The Internship

Chapter Nineteen

I was outside of Mitch's apartment. After his call he'd grabbed all his stuff and ran out saying something important came up. Now I paced, waiting for him. His car wasn't in the parking lot, so he wasn't home. My suspicion radar was beeping but I refused to think he was cheating on me.

He shouldn't.

He wouldn't.

Right?

I was shaken out of my thoughts by Mitch whistling Stay With Me by Sam Smith as he got off the elevator. He stopped when he saw me.

"What are you doing here?" He asked.

"I'm your boyfriend, or at least I think I am. Either way, I'm worried. You just disappeared, Mitch. You cannot do that."

"I'm sorry, okay?"

"Can we go inside and talk?"

Panic flashed across his face. "No, we can't."

"C'mon, Mitch. Stop playing games, I'm sick of it. I want answers now or else."

"Or what?"

"Or I can't trust you and be with you." I was shocked by my words. The last thing I wanted to was lose Mitch, but I wouldn't let him see that.

"Fine, just let me clean up. I'm embarrassed."

"No you're not. You're hiding something, let me in your apartment."

He took a deep breath and flattened his hair. "You won't want to be with me anyways," he said under his breath. He must've thought I didn't hear it.

He opened the door and I suddenly forgot how to breathe. Tears began to prick at my eyes and soon they were falling.

"Mitch," I whispered.

His apartment was completely trashed. His belongings were strewn everywhere and his kitchen and half of his living room looked like they were burned. "'DIE NO ONE WANTS YOU! YOU'RE A DIRTY SLUT!" was written in red on the wall.

I walked around, examining. "It's your first time in my apartment and it looks horrible," he said.

"What happened?" I asked, my voice shaky.

"Let's sit at the table, it's not as bad."

We sat down and I wiped away some of my tears. "Travis and some of my other old friends aren't very happy. I practically ditched them and they won't accept that. I should've called the police when they first started threatening me," he said.

He began crying. "You could've at least told me," I said. I reached over and grabbed his hands. I could feel my heart breaking and my anger rising.

"Then you would've tried to do something and I didn't want them to hurt you."

He sighed, looking around his wrecked apartment. "I forgot that Travis has a key to my apartment. He and a couple of my friends, old friends, came in the middle of the night and started a fire."

"WHAT?!" I yelled, jumping out of my seat.

"Hey, sit back down."

I was furious.

Red. Red. Red.

My fists balled and I began pacing around his apartment. I kept my distance because I didn't want to act on my anger and do something stupid. I could faintly hear him calling my name and telling me to come sit down but the voice in my head was louder.

"You could've lost him forever. No more kissing his lips and seeing that dimpled smile or those eyes. No more listening to him singing Beyoncé or laughing at one of your stupid jokes. He almost left."

The anger shot through my whole body, lighting it on fire. It traveled through my arm and the next thing I knew my knuckles were throbbing.

I had punched the wall.

"I--uh--sorry." I stumbled over my words, desperately looking for a way to get Mitch to somehow forget about the giant hole in his wall.

"Your hand!" He exclaimed.

He rushed off and then returned with ice and an ace bandage. He carefully wrapped it around my injured knuckles, an adorable concentrated look on his face.

"Can I continue?" He asked.

"Yeah, sorry I'm so--"

"I didn't realize until the fire had burned most of the kitchen and part of my living room," he began, cutting me off.

"The smoke was so thick and I couldn't see or breathe. I thought I was going to die. I crawled out and found the extinguisher. I didn't want to call anyone because I am so fucking done with people constantly being in my life. I just wanted to deal with my shit on my own for once, and I obviously did a horrible job."

"Mitch I am so sorry that this happened to you. You're handling it so well."

"No, I'm sorry. Ignoring you was a douche move. I was just really busy with signing the company over to myself and saving jobs and letting people go. I've never been this stressed before in my life. I'm really sorry and I understand if you don't want me anymore."

"Don't want you? Are you fucking kidding me? Come here."

He crawled ino my lap and I smiled at the feeling of my arms around him again. The smile disappeared quickly as I felt his tears on my neck.

"I was finally happy. Why did they try to ruin that?" He asked.

"They're jealous and they miss you. You're becoming something they could never be."

He began crying harder and I found it to be contagious. Soon we were both sobbing messes.

He calmed down first and began pressing soft kisses onto my cheek and jaw. I couldn't stop crying, though. All I could think about was losing him. It was the scariest thing in the world and it made me feel paralyzed and sick to my stomach to think of a world without him in it. Without us.

"Please calm down," he whispered, before continuing his kisses.

"I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND," I yelled. I was having a complete breakdown. "WHY WOULD THEY TRY TO TAKE MY BABY FROM ME?! THAT'S NOT FAIR. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. WHY WOULD THEY DO THIS?! DON'T GO, PLEASE DON'T."

"I'm not, I'm right here. Calm down please. I'm okay." He kept whispering to me until my breathing slowed down.

I began rubbing his back, to comfort myself more than to comfort him. "Are you alright?" He asked.

"Yeah. No. Maybe. I just-- the thought of losing you is scary as hell."

He kissed my forehead. "It's been a long week for both of us. Let's just cuddle and get some sleep, okay?"

"Yeah but Mitch?" I looked around his wrecked apartment. "Let's go to my place."

-----

"And I know that you don't want to tell anyone but we have to. This is serious, Mitch. I won't let another day pass without the police knowing," I said.

He hummed in response, half awake. We were cuddled up in my bed, warm, tired, and surrounded by nothing but our love for one another.

"Goodnight, Mitch. I love you," I said.

He mumbled something that sounded like another language and I laughed lightly before I kissed his forehead.

There are horrible things in the world, everywhere. But in that moment I vowed to never let Mitch get hurt again. Ever.