I Will Try To Fix You
(Coldplay: Fix You)
"You don't do magic," she said, trying to smile modestly and mostly succeeding. "You are magic."
Simon stared at the 2p ladybird.
"I'm Penelope Bunce," the girl said, holding out her hand.
"I'm Simon Snow," he said, taking it.
"I know," Penelope said, and smiled.
Cath closed the book at the end of the eighth chapter. Levi breathed into her hair.
"I still don't understand how he didn't end up banging Penelope..." He laughed.
"God, Levi, that's so gross. They're 11 in this book," she turned under his arm to face him.
"They grew up," Levi shrugged.
It took a lot to distract him. They messed around in bed for a while, but that didn't keep him busy for long. They tried taking a nap and that almost killed him. Nightmare. Cath wasn't quite sure why, but as soon as she started reading Levi's eyes were unfocused and warm.
"I'm going to get a glass of water, my throat is really starting to hurt.
She stepped downstairs into the kitchen, stopping to talk to her dad for a moment.
"Why have you guys been locked upstairs all day? I thought you were taking life by the horns and leaving the nest forever." Her dad teased.
"His grandma passed away."
"Oh, God. What happened, was she pretty old?"
"She had a heart attack. Levi and his sister were at the hospital when it happened." Cath explained.
"That's horrible, poor kids..." He frowned.
Her dad wrapped her up in a hug and gave a hard squeeze.
"I hope you never have to deal with that kind of grief, Cath. There's no worse pain than losing a loved one unexpectedly."
"Were you close with your grandparents?" She asked.
"My grandpa, yes. He died in his sleep when I was pretty young though. None of us saw it coming."
"Neither did they." Cath sniffled, though she didn't cry. No use losing it in front of her dad or Levi. It wasn't often that she had to be the strong one for everyone else. She felt empathetic towards her sister; it was a lot of weight on her heart to keep it together.
"We'll probably step out in a little while. I think it'll be good for him to get outside."
"Be safe." He smiled and kissed the top of her head, "I love you, Honey."
When she made her way back upstairs to Levi, she found him asleep. His eyebrows were pulled together and his lips were just in a slight frown. People always say you shouldn't wake people from nightmares, but she couldn't stand to see him looking so sad.
Cath sat up by the pillow and rubbed his back until his face eased up. She then shook his shoulder to wake him, and got comfortable beside him so she could continue to read. The words seemed to keep the bad thoughts away.
He didn't even knock; just sat on the close-lidded toilet with his face in his hands.
"Levi, are you alright?" Cath asked, pausing from applying shaving cream.
Levi shook his head, but looked up to give her a smile.
She had left him in bed alone that morning, trying to let him enjoy a few hours more of pleasant unconsciousness. Neither one of them had anything to say to the other to lighten the mood. Cath continued shaving her legs and Levi watched the foam dissipate in the water. Her hand shook when she heard the front door slam, and left a tiny cut just below her knee. Blood trickled down into the tub as she rinsed it off.
Levi looked at it with a blank expression for a moment, then leaned over to kiss it.
"Be more careful, sweetheart..." He muttered.
"I'm okay, it's barely anything." Cath scooted closer to him on the edge of the tub, "Are you going to be okay?"
"Eventually, maybe."
"It's been a few days, have you talked to your dad about what's happening next?" She asked, resting her hand on his thigh, setting aside her razor.
Levi smiled at her hand, but it was a small, sad smile, "He's already got a date for the funeral. June 17th."
"Okay, that's pretty soon... Do you want to do anything today?"
"I want to get absolutely wasted and forget everything before I have to go back home to face everybody. What do you want to do today?"
"I want to make sure you don't do something terrible when you're in a total drunken stupor."
He grunted.
"Seriously, let's go curl up in bed for a couple hours, and then tonight we go out and you can get totally shitfaced." Cath said, moving to finish her legs.
"Cather-"
"If it'll help, then yeah, let's pour some drinks into you. I mean, I don't want to make a habit of it, but it won't hurt this one time."
"Thanks... for, uhm, understanding."
