A Pirate's Life for Me

Chapter 25: I've Been Thinking (A Dangerous Pastime, I Know)

Oliver stayed in the bathroom too long, trying to keep the tears from coming. This was supposed to be about Levi, not him.

            But it had built and built and built. He always played it off like it wasn't a big deal, that he didn't need anyone, or that he had a million people at his beck and call whose adoration was all he needed, but it was all a lie. And that lie was crumbling.

            He had Levi now. Levi, who he'd gotten so attached to so quickly. He hadn't planned on it. Oliver wasn't used to it at all—since graduating, he would talk to people, make them feel like he cared and was interested in the time they were spending together, but he never went out of his way to befriend anyone when it was so clear no one actually wanted to hang out with him, but with Gaston or the guy with a million followers.

            With Levi, it was different. Levi scoffed at all the fame and popularity. He didn't care about any of the things the rest of the world did. It was a miracle, really, that he got to be friends with Levi. That he got to be forgiven and find a place in someone's life that was mutually beneficial, but also somehow more than that. It wasn't some shady deal, or because Oliver owed him (even though he did), but because they actually got along.

Despite everything, it was easy to be friends with Levi, who shared his love for Disney, who didn't speak unless he had something to say, who he could sit and be with and not feel pressured to perform or joke with. Who texted him back, and a lot of times texted him first, who needed him in ways Oliver wasn't used to being needed from someone his own age. He liked being needed.

Heck, he'd just scoured the entire park looking for the guy, panicking over what trouble he could have gotten himself into with a bunch of strangers, frantically increasing his pace every time he thought of potential Nora reactions to Levi telling her the truth. His legs still throbbed from all the fast walking he'd done, not to mention the way his stomach curled in on itself, the bile that threatened to rise in his throat when he'd spotted Kayden and Samuel, as if Levi was being held hostage. Throwing an arm around his shoulder had probably been too much, but he couldn't help himself. All those years he'd done nothing for him. All those years he, too, had basically been friendless. And finally he had someone. He wasn't going to leave him to get eaten by a Br'er Fox.

Oliver wasn't used to being protective over anyone but Sarah. It felt like some sort of ruse, like he was only doing it to settle his debt with Davy Jones (wow, he was thinking about Pirates way too much now), but it wasn't. Oliver cared about him. Oliver liked Nora, was completely comfortable being around her and liked joking around with her, but this was different. He knew when all things were said and done with relationship drama, Levi was going to be there. Levi, who he now depended on. Levi, who was rough around the edges, awkward, but genuine. And he hadn't met a genuine person since Sarah was born.

            Well. And Nora. But he wasn't counting Nora.

            He took a deep breath, hating how broken it was from the sobs that wanted to come out of him. He couldn't go out like this.

            He really wished he could hug Sarah.

            "Oliver?"

            Oliver winced, but opened the stall door, going for a perplexed, casual expression. By Levi's face, it was clear he hadn't hit the mark.

            "I didn't know meeting new people bothered you so much."

            "It's an act, Levi. Friendship. You go around, collecting people to hang out with, to make other people think you're amazing, to boost this invisible score, and then you go home and you don't think about them and you don't actually care about them as human beings."