I struggle to hold it with most of my hand being in a blue cast I read "queen of spades"
Hmm.. No thanks.
Frowning at my bad luck I place it on top of stefanos card before dad makes his move.
Eventually we make it to about half way through the deck, dad last put down a five, Emily last put down a three and Stefano last put down a five. My highest number is the same eight of hearts I started with, the rest being two aces and two kings.
Not too bad.. just need to get rid of the eight.
Finally with me picking up the last card I see a three of diamonds and quickly swap it with the right making dad look at me confused, "you still had an eight?" He asks laughing softly as Emily giggles, "looks like I've won again~!" She says in a sing-song tone while Stefano scoffs, "we'll see- Anthony you go first,"
Dad reveals his four, two threes, ace and king adding up to a total of 11, he laughs and blushes from his obvious loss as Emily whistles jokingly, "damn Anthony, didn't know you were that good at cards" she laughs as dad sighs and laughs under his breath as he tries to glance once again at my cards.
Stefano then reveals his three fours and two twos adding up to 16 where dad and emily only laugh as Stefano sighs half-heartedly at his also obvious loss.
"My go or your go Ella?" Emily asks me as I shrug, "okay, we go at the same time?" She asks as I nod and smile.
If I have two kings and dad has only one- that means that emily has the last king, and also with the fact that dad had an ace and a three and Stefano put down only fours and twos that tells me emily has the remaining three, two twos, ace and the last king.
Starting with our biggest number me and emily both reveal our three, just like I predicted. Soon we see that I win after I reveal my two aces and kings as Emily reveals her- predicted- two twos, ace and king.
"Ugh! You won!" Emily sighs and rests her forehead on the table in Defeat as dad and Stefano laugh, "who won?" Someone asks as they walk in from the big fancy double doors. Instantly I discretely hide behind dads shoulder as this new man- who I haven't even looked at- enters. His whole aura is intimidating and intense as he walks next to Emily and wraps his hand round her waist.
He must be Nickolas- dad's eldest brother. Now as he's in view I can see his fancy and probably very expensive and well-fitting suit, his simple, elegant and very shiny wedding ring on his ring finger and tattoos poking from his wrist and neck. Of what- I can't make out but they do look cool.
His face though is almost scary- it's eerily similar to dads, only older and much more serious and intimidating. Not to mention intense.
The air around him seems like it can make you tell him your deepest secrets with only a small glance from his eyes. His eyes which are identical to dads eyes. Dads eyes which are identical to my eyes.
"Ella won, we're gonna okay another round. Do you wanna join?" Emily asks before kissing his cheek as he looks to her with all of his focus with a small smile. Looking back to me- still with the small smile and with a small light in his eye he nods before pulling out the chair next to Emily.
"Of course I do," he says softly as him, dad and Stefano all start talking between themselves while Emily hands out the cards and smiles sweetly at me.
This next round ends with me coming second after Stefano wins with a five, me with an eight and dad, Nickolas and Emily admit their losses with much higher scores, "what game next?" Emily asks shuffling the cards as dad wraps his arm around my shoulders, "What about a board game?" Dad asks as Emily laughs, "not anything competitive- we know how that always ends."
"Nah- that's the fun of it. What about monopoly?" Stefano says smirking at Nickolas as he looks back with a small smile, "you want to play monopoly with him?" Dad asks sounding astonished as Emily laughs biting her lip and every so often glancing at me to see my reaction.
"Yes."
—
It's intense. Me and dad are the dog and we're playing together as I'm probably noticeably starting to doze off on dads shoulder, but we're doing well with a couple properties but are now in jail until our next turn. Emily's the shoe also with a couple properties but she's running low on money as she keeps landing on mine and dads and Nickolas's properties. Nickolas is the battle ship with the most properties and a lot of money. The same story follows Stefano- him and Nickolas combined probably own over half the board.
But me and dad were lucky. In the beginning we were lucky to land on some of the best properties and now have hotels and more on each of them. We only fell unlucky a couple times where we landed on the go to jail thing and landed on some of everyone else's better properties.
A couple people have even come in and started watching- that's when I started involving myself less when throwing the dice and moving the character as I felt worried with the new people around me watching.
It's not like I have no clue who they are, it's Alex, Charlie and Emily said that the younger guy who I know less is lorenzo- or enzo, who I heard from Alex used to like barbie films too when he was little.
"6.." Emily says quietly as she moves her character six places only to end up on nickolas's best property with many hotels and houses, "shit." She says huffing and flopping back onto her chair as everyone laughs quietly, "I don't have enough money," she says looking at her small stack of 10's and 5's,
"Guess you're in dept," Nick shrugs as Emily sighs in defeat.
