Chapter 3

James enjoyed showing Lena all the things that were new to her. She had never heard of television, and was quite surprised and amazed by it, as she was the radio. Despite the new technologies that James introduced her to, what Lena seemed to like best about the normal-sized world were all the books. While Lena knew how to read, her town had a very limited selection of literature. There was a newspaper that was printed up once a week, she told him, and accounts of their history in the town hall, but not books like were available to James.

Lena liked the hardcover books, the ones that would stay spread open against the wall. James would open on for her, and she could spend hours in front of it. James thought it was cute and funny when she spread the pages, grapping one in her hand and walking it over to the other side.

Paperbacks proved to be a bit more difficult. Lena tried to spread them out on desk and secure them with a paper weight, but the angle of the words hurt Lena's eyes, so James soon started getting hard-cover copies of any book she wanted to read.

Lena especially liked history. She read about people and wars and inventions, some of which were so amazing and foreign to her that James had to assure her multiple times that they in fact actually were real and had happened. She had read about genocide and murders and all the horrible things people had done to each other, and James had instantly regretted giving her some of the material when she had cried uncontrollably. James wanted to hold her, hug her, comfort her. But she was too small for him to wrap his arms around. The best thing he could do was pick her up and hold her against his chest, which he did. He held her right next to his heart.

"Why would people do that to each other?" she asked him when she was able to talk. James was surprised at how innocent she was. He had heard about these horrible things happening on such a regular basis, that he guessed he had hardened himself to it. Where she had come from, there were no wars recorded, no prejudice, no hate crimes.

"That's just the human condition," he told her cynically, "War has been around since man has been alive, as well as murder. People hate those who are different than them. It's human nature to be greedy and jealous."

Lena had gotten mad at him. "Not where I come from, not my friends, not my parents. It's you," she accused, "You are the ones who kill each other."

"Tell me," James asked, "How far back do those history books in your town go?"

Lena had gone from sadness to anger. She had stopped crying, though the tears on her cheeks weren't completely dry. She struggled in his hand. "Put me down," she ordered. Lena didn't seem to mind James picking her up at all, except when she was annoyed, in which case it became the absolute worst thing he could do.

James set her down on his floor, and she stomped over to his closet, which they had made into her own little room. James had hung a blanket over the bottom shelve of his closet, which acted like a curtain. Lena made her room under the shelf. There was foam and scraps of cloth for her bed and blankets. James had given her a little mirror, which she had propped up against the wall.

She also had boxes of Barbie clothes that she could choose from. At her request, James had bought her some tiny needles and thread that she could sew with. She sewed her own clothes out of fabric he brought her and she also altered some of the Barbie clothes. There was a large flashlight that could light up pretty much the whole little room, as well as a miniature key-chain one that worked as a regular flashlight for Lena.

Lena went there now, closing the curtain behind her. James sat on the floor outside. "Lena, I'm sorry. Will you please come out?" he asked.

"No!" she shouted out to him.

"I'm sorry I said that. I don't know why you're so upset, though." And it was the truth. Sure, he didn't have to be so insensitive after she had cried for the history of human kind, but it wasn't like he was personally responsible for everything bad that happened.

"Why am I so upset?" Lena said, coming out from behind the curtain. "You've always been so nice to me," Lena said, and now she sounded more sad than angry, "I didn't know that this whole time you hated me. I didn't know that you've ever wanted to kill people."

James was in complete shock. "I don't hate you!" James denied. "And I don't want to kill people. Just because that's what happened in the past doesn't mean that I have or want to do those things. Honestly Lena, do you really believe that I hate you?"

"People hate people who are different than them," she quoted his words from before, "It's the human condition."

James let out a desperate, disbelieving laugh. "Lena," he said after a moment, "I was talking in general. I don't hate anybody and I don't want to hurt anybody either. Jesus. You're insane if you think I hate you. Have I ever done anything to hurt you?"

"I'm sorry, James. I guess when you said those things, you made it sound like all big people were like that. You seemed so much like me, except for the size thing, and when I found out all those horrible things, I guess I just thought that maybe we were more different than I thought." She looked up at him now, taking a shuddery breath. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have thought that about you. You're the nicest man I've ever met."

James's heart did a little flip when she said that about him. Now he grinned at her. "Don't let it go to your big head," she told him, walking over and hugging his knee. James laughed and patted her back gently.

"You know, Jaime's date is tonight," Lena said after a moment, obviously wanting to change the subject. Over the past week, Lena had become close with Jaime. She didn't even mind Jaime's penchant to sometimes treat her like a doll, fixing her hair and dressing her up.

Jaime had told Lena all about her crush on Todd, and although she had mentioned that they talked about it to James, Lena was a true confidante and wouldn't give into his demands for details.

"Don't remind me," he groaned. Lena laughed.

"I think it's cute," she told him, climbing up and perching on his knee. James leaned back against his bed.

"Cute that my little sister is going out with a guy six years older than her, and she's only thirteen and shouldn't even be dating anyways?" James asked, crossing his arms. Lena laughed at him.

