Story: Terrible Things
Description: Garfield Logan tells his son, Mark, the wonders of Rachel Roth Logan, his diseased wife. Inspired by the song Terrible Things by Mayday Parade. One-shot.
Disclaimer: No own Titan. No own music. Me failing at life.
A small man with fading blonde hair ran his fingers along his dusty dining room table, swiftly collecting the small gray dust into his fingers.
"It's kind of a funny story, your mother used to only ever dust, never washed a dish, didn't vacuum, nor did she ever scrub a bathroom, only dusted," he recalled as his green eyes watched the specks fall, "I remember how much I used to hate that I had to clean everything but now…I love to just remember her."
"Dad. It's okay to cry about it, it's her anniversary anyways." The shy boy told him softly, him too staring at the dust.
Garfield Logan, the father of the boy, smiled sadly. "She hated it when I cried. Hell, she hated it even more when she cried herself."
"BG hates it when I cry too." His son blushed.
"BG?" Garfield, though he liked to be called Gar more, questioned, feeling a sudden extra thump to his heartbeat.
"J-just this girl at school." He whispered.
"I-I think we need to have a talk son, about your mom, expand your horizons about her a bit."
"Really?" Mark Logan perked up instantly, his father always being a tad bit vague when it came to the subject of his mother, Rachel.
"Yeah…but I…I'm only telling you this because life…can do terrible things." Gar told him seriously, getting out of his uncomfortable chair, "But let's go to the living room, these chairs hurt my rum." Gar whined with a pat to his butt.
"O-okay." Mark told him eagerly, getting up from his own chair as well and following his dad to the large green sofa.
"Let's see…I met her at fourteen, your age actually. Man, I was such a love sick puppy then, never once had a girlfriend. Gosh, by the time I was your age I'd give anything, to fall in love truly was all I could think." Gar started, a small smile slowly edging away to his face, "It all started in freshmen year. That's when I met your mother, the most beautiful woman that I'd ever seen."
"Come on Vic!" Gar whined with a stomp of his foot.
"Listen little man, I can't be there." Victor started slowly, "Me smart. You dumb."
"AHA! But that is exactly why you can! Tutor a fellow dumb kid!"Gar pleaded.
"I can't man, football practice."
"Life…sucks." Gar concluded while hanging his green dyed hair.
Victor clapped his large hand to his small friend's shoulder, "Hey liven up! Meet a cute un-smart chick, maybe she'll actually understand you." Vic teased.
"Hey maybe you're right-wait a minute!"
"Haha, see ya man." Victor laughed.
BRIIIINNGGG
"Damn it, I'm late for tutoring!" Garfield whined with a sprint to his feet.
"At least I stopped to get my emergency tofu…" he thought out loud as he opened the library door.
Imagining the delicious substance the boy lost his thoughts as he walked in, colliding with a soft figure, making them both go tumbling down.
With an astonished look, sat a pale girl with her black hair disarrayed and her purple framed glasses falling of her face, making her bright violet eyes stand clearly at him, her mouth agape.
"I am so sorry!" Garfield told her as he lifted himself up and offered her a hand.
She slightly glared at him but took his hand anyways; "I guess its okay…" she trailed off.
"Oh-I'm Gar, I mean Garfield, uhm Garfield Logan." He shook her hand nervously.
"Garfield Logan huh?" she somewhat smirked, "I'm Rachel Roth, I'm your tutor."
"God, after so many tutoring sessions, she finally caught on to me staring at her so much, I was so embarrassed." Gar concluded, shaking his head.
"So, by subtracting the value of x on both sides, your answer is obvious-Gar! Are you even paying attention?" Rachel asked him with the tiniest of smiles on her face, shaking her black hair off her face.
"Huh? Oh! Yeah of course."
"What did I just say Garfield Logan?"
"…something about the alphabet?" he guessed from hearing the mention of x.
"Seriously Gar, stop staring at me and pay attention to what I'm saying. You'll never pass that Algebra test at this rate."
"ALGEBRA! WE WERE TALKING ABOUT ALGEBRA!"
She gave him a stern look. Then she got a slight gleam in her eye.
" 'Cause you see, I can't help but notice you staring at me-"
"Pshh, girl you seeing things." He goofily cut her off.
"And by your eyes I'd say you're in love with me!" she teased, tiny giggles escaping her usually emotionless face.
Garfield Logan turned rigid.
"You're not…" she trailed off.
"I-I have to go." Gar thought quickly, gathering his books in a rush.
"Garfield wait." She softly whispered as she reached for his hand.