After a long drawn out battle of the eventually tiring board game I soon fall asleep on dads shoulder and wake to the end of the game where me and dad have fallen into dept and lost and Nickolas and Stefano scarily stare each other down as both of them eventually decide to end on a draw.
"Thank god," Alex sighs stretching his hands way above his head and yawning, "thought we were gonna be here another couple hours,"
"What time is it?" Lorenzo asks looking up from his phone, "dinner time." Emily starts while standing, "I need to starts getting the food ready or everyone's gonna be asking 'when's the food ready' every two seconds," she says almost too quiet for me to hear as Charlie soon looks to me and dad.
He makes a small face to dad and dad nods before they both stand, looking up to dad as he puts his hoodie back on he looks to me and smiles, "c'mon," he says as he reaches under my arms and picks me up to carry me.
His left arm supports my thighs as my legs fall against and slightly around his waist, hiding my face in his neck he follows Charlie and Emily outside into the empty hallway leaving everyone behind.
We walk silently and while Emily takes a left to go to the kitchen me, dad and Charlie continue forward and up a flight of stairs. We eventually make it to the hospital-like room and dad gently paced me on the bed before sitting next to me while Charlie crouched before me.
"I'm just going to go through a couple check ups okay? Also I have a little gift for you to have hm?" He smiles softly as I keep my eyes low and avoid eye contact as he glances to dad before clearing his throat.
"So how have your arms and legs been healing?" He asks while standing and walking over to a small cabinet and opening it to many bottles of pills, creams and other medicine things.
Looking to dad he only continues to watch me closely as I force a small nod and shrug, "okay?" Charlie asks a bit concerned as I keep my eyes on my hands while he walks back over with a clutter of things.
"Have you and dad been keeping them clean and making sure to apply the cream I gave you?" I nod and so does dad as Charlie nods too, "how often is this?"
"At least once a day." Dad answers, his eyes dancing between me and Charlie, "good, good. Have you been resting as I asked? Wearing the knee and ankle supports i gave you? No heavy lifting and as little walking as possible..?" I nod and dad sighs as I curl further into myself as dad begins to speak, "No heavy lifting, but she's attempted to walk to the bathroom at night while I'm asleep a couple times and has also tried walking around the cinema room or our bedroom when she or I need something before I have to remind her to stay laying down. She's also been wearing her supports almost 24/7 so.."
We fall silent for a couple seconds while Charlie looks over my guilty face as I sheepishly attempt to hide behind my hair.
"You're smart Ella, you know why I've asked you to rest and not move too much don't you?" He asks with a slightly more serious but still gentle tone, nodding I fight my lip wobbling and tears escaping my eyes as continues, "is it because you don't want dad doing everything for you?" He asks softly as dad watches me closely with his hand snaking round my waist in an attempt to comfort me.
Nodding almost unnoticeably Charlie sighs softly, "I can understand why you'd feel like that and that you want some independence back but you've only been healing for just under four weeks, although you're healing fast I really don't think you should be pushing yourself to do things like this."
A small pause makes us all fall into silence while my fingers start bleeding from me picking at them, "you get your cast off next week, you get your torso bandages off next week the week after that im planning on seeing how you are when I take your rib supports off.. Just a couple more weeks and we can even try start some physical therapy for you to build strength back in your arms and legs."
I stay still and continue fighting back tears as dad and Charlie exchange a small glance, "only a couple more weeks okay?" He says sweetly and I nod trying to move forward the conversation, "so I have a small gift for you, the hearing aids came early and I just want to check if they're working properly okay?"
For the first time in a couple minutes I actually look up at him, his brown and greeny eyes look softly back at me as I start biting at my nails on my left hand nervously.
Soon Charlie's put on both of the hearing aids, one of them is 'stronger' as I'm more deaf in one ear than the other. He clicks a small thing on the back of them that loop to the back of my ear and suddenly everything is clear and loud.
Now I realise how bad my hearing loss was, I can now clearly hear the clock in the background, dad shuffling nervously next to me, Charlie's footsteps to back away from me after he's now turned the hearing aids on.
Everything doesn't sound so underwater anymore.
"They're really cool, they're discrete, you can barley see them unless you look closely and look behind your ear, as they're bte hearing aids. they're linked to an app that I can show you and your dad in a second. They need to be charged in this case." He says showing me what looks like a black AirPods case, "probably overnight but they'll rarely need charging. What's cool about these is that they can work as headphones, like AirPods and stuff, they're really high tech so I think you'll like them."
