What followed next could not have been anymore different from what preceded it. Cassie quietly and gently placed Alvin on her mattress where she looked down in shame, barely able to . She barely said a word, only telling him her next move, too ashamed to even say more.

 “ Are you ready?” Cassie used a hushed voice, she could not believe how she had misread the situation. Why had she not allowed him to clear the air? All she had to do was say yes, one simple word and none of this would have happened. Yet she didn’t, she had channelled all of her frustrations, all of her rage onto him. Letting him tell his side of the story would be a small step in earning his forgiveness, something she wanted-nay- she needed.

 For Alvin, the answer was clear and although he wanted to get as far away from Cassie as he could, he didn’t exactly have a better place to go, his heart was not in the place he called home.

“ Alright...but you let me out after this, after I’m done. There really isn’t anything else you can do for me,” Alvin replied in a more cordial tone. He could tell that Cassie was feeling guilty and he could probably push her into doing almost anything he desired but he barely knew her and as such, he had no idea how far he could go. It would be best to not try his luck.

 “ Alvin,” Cassie began, her actions weighing down on her conscience, “ Not so fast. Just tell me your story and we’ll….” She dabbed her eye with her finger, removing a solitary tear drop that clung to her finger tip.

 “ We’ll take it from there. Is that fine with you?” Cassie hoped he would accept, shifting a bit of her hair behind her ear as Alvin stood in front of her, weighing his choices.

  “I-” Alvin began to suspect Cassie had no intention of ever letting him and as he tried to meet her gaze while she did her best to avoid his, he became sure of it.

“ I think that’s a good idea,” Alvin replied before telling Cassie his backstory.

Alvin’s story took about thirty minutes but both of them were in their own world and time flowed like molasses, mostly thanks to Alvin’s choice of describing each and every one of Wendy’s beatings, down to where she had hit his body and how long the bruise stained his epidermis an unsightly purple.

 Cassie tried to tell Alvin to stop but every time the words were on the tip of her tongue, she’d choke up and they would slip back down her throat. Unable to vocalise her thoughts, she had little choice but to listen.

 When Alvin finally finished the story, neither said a word for each was unsure of how the other would react. Eventually, it was Cassie who broke deadlock.

“ I’m sorry Alvin, I didn’t even stop to think about you, how you could have been a victim in all this too,” Cassie whimpered.

 “ You wouldn’t be the first,” Alvin hissed, he wished he could have just walked out of here but fate had made his tormentor a towering behemoth while he was just an average guy, he’d have a better chance of lifting a car than to even move one of Cassie’s fingers.

 His barb stung Cassie but she had no retort in mind, she deserved it and that was it.

 “ I-I know but...let me make it up to you,” Cassie pleaded, she wasn’t going to let Alvin walk out of here just like that.

 “ You could start by letting me go home, there’s no reason to keep me here now that you know I am no pervert,” Alvin folded his arms across his chest, his confidence powered by her guilt.

 Cassie shook her head gently and leaned in closer to Alvin, the scowl on his face, those eyes shooting daggers at her were clear to her. It would have been easy to just let him out but her conscience quickly killed that idea.

 “I can’t do that. You might think it’s the best but tomorrow, what happens? Wendy will just make you her punching bag again and it’ll never stop.”

“ I’ve lived that way for the last eight years, I won’t die if I go through another month of it,” Alvin sat down, arms still folded and his mind awash with anger.

 “ Let me help you, let me give you one month where you don’t even have to worry about Wendy or any bully. Alvin, this could be a chance for you to be free,” Cassie answered, she could force him into accepting but it would have achieved next to nothing in  her quest for redemption.

  “ How can I even trust you? One moment you’re pushing my head into the mud and now you’re pulling me out of it? What I am supposed to believe?” Alvin said, he honestly had no idea what to believe. It wasn’t the first time someone had offered to help him and neither was it the first time that someone had helped him up before pushing back down again.

 Cassie’s eyes shimmered, how could she ever get him to trust her in the next few minutes.

 “ I-I don’t know,” she replied before slumping against her bed’s headboard and covered her face with a pillow, how had she allowed herself to even consider this?. Alvin backed away slowly, expecting Cassie to cry, he had seen Wendy get into a similar pose whenever she felt down although he felt no pity for the latter.

