Downtrodden Chapter 26: Coming Home

Wendy slammed her luggage shut, breathing a very relieved sigh. She had meant to pack the night before but told herself she had time; Suska Oni wouldn’t take long. She gave herself a goal of packing every single article of clothing into her suitcase after one season but  one season turned into another and it ended with her passed out in front of her laptop, only nudged awake by Cassie at about two in the morning. By then it was too late to actually do it so she just washed up and went back to bed.

So it  was only done at seven thirty in the morning and Wendy was still sleep deprived, as seen by the bags under her eyes. Cassie was up too, not wishing to be late for Alvin’s return home.

Going back should have been something to be excited about but while she wasn’t dreading it, there was a big emotional hole in her chest. She’d have to face Patricia again and while the woman had been put in her place, Wendy still wasn’t keen to see her again. Something about the extreme parental negligence coupled with the fact that they were linked by blood made Wendy uncomfortable with the whole arrangement.

 She considered moving in permanently with Cassie but with college on the horizon for her and also for Alvin, that meant actually living with Cassie’s parents. They were good people, perhaps the kind of parents she ought to have gotten but she felt it would have been a burden on them to support, especially when she actually had options to consider before this; their acceptance of her and Alvin was already a big deal to her.

 “ Something bothering you?” Cassie asked, standing over Wendy, her hip lightly brushing against the edge of the table.

 “Just thinking about how all of this is over. Us being roomies and me having to see that….woman,” she nearly gagged at having to mention Patricia.

 “ Living under one roof with her will be a blast,” Wendy huffed as she lifted the suitcase.

 Cassie extended a hand out as Wendy climbed on, feeling concerned for her friend.

“ I am sure she’ll treat you better,” Cassie assured Wendy.

“If not you can always report her for throwing you out. You at least have that over her,” she further reminded Wendy as they passed through the living room where Alvin was. He at least looked enthusiastic for their return home.

 “ That I do. Lets hope I never have to use it, I’d hate to throw my own mother in jail; even if after all the crap she’s pulled,” Wendy said as Alvin climbed on, his own suitcase filled to the brim with his clothes and other possessions.

 “ Let me give you a hand with that,” Wendy said as she took Alvin’s luggage.

“Thanks Wendy.”

“You’re welcome,” she replied.

“Ready?” Cassie looked down at them over the swells of her chest which rose and fell with each breath.

“I’ll miss this place, plenty of good memories here. First kiss…” Alvin gushed. He would have said it felt like yesterday but it was literally yesterday that he shared his first ever lip lock with Cassie. To say it now would have been overly cheesy.

“ And what else?” Cassie probed further.

“ You know what else but I think we shouldn’t act like its the end of an era. No, this is just the beginning!”

That was more directed at Wendy than Cassie, the former perking up when she heard this.

“ The beginning of the end. I don’t know how I’ll manage with you two at college gaining knowledge. You better teach me how to clean the house soon or it’ll be a pig sty when you come home,” Wendy joked.

 “ Damn I nearly forgot. Right now I’m imagining Patricia living in her own filth,” Alvin shuddered at that thought. Being the only person who ever did chores in that house, he wasn’t sure if Patricia even knew the difference between a mop and a broom.

 “She can’t be that bad when it comes to chore can she?” Cassie’s brow shot up, skeptical over the pair’s claims.

 “ I can vouch for that. I once saw her scrubbing the floor with a toilet brush,” Wendy gagged at the mental imagery of Patricia doing house cleaning. It felt so unnatural.

 “ Then we better get going, you might not even have a house left!” Cassie said jokingly as she placed the pair on her shoulders.

**********

“It's still there. Whatever she messed can’t be too bad right? ” Cassie commented as she placed Alvin and Wendy on the pavement just outside the house. Alvin’s walkway came with a Titan section, good for today or else Cassie would have been prohibited from even entering his neighbourhood. It was never a guarantee that Titans could enter any area, the lack of a Titan path often meant they had to avoid the area or risk severe penalties if caught. It usually came in the form of a hefty fine or jail time if there was any harm done to the neighbourhood and its denizens.

“ Yeah it is but Patricia isn’t,” Alvin scratched his head, wondering where Patricia was. He had remembered to text her the night before, reminding her to open the door. She had promised him in an almost scared tone she would be waiting for him at nine o’clock sharp. It was ten past nine and she was not even there.

“ She must have overslept,” Wendy tsked at that thought. She couldn’t even wake up on time, no wonder she got fired from her job. On the other hand, she wasn’t too surprised by this, she had known Patricia to oversleep more often than she ought to; even when she was still working at Bonheur.

“ I’ll call her, she might have forgotten that she’s a parent,” Wendy slipped out her phone and reluctantly dialled Patricia’s number.

 She waited impatiently for her mother to pick up, every passing second further evidence of how little cared about their return. Odd when she was depending on Alvin’s money to keep herself afloat but then very little she did now made sense to Wendy.

 “Oh come on,” Wendy tapped her foot repeatedly against the cracked pavement, sounding very displeased by Patricia’s tardiness.

 “ Hello?” A tired voice spoke on the other end.

 “Hello mother, aren’t you forgetting something?”

  “Oh crap!” Patricia suddenly remembered as she hung up.

