Black And White

Fifty Five

The next morning, Mitch walked out of his house in jeans and a t-shirt of one of his favorite bands.

As soon as he hopped into the car, Scott frowned at him. "Are you okay?"

Mitch glanced at him. "I've been in the car for like two seconds."

"I know. But you always tell me how much you hate those jeans."

Mitch looked down at them. "Yeah... Was kinda in a hurry."

"Honey, we have time. You can change if you want."

"No, no it's fine."

"You're sure?"

"Mhmm. You have coffee again?"

Scott began to drive away, reaching down to grab his travel mug out of the cup holder. "Yeah, help yourself."

Mitch nodded, taking it, and then drinking a lot of it.

Scott glanced at him a few times. "Babe, are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah. Totally fine. Do you have food in here?"

"Uh... Kinda. I put a granola bar thing in the glove box this morning. You can have it if you want."

"You sure? I don't wanna take your lunch away."

"No, it's fine. You didn't eat breakfast?"

"No." Mitch grabbed the food, and then realized how demanding he was being. "Sorry... I'm like, super scattered right now."

"It's fine. Did you just not sleep well or something?"

"Mom and Dad were fighting all night. I tried to ignore them, but... I don't know. I did homework to distract myself, but now I'm just crazy tired."

"I understand. Babe, why didn't you call me? I totally would've tried to help somehow."

"I don't know. I just... Don't want to annoy you."

"Babe, come on... You can't annoy me. I love you too much."

"Listen. If someone called me at three in the morning to complain, I'd be annoyed."

"What if it was me? What if I called, because my dad got drunk and I was scared of what was gonna happen?"

"That's different."

"Is it?"

Mitch chugged a little more of the coffee. "Babe, I'm sorry, can we please just... Be quiet for a little bit? I'm getting a headache..."

"Yeah. Sorry." Scott hummed, glancing over at him again. "Can I get you anything before I shut the Hell up? Pain killers maybe?"

"No."

Scott nodded once, getting the message. And then he didn't speak again until they arrived at the school.

*

Mitch elbowed Alex's side gently to walk around him, grabbing the test tube they needed. "But you're okay?"

"Yeah. I haven't talked to him since the day it happened, but... I'm okay."

Mitch handed him the test tube, and then tapped his arm a few times. "Allie, get your elbows off the table. You're gonna get yelled at."

Alex quickly stood up a little taller. "Sorry. Um... You wanna grab the beaker too?"

"You want me to do it? Since when?"

"Um.. I had too much coffee today and my hands are kinda shaky."