Scott Hoying's POV
AFTER THE DAY WE GOT Mitch's hair dyed, I asked him out on another date and he obliged. I wanted to make sure this one was as fun as the first, but I didn't know what to do, so I did the only thing I thought was the best thing to do. Go to Kirstie.
What I expected was different from what I got. She started to squeal, telling me she had no idea we even went out on a first date, and eventually she calmed down and gave me a list of second date suggestions. Literally a list, a paper filled with them. She created it within seconds, thrusting it into my hands once she was done.
"Really?" I chuckled. "This is a lot. Where'd you get all these?"
"Oh, just my dream dates, that's all," she shrugged sheepishly. I shrugged also, "Well, thank you. I'll use one of these."
The first one my eyes laid on was the word aquarium. It seemed interesting to me, and Mitch had told me at one point he liked water, and this didn't involve any particular skill that Mitch didn't possibly have so I didn't have to teach him anything.
"This one?" I asked her, pointing to the aquarium one. She looked at it with a big grin, "Please do!"
I smiled back, a genuine one. Eventually, she left, and I was stuck with worrying about the second date with Mitch because of how paranoid I was that I'd somehow screw it up.
***
"Calm down," Kirstie said to me over the phone as I drove to Mitch's. "You didn't fuck up on the first, why are you so scared now?"
"I don't know," I groaned. "But if I do, then what?"
"Just focus on Mitch. He's the love of your life, he will calm you down—" and I stopped her. "Love of my life?" I repeated.
"Don't lie to yourself. Anyways, have fun. Don't worry about it, I have to go. Bye, Scott," she said. I let a sigh pass my lips, "Bye."
Then I heard the beep indicating she hung up, and soon out came Mitch, probably waiting for me this entire time judging by the fact he came out right as I got there. He stared at the ground as he was walking toward the car, and then when he got in, he looked at me. "So you're going to tell me where we're going this time, right?"
"Maybe. I'll think about it," I said, a small smile growing on my face. I started the car again and drove out.
"Scott," he whined. "I'll think you're trying to kill me, then."
"So be it."
"Next time I'm planning this entire thing and you won't know where we're going and we'll drive for maybe hours—" he kept rambling and when I pulled into the aquarium which wasn't far from his house at all, maybe seven minutes away, his jaw dropped and a light appeared in his eyes that I hadn't seen before. He grinned, hurrying out of the car before I even parked it, and when I got out, he went to my side of the car, grabbed my hand, and dragged me to the entrance.
"Mitch," I laughed. "Calm down."
"I love fish, you don't understand," Mitch said all too quickly. It was adorable seeing him that way, and so I let him haul me there silently.
He couldn't keep himself still when we talked to one of the workers and paid. He kept shifting feet, fidgeting his hands, playing with his fingers, and moving his arms around, looking around frantically.
"Have a nice time," the woman smiled at us. I nodded in response and this time, I poked Mitch to make sure he wasn't too out of it. He looked up at me for a moment, then his arms landed around my shoulders, pulling me in for a hug. I chuckled at his obvious excitement. "Thank you," Mitch let out a breath. I then pulled him closer by the small of his back, his head resting on my shoulder.
"You're welcome," I said, and then he led me to the tanks of fish and underwater animals before I could utter another word.
"Scott," he squeaked. "Look at it," he said, pulling me to the tank of pufferfish. "It's so cute!"
The only thing I could do is grin and stare at him but look at the pufferfish when he looked back at me. "It is," I agreed, and I wasn't lying. The fish was black and white and it genuinely seemed cute and innocent.
The people around us were staring at us, most at me which made me feel a bit bad. If people saw him with me, what would they think? But Mitch never paid any attention to them, only to me and, for most of the time, the fish. Some people stepped away, as if I were a bomb that would explode any second. But Mitch stayed.
