In Need Of A Distraction (Levi, Tag Any)

[Levi Rubenstein]

Sandy was with a boy.

Sandy was with a boy.

Sandy was with a boy!

Levi couldn't get the image out of his head. Her red hair cascaded past her shoulders, falling on the guy's knee as she bent over his foot. He was grinning and munching on a cookie, one she had baked no doubt. Why was he even over at her house? He looked older, an older creep-o preying on Sandy. Levi expected her to meet boys someday, but he thought he had more time, more time to figure out how to be like Bruce Wayne or Rex Reed!

The program on the TV cut to commercial, distracting Levi from his thoughts. He couldn't just sit around and wallow, it was driving him nuts. He grabbed his cellphone.

“Hey, Denny, what are you doing?” Levi hoped his best friend wouldn't notice the slight tremor in his voice.

“Umm, I dunno. Sitting around. My parents are making dinner. What happened earlier today, you said you were coming to-”

Crap. Secret Lair. “Oh, uh, yeah. My mom wouldn't let me go.” He hated lying to Denny, but he also hated talking to Denny about Sandy. Denny didn't understand what it was like to see Sandy day in and day out, he didn't realize how wonderful she was, and Levi preferred it that way. “Anyway, I was thinking of heading down and going to see Galactic Hunter at seven. You wanna meet me there?”

Denny was silent for a moment. “I don't know, it wasn't very good. I didn't like it enough to see it again. And anyway, my mom's making a roast. It smells awesome, you should just come over.”

It sounded great, in theory, Denny's mom made a great roast. But Levi knew he had to find a big distraction, like a movie, and not even delicious food would deter him. “No, but tell your mom thanks. I guess I'll talk to you later.”

“Sure,” Denny replied, sounding a little disappointed. “And remember, you're coming to Gould tomorrow!”

Levi smiled. At least he and Denny could hang out at school again. “Yep, looking forward to it. Bye.” Levi hung up, and glanced at the clock. 6:20. Enough time to make it to the theater and play some of the arcade games first.

********************

Levi left the movie theater feeling a little better. Galactic Hunter wasn't that great of a movie, but Levi knew giant space battles and bad-ass heroes would take his mind off his troubles. Not to mention the cast! He never in a million years would have expected Brendan Graham to do a sci-fi movie that didn't seem to have any Oscar value, but the money must have been just right. And he was a great actor, and made a great Captain Daniels! Levi knew the movie was a guilty pleasure he'd enjoy for years.

Lost in thought, Levi didn't see that he was about to step into the parking lot. His foot caught the curb awkwardly and he slipped straight to the ground, banging his knee pretty hard. He laid on the ground for a minute, feeling a trickle of blood start to run down his leg, listening to the laughter of the moviegoers exited the theater and saw his plight. He cursed this horrible, horrible day.

A shadow loomed over Levi. “Are you okay?”

[Slate Cummings]

Slate had been the good older son and taken his brother and sister out, in the city of angles what else could one do but go see a movie! There had been some disagreement as to what to see. K.C. wanted to see the romantic brooding vampire movie, JD wanted the one with killer robots. Slate settled the argument, neither movie was seen and instead a good old fashioned comedy was picked. K.C. could have killed Slate on the decision.

As they left the theater, Slate watched as a kid tripped over the curb. The fall didn't bother him it was the people laughing that bothered him. He went to his car and grabbed the first aid kit, "You two get in and wait." In unison, the younger two Cummings kids shouted "Shot gun!" then began to argue over who called it first, Slate didn't need the frustration. "Both of you back seat now!" The kids grumbled as the got in. "And no music either, you'll fight over the channel!"

He went over to the kid who fell. "Hey looks like you took quite a spill there. Let me fix you up there." He sat down next to him and opened the case. "I'm Slate." His southern accent shone through.

