"Hello," Cassidy echoed. The stranger was taller than she was, fair-haired and smiling pleasantly, but Cassidy had learned long ago not to trust a smile.
"You look lost. Can I help you with anything?" He offered.
"Not really," Cassidy said, suddenly painfully aware she carried everything she owned. Of course, there was still the money she'd pinched - she wondered how long it'd take the staff in that hellhole to notice she'd made off with a month's worth of food money.
"Are you sure?" He asked, wanting to get to know this girl.
"I guess." She didn't sound quite as sure as she'd hoped.
"Why don't I take you to lunch?"
"If you want," Cassidy said. Food she wasn't about to turn down.
"What's your name?"
"Cassidy.
"
She smiled back a bit.
"I haven't seen you around town before." He said, as they started to walk.
"You wouldn't have. I'm a new release from the orphanage up on the hill."
"Oh."
"Yes. Eighteen today, actually. They don't waste time."
"Happy birthday." He smiled.
"First time I've heard that today. Thanks."
"You're welcome."
"So... tell me about yourself?"
"I'm 22...just finished college...not much to tell really." He laughed.
"What'd you major in?"
"Computer Science."
"Sounds fun."
"Yeah it is. So...have you always lived in the orphanage?"
"As long as I can remember. My parents were alive, or are alive, I don't know, but I've been there pretty much since I was born."
"Why?"
"They didn't want me," Cassidy said simply.
Cassidy nodded. Compared to orphanage slops and whatever she could nick from people or a nearby trash can, she knew he was right. "Thank you, by the way."
"You're welcome." He pulled out her chair for her and waited for her to sit. "So do they give you an apartment or anything?"
"An apartment? Hardly. They shove you out the door with your clothes and personal possessions and a cheese sandwich on stale bread," Cassidy said, sitting. You mean you havent seen all the movies?
"So then...where will you live?"
"On a street for a few days, until I get up on my feet."
"That's not acceptable. Come sleep at my place."
"I couldn't-"
"You can sleep on the couch, it'll be completely innocent I swear."
"I don't want to impose. You wind up indebted to people, and- well, you don't live long that way."
"It's better than being on the street."
"You don't look like someone who'd know from experience."
"Well maybe I don't know from experience but I know."
"And the street's better than an orphanage. I *do* know from experience." Cassidy seemed to hesitate a moment. "Alright."
"Thank you."
"I think it was actually my turn to say thank you there."
"Maybe."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome." He smiled. "Order whatever you want."
"You're going to spoil a girl who by all rights belongs flat on her behind in a dumpster somewhere."
"Why do you say that's where you belong?"
"Just... that's what I've grown up to expect."
"Well you don't deserve that at all."
"Well thank you for that opinion." Cassidy looked at him through her eyelashes.
"You're very welcome."
She smiled. It was something from a book somewhere, she was sure. Little girl booted from the orphanage meets a very handsome blonde college grad? Had to be part of some cheap plot.
"I'll make sure you don't end up like that."
"Pretty big promise to make to a girl you don't know."
"Maybe, maybe not." He shrugged. "Now, what are you having to eat?"
~*~*~
"That I am," she agreed. "But I'm a cute one."
"Yeah you are."
He smiled a little. She'd been
there for three months, and nothing happened.
That was something different for
"Don't throw your food at me unless you want it eaten," she warned.
"Eat as much as you want. I told you I don't care."
"Yeah?"
"I can't keep mooching off you..."
"Why not? It's
not a big deal,
"Maybe you don't think so, but I sleep in your house and I eat your food and it's not like I'm helping you out at all."
"I don't need help."
"Right, but you don't need a leech either."
"
"And I like being here, but I feel like a heel."
"Don't."
"Thank you."
Cassidy hesitated a moment, then leaned over and kissed him softly.
It was only her first kiss, but Cassidy wanted it to last forever. She closed her eyes, kissing back.
Cassidy found herself in his lap and laced her fingers in his hair, still kissing him.
Never had
Cassidy only broke the kiss for a moment when she had to breathe. "
"Yeah?"
"That was... I... wow."
"Yeah."
