17. Cassie
Chapter 17
Cassie
Cassie was finding it hard to keep herself calm.
What had happened with Lyle was simply horrible. One of the worst experiences in her life, all things considered.
I never want to see that gross stinky-butt Lyle again.
Ever-ever-ever-ever!
And now I’m stuck in traffic. Yuck.
Cassie peered out of the window and saw that there was no sign of the traffic easing up. Somehow, the Uber driver had brought them bang into the middle of some heavy uptown traffic. It was more than would be expected for this time of day too.
‘Sorry, kid, must be a road traffic accident,’ the Uber driver said. ‘I’ll do my best to figure out a better route.’
‘Thank you,’ Cassie said, appreciating the Uber’s offer but really struggling to hide how downbeat she was feeling.
All she could hear was the sound of car horns beeping, each one sounding furious that they were being delayed in their journey. The passengers in these cars all probably had their own problems going on.
Work.
Home.
Whatever.
It was hard for Cassie to keep from breaking down into tears.
Her problem was work and home.
It felt horrible.
Then, just as she was about to descend into yet another level of gloomy thoughts, Cassie felt her cellphone vibrate in her pocket.
Part of her hoped it was Kane.
Well, actually a whole huge part of her did.
But it wasn’t Kane messaging. It was Katie, and Sydney too…
KATIE: Hey! You sounded upset in your message. Let’s meet up, like now? You want to come over to my place? Sydney is on her way too. We figured that a good old-fashioned game of building blocks and wooden trains might help turn that sadness around just a little bit. Are you in? K XoXo
CASSIE: Hehe, I was already on my way! C XoXo
SYDNEY: Awesome! Can’t wait to see you. The Three Littles together. Fun will be just around the corner! S XoXo
Cassie smiled. It was always good to talk with her best Little friends. Both Katie and Sydney were always good at knowing just what to say.
Right then, the thing that Cassie needed most was to take her mind off the drama in her life.
Kane.
Lyle.
One was far worse than the other, of course. But neither situation was ideal in this moment in time.
Cassie was upset that Kane had reacted so angrily. It was scary. What Cassie had needed was understanding, not a bad temper.
That was the thing, Cassie knew she was sensitive.
It was a throwback to her upbringing and those useless and often super-grumpy stepdads. As the traffic worsened and slowly ground to a halt, Cassie cast her mind back in time.
It was a memory she didn’t want to think about, but it just wouldn’t leave her mind.
Cassie had been in her late teens.
Her drawing and creative writing had improved massively. Cassie had been encouraged by one of her art teachers to seriously consider giving art college a shot. It would be expensive, but the teacher told Cassie that for talented individuals like her from less well-off backgrounds, there were things such as scholarships or bursaries that could cover some of the cost.
Occasionally, there could even be full scholarships which would mean access for nothing.
This was the kind of thing that Cassie had seen in movies and on TV, and here was a teacher saying that she should go for it.
As a result of these words of encouragement, Cassie doubled down her efforts. She began to get even more creative.
Putting hours and hours in after school to re-work her illustrations and think of funny one-liners and interesting plot twists. It all seemed to be coming together.
Her mom even told Cassie that if she could get a fifty percent scholarship or higher, she would work out a way of covering the remaining costs.
In that moment, everything appeared to be coming up Cassie.
Enter Derreck.
Derreck was her mom’s fiancé at that time. He was a total jerk. Selfish, loud, and often would take out his frustrations on Cassie or her mom. It was never anything violent or physical. But Derreck could be mean. Critical. He wouldn’t care who he hurt with one of his comments as long as it made him feel less bad about whatever had annoyed him that day at the power plant.
It sucked .
Cassie ended up trying to avoid Derreck as much as possible.
But one day, with Derreck in an even worse mood than usual, Cassie accidentally forgot to do one of her chores. Derreck began insulting her, making personal comments about her slim build and the fact she wasn’t in the super-cool gang at school who had tons of friends and hung out with the jocks on the football team.
Cassie had begun to tear up, trying as hard as she could to not cry.
This only motivated Derreck to take things further.
As a final verbal grenade, Derreck began to insult and mock Cassie’s scholarship submission.
Cassie’s scripts and drawings were laid out over the kitchen table and in a rage, Derreck crumpled them all up and tossed them in the trash – ‘where they belong!’
Cassie was heartbroken.
Derreck didn’t last much longer, Cassie’s mom finally wising up to him.
But as far as the scholarship went, it was too late.
The deadline was too soon to redo the work, and that was that. The missed opportunity still haunted Cassie to this day.
In more ways than one.
So for that reason, the sight and sound of Kane angrily berating her just didn’t work. It made Cassie feel just as small and helpless as when the likes of Derreck had been unkind to her in the past. Cassie needed to be handled in a more delicate, compassionate way.
This wasn’t to say that Cassie didn’t enjoy her strict Daddy in other ways. When it came to a spanking for being a brat, that was a whole other deal. Cassie was actually massively aroused by the way that such a big, gruff Daddy as Kane would raise his voice and start barking orders.
That wasn’t in doubt at all.
But outside of fun punishments and roleplaying during sex, it was different.
Kane had seemingly not understood that at all.
Maybe it was Kane’s inexperience at being in a Daddy and Little relationship, or maybe it was just his personality.
But as far as Cassie was concerned, Kane had handled the situation badly. She felt like she had no option but to get out of there.
And now she found herself on her way to see her two best friends.
They would know what to do.
Or at the very least, they’d help Cassie clear her head a little bit.
Cassie’s phone vibrated again.
