I Hate You, I Love You { mitch grassi }

II

The next day, I went to work per usual. I walked in to see Izzy filling the cookie case, but with more spunk than usual.

"Hey, Iz. What's up?" I ask, sitting my bag down behind the counter. She shoots her look up and runs to her purse.

"So, C.. I know Pentatonix isn't your favorite band.. But I have a question." I immediately know what she's going to say, and I sigh in exhaustion from just thinking about it.

"Iz-"

"Cressida, please. I've been waiting for years for this opportunity, and I can't go alone. Plus, I already got the tickets." She evilly grins. I cross my arms and glare at her.

"Fine. But only because you're my best friend. Is it the one tonight?"

She shook her head quickly. "An another thing....."

Oh no. How could this possibly get any worse? Because I know it will.

"They're VIP. Which, tell me C, means what?"

A long, exaggerated groan leaves my mouth, "A meet and greet."

***

The day goes by fairly quickly with a decent amount of customers. I never noticed how many regulars we had until I could point out at least half of the cafe at any time by name.

I had been texting Scott on and off all day, until a very tall, very Scott-kind of person walked in.

"One Vanilla Iced Mocha, please." He says. I look up to see Scott standing there with $5 and his phone in hand.

"Coming right up, stranger." I laughed, walking to get it. I whip it up, and turn around to notice he wasn't actually alone this time. Instead he was with Avi.

"Care to introduce me to your very ravishing friend, Scooter?" I chuckled. I honestly did have a thing for Avi. He has always been my favorite member, well with Scott at a close second of course. But I would definitely take Avi any day.

"Well, Cress, this is Avi. Avi, Cressida." He introduced us and we shook hands.

"Ooh, a nickname already?" I laughed at Scott, who seemed to be too involved with his coffee to notice anything else in the world. "Would you like anything, Avi? It's on the house."

"Sure," he smiled warmly, "I'll have just a regular black coffee, please."

This time Izzy was around to get it. She brought it to the counter and introduced herself to Avi as well. They say and drank for a bit. I stuck my phone onto the speakers and the first song to play was incidentally Natural Disaster, one of my personal favorites. Scott noticed how flustered I got and made it even worse by winking at me.

He never stops, does he?

The song continues to play and it only makes me dread the concert more. I can't bare to even look at Mitch, let alone listen to him, be within 100 feet of him, – because knowing Izzy she got great seats because she is literally walking ptx trash – and even 'meet' and talk to him face to face. He just makes me so frustrated. He used to be such an amazing person and a great friend, but now he's nothing more than what he's always really been, plastic. He's fake. But I guess that's him now, and I can't change that no matter how hard I try. Now matter how much I want to. He's gone.

I dread talking to him. A large part of me hopes he doesn't recognize me and just acts as if I was a normal fan.

Scott and Avi leave and we tend to normal business until about 4, then we leave to get ready.

Once home, I put my hair up loosely, and barely do my makeup. I end up borrowing Izzy's 'but are you Scott Hoying?' shirt and throw on a pair of black skinny jeans and black vans.

I wait on Izzy for what seems like hours, and we finally leave. In the car she puts in her PTX Vol. 2 CD and we head off. We reach the venue at 5:30 and since the concerts at 7:30 I think we made it in good time. We head backstage and get ready for the most dreaded meet and greet of my life.

Eventually, everyone arrives and it starts.

While I'm talking to Izzy, I hear a very so kingly familiar voice.

"Hi, I'm Mitch."