Help

sixteen

L U C I E N

"Guess what brothers and sister, I am clean!" Dominic announces his arms open in the air and a cheeky smile stretched across is annoying face.

I have never disliked someone so much. That moron is always pissing me off, on top of that, he gets away with everything. A little warning here and there and it's an easy breeze for him. Yet here I am facing the consequences with my broken nose while he hollers about not have a sexually transmitted disease that I totally made up.

I'm going to keep that information to myself though.

Florence grumbles from the loud announcement. All of us cringe when we hear that she's awake. I don't think she gets a lot of sleep. Not lately at least. Her under eye bags are darker everyday, and she's very groggy in the mornings.

We don't want her sleep disturbed.

"Go back to sleep sweetheart." Emilio comes up to the edge of the hospital bed. He uses the same trick he did on me when I was little. He's rubbing her back, talking to her in a calm voice. He's lulling her back to sleep. And just like the how it worked for me without fail, it works for Florence. When we hear her sigh and I feel her body grow heavy against mine I know that she's happily asleep again.

"What happened to her at school today?" Emilio asks while looking away from our sister, letting his eyes skim the room to locate Massimo.

"She's no longer going to school." Massimo states while signing a million different papers. I'm pretty sure they are the insurance forms.

"What do you mean?" Dominic the donkey, speaks up. His voice makes me instantly cringe. When I cringe my face hurts, reminding me of what he did to make my face hurt.

If Florence wasn't napping on me, I would hop out of this bed and deck him so hard in the face he would have to go to an oral surgeon to fix his broken teeth.

But I won't... not yet.

"Lucien can't always be there to protect her from the bullies. She went a whole week without any of them coming up to her, but the second that Lucien wasn't there she was approached."

Tensing, I squeeze her a bit tighter. "I'm sorry Flo." I whisper for only her to hear.

"Was she hurt?" I ask Massimo while eyeing the bandage on her leg.

Everyone saw the bandage earlier, but we chose to ignore it, that is until now.   I watch how Massimo's posture changes when I bring it up. He slouches yet tenses.

"A boy, his name is Jake. He cornered her outside of the school. She managed to get away. She must've collapsed on the pavement."

"How do you know this?" Emilio crosses his arms. He looks suspiciously at Massimo. He is hiding something from the rest of us. We have never been told a clear story from Florence. How does he know the details?

He stares at the ground, not answering for a solid minute. We all patiently wait for his response. After the long and slightly annoying pause, he finally looks up and spills the beans.

"She told me."

My heart stops. She spoke?

"Did she speak to you?" Dominic asks, his face lighting up. A singular nod from Massimo is enough for him to confirm our thoughts.

"She was upset, she called me, told me she needed help. I rushed over to her, she was on the road, her shin bleeding, and she was crying. She told me what happened. I took her to eat something, we talked, and when we got to the hospital she went silent again."