“ Great, I’m trapped on a bed and the only person who can get me off has buried her head like an ostrich,” Alvin muttered.

After a good minute of watching Cassie’s still buried head in the pillow and  seeing no other way out without her help, he moved next to her foot, his work on his display as he glanced up at her toes, the nail polish reflecting his own visage right back at him.

 “ Cassie…” Alvin called out but she paid him no arttention. He tapped her foot but alas, no response came from her. Sighing, he slapped her foot before giving it a kick, a kick that registered.

 “ O-oh…” Cassie gasped as she placed her pillow on her lap.

 “ Okay, I get that you screwed up but lets face the facts. You aren’t the first person to screw me over and you won’t be the last person to try. If you want to help me maybe I should accept , you’re the first person who seems...sincere,” Alvin scratched the back of his head as he consoled Cassie, in his head he prayed to whichever god was out there that he wasn’t making a mistake.

  “And I think I shouldn’t refuse help,” Alvin concluded but as he saw Cassie’s face brighten,he knew he didn’t have to say anymore.

 “ Oh Alvin…” Cassie chortled while thanking her lucky stars, she needed a lot of luck to get through this.

“ I know you don’t trust me but I promise you that this is the moment when your life does a 180,” She briefly considered picking him and hugging him but her better judgement told her it would be too soon for that.

“Okay, maybe you could drop me off at home, I got homework to do and-Aw crap, I left it in school!” Alvin smacked his forehead. In his haste to get away from Wendy he had left his bag behind.

 Cassie could not help but express a little delight in this, an opportunity had finally opened up for her to use. As terrible it sounded , his little misfortune there brought the tiniest of smiles to her car sized lips.

 “ Oh don’t worry about that, I’ve got it covered,” Cassie took out her phone and waved it in front of him.

 “ Just tell me your class number and I’ll make a few calls, get an e-copy of it. It shouldn’t take too long,” Cassie suggested to Alvin.

 “ Really? I looked at it for a minute and those are some hard questions. You sure you’re up to it?”

 “I can handle it.  I may be a blonde cheerleader but my IQ isn’t my cup size,” Cassie assured him.

  It’s better than nothing, Alvin thought.

 “ Okay, take a crack it while I um...I’ll take a breather,” Alvin replied.

 Cassie grinned, “ Thank you,” she said as began to dial her phone, “ You’ll be surprised at what I can do and you won’t be disappointed.”

Alvin gave an acknowledging nod before lying down on the mattress. Cassie left him to his own devices while she waited for the call to get through to other side. Alvin closed his eyes and began to reflect on what had happened. It came quicker than he expected but he soon asleep, oblivious to what was going on around him.

************

  “ Damn it!” Cassie’s rang out across the room, waking Alvin who had been sleeping for the last hour and a half.

   His heart raced as her voice, normally controlled and set at a volume most non-Titans could handle without cupping their ear rocketed into something closer to a jackhammer in loudness. All Titans were required to attend etiquette classes from the moment  they could attend school where they would be taught the decorum expected of them when interacting with the smaller groups of humanity , volume control was a major component. While most of them were able to do so without any hassle, there was the occasional slip.

  Alvin did not know how long he had been out, his watch and phone were in his bag and Cassie did not keep a clock in her room so that was out of the question. He sat up and swivelled to face Cassie,  her back turned towards him and hunched over the same desk where she kept her dollhouse.

  Alvin watched as she tapped her stylus against the screen and grunted in frustration as she erased part of her working. Her hair, now tied up in a ponytail swished about as she attack the problem, trying her best not to disappoint the boy in her room.

 “ Aw come on!”  Cassie blasted at the tablet, it was no different from any of the other tablets owned by other Titans, a pearly white plastic rectangle with rounded edges complete with a matching stylus and earphones.

 “ Um…” Alvin started, sensing Cassie was in need of help.

 “ Maybe I could take a look at the problem?” He offered to Cassie.

 Cassie swung around on her swivel chair, she had not expected Alvin to be awake, the little teenager was out like a baby when left the room for a toilet break only minutes ago.

 “ Did I wake you?” She enquired apologetically, remembering her lapse in manners.

