Black And White

Hundred Fifty Nine

Scott had only wanted to hang around for about an hour. 

So once Avi had said hello to everyone, and Mitch had said a few words to Rick, Scott was ready to go. 

He'd walked over to say goodbye to Connie, when a group of Rick's friends walked into the room to say hi. 

Scott glanced over immediately, and his face fell at the sight of them. He turned back to Connie. "Gotta go."

She nodded, and turned to Danny to pull him from his seat to hurry him out of the room. 

Scott then grabbed Mitch's hand to do the same, but one of the men took notice of him, and poked him in the arm. "Hey, kiddo, how's it going?"

The person closest to Rick turned to look. "Woah, is that your son, Rick? He grew up quick."

Scott exhaled loudly, and started walking out the door. "Yep that's me. See ya."

One of them grabbed his arm. "Not even gonna say hi? Don't you remember me?"

"All too well, unfortunately." He mumbled, pushing Mitch out the door and waving Avi over as well. 

Rick spoke too. "Come on, Scott. Don't be rude."

"I'm not the one being fuckin' rude." He snapped, dragging Avi out the door by his arm. "See ya later, Rick."

A taller man stepped in front of them, looking at Avi now. "Who's your friend? You didn't even introduce us."

Scott put an arm out in front of Avi, as if it would do any good. "This is Avi. Don't talk to him, don't look at him, don't touch him--"

"Okay, calm down." The man chuckled.

"Get out of our way, thanks." Scott snapped, before pushing his way through and taking Avi with him. 

Before he could get fully out the door, the tall one grabbed his shoulder to squeeze it once. "Was good seein' you, Scott. You grew up well."

Scott actually shivered at his touch, pushing his hand away. "Yeah." He muttered before rushing away.

Mitch grabbed his hand again. "Scott, are those the guys that..?"

Scott nodded once, stiffly. "Uh huh."

*

Scott only made it as far as the parking lot before he pushed Mitch away from him lightly, just to start pacing back and forth in front of Avi's car. "Holy shit. Holy fucking shit."

Mitch kept trying to grab his hand to calm him down, but Avi knew better and just stepped aside. 

Avi shook his head after a bit. "Scott, come on. Stop it."

"Stop it? Stop what?" He asked quickly, still pacing. "The men from every single one of my nightmares just walked into the fucking room, and one of them went as far as to touch my fucking arm! Do you not understand that?"

"I do understand, Scott. Because whose house did you run to every time it happened? Fucking, mine. So stop freaking out, and just talk to me."

Scott stopped walking, ignoring Mitch completely as he walked up to Avi to speak close to his face. "What do you want me to talk about, Avi? I never thought I'd have to see those fucking assholes ever again. But here we are."

"And you didn't let them see you crumble. But now you're standing outside the building freaking out."

Mitch didn't think that was the way to approach it, so he tried again to grab Scott's hand. "Honey, they can't hurt you anymore. It's different now. You don't have to be afraid of--"