Black And White

Hundred Seventy Five

Mitch cringed as he sat down beside Alex.

Alex raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh yeah? Maybe you should've taken it easy in that closet."

"Fuck off, Alex. Avi's the kinkiest person I've ever met; you have no room to talk."

Alex giggled a little, writing something down on his paper, before standing up to walk over to the lab stations.

Mitch waited a second, taking his time standing up slowly to follow him.

Alex had already tossed an apron on, and was setting up the lab station. He handed Mitch a pair of goggles. "Your turn to pour the acid."

Mitch pouted. "I don't wanna."

Alex gave him an encouraging smile. "I'll do everything else, I promise." Then he grabbed a second apron, and walked around Mitch's body to tie it around him.

Mitch pouted again, and nodded slowly. "Okay fine."

*

Scott walked in to Mitch's science class, simply because Mitch was staying after for a few minutes.

He stopped walking at the sight of him in an apron and goggles.

Alex giggled, having already tossed his goggles off. "Uh, Mitchie..?"

Mitch looked up, and in doing so, saw Scott standing by the door. He gasped and ducked down behind the counter.

Alex walked around quickly. "Honey, what--?"

"He can't see me like this!"

"Oh, honey he's not gonna mind."

"But... No. Will you distract--?"

Scott was suddenly knelt in front of him. "Hi, baby. What are you doing down here?"

Mitch practically threw the goggles off of him, and Alex hurried to take them.

Scott put a hand on Mitch's back to help him stand up. "Babe, what's going on?" He looked down at the apron. "You're so cute, oh my God."

Mitch blushed intensely, looking down and trying to cover his apron with his arms. "This is so embarrassing, I'm so--"

"Why is it embarrassing, baby? You're adorable."

Mitch pushed away from Scott, and went to untie his apron. "No, just... Sorry, give me a second and then we can leave."

"Take your time, baby. Can I help you at all?"

Mitch was still flustered, hands shaking too much to untie the apron string. "J-Just--"

Scott stepped forward calmly, hoping if he was as calm as possible it would calm Mitch down too. He then reached around Mitch's back to untie the string.

Mitch couldn't help but hug him as he did so. Then he leaned away to pull the apron off, and handed it off to Alex to put away.

Then he turned toward the lab station and started cleaning it up.

Scott leaned over the table, elbows on the surface. "So--"

"Don't put your elbows there!" Mitch snapped, gently smacking Scott's forearm. "Honey, we poured acid today. And other dangerous chemicals."

"You mean dropped acid..?"

Mitch rolled his eyes. "No, dummy. We poured acid into test tubes."

"Oh wow. That's so cool." Scott watched Mitch clean curiously, very intrigued by what he was doing.

Alex walked over to help a little more, and then he smiled at Mitch. "I've got this covered, Mitchie. Go ahead and go."

Mitch shook his head quickly. "Don't be silly, Le--"

Alex leaned toward Scott, pointing toward the desks in the classroom. "His backpack is over there, if you wanna grab it."

Scott obeyed immediately, walking over to grab it.

Mitch tossed a paper towel into the specific trash can. "I don't wanna leave, Lex. It's okay."

"Honey, I can take care of this. No worries."

Mitch looked over at Scott, and then nodded once. "Okay. Fine... Are you sure?"

"Mhmm. Go, Mitchie."

Even by the time they got to the car, Mitch was still embarrassed about the goggles.

Scott kept laughing it off though. "Baby, you're so adorable. That was literally the cutest thing I've ever seen."

"But the goggles are so--"

"Adorable, Mitch. Fucking adorable."

*

Alex finally walked out of class, testing Kirstie that he was gonna meet her by the drama room.

Naturally with his face buried in his phone, he bumped into someone. "Shit, I'm--"

A boy grinned at him. "Hey, you're that boy Avi was talking to."

"Yeah, uh... I'm Alex."

"Cody. Is he your boyfriend or something?"

"I don't... I don't know, actually. Can I ask why you guys were talking..?"

Cody just smiled, and reached out to take Alex's hand. "He was asking me about asking boys out."

"Oh really..?" Now he was interested. "Like what? What did he say specifically?"

"He just asked for some pointers. He sits by me in English, so... He and I talked about it again today, by the way. So prepare yourself for that."

"Woah... Are you being serious? Like totally serious?"

"Yeah. For real. Your name is Jake, right?"

"What? No. Why would you..?"

"That's what he called you." Cody's face fell. "Oh shit... Is that not..?"

Alex took a step away from him. "No. That's... That's not me. Shit, I gotta go."

Cody just watched him go, feeling awful about whatever had happened.

Alex was hurrying to find Jake, because he didn't know what was going on, but he was worried Avi was gonna talk to him.

Avi found him first though, which is too bad because he was very close to the locker room.

Avi grinned at him. "Hey, babe, you gotta sec--?"

"Avi, I need to find Jake."

"What? Why?"

"I just need to talk to him."

"So talk to me instead."

"Can't."

"I can't let you go, Lex. I really need to speak to you. It's very very important."

Alex finally looked at the ground. "I'm not gonna help get you and Jake together."

"What? What the Hell are you talking about?"

"I talked to Cody, Avi. I know your secret." He exhaled loudly. "Explains why you were always so protective over him."

"Protective? You're kidding. I hate that fucking troll."

"I don't wanna talk to you right now. I'm too upset."

Avi put his hands on Alex's shoulders. "Alexander, I really need to talk to you. Please."

Alex's eyes were already watering. "Please, I don't--"

Avi rolled his eyes and grabbed his chin tightly just to kiss him once, and then move away to look directly into his eyes. "Hey. I want you to be my boyfriend. Are you okay with that?"

Alex stared at him for almost five whole seconds. "Are you... Are you sure you want that?"

"I'm so beyond sure. Will you?"

"Yes. Of course I will."

**