Inability {Prequel to "Online."} {Completed.}

Chapter Eight

February sixteenth, the air was cold but Ly still walked through it to get to Cass' house. Of course he had made an excuse to his step mother as to why he was heading out. As he walked down the street he shivered and scratched at the ace bandage that covered his hand, his old pair of sneakers let some snow sting at his ankles and the snowflakes that lagged slowly downward bit his bare coatless arms upon impact.

The only clothes he currently had were all summer oriented, so he had to fight through the rough winters in shorts and t-shirts most of the time which resulted in numbness of some sort most of the time. He continued walking, looking around with the one eye that wasn't covered with bandage, though he was cold he was content and happy.

Knowing that he was going to see Cass gave him a feeling of warmth that kept him going forward through the deep snow. As he neared her house he dashed as fast as he could toward it, smiling. He rushed quickly up the stairs to her porch and rang the doorbell, waiting patiently for her to open the door.

When she opened the door she greeted him with a happy birthday and a come on in which he happily did walk inside. He brushed the snow off of his jet black hair and took his shoes off, she had a fire in her fireplace for him to sit by to warm up.

As he sat, wrapping him self in a blanket and warming his freezing exterior, she brought in a cake and sat it in front of him as she sat across from him with the cake in between them. She lit the candles on the cake with a match and he looked down at the icing stating "Happy birthday Ly!". She sang to him and he blew out the candles and cut them both slices of the red velvet cake, he couldn't stop smiling and spoke.

"Tha-nk yo-u Ca-ss." He said, he began eating which joyed her due to his extremely frail exterior of almost all skin and bone, she ate her slice and after he finished eating his slice she stood up.

"I'm gonna go get your gifts, Ly." She said walking into another room and returning shortly with a few wrapped items and a card. "Read the card after you open your gifts." She spoke softly and he nodded as he opened the first of three gifts, it was an old violin, with an address taped to it and sketchbook laying on top of its case in which it laid so snugly in. He thanked her so sincerely that she couldn't help but smile.

He opened the second gift which was a hand knit coat and the last gift which was an old music box that played a wondrously serene tune when opened. Finally he opened her card, though his speaking was highly affected by his apraxia his reading ability excelled greatly above his grade level. The card read:

Dear Ly, Happy Birthday!!! I'm guessing you just opened your gifts and I insisted on you reading this last which I did for good reason. I'm going to explain your gifts really quickly, one of them was a violin with an address and in the same gift was a sketchbook. I bundled them together because I was running out of wrapping paper but I gave you the violin because I always considered it's sound beautiful and I felt you'd have as much as an appreciation for it as I have. You can play it whenever you like to get your mind off of anything and the address is my grandmothers address, she teaches violin and I felt like you'd enjoy learning how to play it properly and she's one of the best people I know. I gave you a sketchbook because my mother always spoke about how drawing helped her slip away from the days she felt were tiresome and overall upset. Another gift was a coat, I sewed it for you so you could finally get out of the cold in one way. Finally I gave you a music box, before my mother passed away she made me two music boxes and this was one of them. Listen to it whenever you need to relax because whenever I needed to relax that was the one thing I went straight to and I felt like you'd need it more. Thank you for making my life amazing Ly. Sincerely, Cass.

By the end of reading it he hugged her and thanked her again, this time repeatedly over and over again and again. She was happy that he was happy and they spent a little more time together as he listened to the music box with her and attempted to play the violin.

He made sure to put his new coat on as he walked out the door, waving at her as he went home. When he arrived his mother was screaming at his sixteen year old brother, Pyong-Ho, to whom they all referred to as Porter. She turned to Ly upon his entry and yelled, startling him and sending a chill down his spine, "Why are you home so late Lyle?! And where the hell did you get that coat?!"