Inferno Part 2

~153~ Three Strikes, You're Out

Hi again :) this is not a trigger warning, but this is going to be emotional. Really, really emotional. I have been doing my best to intertwine two storylines, and I've been doing it specifically for this chapter. I've had this planned for a long time, but now that it's here I'm gutted. In my real life, I'm not crazy emotional. This chapter has made me cry. It's rough. I wanted to give you a heads up. So...you're welcome? Good luck? Enjoy? Not sure what the correct word is, but....well....here we go 😭😬😬😭

Ellie's POV

After Nolan gets punished, we wait in his room with him for a bit. He's saying nothing, but we just don't feel like we should leave. After about ten minutes of silence, I go up to him and hug him.

"You ok?" I ask, kissing his temple.

"Yup" he smirks.

"Nolan, you just got spanked. It's ok to be upset. It's ok to be mad."

"I'm not. You gave me fair warning last month."

I just look at him. He just sounds so convincing.

"What can we do to get you to quit masking your feelings?"

He just stares at me.

I sigh and grab his hand. "Principal Mills, your teachers, and Taylor and I have a meeting tomorrow. We're going to figure this out. They want you to take a couple tests, to figure out what areas you need help in."

He just nods

"So you can read?"

"Yeah. It just takes me forever. I don't know some of the bigger words."

"Ok. Now that we know, we can fix it."

He says nothing as he looks out the window.

"Are you hurting?" Taylor asks, speaking for the first time since the spanking.

"No, I'm good."

"Nolan, stop it. I need to know. If I did it too hard, I need to know. I figured you would react, but you didn't. I need to know for next time."

Nolan looks at him hard for a minute and then he sighs. "It hurt...I'm hurting."

Taylor nods. "Did I spank you too hard?"

"Taylor, I've never had one before. I have no idea," he says, exasperated.

"Did I spank you too hard?" He asks again.

"No"

"Could I have gone harder?" Taylor asks seriously.

"If you would have gone harder, it would have sucked," he says simply.

Taylor nods. He definitely can't go harder next time, and he knows that now.

"Ok," Taylor says simply.

"Am I still in trouble?"

Taylor and I look at each other.

"Not this time. We're starting fresh. Giving you another chance to quit lying. Next time will be even worse," I say darkly.

"K"

He spends the evening with us downstairs, watching movies. By the end of the night, Taylor and Nolan are back to goofing around and being stupid.

The next few weeks go by well. Nolan got diagnosed with Dyslexia. He's in the 7th grade, but he tested out at a 3rd grade level for reading. How had nobody caught this sooner? Why was he allowed to miss so much school? How were the authorities not involved?