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

Chapter Eighteen

The night passed and Cass was forcefully pulled from her bed by her little sister who woke her entire family. Cass walked downstairs and tapped Ly as soon as she saw him.
"Wake up its Christmas." Her voice was hushed and he rubbed his eyes before opening them.
"I do-n't see wh-at's so spe-cial about Christmas." He sat up and she smiled.
"It's a time of cheer so be happy, I'm sure Father Christmas got you something."
"We-ll he's never got-ten me anything before so do-n't get too excited about that." He pushed the blankets aside and then thanked her for allowing him to sleep there.

She was in honest disbelief that he had never gotten a Christmas present before. She was determined that even if he didn't have a single thing under that tree he'd get the gift she got him.

She led him to the tree and right as she knelt down to start opening gifts and he stood watching her sister spoke a miracle.
"Who's Ly?" She said, holding up a few wrapped gifts that were under the tree and right then he looked shocked.
"That's our guest Tierney, I'm sure he'd like to open them himself." Her father spoke, smiling as Ly sat down beside Cass and started tearing open gifts.

Both Cass and Ly got ten gifts each which ranged from toys and trinkets to clothes and basic necessities like that. Ly was smiling more than he had ever had, the bruises on his pale arms seemed like nothing to him and at that moment everything just melted into happiness for the entirety of the morning and afternoon.

Cass gave him her gift to him, which was a stack of various novels of many different genres. He enjoyed it and hugged her right after receiving them, smiling and thanking her again.

It got to be early in the evening and right before Cass' father left to go drop off Ly her older brother put his hand on his fathers shoulder.
"How'd you pull all of that off today dad?" He asked and her father smiled and replied quickly.
"I asked Cass what he liked before she went to bed last night, that proceeded with using business favours in my favour Chris." He proceeded to take both Ly and Cass with him as they dropped Ly off.

Cass' father being a business man and working toward a larger corporation was well known and of course had a few unused favours from shop colleagues of his that he used to get extremely last minute Christmas gifts for a kid who needed them.

He drove him home and right when they got there Cass walked with Ly to the door and knocked on it.
His step mother opened and looked furious, not noticing Cass until the middle of her sentence.
"Where have you been you little- I was so worried that you were lost." She said changing her tone and smiling falsely.

"Oh no ma'am he was fine, if you don't mind he got some Christmas gifts while taking refuge at my house Madame."
Cass' smile was slick and she wanted to tell her off.

"Oh my that's very kind of you, now we should get going good night-"
"Oh no ma'am I'd like to take a moment to compliment your son."
"..."
"He is quite a genius Madame, he can read novels in the time span of a day and on top of that aces every test he gets. You must be really proud of him huh?"
"Well I sure am now I better get going..."
Right as she was going to shut the door Cass slammed her hand onto it and pushed it open again.

"Out of curiosity how come he's got all of those marks, if it's anything to do with your clearly unkept and ancient mess of a house or well, if it's your clearly unkept and quite horrid mess of a personality then I might have to tell somebody."
"You wouldn't dare you twerp."
"Oh yes I very do indeed dare, if you even lay a finger on him or his siblings again or keep him from attending school or from seeing me purposely to hide your atrocious acts then I'm going to contact the authorities quicker than you can blink." She winked and the woman looked as if she was going to strangle her.

"..."
"Good night ma'am and hey maybe you can outsmart me, after all I am just a little twerp aren't I? Anyways, Merry Christmas you scum." She walked off and well it worked, quite a few weeks passed where Lyle was completely clean of all bruises and was a little more optimistic thanks to that but of course, all good things come to an end don't they.