Dear Richie

What I'm Looking For

Leia runs to her room with a hoodie pulled over tight around her face, making sure to not make any eye contact with her parents as she entered the room.

"How was dinner, Honey?"

Whoops. Too late.

"It was fun." Leia mumbles before attempting an escape.

"Hold on a minute." Oh no, Leia knew she was busted. Her mom is going to have a huge fit when she finds out what happened. "Tell me more! I'm your mother, you should tell me everything." Her mother pats the seat beside her. "Come, sit with Momma."

"Um, actually, I'm kinda... I-I'm tired." Leia keeps her head low, hoping that her hood covered her face.

"Are you sure?" Leia could sense the skepticism in her mother's voice.

"Yeah, we just... I had a lot of fun and I'm tired from all of the... excitement," Leia attempts to yawn to make her story more believable. "Yeah, I should just head to-"

In the space of a second, Leia's hood was pulled from her head, revealing a red blotch of a hand print across her cheek and another on her neck... except it wasn't just a "blotch".

"Leia..." Her mother is at a loss for words. She graces her fingers beneath Leia's eye, causing her to wince in pain. "Baby..."

"I don't wanna talk about it," Leia states bluntly, pulling her hood back over her face.

Her mother stands in silence, completely astounded by the scene before her. All she does is shake her head, Leia can't tell if it's in refusal to accept reality or denial of her to leave.

Leia begins to walk away, half-hoping that her mother would stop her and allow her to cry and confide everything that happened.

But nothing happens.

So Leia darts to her room, slams the door and throws herself into her pillows, sobbing hopelessly.

Leia cannot recall how much time has passed, but eventually there is a soft rapping at the door, followed by a screech.

"Leia...?" Leia recognizes her mother's voice. With her face smushed against a pillow, Leia imagines her mother with somber blue eyes, her full, red lips curving in disappointment. She visualizes her mother, Lucille Juneau Meadows, her somewhat-wrinkly fingers nimbly grasp the doorknob.

Leia practically inherited all of her physical traits from her mother: the golden blond hair, the icy blue eyes, the small stature. Her personality, however, is more consistent with her father. He never has been all that bright, unlike Lucille, but Leia always assumed that's why they fell in love.

They weren't the same person. They were complete opposites in nearly everything.

But they still loved each other.

"Baby?" Lucille tries again. "Are you okay?"

Leia feels the mattress decompress against the added weight. A gentle hand makes it way from her shoulder to the middle of her back, and then repeats.

"No, mom, I'm completely fine and dandy." Leia sits up to face her mother. "I'm never going back."

"Leia, what happened? Who did this to you?"

Recollecting the events, Leia halts her breath, incapable to do anything else. Her heart races and so do the images before her.

"Baby, breathe," Lucille demands, causing Leia to snap back into reality. "Who did this to you?"

"Mom..." Leia is unable to speak, instead begins to cry helplessly into her mother's shoulder, who was prepared for an embrace.

Lucille strokes her daughter's hair. "Was it Eathan? Did he hurt you?"