 Alvin nodded, Cassie blushed as she hung her head in shame.

 “ No need to feel bad about it, I shouldn’t be sleeping too much in the afternoon or else I’ll be up all night,” Alvin assured her. Cassie lurched forward, using her momentum to wheel herself towards him until she was within a hair’s breadth of the bed.

 “ I could use a little help with your homework. I know I am on the right track with this but math isn’t my strong suit! I’d rather be doing physics than crunching numbers,” Cassie moaned as Alvin climbed on to her flat palm.

 Cassie deposited him onto her thigh while she wheeled herself back to her little study table, Alvin having to grab on to her shorts for support lest he risk falling off her. Cassie then brought him up to the table, holding him in her hand whilst giving him a bird’s eye view of her work.

 Alvin scanned the equations after reading the question , a pixelated sea of letters and numbers twenty feet below him. It didn’t take him long to spot the error, it was a tiny but fatal mistake.

 “ Look,” Alvin pointed at a the second line on the screen, “ You put the exponential on the wrong side of the bracket, just put it inside and everything should be fine.”

 A warm breeze washed over him as Cassie sighed in relief, “ Thank you. I can be so careless.” Cassie quickly made the amendment before finishing the problem.   

 “ Hey, are you hungry?” Cassie inquired.

 Alvin hadn’t noticed until she asked, his stomach answering the question for him with a growl.

 Alvin patted it, “ I am but it can wait, I’ll get dinner at home,” he replied. Cassie wouldn’t accept it, her brow dipping as she detected his apprehension and she didn’t fault him, she’d do the same if she were in his shoes.

 “ It’s alright. My parents are in Paris on holiday so it’s just the two of us, I’ve got some leftovers from last night, you’re welcome to share it with me,” she proposed to him.

 Alvin wouldn’t have accepted but his stomach sent him another reminder. Cassie looked upon him with puppy dog eyes, two light brown pools that shimmered in the artificial lighting, pleading with him to say yes, a marked change from when they wanted to tear him apart.

 “ Oh alright,I guess I shouldn’t refuse help, I did say that didn’t I?” Alvin’s response perking up Cassie as she leapt off her seat, leaving him stranded.

 “ Great, I hope you like pasta!” She called out as she made a turn.

That’s dinner settled, hope she finishes my homework, Alvin thought to himself, now alone in a room that appeared to be the size of a cathedral to him.

Cassie returned, bearing a plate with a mountain of penne covered in a red sauce with a forest of leafy green arugula salad surrounding the pasta, panting from her run back up.

 “ I couldn’t get you any cutlery in your size so you’ll have to use your hands. Sorry,” Cassie set it down on the table while helping Alvin onto it.

 Titan food was no different from the foods eaten by the rest of the sizes, the only real difference was that they ate far more of it than the rest, the meteorites had only grown human women. Alvin grabbed a handful of arugula from the plate and shoved it into his mouth, intent on clearing a path to the pasta, the star of the meal, ignoring the splashes of sauce that stained his leg.

 “ Thanks, I really appreciate this,” Alvin said in between mouthfuls. Cassie said nothing but watched him for a minute or so, her head resting on one hand before resuming her work.

******

 “ Who made this?” Alvin gestured at the meatless pile of food which had barely shrunk despite his ferocious assault. Meat was a luxury for Titans, the sheer quantity needed made it a commodity only the wealthiest of Titans could afford and for those who couldn’t afford to eat it regularly, they had to make do with carbs and vegetables.

 “ My mom, she loves cooking,” Cassie switched off her tablet, she could always finish his homework later and her heart wasn’t completely into it, she felt compelled to entertain her former prisoner.

 “ Tell her I love it,” Alvin moved off the plate and sat in front of Cassie, feeling more comfortable with the Titan as time went by.

 “ Alvin, don’t think I’m a bad person because of what I did to you, I’m more than that,” Cassie folded her arms on top of each other and leaned closer to Alvin.

 “ I...I don’t really know you. I’ve heard about you but I’ve never met you. Not until today anyway, why were you so upset? I heard your voice on the way in, you weren’t exactly in a good mood.”

 “ I-It doesn’t matter why, I lashed out at you. You were small and defenseless and I made you my own punching bag, something to vent on and it’s wrong, wrong on so many levels,” Cassie answered without actually doing so.