  “She’ll be down soon,” Wendy said to the others, miffed by Patricia’s irresponsible behaviour.

    Patricia did show up about six minutes from Wendy’s call, her hair wild from a lack of combing and very large bags under her eyes. She completed the fresh out of bed look with a bright pink robe as she strode lazily to the pavement to meet the trio.

  “ I am…” She stopped as she looked at the tanned pillars that were Cassie’s legs, then craned her neck up towards the Titan who simply offered her friendliest smile. She meant it too, the events of the past weren’t weighing on her mind at the moment.

Patricia took a step back, their last encounter weighing on her mind at the moment. She didn’t understand why they brought their attack bitch, was it to scare her? They already got what they wanted; or did they plan to have Cassie smash the house in for shits and giggle?

 “...sorry,” Patricia swallowed loudly at the sight of Cassie.

“ Don’t mind me, I just thought I’d accompany my dear friends for their homecoming. You don’t have to worry too much, just doing typical girlfriend stuff,” Cassie waved down at her in a friendly manner.

 “Oh,” Patricia glanced at Alvin and then back at Cassie. They were a couple? It made sense, Patricia thought. Why she had to endure that horrid session with her two weeks ago. It was all so clear to now, the giant bimbo was in love with her loser stepson.

“That’s wonderful,” Patricia cranked out a smile as she embraced Alvin with a cold and unpassionate hug.

 She did the same to Wendy who tensed up despite Patricia only coming to her hip,the insincerity of it was overwhelming.  

 “ It is, Cassie took us in and what a blessing in disguise it was! Gave us the time we needed together,” he touched Cassie’s bare ankle and patted it.

 “ How wonderful,” Patricia answered dully.

  “ I suppose I should thank for looking after the little ones.”

  “No need for that but now that Alvin and I together, expect to see more of me around. I’ll be keeping him close to my heart and that means I’ll be dropping him off and picking him up for dates. Don’t be surprised if you see me around the neighbourhood and if you do, you can always come up to say hi. I love to get to know my boyfriend’s parents more.”

Patricia looked straight up at Cassie, who wasn’t even bothering to kneel down when addressing a non-Titan like her. It felt rude but Patricia knew what she was playing at. It was so obvious a person living under a rock could tell what was going on.

 “ I-I look forward to it. You’ll be welcome here any time. Just don’t expect me to invite you inside for drinks. We don’t have a house big enough for you.”

Cassie glanced over at the house, it hardly came up to her knees by her estimates. Down below, Wendy rolled her eyes at Patricia’s attempt at banter. She considered telling off Patricia but held back from it.

  Cassie chuckled heartily, throwing her head back.

 “Good point but I am sure you could always come over to mine. Plenty of space there.”

  “ We’ll see,” Patricia answered pointedly before repeating her reply once more.

  “Anyway I think I’ll take over from here. I think the kids have a lot of unpacking to do.”

 “ That we do but maybe we could meet up later? For lunch or even dinner depending on how things go?” Alvin asked Cassie.

 “ Alright, keep me posted guys. And Alvin…” Cassie blew him a kiss, which he of course he caught with both hands.

  “ Love you,” she said before turning away. Alvin watched her walk off, her house sized buttocks jiggling with each step. She may have been a cheerleader with a toned body but her bum still had a decent amount of curves on it.

  “ I see you like big butts,” Patricia commented.

  “ Yeah I like what I see,” Alvin replied cheekily as they set off for the house, Wendy carrying both suitcases. They did so silently, the only sound coming from the jangling of keys as Patricia took them out from her robes to unlock the door. Neither party had much to say to each other beyond the bare minimum.

  “Welcome home,” she breathed heavily as her children shuffled past her. Wendy headed straight upstairs for her room.

  Alvin stopped a few steps in, looking around for signs of damage in the area. He inspected the walls and furniture for signs of damage. To his relief, they were just dusty. Very dusty but it was something he could fix with a good amount of housecleaning.

 “ Glad to see you kept the house in one piece. It's not the disaster zone I imagined it would be,” Alvin said to Patricia.

 “Oh please, I know how to maintain a house,” Patricia snarled at him.

  “ It's dusty but we’ll get it clean. All of us,” Alvin reminded her of her new position. She would not lord over him anymore, those days were long gone.

 “ Yes yes of course,” Patricia growled as she went to the living room before plopping down in a sofa. Alvin watched her turn the television on before he went back up. He had plenty of unpacking to do.

 Climbing up the stairs, he saw his room door, Wendy’s was just down the hallway where he could hear grunts which he assumed to be her unpacking and folding her clothes.

“ Is my suitcase in my room?” He called out to Wendy.

 “Yep,” Wendy hollered back.

  “ Awesome,” Alvin replied as he turned the doorknob and went back to his room for the first time since leaving.

  He took in a deep breath, the air was musty but it wasn’t repulsive. His bed was as it was, neatly folded and his messy study table was untouched from the moment he left. Alvin threw himself on to his bed, it felt a lot more comfortable than he remembered. Not as hard as before, a lot softer and welcoming than before.

 “ Feels good to be home,” he said to himself as he just lay there, just looking up at the plain ceiling. For the first time since his father’s passing, his heart was now where his home was.