Chapter 10
NOAH
“Do you think she’s going to be okay after everything that happened?” Dominic asked as he sat in front of Noah’s desk.
Noah looked over at Frankie, who was sound asleep on his huge couch. He didn’t know why he had bought it in the beginning since it was basically a mini bed, but Noah was thankful now. It had worked out perfectly for Frankie to sleep on comfortably.
“She’s exhausted and probably not want to go out for a while, but I think it’s going to be better in the end,” Noah replied honestly. “Every little exposure with you guys is helping in the long run. Showing her that she doesn’t have to hide who she is and that you don’t care if she shakes or not.”
If only he could help even more and make her realize she can go out right now. But he needed to be patient, and every little step in the right direction was a good one. It was going to be a slow journey, one Noah was prepared for.
“If you need anything, let me know. I know I’ve said this before, but she is like a little sister to me.
I want to see her flourish in life and have friends,” Dominic quietly said as he looked over at Frankie.
“Has she met up with the other Littles? They’ve been asking me about her, but they didn’t say anything about meeting up with her. ”
Noah shook his head. “They haven’t gotten together yet, but they have been texting regularly.
I’m hoping to get Frankie to say yes to meeting at least one at our house or even here.
Maybe one by one, so she doesn’t get overwhelmed, but Frankie doesn’t want them to make fun of her for shaking.
She’s worried they are going to think of her as someone who is getting electrocuted. ”
Everything in him wanted to go back in time and stop those little kids from saying that to Frankie. It wasn’t true, but Frankie took it to heart and had never been the same since.
“No one thinks that. Kids can be cruel sometimes in what they say.” Dominic sighed.
“We can all reassure her and not comment on it. I think she should meet either Rainey or Echo first. I know the other girls will love her for who she is, but Echo and Rainey have stuff they are worried about. They can help her.”
Noah hadn’t thought about that.
“I’ll see if she wants to meet up with them first before the other girls. Maybe they can shed some light on what it’s like and how they have dealt with it,” Noah replied.
“Echo didn’t deal with it very well. She let other people touch her and just recently told everyone since Deccan suggested she should.” Dominic shook his head. “I don’t know how she got by with it for that long.”
Noah had only seen Echo once in his life. At the time, he didn’t know she had an aversion to touch. Not that it mattered since they didn’t touch at all.
“Come to think of it, Rainey wasn’t very forthcoming either when it came to her liking things in even numbers.
She let it bother her until Marco found out,” Dominic pointed out.
“But they have had to come to terms with people knowing and understanding that some people will judge and others won’t care. A lot of people don’t care.”
Nodding, Noah relaxed in his chair and took a deep breath. “I’ll mention it to her in a couple of days. She probably won’t be open to it with everything that happened today.”
Dominic winced. “Sorry about that. I really didn’t think she was going to choke on the cookie or that Trent would come in so soon.”
Noah waved his hand in the air, dismissing it. “It’s okay. It is what it is, and it may have been for the best. We’ll see in the coming days.”
He was hoping it was all for the best. He didn’t want her to move back several steps and be right back to where they were before.
“But if we come again, maybe don’t do something like that again… not for a while,” Noah mumbled. “I don’t want her to think you are doing it on purpose to try to get her out. That you want her to have a meltdown and not be able to do anything with her emotions but hurt herself.”
Dominic’s mouth fell open. “Hurt herself?”
“When everyone left the room, she pulled her hair because she didn’t know how else to get through all of them.
Talking wasn’t helping her. That’s why I asked Trent if he still had the plates he wanted to get rid of,” Noah explained and looked at Frankie sleeping.
“She didn’t say it, but I think she wanted to go to a rage room to let out every emotion. ”
“I think everyone could benefit from going to a rage room.” Dominic chuckled.
“She suggested putting one in the club, just a small room that could fit one or two people. Said we could call it Frankie’s Rage Room and let other people use it.” It was Noah’s turn to chuckle.
“Why are we talking about a rage room?” Marco walked into the office. “I thought I heard voices, but I thought you would be gone by now. Glad to see I didn’t miss you.”
“Nice to see you too,” Noah smiled.
“So what is this about a rage room? Are all the owners planning on going to one together?” Marco asked, wiggling his eyebrows. “I would love to go to a rage room and just let everything out. Show the objects who’s really in charge.”
“Uhhhh.” Dominic eyed Marco.
“Frankie was talking about adding one to the club,” Noah replied before Dominic could say anything else. “I think we should, but I need to talk to the other owners as well.”
Hopefully, they would see the benefit of adding one to the club. How many other Littles needed a place to go to let out all their emotions, but couldn’t because they didn’t have money or didn’t want to be in front of everyone to see? Noah imagined there were a lot of them, and he wanted to help.
Selfishly, he also wanted to build one in so Frankie would come out more and be able to work through her emotions. He would have to balance it out with her talking. She wouldn’t be able to get away with saying she could only show it by breaking things.
“I’m good with adding one, and I think the other owners will be as well,” Marco said. “I don’t know why we didn’t think of adding it sooner.”
“Because it’s not really Little,” Dominic pointed out.
“I’m all for adding it, but you don’t need my okay since I’m not an owner.
I think if you made it right, you could have Littles, Middles, and the caregivers be able to use it.
You would have to think about charging, or if you aren’t think about how you are going to get all of the items people will break. ”
“I’ll talk to everyone, and if they all agree, then I’ll sit down with Mac and see how we can do it.” Noah chuckled. “I can’t believe I’m actually considering it.”
“You would do anything for her,” Marco commented, looking at Frankie.
She moved, stretching her arms.
“That’s my cue to leave, don’t want to startle her,” Marco gently said before leaving the room.
“I’ll also go before she wakes up. While she’s okay with me, she’ll be in a vulnerable state, and I don’t want to upset her.” Dominic got up from his chair. “Bring her back soon?”
Noah looked at Frankie before meeting Dominic’s eyes again. “I hope to, but I’m not going to push her too hard. She has come so far in a short time.”
Dominic left the room, and Noah walked over to Frankie, kneeling in front of her as he gently ran his hand through her hair.
“Hi, Little One,” he whispered as she cracked an eye open.
“I thought I heard voices,” she mumbled.
“You did, but they just left so we could be alone,” he explained.
Frankie closed her eyes again and leaned into his touch, letting out a sigh of contentment.
“So precious,” he cooed at her. “Are you ready to go home?”
“Yeah,” she said, keeping her eyes closed.
“Still tired?” he asked.
She hummed in agreement, and Noah couldn’t help but chuckle. Frankie was so cute when she was sleepy.
“Let’s go home,” he mumbled and picked her up.