For the record, I don't entirely believe it was just pity

Think about how much  you owe on the water bill. Think about stomach pain. No, don't think about stomach pain. Think about baseball. No don't think about baseball. Or you'll risk thinking about the bedroom for your brother. The one your mother made six months before she died. The same room the cousins you raised now sleep in, probable will until they graduate from high school. Just think about anything but him.
Think about crow bars! Play the game over and over again until this awkward moment that these held in tears have sense to fall into passes. Don't think about how he'd walk into a room and be the only one to say, and mean, "that drawing is good."Don't think about how he saved your life. Don't think about his name. Don't think about his career. Don't think about his life so inappropriately connected to yours for  a blip of time stolen with but the price of sheer despair and pity. Don't think about him. Don't think about him. Don't think about how there was only one man who made you believe in angels. Because you'll think about maybe you'll survive. Maybe you'll surface. You'll think things aren't so bad. You'll think to try harder. Just for him. When you know he'll say 'No, just for you."