 Alvin felt she was hiding something but he was unwilling to push her on it, he’d let her reveal that answer on her own accord.

“ Like I said before, I’m used to it but I’m not used to people being nice to me, it isn’t something I’ve gotten  much of in the latter half of my life. Thank you for being of the few people to show me kindness.”

 Cassie moved her finger, it was as long as Alvin was tall and matched him in width and brushed against  Alvin, a comforting stroke.

 “ I’ll make sure today isn’t a one off, the courtesy I’ve shown that is. Not the pain, it stops now,” Alvin loved the way she said it, like an ancient king making a decree.

 “ I hope so,” He paused, the overall mood was sombre and this wasn’t how he wanted to spend his evenings, he’d have hung out with Wendy if he wanted that.

 “ What’s that picture you’ve got on your lock screen? The girl with the acne and ponytails? Who is that?” Alvin asked with a grin. Cassie’s eyes widened before her cheeks glowed red.

“ You saw that? I-I…” Cassie giggled, she had been so foolish to leave her phone inside with him. Since he had seen it ,there was little reason to even hide it.

 “ That’s me.” Cassie announced to him.

 “ You look so...different so-”

“Ugly? Unattractive?” Cassie threw in a few words to fill in the blanks, part tease, part truth.

 “ Unique. That’s what I was looking for, I wouldn’t be able to connect the dots if I didn’t know it was you.” Alvin said with a good bit of tact.

 Cassie chuckled, “ Good one. I wasn’t always so pretty and that picture….” Cassie’s reminisced about her vacation in Switzerland at the age of 14, she’d never had a better one yet, skiing in the mountains, visiting observatories and having the time of her life with her parents.

 “ Was just before I went from ugly duckling to what you see here,” Cassie swivelled in her chair, Alvin didn’t need any hints to get what she was suggested, her toned and lithe body coveted by boys and girls alike.

 “ What about you?” Cassie probed, Alvin shook his head and smiled, “ I’ve pretty much looked like this since I was thirteen, just add a couple of extra inches and drop my voice about an octave or two away from that prepubescent squeak.”

 He gave a little spin of his own, amusing Cassie. “ Well you certainly beat thirteen year old me for sure,” she struggled to contain her own laughter, Alvin laughed along with her.

 “ Not that girls noticed me, my own doing of course. I didn’t want to be noticed, my anonymity was my invisibility cloak, didn’t need people to know what Wendy did to me.”

Offering her palm to him, Alvin clambered on  and braced himself as Cassie set him on her lap. “ Give me your number. If Wendy ever tries anything with you, give me a call. I’ll deal with her, maybe even give her a taste of her own medicine.” Her tone changed, the very thought of Wendy abusing Alvin disgusted her and honestly, it was both awe inspiring and terrifying at the same time to see Cassie like this, standing over him like a goddess threatening doomsday if her subjects were harmed.

  Alvin did so and Cassie sent a brief text to him, “ There. You now have my number and that little twerp won’t be a problem anymore.” As she set her phone down, it vibrated, a text coming through. Cassie scanned through the message and expressed a hint of surprise, “ Seems there’s a new boss at SilkTech, I like their dresses, my mom and I own a few of them and I can’t get enough of them.”

 “ My stepmother, Patricia, she works there. Been there for at least ten years. She never mentioned this. Not that ever she did talk about her life,” Alvin groaned as his family life came back to him, it often felt as he was lived with complete strangers although he wouldn’t mind if Wendy turned into that.

 ********

 “ Okay, this’ll be the place, my house is just a few units from here,  it’ll be a quick walk,” Alvin said to Cassie. After spending the last few hours chatting with Cassie, mostly about his family life and Cassie flitting between doing his homework and talking to him. Alvin did insist upon doing it himself but Cassie refused to even let him see it, raising the tablet high above him until he conceded. When it was time to go, Cassie insisted or rather forced Alvin to let her take him back. Seeing as he had no money to take any form of public transport, she didn’t have to do much to convince him.

 “ I’ll send the homework in an email, it’ll be easy,” Cassie said to him as she set Alvin down, crouched over him as he stepped off onto the Titan pavement. Her head blocked out the light of the half moon on the wane, projecting  the illusion that Cassie had a halo over her head.