[Levi Rubenstein]

Crap! Someone! Levi quickly rubbed a sleeve across his eyes, hoping no one would notice. In case there were tears, he told himself. He looked up and saw a kind looking guy who was definitely older than him. And he had a Southern accent. Levi felt like he had seen this guy before, but he wasn't sure where. Secret Lair? School? Levi couldn't put his finger on it.

“Umm, thanks. I just... I, uh... yeah, I fell.” Levi sat up, “I'm just a stupid klutz.” He looked down at his knee. He just skinned it, it wasn't that bad. Levi hadn't skinned a knee in years, since he was riding a regular bike, and he remembered it hurting a lot more back then. But more than that his pride had been hurt. The crowd was starting to disperse, but he could still hear some sniggers from the occasional jerk that passed by. He had been laughed at many times before, and unlike the knee, it continued to hurt just as much. No one laughed at Batman when he fell, and no one laughed when Captain America died. But everyone laughs at Levi.

Slate wasn't laughing, though. He was helping. Levi rarely saw the bystander help out, this guy was more like a hero. “Hey. I'm Levi.” He started nodding, a nervous habit he had. Usually he never even realized he was doing it unless his mother told him to stop. “Thanks for, well, helping. And not laughing.”

[Slate Cummings]

"Don't sweat it guy, happens to everyone. Even though people won't admit it, take comfort in the fact the ones who laugh are the ones who probably had a paper cut and made a huge scene from it." He grinned. "This doesn't look too bad, I've seen worse on Tom and Jerry sitting in my car there." He said referring to his brother and sister who looked like they were having a Hugo Weaving slap fight. He rolled his eyes.

"Theres a word for what happened, schadenfreude." Normally not one for big words but thanks to 'Avenue Q' the word had sort of fallen into the English language. "Others taking pleasure in someone else's pain. I try not to do it but sometimes you just have to laugh when things happen." Probably not what the kid wanted to hear but sometimes a reason had to be given for what was going on.

"Nice meeting you Levi." Slate started to nod along with him till he shook his head out of the motion. "You might want to stop that your starting to look like a bobble head." He gave a smile. "Who knows maybe one day you might be helping me out."

"Now this might sting a little, just hit my shoulder if it does, don't worry about bruising me." He sprayed some Bactine on the sore.

[Levi Rubenstein]

“I know it happens to everyone,” Levi was frustrated, mostly at himself. “It just seems to happen to me a lot more often than everyone else. And trust me, everyone laughs, whether they had a paper cut or not.” Levi shifted and sat on the curb so that Slate could clean his knee a little easier. Levi watched Slate motion towards his car, and the two children inside. Great, he was being compared to children. Maybe Slate meant well, but it didn't end up making Levi feel better.

The mention of Schadenfreude, however, did manage to lift Levi's spirits momentarily. Schadenfreude happened to be the name of a comic book villian Levi had created, and he very nearly blurted out this information to Slate in his excitement. “I know Schadenfreude! He...” Levi managed to stop himself before revealing what could possibly be some very embarassing info. Slate seemed nice, but Levi had known many people who seemed to be his friend then laughed at his ideas. “I mean, it's... yeah. It's mean.” Sadly the tale of the villain Schadenfreude would remain one for another day.

Levi stopped the motion of his head, turning his face crimson instead. He hated that, that nervous habit. Geeks, dorks, they had nervous habits. Heroes didn't, they didn't have vulnerabilities. Or if they did, it was something ridiculous like a fake intergalactic rock or their unbalanced DNA. Levi was starting to feel pretty crummy around Slate, and the realization of it made him feel even worse. Slate was being really nice to Levi, and all he could do was feel bad for himself. Help Slate out someday? “Yeah,” was all Levi could manage to mumble. What he rally wanted to say was “Yeah right, how could I ever help someone like you? I'm not even cut out to be a sidekick!”

But he didn't. He held his tongue, and mustered all his strength in an attempt not to wince when Slate sprayed Bactine on his knee.

He winced.