Chapter 8 Levi
EIGHT
LEVI
DISTRACTION
We walked to my SUV in silence until her purse dropped on the ground and crap was everywhere.
“Let me get it.” I opened the passenger door.
She used her coat to dab her eyes. “Are you being bossy right now?”
“Yes I am. After all that’s happened today, can we call an hour’s truce? Just not hate me for sixty minutes so we can make sure you’re okay? You know, Langley, not fantasizing about me being attacked by honey badgers, barefoot in a desert of Lego bricks near a Bieber concert.”
She looked down.
“I know what the car accident today was for you. It hits in a different way for you than it would for anyone else. I also know the ER only sent you with a few Tylenol, so let’s pick some up to keep you comfortable. So just take a quick hate break, okay?”
She chewed on her lip for second. “But I thrive on the hate thing and you expect me to just let it go?”
“Of course not. Come on, all that time and energy put into the hatred of Levi Dawson? I would never want you to give that up. But you’ve had some shit go down today. We can be civil for an hour, right?”
She shifted her weight and looked away. I grabbed the magic eight ball that was just behind the tire and handed it to her. “What do you think?”
She took it, shook it, and looked into the little window. A tiny grin slithered across those pale pink lips as she held it out for me to see.
“Why the fuck not?” I shook my head. “Best decision maker in the history of time.”
She gave the smallest nod before climbing into the passenger seat. I shut the door before grabbing the last items from her purse and got into the driver’s seat.
“Langley, why do you have taco seasoning and socks in your purse?” I grabbed my phone.
“I get hungry and cold sometimes.”
“Of course you do.” Her blue eyes zapped me. “My phone said there’s a twenty-four hour grocery story a mile from here. Would it be okay if I run in to grab Tylenol for your head and a few items for tomorrow?”
“Okay.”
Her tension filled the vehicle as she stared straight out the window.
I knew between the car thing and the guy holding her against the wall she was shaken up, and I didn’t know how to make it better.
I did the only thing I could; turn up the tunes and belted out some Benson Boone.
While she was silent, I chose to believe that my top shelf vocal abilities had just stunned her into silence. Yes, I was going with that.
Once parked, I turned to her. “You can wait here, I’ll be—”
She laced her fingers together nervously. “No.” She took a breath. “I don’t want to stay here.”
We walked into the empty store and the stress rolling off her was eating at me. Before I entirely knew what I was going to do, I scooped her up in my arms and put her in the back of the grocery cart as her laughter bounced off the wall behind us.
“What are you doing? I have to sit criss-cross-applesauce in a cart?” Her eyes lit up when she looked back at me.
“Today’s been a lot, what you need is a distraction.” I started pushing the cart down the cereal aisle and tossed a box into the cart. “You look like a Fruit Loop kinda gal.”
“You’d better grab the Lucky Charms. With my luck I’ll probably die the day after I finally get my shit together.”
“Is Langley having a little pitty party?”
“No. It’s just one of those days I’m glad we only live once because I can’t do this crap again.”
“It was just a bad day.”
“Nope, the “L” in my luck has been replaced with an “F”.”
“That’s it. It is now my goal to get your mood out of this clusterfuck it’s in.”
“Goal?”
“Yup, I’m about to lock in like no one has ever locked in before. Just saying.”
“I don’t believe you’re motivational speaking skills are necessary. Maybe I just need to simmer in the suckiness for a bit, and I’ll bounce right back.”
I whipped the cart in a circle. “You think the itsy bitsy spider gave a shit about the rain? No, it climbed the spout again. Lock in, Langley.”
Her head shook. “Fine, cheer me up.”
“Alrighty. When a door closes, open it again. It’s a fucking door.”
She shrugged.
“Sugar and spice and everything nice is so yesterday. From now on it’s be defiant, salty, and extremely noncompliant.”
“Hmmm, I do kinda like that.”
“From this moment on we give everyone we meet the middle name of motherfuckin. Life is about to get interesting.”
Her giggle circled me. “Can we start that now?”
“Absolutely, Allison motherfuckin Langley. I see my wise nuggets of wisdom are improving your mood.”
“Maybe a little, Levi motherfuckin Dawson.”
I leaned down. “To conclude my Ted Talk, a little tid bit that will make you smile the rest of the night.” Her brow popped up as I whispered, “Boobytrap spelled backwards is partyboob. Carry on.”
“Wow.”
“You ready, girlie?”
“For what?”
I ran through the aisles pushing her in the cart while she screamed with laughter. Jingle All The Way blew through the store speakers while we sang along.
Memories of our Christmas past shot through my brain like a poisonous arrow.
Allie knowing Christmas was something I was weirdly fond of, and her showing up at my dad’s crap apartment dragging a Christmas tree behind her and a bag of decorations she’d picked up at the Dollar Tree.
How she turned that shit hole into a beautiful place is still beyond me.
While my father wouldn’t admit it at the time, he spent the whole month of December in his recliner next the tree.
At home almost every night. Most of his evenings involved bars and ladies and for him to be around, if even for a few weeks, was kind of like the sprinkles on a fucking donut.
She had so much fun with it she made it her New Year’s resolution to make it permanent.
She’d go to Goodwill and Thrift World and we’d load up treasures from a couch to cool shit for the walls and for the first time, I didn’t hate being there.
Everywhere she went she made things better without even trying.
“I need two pounds of butter.”
I twirled the cart in a circle. “Is this a weird addiction?”
“No. I want to bake cookies for everyone when they arrive.”
I tossed some butter and it bounced off her shoulder. “Sorry.”
“Ya Ding Dong.”
“I believe Ding Dongs, Ho Ho’s, and all Little Debbie snacks would be found in aisle seven. Hold on.”