Getting into the bar was easier than she expected, but Cath was still nervous that someone would call her out on her sister's fake ID.
"Cather," Levi said, eyes brighter from taking his first shot. "I don't want to embarrass myself in front of you."
"Okay."
"I mean, I've never gotten drunk around you before and-"
"Levi, I understand. Just try to forget and relax, we can deal with everything tomorrow. I promise that I won't take anything you do when you're drunk too seriously."
"Why are you doing this with me?" He asked, taking a drink from his beer.
"Because I don't know what else to do to help you."
Cath sat and watched Levi throw back another shot and then another beer. He started to perk up a little and began talking to everyone around them. After his fifth shot, she decided to confiscate the glass.
"CATHER! YOU SHOULD HAVE A DRINK TOO!" Levi suggested in his all-caps-over-excited-not-quite-yelling drunk voice.
"No, no, no, I'm driving us home tonight."
"C'MON CATHER, PLEEEEEEASE? HOW ABOUT JUST ONE DRINK?"
"That's not a good idea." She smiled patiently at him.
"Hey, honey, how about you just spin over this way and have a drink with me instead?" A man tapped her shoulder and spun her seat to face him. He was tall, muscly and fairly good-looking, but he seemed a bit older than her, a little over thirty.
"Oh, no. I'm really okay." Cath shook her head and turned back to her drunken boyfriend who was ordering his third beer of the night.
"C'mon, hon, it'll be fun." He turned her seat again.
He was clearly drunk and she was getting annoyed. "I said 'no.' I'm here with my boyfriend."
"That guy?" The man guffawed, "Come hang out with a real man."
"HEY WHAT'S GOING ON?" Levi giggled and threw his arms over Cath's shoulders in a way that let him rest his chin on top of her head. A bit of his beer spilled onto her shirt, and she pretended to not be annoyed.
"I was just trying to get this lovely lady to have a drink with me."
"PSH, YEAH RIGHT. CATHER WON'T EVEN DRINK WITH ME!" Levi took a big gulp from his glass and let out a little burp while rubbing his face in her hair playfully.
"Nice..." The man rolled his eyes and grabbed for her hand, "C'mon let's go somewhere else. I'll show you how a real man treats a lady."
"Stop it." Cath snapped, yanking her hand away, "Let's go sit somewhere else, Levi."
She was beginning to feel too overwhelmed by the atmosphere and the man harassing them. If Levi hadn't seemed like he was having such a good time, she would have asked to leave. They started moving through the busy bar towards a table, but stopped cold at the hand slapping her ass.
Levi reacted much faster than she had. His fist hit the man in the jaw, and the man fell into the bartop. He obviously hadn't expected Levi to be so strong. The room went quiet and everyone was looking at them. The bartender had his hand on the phone ready to call the police.
"We were just leaving..." Cath mumbled, shoving Levi out the door, embarrassed and a little frightened. She stopped to tell the bouncer what had happened as they left, and continued to ignore her boyfriend's babbling about how gross the man was.
When they got to the car, Cath couldn't look at Levi until they were out of the parking lot.
"What was that?" She sighed, feeling tired and stressed. Not to mention the surprising throb of pain on her butt.
"I HAD TO," he paused and collected his thoughts, "I'm sorry, Cather. I promise I never wanted to hurt anybody, I just wanted to keep you safe."
"I didn't need protection, I needed to get away from there. The bartender would have dealt with him anyway, he saw the whole thing."
"You don't know that, that's the bystander effect or something." He held his head for a moment as if to keep it in place.
"Look, I said I wouldn't take anything you did while drunk too seriously," Cath nodded, justifying it to herself more than to him, "but you really scared me.
"I'm sorry, sweetheart." Levi brushed her hand with his, "I just love you so much, I couldn't stand to see you get groped by some gross man."
"Let's just get you to bed as soon as possible. You should go out like a light tonight."
"Cather."
"Hm?
"Tell me that you love me."
"You know that I do." She looked over at him and smiled with pursed lips.
"Please?"
"I love you, Levi."