Cassidy kissed him again, wanting the magical tingly feeling back.
Cassidy knew where it would go if she let him keep going. It took her only a moment to decide she wanted it to happen. She pulled him closer.
"
"Then take me," she replied, then realized she should tell him. "Be my first."
"Yeah."
"I...maybe we shouldn't..."
"Please,
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Please,
And he did.
~*~*~
Cassidy woke up in
"Morning."
"I think I need to thank you again. Last night, just... it was amazing."
"Yeah...it really was..."
Cassidy blushed a little bit. "Not too awful for an eighteen year old who'd never been kissed?"
He blinked a little. "That was your first..."
She nodded. "It was. I'm glad it was you."
"I...I don't know what to say."
"You don't need to say anything." She turned to face him.
"I've never felt anything like I did while with you, Cassidy."
She blushed a little bit. "Guess that's what it's supposed to be like, then."
Cassidy closed her eyes. "I was going to stop you, tell you, but I didn't want you to stop. And you would have."
"Yeah...I probably would have." He said.
"I wanted it too much to risk it."
"And?"
"I'm glad we did it. I'm glad I kissed you, I'm glad we kept kissing. I'm glad you didn't drop me like I was on fire when you found out I was a virgin."
"I almost did."
"I could tell."
"I just don't want you to regret it."
"I don't. And I can't imagine a time I would."
"You promise?"
"Promise."
Cassidy slid close to him. "I feel like there's someone in the world who cares about me when you hold me."
"I do care."
She smiled. "Then I made the right decision last night. You're the first person who has."
"And I always will."
"I care for you too,
He kissed her again, holding her against him.
Cassidy kissed back, wondering briefly if they were both dancing around the word. "Something gives the idea you want more," she told him, smiling mischievously.
"Yes but something tells me you're probably a little sore."
"Maybe. Not as much as you'd think." Cassidy pushed him onto his back. "My turn to do the work."
Cassidy laughed softly, kissing him. "I do."
~*~
"So. How was trying to take over the world today?" Cassidy greeted sharply.
"What?"
"How was work?"
"Work was fine." He eyed her curiously as he unbuttoned his shirt.
"Today I found out what it is you do."
"You know what I do."
"Yes, you run a secret organization that happens to have been responsible for killing my parents."
"No you don't. Don't fucking lie."
"What gave you this insane idea,
Cassidy held up the files she had found. "You shouldn't leave your paperwork under the bed."
"Why do you think I killed your parents?"
"I did a little research after I found the organization, just curious as to what the man I've been sleeping with for a year has been up to, and from there it wasn't terribly hard." Cassidy was almost shaking with rage.
"I didn't kill your parents."
"No, that privilege belongs to
"Why do you even care if I did have something to do with it? THEY ABANDONED YOU! I never did. What a fucking skewed sense of what love is.
"Maybe they'd have come looking for me. Maybe they couldn't raise me because your people were after them! Cassidy never gets to find out, because her boyfriend had them shot full of hot lead!"
"I know things that you don't."
"And yet I'm expected to trust you. Huh, funny how that DOESN'T WORK FOR ME!"
"What do you want me to say to you
"How should I know what I want you to say? And how am I supposed to believe you if you did say it?!?"
"Then I guess we're at an impasse. Because I'm not going to lie to you and say I don't work for these people, but you won't accept that I do. I love you. That much you should know is true."
"I don't know what I know."
"Leave now. If I find you hanging around here 24 hours from now you will be killed. As it stands, you should be killed, but my feelings for you prove a weakness."
"Your feelings my ass.
Was I a good toy,
Obviously this wasn't going to work. She wasn't going to go without a fight. "I work better when I'm getting laid." He shrugged. "And you were so sweet and innocent...hell, you believed I loved you."
"Yeah, I guess I believed a lot of things, didn't I?" She shot back.
"Time's already ticking away Cassidy. But remember this above all else. You're a good fuck, use that to get yourself somewhere."
She didn't even flinch.
"We're going to meet again, and so help me, you'll wish you had
killed me." And with that she
grabbed a bag - she had already packed it - and was gone.