Cath speed-read The Eighth Dance while simultaneously cuddling with Levi. It was like The Outsiders all over again, expect it packed way more of an emotional punch and sometimes Cath had to read through her tears. She could have sworn she head Levi get choked up at some parts too. They had to finish it before they parted ways for the summer, they just had to. Cath was totally up to the challenge- it was Simon Snow, for God's sake! Levi was unpredictable though.
Sure enough, Levi spoke up as soon as Cath finished a chapter and was about to move onto the next. "Sweetheart, can we take a break?" He pleaded. His voice was sleepy and adorable. Truth be told, Cath's voice was getting rough from reading out loud for so long and she really did want to take a break. If Levi wasn't going back to Arnold in four days, she would have gladly taken one. Unfortunately, the clock was ticking down the few precious moments they had left together before the break started.
Before Cath could say anything, Levi nuzzled into the crook of her neck affectionately. It was also pretty distracting. "Fine," Cath finally caved in, removing a tissue from the nearby box and using it to mark the spot where she had left off, "We'll take a break. Not too long, alright?" Cath set the book down next to her, the side that wasn't occupied by Levi. It soon became obvious to her that he was making no effort whatsoever to sit up by himself. All of his weight was on her body. She almost fell over a few times, and then she did.
The two fell onto Cath's bed, giggling. Cath pulled the book out from under her. "You suck so much," She told Levi jokingly. He only grinned and kissed her forehead. He then hoisted himself up by placing a hand on the headboard and then offered the same hand to Cath. She accepted, hardly able to breathe due to laughter. Levi pulled her upright, then kissed her lips.
"I'm going to miss you so much Cather," He whispered, his lips hovering over her own before he kissed her again. And again. Cath smiled into it just as Levi pulled away, which was a little frustrating. She looked at him, confused. He stared down at his lap, "You should come visit me in Arnold as much as possible."
Cath then realized she had missed her opportunity to tell Levi that she would miss him as well, but she pretended like she didn't because saying it now would be weird, the conversation having already moved on and all. "I don't know how often I could get out there, but I'd do anything to get a chance to see you this summer," She responded.
Levi beamed, "You can stay at my ranch and I can show you around town and you can meet me crazy family- it'll be great!" His smiled faded suddenly, "I hope they don't scare you off- I'm sure you've heard that they're a little intense, right?" Cath nodded, she did not seem phased at all. Levi just looked at her expectantly, hoping an explanation came with that nod.
It did. "Hey," Cath said, "You're talking to the daughter of the creator of cheese Gravioli. I am three hundred per cent used to crazy. It's normal for me. Not to mention the fact that I have a twin sister who looks exactly like me and a mom who ran out on Wren and I when we were eight." Levi laughed the very second Reagan barged into the room.
"Is it weird how okay I am with this?" She asked no one in particular, "My ex-boyfriend and my roommate...together. It's been months, you'd think some sort of jealousy would have surfaced by now if there was any...but I feel nothing." She scrunched up her face like was legitimately trying to find an answer. She couldn't think of anything, so she went to packing text books and clothes into a stupidly huge suitcase.
"We don't leave until Saturday, Reagan. By the looks of it, you're planning on heading out tonight without me," Levi joked. He turned to Cath, "You know...that might not be so bad, I'd get to stay here with you."
Reagan turned to the two on the bed, arms crossed over her chest, "Okay, first of all ew. You two may not be kissing nor having sex or whatever...but you're being all mushy and couple-y which is basically PDA, so you're breaking the ground rules we established. And second, Cath is leaving too. She has to go back to Omaha with Wren."
Levi sighed sadly and got up out of bed. He started to help Reagan pack up her things. Cath felt so secure in her relationship with him that it didn't even bother her, seeing him with his ex-girlfriend. He was just being friendly, he wasn't trying to come onto her. Besides, it was Cath he wanted to see over the summer, not her. Well, he would see Reagan over the summer, but only because they lived in the same town, but that was beside the point.