He finishes and smiles at me as I only stare back, "can you hear me better?" He asks slightly worried at my lack of reaction, nodding he takes a small breath of relief before placing the case in my lap, "just ask any questions okay? Im always here if you need anything," he says and we fall into a small silence once again before he continues.
"okay so now I want to ask you about how you're feeling in specific areas, so how we're going to do this is I'm going to ask about a specific area of your body and ask if it's hurting, and how you're going to answer is a nod is it hurts, a shrug is that it aches and a shake of your head means there's little to No pain."
I nod and Charlie smiles, "okay let's start easy, do you have headaches often?" He asks and I nod, dad also does a small nod as he know when I'm having a headache- especially a bad headache if I start patting or holding my head trying to stop the pain.
Charlie sighs slightly before noting it down in his phone quickly, "what about your eyes- more specifically your left eye does that hurt?" He asks and I shake my head no. They hurt but not for what he's asking. They hurt because of how much I've been crying and not sleeping but nothing to do with it have a fat scar over it.
"Is your vision blurry?" I shake my head no, "does your cheek bones or cheeks hurt?" I shrug and he things for a couple seconds, "is that when there's pressure applied?" I nod and he frowns again, " has it gotten better they more your bruises heal? They're not visible anymore so has the pain decreased since... last week?" I nod and he nods too while noting it all down in his phone.
"What about you're jaw?" I shrug, "so achy?" He asks and I nod once again. by the end of this my necks going to fall off.
After noting it down he looks back to me, "your neck, the bruising and swellings definitely gone now so is it that same as your face? Achy?" He asks and I nod before he nods too and notes it down.
"Do your shoulders hurt?" He asks motioning on himself mine- or his- shoulders, nodding he frowns and bites his lip as he notes it down, "is that when pressure is applied? When you're laying in bed or when someone holds your shoulder?" He asks and once again I nod, "what about when you're stood or sat- like you are now- do your shoulders hurt?" I pause before shrugging. Motioning to my back as far as my arm will let me he nods.
"So your spine- or back in general hurts even when nothing's touching it?" He asks and I nod as he quickly notes it down.
This continues with him asking if something hurts with me nodding or shrugging before he asks more questions to narrow down what I'm feeling.
Going from my head to my neck to my shoulders, back, chest, tummy, waist, thighs, knees, calves, ankles and feet to even what my stomach and lungs and throat and even specific muscles feel like we eventually get to my wrists. We've just talked about my upper arm, elbows and lower arms and now my wrists and probably soon hands.
"So they hurt to move?" He asks and I nod once again as he gently takes my left hand- the hand not in a cast- in his bigger hands as he moves it up and down and around as I fight back pulling my hand away.
Not because I mind him holding it- I don't, I like holding hands with people. But as he moves it it's making my wrist hurt, I know he doesn't mean to hurt me but still.
"Okay, sorry if I hurt you." He apologises sincerely as he lets my land rest in his, "so you can't move it far with out it hurting hm?" I shake my head yeah and he hums.
"-and what about your hands and fingers do they hurt?" He asks and I- for the first time- shake my head no, "okay," he says sounding slightly happier I have something that's not constantly in pain, "but does you picking at your skin and cuts hurt?" He asks and I nod subtly while he frowns, "Kay,"
He picks up a small bag from the table next to him and picks up an antiseptic cream, "may I?" He asks gesturing to my hand with a small big of cream on his fingers, I nod yes nervously not feeling able to say no before he gently picks up my hand and starts applying the cream to open cuts and wounds on my hand, fingers and arm.
"I know you do this as you're nervous," he pauses as he places my hand softly back onto my lap before picking my casted right hand and applying the cream on the smaller much fewer cuts and pinches on my fingers, "but it's hurting you," he says also placing that hand gently on my lap before looking at me- scanning my faces every detail, every freckle, every newer small scar, my natural blush, my eyelashes, my eyes, my nose, every detail.
"I'm gonna look into some fidget toys for you, how does that sound?" He says smiling as dad softly pats my waist almost reminding me of how much I wanted fidget toys when I was little as all of my friends had them yet we could never afford them.
"Hm?" Charlie hums as I remember to nod before looking back to my hands. Charlie finally stands, his knees clicking as he does so before turning to dad, "assicurati che riposi, la controllerò ogni due giorni per vedere come sta guarendo." (make sure she rests, i'm going to check in on her every couple days to see how she's healing.)
"Ella?" He asks now looking at me, "you need to please rest, only at least a week and then we can start therapy and you can grow more independence, how does that sound?" He says smiling while yet again I nod.
Just a few more weeks and I don't have to tie dad down to only focusing on me. Just a few more weeks and maybe- hopefully- things can go back to normal.
—
<3