His Little Flame

Chapter 15: Pappus

*warning- long chapter*

☽ MAEVE ☾

I wake up with a sharp pain in my feet, it feels like I'm being stabbed. I sit up and hurl the covers off my body. I snap my eyes to my feet.

Why am I wearing Elias's socks?

They don't even fit, they're huge. The white Nike socks are rolled up multiple times at my ankle. I pull one of the socks off my feet and see bandages covering my foot. I quickly grab the other sock and yank it off. It's bandaged too.

What the hell happened? My eyes shift up my legs and even my knees are bandaged.

I poke my knees and I wince at the burning sensation that shoots through my body. I carefully sit up and gently place my feet onto the floor. Each step is torture. I drop to the ground and pull back on Elias's socks, it doesn't make the pain go away but it surely helps.

I make my way to the bathroom, holding onto random things to lessen the weight on my feet. I wash my face, brush my teeth, and throw on a random outfit. I glance at the dresser and see the white ribbon, I grab it and decide to tie my hair up. I haven't touched this ribbon in a while, I feel guilty for forgetting about Maman.

I push myself to walk down the hall and stairs without support, even though I'm in immense pain, it's not the worst I've dealt with.

Nothing can beat the pain of alcohol-coated shards of glass digging into your skin.

I force the memories out of my mind and continue my path. I look around and see no one at all, but I hear the muffled sound of laughter and shouting. I follow the noise to the backyard, where two men are replacing the glass doors. Does that have something to do with what happened to me? I walk past the two men and follow the growing noise.

Elias, Gio, and Marcus are playing basketball with a group of men.

Wait, since when has there been a basketball court? I guess mafias? Mafia peoples? Mafians? Muffins? I giggle at my own thoughts, well whatever they're called I guess they make a lot of money.

I sit on the grass beside the basketball court, relaxing my feet. My fingers tug at the blades of grass as I watch the boys run around the court.

Gio grabs the ball and Elias comes up behind him, picking him up then running to the hoop. He lifts Gio up and Gio slams the ball through the hoop, and the boys cheer for him.

"Hey shorty," Luca greets from behind me, startling me.

He drops down and sits beside me, "good morning," I reply with a smile.

"Morning? Girl, it's 4 pm!" Luca laughs.

"So? I like sleeping," I shrug, "do you know what happened here?" I ask Luca, waving my hand around my legs.

"No idea, you should ask Elias," Luca says, blowing on a dandelion.

I furrow my brows and tilt my head, "Elias? Why would Elias know?" I ask.

Luca shrugs, "no idea."

"What do you know?" I joke, pushing Luca's second dandelion in his mouth.