"I'm trying to be efficient, by the way," Reagan told Levi in regards to her early packing, "I'm packing a little bit everyday to make it all less daunting." While the two packed, Cath sneaked her laptop on the bed and opened it. She logged onto her FanFixx account and scrolled through pages of new comments. A few people knew that Cath wanted to finished Carry On, Simon before the Eighth Dance, so they were wondering what happened. Life, Cath thought, life happened. She had Reagan and Levi completey tuned out at this point.
It didn't seem like she and Levi were going to be getting back to the book again tonight. Cath ignored the comments on the website out of laziness and decided to keep writing the fic itself. That came much easier to her than communicating with people she didn't know. Not even five hundred words later, a pillow was thrown at her face, making her glasses slid down the bridge of her nose and unhook from behind her left ear. This certainly brought Cath back to reality.
"I'm talking to you," Reagan barked at her. Cath looked at her with wide eyes, startled. Reagan rolled her eyes and repeated herself for the third time, "Is your little entourage of fans pissed at you for not finishing your creepy fanfiction before the last book came out?"
Levi looked indignant. "It is not creepy, it's amazing..." Cath smiled gratefully at her boyfriend. Her nodded in recognition. Cath felt her cheeks get hot. She couldn't even imagine how red they were just about now.
"Some of them are upset, yeah," Cath revealed, "Some don't even seem to care at all, which is nice. I was so worried about a stupid imaginary deadline for so long. You know, I'm glad I didn't follow through with it. I actually have a life outside of the internet for the first time in my life!"
"Hooray for you," Reagan quipped sarcastically, throwing her last shirt into her suitcase like it was a bomb she was trying to rid herself of before it exploded. Levi stepped away from Reagan's packing area and sat on the end of Cath's bed. He brought her legs up on top of his lap.
"PDA," Reagan shrieked in annoyance, "PDA!" With that, she stormed out of the room. Cath and Levi were alone again. It was just them and Simon and Baz. Cath's hands hovered over her keyboard, not sure what to type next, or if she should type at all. Maybe they should go back to reading The Eighth Dance? Maybe they should just talk? Cath didn't know what to do, so she did nothing.
Levi reached over to her and fixed her glasses, "I'm really tempted to take them off- you know how I feel about Cath sans glasses, but I'll leave them on because you're writing," He promised. Cath still didn't know what to do. She just sat there while Levi fixed her glasses on her face like she was a small child who couldn't dress herself. She still didn't know what to do with herself. She was hoping Levi would decide. Words weren't coming to her at the moment and she didn't know why. Writing her fic would have to wait even longer. She was all of a sudden far too sad to type another word.
"I don't want to be without you," Cath said in a small voice, feeling stupid.
Levi caressed her cheek, "You don't have to be, it's like I said, you're going to visit me in Arnold. And Reagan will be there too, of course. You'll love it."
Cath barely met his gaze, "But I can't be with you whenever I want to, like I can here. In fact, I'll be spending more of my summer away from you and less of it with you..."
"Damn those four and a half hours of distance," Levi growled.
Cath's face brightened when she heard how much effort Levi had put into trying to get Cath to come out and visit. "You looked up how far away our homes are from eachother?"
"Yes," Levi assured, "Give or take four hours. But then of course, you have to take the possibility of traffic into consideration, though I doubt there'd be too many people trying to get into Arnold...it's not exactly a vacation destination."
"It's good enough for me," Cath smiled.
For the rest of the night, Cath wrote and rewrote one of the penultimate scenes of her fic while Levi had cuddled up next to her and read what she typed. Either that or he just stared at the screen, though Cath liked to think that his reading skills were improving. When Cath had to pull her hands away to give her fingers and wrists a rest, Levi handed her the Simon Snow book.
She took it hesitantly and cleared her throat. Levi translated this as meaning 'my throat hurts, I need water,' so he leapt up from his spot and went to get her a glass of water. He was a spot-on interpreter of body language. When he returned, Cath's laptop had returned to her desk and her lap was free. Levi took this as an invitation to really get close to her. She wasn't going to complain. Levi handed the water to Cath, she drank some from it, thanked him, set the glass down on her bedside table, then started to read. Tissues were on standby.