"I-I'll get it later." He mumbled, scrambling out of his seat to get out of the library.
"Garfield Logan you wait." She spoke in a monotone.
He sighed, his shoulder slumping right in front of the Library doors, "What do you want Rae?" he softly spoke, something so out of character for him.
"I-I…Would you maybe…How would you like to accompany me to a book reading?" she nervously chewed at the butt of her glasses.
"Like…a date?"
"I guess you could call it something like that…"
"Then no."
"What?" she asked flabbergasted.
"I wanna take you to the movies, it's uhm a new indie movie based off the poem the Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, your a, favorite poet." He blushed.
"I-I'd love to."
"Best day of my life Mark, the best." Gar laughed.
"You guy's love sounds wonderful." Mark smiled.
"Ha, you should've seen our first date. Everything was perfect in the theater, got my arm around her, then getting up I spilled my soda all over her. Gave her my jacket," he laughed, "me and my smooth moves." Gar laughed at himself.
"I bet, mom thought it was sweet, right?" Mark asked timidly.
"She totally fell for it." Gar smirked cockily.
"Really now?" Mark started to tease his father, finally feeling more comfortable with the subject.
"Definitely, if not we wouldn't have still been dating in college." Gar leaned back in his chair.
"Wait a minute, you guys stayed together all the way up to college, like, no break-ups in between?" Mark asked him flabbergasted.
"Well, of course it wasn't easy, I mean there was her English partner who kept flirting with her, Malchior, man did I wanna stuff his face in meat and -uhm- anyways there was also my ex-girlfriend Terra who had moved away the year before we met, she came back, followed us all the way to graduation, of COLLEGE. Yeah, most people didn't even get how we stayed together for so long but…we made it work. Then again, it was College life; we'd usually be…uhm, a little under weather."
"CHUG, CHUG, CHUG, CHUG!" the crowd chanted as a male drowned down yet another German beer.
"And the crowd roars!" he cheered for himself.
"This is why, I opt, we consume our drinks in the comfort, of mine, ooh our, room!" Rachel slurred with another sip of her Corona.
"Babe, the life of the party's at the barrrrr." Gar slurred as he mentioned to the bustling noise around them, including the drinking contests, the fights, and the pool table games.
"But," she reasoned, "I can do whatever I want in private, that, dear Garfield, I cannot do here!" she hiccupped.
He raised his eyebrows at her.
Mark raised his eyebrows at his father.
"But ugh," Gar pulled on his collar, "that wasn't all we did, I mean one time, my friend Vic let me borrow one of the rentable cars he has, and I was planning on taking your mom to the Drive-thru, but the damn thing broke down in the middle of know where. So we just sat on the roof."
"Oh! Look at that one!" Mark squealed as a shooting star flew past them.
Rachel played a tiny smirk on her face, taking in the childlike gleam in her boyfriend's eye. Opposites attract was her motto in life now. She read him Poe and he made her play on his Game-station.
She wouldn't have it any other way then how she felt right now, in this instant, with Garfield Bête Logan.
She timidly brushed her fingers next to his own, getting his attention, slowly.
"Stars, ugh, pretty, uhm, yes, darling, did you see that star?" he exclaimed.
"Yes Gar, I did." She genuinely smiled, and then she wrapped her fingers around his, "Gar?" she cooed.
"Uhm yeah?" he blushed. She was being pretty bold, for a sober Rachel that is.
"I love you." She whispered, peeking at him from under her eyelashes.
"Love you too beautiful." He smiled.
"More than anything." She said more to herself than anything as she closed the space between them.
He eagerly responded, holding her by the waist, climbing on top of her, on top of the beat up car.
"And we'd laugh at the stars and share everything. Because stars are pretty, and that's all we would do."
"Sure Dad." Mark laughed at his father.
"I'll let you know, I was a perfect gentlemen. I asked her to marry me in a very non-cliché way." Gar crossed his arms in triumph.
"Oh really?"
"Yup I remember and I quote-
"Rachel just, just keep your eyes closed okay?" Gar beckoned her as he left their dining room to go retrieve something.
"Sure Gar, you know me and suspense, we're best friends." She called out sarcastically as her left foot started to fidget.
"Baby, just hold on, I-I made you a present."
"Oh dear Azar, did you just say you made it? Should I be scared or calmly waiting?"
"CAMLY WAITING!"
"Got it. Run and hide." She mock saluted the air in front of her.
"No Rachel, stay and look at this." Gar whispered, right in front of her.