She took it back out of her pocket fully expecting to see another message from the Little Chat message group. Probably Sydney cracking a joke or Katie telling her that she’d ordered in some extra-spicy pizza for them to gobble down.
But as soon as she saw the message flash up on screen, Cassie’s heart sunk.
Cassie felt nauseous.
Sick to her stomach.
It wasn’t a message from Katie or Sydney.
Not even from Kane.
It was from Lyle.
But that wasn’t even the worst thing. The content of the message was what really set Cassie into panic mode.
LYLE: Lyle here. Your favorite friend and online ally. Hehe. Had a change of plan. You’ve no longer got 24 hours to decide what you’re going to do. It’s now or never. And I mean now as in right now. I’m sending you my location. Be there or expect the ABSOLUTE WORST.
Cassie felt herself turn pale.
‘You okay back there, kid? You look like you saw a ghost!’ the Uber driver said, looking back towards Cassie via the rearview mirror. ‘I’ve seen white bed sheets with more color.’
Cassie mumbled a response, nodding her head as clearly as she could.
Her mind was all over the place.
It was hard to think.
What Cassie needed to do was compose herself. Try as best she could to get a grip on the situation that was unfolding.
But not matter how Cassie attempted to play it, she saw that she had little choice in the matter.
Lyle unfortunately held all of the cards.
If Cassie refused to do what Lyle wanted, then Lyle very much had it in his power to ruin Cassie’s life. It wasn’t something that Cassie wanted to contemplate for even a second.
Ultimately, Cassie felt like she had no choice.
She had worked so hard to get her career up and running.
To build her fan base.
To see her efforts rewarded with success.
Cassie took a big, deep breath of air.
‘Driver, can we change destination please?’ Cassie asked, her voice wobbling. ‘Right now, please. We need to go in a very different direction.’
The driver shrugged his shoulders and nodded his head in agreement. Cassie showed the driver the location on her cellphone and after a swift U-turn out of the traffic, they were heading for Lyle’s place.
Cassie knew the worst was still to come.
But what she didn’t realize was just how bad things would get…
The stairs leading up to Lyle’s apartment were gross.
The floor itself sticky underfoot. There was trash on the floor, empty takeout cartons and cans of European beers.
The walls were a faded, yellowy off-white color. Way overdue a new paint job.
Cassie paused to get her breath back.
The elevator was out of order.
Nine flights under her belt. And now she had arrived at the tenth floor.
Cassie listened to the sound of various contrasting beats pumping in the background, each apartment seemingly competing to see who could have the loudest music playing.
This place gives me the creeps.
But I have to do this.
Come on, one more effort and it will be over…
Cassie walked towards Lyle’s apartment number. Just as she pulled her hand back to knock, she heard the door chain coming off and the lock being twisted.
Lyle mut have been waiting at the door, peering out through the spyglass.
If Cassie felt creeped out before, the feeling had just multiplied by about one hundred.
‘In. Now,’ Lyle said, his hair slicked back and looking greasier than ever. ‘You look… cute.’
Cassie shuddered.
Along with Lyle’s creepy behavior, the apartment itself was not exactly putting her mind at ease. If anything, it was making things even worse.
There was a strange, intense humming noise all around her.
‘The noise huh? Yeah, it takes getting used to,’ Lyle said, cackling as he pointed over toward his huge computer set-up. ‘My hacker name is Cobra. But don’t worry, I won’t bite.’
Cassie rolled her eyes.
As scared as she was, she wasn’t about to give in and fake a smile at this jerk’s terrible jokes.
‘Okay, I give in,’ Cassie said, determined to get this wrapped up as fast as she could. ‘You want my work. You can have it. I promise I won’t ever say anything. It’s yours. Just please let me have my email account back. And don’t ever share any of the emails or photos.’
Cassie let out a huge sigh.
As much as she didn’t want to lose the work, she knew by agreeing to this then Lyle would be out of her life. After all, if Cassie came up with those ideas and material, she could always think of more.
Cassie could see that Lyle was smiling.
But it wasn’t a pleasant smile.
It was a cruel, devious smile.
‘Hmmm. There’s been a change of plan,’ Lyle sneered. ‘I’ll take your work and that means you can have your email account back. But if you want me to keep my mouth shut about your… Little … secret, that will cost extra.’
‘No fair!’ Cassie bawled, realizing that this wasn’t going to be anywhere as easy as she’d hoped. ‘You can’t change the deal now!’
Lyle giggled.
‘Oh, I can. And I have,’ Lyle said, barely able to contain his laughter. ‘If you want me to keep your secret, I’ll need to see that lovely body of yours naked. And I’ll be backing my own memories up with a few photographic memories too.’
‘N-n-n-no! That’s disgusting,’ Cassie said, her voice full of tearful defiance. ‘I won’t do it!’
‘You’ll do it, or I’ll tell the world. Career over. Just like that,’ Lyle said. ‘Look at it this way. It’s my own insurance policy over you. You know just in case you ever felt like telling people that I had re-purposed your work and ideas for my own usage.’
Cassie wanted to break down and cry.
She wanted to run away.
Not just from Lyle’s disgusting apartment, but from New York City too.
But she felt too weak to put up a fight.
No matter how yucky it made her feel.
Cassie felt ashamed.
Maybe Kane wasn’t being too mean to her. Maybe all Kane had been doing was protecting her from horrible people like Lyle.
In that moment, Cassie felt like she had blown everything.
But now wasn’t the time to think about Kane.
Or the decisions that she had made to lead her to this point.
Now was simply the time to do as Lyle wanted…