"There's more," he said in a voice that made me think he liked the fish more than me, which he probably did. Pulling me once more to another tank, he pointed and ranted about how he really liked fish because of how cute they were. He seemed to be speaking ninety miles an hour, presumably not even realizing what he was saying himself.
He stopped talking and went back to staring at the animals, leaning toward the tank and touching it, as if the fish would come to his finger and focus on him. Which they did, surprisingly. One of them, anyways. It swam all the way toward him and once it did, Mitch let another big smile land on his lips. He moved his finger around, the fish following him every time as Mitch made a small sound of excitement.
Mitch kept mumbling words to himself. As I stared at him, I realized that all I was doing was staring at Mitch and not even focusing on the animals that we came here to do, but it was so hard to focus on animals when the only thing worth concentrating on was Mitch Grassi, the most intoxicating person that I've ever met standing in front of me, adoring something I couldn't find myself adoring. The way his eyes sparkled, and not because of the light contrasting with the complete darkness, but the utter happiness that he was feeling. How his lips turned into a smile whenever the pufferfish paid any attention to him – those lips. How they were curving.
"Scott?" Mitch snapped me out of my trance. I blinked, "Sorry, what?"
"Are you okay?" Mitch smiled, his cheeks a rosy pink color, unlike before. "Yeah, yeah. Sorry," I repeated. He kept the smile on his face, and I couldn't help but glance at his lips once. I felt myself turning red and I looked at the tank, "So, what's your favorite animal here?"
"Definitely the pufferfish or clownfish," he answered immediately. "What about yours?"
"Oh, uh," I coughed, looking at the tank. "Yeah, same. Clownfish. Puffer. Yeah."
"Really?" He smirked. I nodded, shifting on my feet. "I didn't exactly see you paying a lot of attention to them."
"Oh," I blushed further. "Sorry," I said for the third time that day.
"Don't be," Mitch suddenly grabbed my hand and swung our intertwined fingers lightly, and eventually my lips also turned into a smile when electricity flew up my arm and waves of something I couldn't place the name of flew in my stomach.
***
"Want to come in and say hi to Wyatt?" Mitch asked. I looked at him, then nodded, "Sure."
As we both got out of the car, he went a bit faster and in front of me. I didn't question why, but when we got to the door, I understood. He unlocked it before I was up there, and it opened when I was. We walked in and instantaneously we heard meowing and tiny feet padding down one of his halls.
Wyatt appeared beneath my feet and I kneeled down to him, petting him. Mitch did, too, and smiled as I paid attention to his cat.
"You're paying more attention to the cat today than the fish," Mitch remarked, making my blush from earlier return.
I didn't respond, and then I stood up, Mitch joining after. I stared at him, playing with the keys in my hand. He seemed to be contemplating something, and I knew what. I looked down at the ground, then at him, and he was staring at me, but not at my eyes. "Sorry," Mitch said this time, his hand going to his wrist. He looked adorable when he seemed a bit more shy. "Mitch," I gained his attention, and I felt like we were a lot more close than we were before, him being only an inch or so away from me.
My heart only seemed to beat more rapidly. "Yeah?" He responded, waiting. "Can I kiss you?" My eyes were trained on his lips, glancing up from them to look into his eyes. He simply smiled, and then he spoke a small 'yes' which made me gently place my lips onto his, my keys falling limp in my hand but not hitting the ground, one of my hands going to his waist and tugging him closer to me. It didn't last long, sadly, and after ten seconds or so of our lips moving together, it was stopped. "Goodnight, Mitch," I said quietly, and he let out a deep breath. "Goodnight, Scott."
***
a/n:: lol i can't write kissing scenes. anyways, everyone go check out Fraudulent by FreakyFruitFly! it's amazing and it's scömìche. unfortunately there's only two parts up now, the prologue and chapter 1, but it's still finally out after three decades of slow scömìche one shot updates. but recently she's been really into writing so she's gonna be faster! lol it's like almost 2 AM here so i gotta stop. bYE.