"I made you a present with paper and string," he told her as she opened her azure eyes to see a paper crane hanging on a string, "open with care now, I'm asking you please, you know that I love you," On the crane's neck was a loose gold ring with a diamond, "will you marry me?"
"Yes, yes AZAR YES!"
"She was radiant my boy, radiant, pale glow, and now I sound like a sap…But you should've seen me when you mother announced she was pregnant."
"Life can do some wonderful things, you know? Me…me and Gar have an announcement." Rachel cleared her throat in front of her friends.
"We do?" Gar asked with his mouth stuffed with tofu.
"Yes, we do Garfield." She gave him a stern look.
Richard laughed at the two, "Times never change, huh?" he asked his group of friends.
Victor then proceeded to laugh, "Well seeing as Kori is in your lap, yeah, you're right."
Kori soon became as red as her hair and hid in Richard's neck.
"Well seeing as we're going to trivial manners I'll just spit out that I'm pregnant, now who want tea?" Rachel said calmly as she placed a pot of water onto her stove.
"YOU'RE PREGNANT?" was thrown all around with a, "How joyous!" from Kori.
Garfield Logan was fainted on his kitchen floor though.
Gar had to blink his eyes many times now, "You're probably wondering how much more of a loser your Dad can get huh?" he chuckled darkly.
"No Dad, you're not a loser, you sound like a man who's…in love."
"I was-am. I love your mom. If she hadn't gotten sick I'd-we…"
"If Mom hadn't become pregnant with me she'd still be alive." Mark finished for him.
Gar's green eyes were getting shiny with tears now, "Mark boy, I'm only telling you this because life can really do terrible things, but I hope, dear Tofu I hope, things turn out differently for you…" he whispered for only himself and himself only to hear.
"Gar sit down." Rachel commanded softly.
"Honey?"
"Uhm…" she started off nervously in a chant.
"Is everything alright? Dear Tofu, is the baby okay? A month left and his little toes are coming into the world. We'll read him Poe and feed him tofu and-" he rambled off.
"Gar, please, just let me talk. Boy, can I tell you a terrible thing?"
"The baby is alright, right?" he pressed.
"He's fine Gar," she shakily sighed, "It's me." She closed her eyes, "It seems that I'm sick and I've only got weeks. Please don't be sad now, I really believe, you were the greatest thing that ever happened to me. So don't blame yourself, don't blame this baby, everything is perfect." She cried.
"Our baby…is going to kill you." Mark started slowly.
"Don't! Please! You're going to have a piece of me and you're gonna love him, you're gonna love him so much you're gonna cry!"
He inhaled deeply, "I'll only love you both the same amount." He decided.
She lightly smiled, "That's all I ask."
"I told your mom I was fine, that I'd love you to oblivion. But as soon as I was alone I fell to my knees." He whipped his eyes.
"We got her to the hospital, a beautiful healthy baby boy was born, and…she passed away."
Mark grabbed his father's hand.
"So just…So don't fall in love, there's just too much to lose. If you're given the choice, I'm begging you, choose to walk away, don't let it get you, I can't bear to see the same happen to you." Gar finally cried.
"Dad…I know that mom passed away too soon, and now you're scared of love…But I can do it. Let me have my own memories, like the ones you just told me. You love mom still, so let me experience a love like that, okay." Mark told his father softly.
"I just don't want you to get hurt Mark, please." Gar begged.
"If I find a love…as powerful as you and mom had, then I'd be okay if I got hurt in the end because I'd have memories like yours…to continue loving." Mark smiled softly, his violet eyes wet as well.
"Life can do terrible things," Gar started again.
"But it can also do some wonderful things." Mark nodded to himself and then got up from his seat, leaving his father alone to think.
Slowly, Gar got up, his blonde hair going over his watering green eyes. He walked to his room silently and sat on his side of his bed, Rachel's side still barren. He laid back and twisted his body to look at her side. He imagined her short cropped hair, her bright purple eyes, the little smile she'd throw at him. He imagined the works of Poe he had gotten her for Christmas during their first year of dating resting on her bedside table, her purple framed glasses sitting on top of them. He imagined her soft snoring face. He imagined her eyes with a challenging gleam, her body straddling his own. He just remembered the woman he loves, fragilely laying beside him, staring at him.
"I love you Rachel Roth Logan. Maybe you're right. Maybe, sometimes…life can do some wonderful things…"
A/N: I know Gar seems a bit out of character at some points but he had to be more mature because of both his age and the death of his wife. And, he was saying the lyrics of the song because I hate those awkward little breaks in between song-fics. So yeah, that's it (:
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-BG