Rose after Rose

Chapter 11- Hakuna Matata (Luca's backstory)

TW// Rape

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March 2009: Luca's Perspective

"Luca, are you sure that you guys will be alright?" Dad asked concerned.

"What kind of father would I be if I can't look after my kid?" I replied cheerfully,

"We'll be fine, right Vincent?"

Vincent was a shy kid and didn't do much talking, so he simply modded,

I looked back at my dad, "It's only for a week."

"Alright then, bye Vincent." He sighed a sigh of relief,

"Bye bye grandpa," He replied in his sweet soft voice,

*****

He passed out by the time we got there, I carried him tight to my chest and felt his heart beat so fast,

"I love you," I whispered,

He grabbed one of my locs and held it tightly in a fist.

When I'd gotten inside with our stuff he was still latched onto me, I decided then and there that I wanted to put locs in his hair,

So I did he stayed still and quiet the entire time and they came out good,

I dressed him in his yellow pyjamas with brown polka dots on them and put him in bed,

I climbed into bed next to him, stroking his face until he finally fell asleep

I figured that locs were for the best, he loved mine a lot so why not make it a family tradition?

"Family?"

*****

I hadn't had a real family since my momma died.

Momma was amazing, she was smart, beautiful, kind and always kept Dad in check

Dad even stopped smoking because of her, he didn't start smoking again until I messed up big time.

But before things started going off the rails, I lived a normal life, even though my parents were only 18 when they had me, they spoiled me with all the love they had.

Dad taught me how to do so many things like; how to sew, cook, ride a bike etc, every day I learned something from him I used to love spending time with him.

I don't know what it was about momma that made me love her so much, whenever I had a bad day at school just seeing her made my day 100 times better.

When I was 9, momma was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer.

What frustrated my dad and me the most, was that we'd taken her to the hospital multiple times because she was very sick but the hospital always excused it as something less serious and sent her home,

And the one time that we managed to actually get them to pay attention to her symptoms, it was too late the cancer had already spread to a few of her other vital organs,

She only had a couple of months left and then it was over.

They tried to make life seem as normal as possible for me but I knew that momma was going to be dead soon,

She passed away on September 1st 1994 at age 28.

It was only a few weeks after my tenth birthday, at the funeral Dad lost it, he was crying so loudly but no one was able to console him,

He needed time to heal on his own so I was sent to live with my aunt Esther (mom's twin sister), uncle Rashad and her kids, Julian and Brenda, they were twins and 8 years younger than me.