After Jaime and Lena had become close, friends even, James knew that he could trust her to keep the secret. He debated even calling Todd and telling him to cancel the date with Jaime, now that he knew she wouldn't tell, and if Todd canceled, he, James, wouldn't be the bad guy, it might even cause Jaime to forget her crush on the older boy. It looked like a win win situation from James's point of view. Lena had vehemently denied him doing this, though, when he told her about it. Jaime is so excited, she would be devastated, Lena scolded him. James had given up then.

They went on chatting, Lena again apologized for her earlier assumption, criticizing herself for how stupid she had been. She blushed with embarrassment when she mentioned it, but James told her not to worry about it. James didn't notice it was six until the doorbell rang and Jaime was yelling goodbye.

James quickly stood up, putting Lena on the floor. "I'll be right back," he told her, hurrying out of his room and down the stairs, catching Jaime and Todd as Jaime was trying to push Todd out of the house before James could interfere.

"What do you think you are wearing?" James bellowed before he even thought about what he was saying. He sounded like their father, who thank goodness was away out. If his parents knew that Jaime was going out with someone six years older than her, they would never have allowed it. And Jaime would be grounded for who knew how long if their father had seen what she was wearing.

Jaime, his tomboy of a little sister, who never wore anything other than jeans, t-shirts, and hoodies, was wearing a mini skirt, a tight tank top, and high heels. She also had put on make-up, which was another new thing. "Go upstairs and change right now!" James demanded. He was proud that he had cut himself off before he had added 'young lady' to the end of that, making him sound more like dad than he would have been able to stand.

Jaime flushed a deep red and glanced nervously over at Todd, who was struggling to keep in his laughter. Jaime's face turned even more red when she saw that, and to James's horror and shock, he could see tears start to well up in her eyes. He hadn't been expecting that. The Jaime he knew would have screamed right back at him, telling him that he wasn't the boss of her.

James felt really guilty when he saw a tear escape her eyes, and how she turned away from them to quickly wipe it away. Todd seemed to notice her tears also, and he quickly stopped laughing.

"Really James," Todd said, slapping him on the shoulder, "You sound like such an over-protective father. Jaime looks very pretty, she doesn't have to change."

Jaime now smiled up at Todd like he was some sort of god or something, and James would have rolled his eyes if he hadn't been grateful to his friend for making his little sister feel better. He hadn't meant to embarrass her.

James decided to let the whole outfit thing go. It wasn't like she was indecent or anything, James was mostly just unused to her wearing anything like that.

"See you later," Todd said, walking out of the house. James watched from the window as Todd opened the car door for her, and he snorted.

He started walking back up the stairs and found Lena waiting for him at the top. She must have been secretly watching from the landing. "You ass," she greeted him.

"Well how was I supposed to know she would start crying?" James defended himself.

"You're just lucky Todd handled the situation perfectly. He seems so nice."

Now James did roll his eyes. "Todd seems so nice," he mocked her as he picked her up. Lena laughed at him as he carried her back to his room.

"Do you want to watch some T.V?" he asked her. Lena shrugged and he turned around to go down to the den.

"Let's get some ice cream," she suggested. James smiled. He had given her ice cream for the first time two days ago, and she had had it for breakfast lunch and dinner since then. He told her that she would get sick of it soon if she didn't slow down, but she had said she had to eat her fill now since she wouldn't get anymore once she went back home.

Every time she talked like that, James felt a tumult of emotions: sadness, anger, fear. He was coming to care more about this girl than he would like to admit. He knew that it could never be though. Even if she felt the same way about him, which it didn't appear she did, they could never be together. They could never make love, or even kiss. Fine, so he thought about making love to her. What was wrong with that? She was a pretty girl. In his fantasies she was normal size, though.

"What are you thinking about?" Lena asked. James started, feeling guilty about being caught thinking about a naked Lena pressed up to him, kissing him as he pushed his cock into her.

"Nothing," he quickly said. "What kind of ice cream do you want?" In his desire to make Lena happy, he had gotten a whole different variety of ice cream flavors, letting her taste each one, deciding which one she liked best.

"Marshmallow," she said, her favorite. He prepared both her tiny bowl and his larger one. Taking them both, along with her, down to the den to watch a movie.

"Let's watch the Notebook," Lena suggested before they even sat down. James groaned at the chick flick. Jaime must have gushed to Lena about how good it was, so of course now he was going to be stuck watching it with her.

"Do you really want to watch that movie?" he said distastefully, though James had never actually seen it.

"Yeah, come on," Lena insisted, poking him in the arm, giving him her best puppy dog face.

"Oh, alright," James said, putting in the DVD. He wasn't sure how long he had been asleep when he felt Lena moving around on his chest. At a certain point he had stretched out on the couch, putting Lena on his stomach. They had no shortage of physical contact since they had become friends. James would easily pick her up to carry her somewhere. Lena didn't mind so he felt no need to ask for permission, and he didn't mind when she climbed on top of him. He was her perch, and she would lay on his stomach or legs, sometimes she would sit on top of his head, hanging onto fistfuls of his hair.

Now he could feel her crawling up his chest and putting her hands on his chin. He didn't open his eyes, since he was curious as to what she was doing. He felt her leaning over him, then he felt the tiniest contact of skin on his bottom lip. At first he thought it was her finger, but both her hands were holding his cheeks.