Black And White

Hundred Fifty Seven

Mitch woke up in the middle of the night, seeing the bathroom light on in the hotel room. 

He rubbed his eyes a little, and looked at the clock. 

As he did so, Scott walked out of the bathroom, phone in hand. He hopped back into the bed, phone pressed to his ear. "I don't give a shit. I'm spending a night with my boy, leave me alone."

Mitch grinned widely. "Your boy? That's cute."

Scott looked over quickly. "God damn it, I woke him up. I blame you. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Who was that?"

"Nobody."

"Was it Rick?"

Scott frowned at him. "How did you know..?"

Mitch just smiled. "I'm a good wife, and I know what you sound like when you talk to him. So what did he want at this hour?"

"He'd just woken up from whatever. Wanted to make sure I was coming to see him tomorrow. Or... Today, technically."

"That's weird... Why would he..?"

"He's probably just lonely, because he's such a shit that he has no friends."

Mitch moved over a little to be closer to Scott, only for Scott to put his arms around him. "I'd disagree if he wasn't so awful to you... How's he doing? Do you know?"

"Nope. I didn't ask. Feels well enough to give me shit though, so... There's that."

Mitch shook his head slowly. "I'm getting like... Second-hand irritation. Let's just go to sleep, okay?"

Scott nodded, pulling Mitch's head forward so Mitch's forehead was against his chest.

Mitch pressed a kiss to the tattoo he found there. "Goodnight, sweetheart."

"Night, babe."

Mitch had literally closed his eyes for about five seconds, when his phone started buzzing on the bedside table. "Goddamn it."

Scott chuckled a little, reaching past Mitch to grab the phone lighting up on the table and taking it off the charger to look at the screen. "It's Alex, baby."

Mitch moved quickly, taking the phone from him to answer. "Hey, babe. Everything okay?"

Because of how quiet the room was, Scott could easily hear the conversation. Mitch still felt bad, and put the phone on speaker before setting it on the space of the bed that was between the couple. 

Alex spoke quickly, like he was afraid. "It's fine. I'm fine. But... I'm in need of friend advice. And--And I know it's late, I'm so sorry for calling this early in the morning, but I haven't slept at all and I can't--"

"Honey, slow down. What's wrong? Are you at home?"

"I'm driving to Kirstie's right now, because she wants to hear all the drama and wants me to stay over because she's worried about me."

"Avoided the first part of my question, babe. What's wrong?"

Alex took a deep breath, and Mitch could faintly hear the ticking of the turn signal. "Avi and I are in a weird place right now... I just left his house."

"You left his house at three in the morning?" Mitch clarified.

"Uh... Yeah. Kirstie was up..."

"Okay the suspense is killing me. What happened, Alex?"

Alex tried to laugh a little, but it sounded almost like it hurt. "Well, uh... It's no secret that he can be a little mean, and... Kinda bossy, and... He kinda pulls me around sometimes, and... Kirstie said he's kind of verbally abusive."