  “ Thank you for that and...don’t beat yourself up over what happened earlier. I forgive you, I really do,” he added, it pained him to remember it but he wouldn’t hold a grudge against Cassie, she was an unwilling tool in all of this.

  “ You’re welcome, it’s really the least I could do. Remember, call me if Wendy even thinks a bad thought about you,” Cassie’s voice raised as she reminded Alvin about the helpline she made for him.

 “ I left my phone in school, it’s in my bag,” Alvin stated, suddenly recalling this spanner in the works of a fact.

 “ Ah…” Cassie’s mouth dropped.

“ You can get it tomorrow,” Cassie waved to him. “ Bye Alvin.”

“ Bye Cassie, hope to see you around,” Cassie stood up and walked off, Alvin briefly admiring the way her butt wiggled and hips sashayed with each step before remembering that he had to get off the Titan path quickly, accidents were bound to happen whenever a non-Titan strayed on to the walkway reserved for Titans.

 As he walked back to his house, a simple two storey building, the second floor was where all the bedrooms were, his load felt a lighter. On hindsight the trauma inflicted upon him by Cassie was less severe than it ought to be, Alvin hypothesising most of it was cancelled out by her offer to be his protector against Wendy, a guardian angel of sorts.

  “ Who would have thought, the eternal loner gets a protectress….” Alvin remarked in the dead silence of the night, not even the chirping of a cricket could be heard.

 Finally standing at his door, the lights were still on which Alvin found to be quite unusual as Patricia usually went to bed before eleven and it was now half past that. Wendy usually locked herself in her room ,doing whatever she did which meant a pitch dark living room, lit up only by the light of the street lamps.

 Alvin knocked and was surprised to find Patricia looking him in the eye, glaring at him with the intensity of the sun. She was dressed in her usual sleeping attire although today she chose some full length pyjamas, her preferred sleep wear whenever she had a bad day at the office. This of course, only exacerbated the current situation.

 “ Where were you! You never picked up your phone, never told Wendy and I that you’d be out. No dinner, I had to get some Chinese food from behind and you know how much I hate it!”

 Alvin calmly  wiped some spit off his cheek, Patricia’s tirade feeling limp and impotent.

 “ Sorry,” he glanced over Patricia and saw Wendy, pressed up against the living room couch, her body taking up the leathery seating, some of it peeling off due to Patricia’s refusal to repair or replace it. She was reading a book or was since she now spent more time looking at the show in front of her than the pages, a broad grin plastered on her.

 “ We had a long day at practice, coach wanted to make sure we got the drills right for the big track meet,” Alvin lied through his teeth.

 “ I see….well next time you tell us about it, then Wendy and I could have dinner elsewhere,” Patricia didn’t even wait for Alvin to reply before walking off, leaving Alvin and Wendy by themselves.

 Alvin went up the stairs, intent on ignoring Wendy although she had different ideas. As he cleared the top step, he felt a pair of hands shove him, slamming his chest against the  navy blue wall.

 “ Good, you didn’t tell mom about our little adventure,” Wendy’s warm breath on his neck as she exhaled.

 “ Whatever,’ Alvin shot back, trying his best to wiggle out but just like in the locker room, he couldn’t.

 “ You know...Cassie left you in pretty good shape, most of her “toys” come out crying like a little bitch but you…” Wendy flipped Alvin around, his back smacking against the wall, mirroring what his chest received.

 “ You’re fine.What did you do to her?” She eyed him with curiousity, how had he come out unscathed? Her fingers briefly released him as she tried to look for a crack, some sort of chink in what she assumed was a mere facade.

 Sensing his chance as Wendy’s grip on him weakened before finally feeling the release of her fingers, Alvin bolted and ran into his room, locking the door. Wendy did her best to catch him but Alvin always beat her in a sprint.

 He felt a hard knock and another then a finally smack before Wendy’s voice could be heard through the lacquered wood. “ You know what...you’re not worth the trouble. I’ll get you in the morning.”

 “ Well...looks like I’m safe for now,” Alvin fell back on his bed and wondered if tomorrow would actually bring any difference, he prayed that Cassie meant what she said.