Katie got up the next morning feeling oddly defeated. She remembered what happened last night and placed a hand over her eyes to try and block the mental replay of what happened. She sat up and trudged to the bathroom and turned on the faucet to splash some cold water on her face wondering if he would be there, wondering if he would try and bring up what happened last night, wondering if she could face him and his accusations. She made her way to the kitchen expecting a huge mess. Literally and metaphorically.
What she didn't expect was Oliver on the couch watching tv and the kitchen the way it was before the incident last night. "Morning Katie!" he said with a smile.
"Did you do this Oliver?" Katie asked.
Oliver silently nodded. "I just figured that you were too tired last night to deal with this mess and after all, you did wash those dishes for me the other day."
"You really shouldn't have." she said disappointedly. "It's not right, Oliver." Katie added.
"What do you mean Katie? How is this wrong?" Oliver asked confused.
"I don't know. It's complicated." she replied brusquely.
"That's a popular answer these days isn't it?" he said. "Complicated. Is that that it? Is that why you abandoned your family, your friends? Complicated. Is that why you ran away from home?" He stood there with that look. The pitiful condescending look he would give someone who he thought was totally beneath him and it wasn't the first time Katie had received that look from someone she cared about.
Something inside of Katie just crumbled. Her cheeks burnt, she felt bile slowly rising up and tears started well up in the corner of her eyes. Katie's heart pounded so hard it felt like it would explode. Her hands were bunched in fists so tightly that her nails dug into her skin. Every breath she took pained her and her lip trembled. She yelled back at him.
"No, because I didn't have a home to go back to. Is that what you NEEDED to hear? My dad ran off with another woman and my mom, my mom was so distraught she could barely take care of herself and I... I had to leave." Katie trailed off, took a deep breath and pushed forward. "I reminded her of him and magic reminded me of him so I left. I left home and I left our world. Life... you can't fix it... you can't just wave a wand over it and fix everything." She raised her hands up and violently let them fall on the dining room table. She choked on her sobs as she sprinted to her room and slammed the door. Katie collapsed on her bed and felt waves of tears overcome her.
She would miss her classes today.
She woke up later that night, sheets soaked in her tears, starving. She felt her stomach grumble and she clutched it. She peered out into the hall and saw darkness. She tiptoed out of her room and tripped over foreign object. He let out a moan as she frantically reached for the light switch.
Oliver was lying in front of her room dazed.
"What are you doing?" Katie asked, still completely shocked.
"I was... well, you seemed upset. I wanted to stick around in case you needed to talk... and I wanted to apologize. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pushed." Oliver said slowly watching her carefully and waiting for her reaction.
Katie shrugged and smiled weakly. "It was a while ago, but I'm still a little raw about it." she said. "I'm starving too. C'mon. Let's go get something to eat."
Oliver slowly stood up and said, "Pasta, Pasta, I made pasta earlier."
"Well, Oliver, I would love to have some of that Pasta, Pasta." Katie said playfully.
After they made their way to the kitchen, Oliver heated up the pasta and watched Katie sit there with her placemat and silverware. She looked absolultely adorable with her eyes puffy and her hair a mess. She suddenly seemed a lot more vulnerable... approachable almost... She was definitely different from high school. She put her head down and pressed her cheek against the marble countertop and felt the heat from her cheek dissipate.
She looked up at Oliver who was still looking at her intently. "So, why Boston?" he asked her while he nervously brushed his fingers over knuckles.
She looked up. "Why not Boston? It's the perfect college town. Perfect place to start over, filled with people looking for a chance to improve their lives and I'm just one of them." She leaned over the counter and looked straight at him. "What about you Oliver? You were always going on and on about Quidditch. Last I heard you were playing for Puddlemere" Katie said.
"You didn't hear?" Oliver asked.
Katie seemed puzzled.
"I started off on the reserve team and eventually made it to the stating team. It was just difficult always being the the spotlight. People always expected me to do certain things." He looked down at his hands as if they was the most interesting thing in the world. "I was expected to make a certain number of blocks every game and I tried so hard to please everyone, it was just all I worried about... I didn't do very much living for myself. So when I had this shoulder injury, I just figured it was time to take a break." Oliver shrugged. He placed a plate of hot pasta in front of Katie and took a seat to watch her eat.
As Katie ate, she wondered who the man sitting next to her was. At Hogwarts, Oliver was obviously Quidditch obsessed in the weird geeky sort of way. He was so concerned with Quidditch he was literally clueless to everything around him. His confused comments after his daydreams of winning the House Cup were the ones that made the entire class chuckle. He was what many of the girls would call "potential" or a "diamond in the rough" but he was just too scattered, too disorganized for anyone to really get to him. But it seemed like Puddlemere had forced him to do some growing up. He seemed the more calm and collected one now. It made Katie smile.
"EAT EAT!" Oliver's commands interrupted Katie's thoughts.
She smiled at him and continued eating. "I know better then to make plans with you, but some of my awful drunken frat boy friends have invited me to go to dinner to celebrate their transition from pledges to official brothers. In other words, steak and lobster dinner. Lots of it. I was wondering if you wanted to come?" she looked up from her plate and focused on Oliver.
"So you're going to feed me and force me to meet potential suitors. I guess that is a fair trade." Oliver winked at her.
"Now why don't we have fraternities in England?" Oliver whined. "You've got some amazing friends, you do." Oliver smiled.
Katie plopped down on the couch and listened to Oliver chat about her friends.
"I couldn't believe they sang that song and made him drink all of that." Oliver was still laughing to himself. "And oh, need I even mention the drunken Einstein competition? How you and the rest of the group managed to do calculus after the number of shots you took... man. I can't even do calculus sober." Oliver shook his head.
"It's obviously the only way to do calculus. Drunk. So it's less painful. Only the really smart Russian whiz kids do it sober. Alcohol makes even huge feats trivial." Katie added as she leaned back into the couch.
"You like it here, don't you?" Oliver asked knowing the answer.
Katie smiled. "Oh yeah. I love it here."
"Well, I love it here with you too." Oliver walked over kissed her cheek and walked into his room.
Katie placed her hand on her cheek and she could still feel it burning. She shook her head, broke out her laptop, and continued writing her essay before the effects alcohol would wear off. After all, alcohol made even the hugest feats trivial.
Katie had gone to her classes and came back to her little apartment. Her legs felt vibrations as her Converses forcefully pushed her up every step of the 10 flights of stairs she would have to run up. By the time she got there, she was slightly out of breath as she fished for her keys to open the rickety door.
She charged into the room as she couldn't wait to see what Oliver had whipped up for dinner.
"Oliver?" Katie yelled.
"Woah. There's the special girl! I made... Chicken Cordon Bleu and you have a special delivery from a very strapping young lad today." Oliver smiled and tilted his head over at a large cardboard box on the couch.
Katie walked up behind Oliver, stood on her tip-toes and looked over his shoulder to look what was inside the skillet. He looked so adorable in a striped apron slaving over the stove. She smiled and walked towards the big cardboard box on the couch. "Who delivered it?" she asked Oliver as she took the top off the box. She paused for a minute and she felt her cheeks heat up again. There was a lump in throat again and she sat down on the couch in silence. "Nevermind" she muttered. "Nevermind" she said softly as a tear streaked down her cheek.