All It Takes Is Love | ✍🏼

13. Precious Child

 - Ace Moretti - 

I sat up in bed, my eyes trained on the old cartoons that was the only channel on the old TV in the hospital room. I remembered a few of them, but most of them were still a mystery to me. I was never really allowed to watch them, rather having to watch whatever my brothers or father wanted to watch, which was never usually cartoons. 

A knock on the door caught my attention, as I tore my gaze away from the TV, and towards the door, as Lorenzo, whom had been reading through some paper work in silence, got up. Blaze was still dead asleep in the other chair beside my bed, while Francis was out of town for the weekend, and Vincent was somewhere. 

I didn't care where Vincenzo was anymore. He was out of my life, once again. It wasn't like we had done this 'forgetting each other' play before. Maybe this was how we were going to be around each other from now on. Forget about it each other for a few years, before one of us decides to reappear, and decide that they need to be involved in the other life. 

That's what it has felt. Vincenzo disappeared without a trace. He had practically cleared out his room, removing the person that you used to live in that room. It was the same room that I had run to whenever I needed someone to protect me, before he left.

Maybe that was supposed to be how my life was. People just getting up and walking out of it. Suddenly, my door opened, making me tear my eyes away from the TV. I hadn't noticed that Lorenzo had walked outside, and was now walking in, with two people trailing behind him. Someone had something held close to their chest, as my curious eyes were trained on the people that had just entered. 

I was shocked, stunned, at the person that was the first to walk in behind Lorenzo. I did not expect him to be here. Lorenzo had told me that Vincenzo had been the one that had come with him to help me, where Silas had found me bleeding outside the school, and apparently Vincenzo had not wanted to leave me alone, but he knew that I didn't want to see him. 

Seeing him now though, shocked me. I didn't expect an apology or anything from him, as I had provoked him to hit me. But, he wasn't who I cared about right now, as a small head popped up from underneath Francis' leather jacket, showing a mound of brown hair. The small child hadn't turned to look at me yet, but my heart had already melted. 

I had no idea nor care for who this person's child was and why Francis was holding the child, other than I wanted to hold the child. I wanted to protect this child just like I had protected Ingrid as much as I could with the time that I was given with her. I hadn't been protected like she had, and now I wanted to protect this child. 

A child does not deserve to go through what I have gone through, nor what my brothers have gone through. It's not normal, and I know that now. The mind games that my father has played, and most certainly other parents have played on their children, making them believe that every shadow is out to get them at any chance that they turn their back on something or someone.

I sat up in an upright position to the best of my ability, as I reached out to Francis, biting my lip from the pain. I needed to hold this child. I saw her look at me, before she looked back at Francis, confusion written all over her face, while pain seemed to be coating her body with the way she didn't seem to be at rest like children I had seen. 

 "Can I hold her?" I gritted out, as I tried to sit up further, but Lorenzo was quick to walk over to me, pushing me back down into a laying position. It felt weird, being cared for, as usually whenever I got hurt at football or just over working myself at the gym, I usually figured it all out on my own. I never had someone like Lorenzo, and he had never been this way, only up until Vincenzo had come back into our lives. 

"Sure" Francis had paused to look down at the small girl, while they whispered before he had given me a response. Vincenzo had stayed silent the entire time, not giving anyone direct eye contact, especially me. I didn't care. Francis then handed me the small child, as I immediately wrapped my arms around her, trying to be as soft as possible. 

"Hey" I murmured in her ear, as she finally settled herself laying on top of me, her breathing evening out when she pushed her head into my shoulder. "What's your name?" I questioned the small girl, as her breath hitched, before she tried to even it out. "She doesn't speak much" Francis butted in, as he must have seen the slight hurt across my face. 

I looked back down at the small girl, who was clutching onto my hospital clothes, as I tried to understand what was going on with the small girl. She was wearing small, old tattered clothes that would never last in the cold seasons, let alone fall and summer. They barely covered anything and felt thin and scratchy. I would hate to be wearing them, and I can't believe we were allowing her to wear such clothes. 

As I went to move my left leg up, I had to place my left foot down, but a sudden pain spread up through my leg, making me groan out of pain. I had to unravel my arms from the small girl clutching me, as I leaned a little to clutch where the pain was in my leg and foot. Francis came over and took her from my hold, as I leaned back, trying to deal with the pain. 

"Ace, stop moving" a cold hand touched my left foot, making me cringe at the sensation. I felt like the same, little 5 year old boy that couldn't walk on his foot. I thought it had gotten better, but something had happened while I had been knocked out, and this was the first time I had been awake long enough to move, and I did that with my foot. 

"Ace" the person said again, as the pain was still burning. A cry fell from my lips, as I tried to turn towards the pillow to scream. "Stop moving" the person said, and that was when I knew that it was Vincenzo. Not Lorenzo, like I had hoped and wished for, but Vincenzo, whom I wanted to be far away from. 

But in this moment, I didn't care. I just wanted this unbearable pain to go the fuck away and leave me be in peace. I needed everything to stop and let me take a breath in. "Make it stop!" I screeched, as I reached behind me, pulling either side of the pillows as close to my ears as I could, closing my eyes as the tears threatened to fall. 

I had hurt people like this, just to save my own crumbling family, but now, I was the one that knew how it felt. I didn't want to know how it felt. I wanted to be a normal teenager, that didn't have to worry about his crumbling family or that his foot was bad and his father didn't give a damn about him and his problems. 

"Ace, we will" Lorenzo was brushing a hand through my hair, but I couldn't feel it as the burning pain that was surging up my leg was too prominent. I opened my eyes, too look at my foot, as all of a sudden, the machines around me started to beep faster and faster, as I felt my breathing pick up with them. Black dots were starting to cloud my vision, as I tried to push through it all.

"Vin, make it stop. Make it stop like you always do" I cringed at the words that were directed at my older brother, as they slipped through my lips before I could stop them. It was starting to get harder to see, as I let myself fall into the pillow, letting the tears roll down my face, as everything started to disappear. 

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