Fuck guys I took my MCAT today and cried three times like that shit was so hard and I studied all summer😭 I'm gonna update though bc I need love and your sweet comments always make my heart happy. Hope you guys are enjoying getting to know this version of Scotty and Mitch!
"Oh my God! Mitchie! Hey Es, look who's here! Scotty brought his trophy boy to work!"
Mitch rolled his eyes as Kate tried to get Esther's attention while she worked diligently at cutting her clients hair. He could see a little smirk playing at the edge of Esther's lips despite that she was trying to concentrate on her work and Mitch smiled, knowing she was just as happy to see him as he was to see her. He made his way behind the counter to give Kate a hug as Scott walked past them to clock in. "Screw him, I'm your trophy boy. I missed you, Katie! What's new?"
"Not much! Oh, well Esther promoted me to assistant manager a few weeks ago so I get to boss your boyfriend around all the time now! I don't think I need to tell you how much fun that is."
"Please, you already bossed him around before it was your job to! You were born to be his manager, weren't you?"
She gave him a playful shove to send him off, giggling as the door opened and a customer walked in. He walked away while Kate helped the customer sign in and sat at an empty station a couple spots down from where Esther was chatting with her client as she finished his haircut. Mitch sipped his coffee and watched her use a brush to fluff away the tiny stray hairs on the man's neck before taking his cape off and instructing him to go to the register to pay. Once he was out of the way she turned to Mitch with a big smile, rolling her salon chair closer to his station with her arms out.
"Mitchie! Aw, take your backpack off and give me a hug! What a great surprise!"
He chuckled and scooted his own chair to meet her halfway and Scott strolled back into the room in his work apron, taking a seat in his own chair and rolling his eyes at the sight.
"Ugh, gross. I told you she's still in love with you."
"I can't help ittttt!" She squeezed Mitch tighter, causing him to giggle as he looked up at Scott for help. "He's so handsome and sweet! He gives the best hugs and he smells yummy all the time! You're way too good for him, Mitch, leave him and be with me!"
"Hey! No stealing my boyfriend."
"I'm not stealing, he just loves me more! Right Mitchie? Tell him!"
Mitch kissed the side of her head before wiggling out of her grip and leaning back into his chair all pink cheeked and smiley. Scott stuck his tongue out at Esther in victory, causing her to roll over to him and pinch his arm.
"Ow!"
"Well, don't sass your boss then! I'm glad you came though, Mitchie, we love it when you visit. What brought you in? Did you want something done or are you just here to hang out?"
He couldn't decide quick enough what the easiest response was so he looked over to Scott for help. "Oh, he's just hanging out. He's had a long day and I thought it would cheer him up to see you guys, you know?"
"Oh no!" She tried to look sympathetic but it was hard to push down her excitement. Everyone at the salon loved Mitch- especially Esther, who had a sweet spot for Scott since he was one of her favorite employees. All of his coworkers loved Scott, too, and had absolutely melted the first time he'd brought a bright eyed and perky Mitch to the salon for a haircut and proudly introduced him as his boyfriend. They loved seeing him so happy with someone who seemed to be so good for him and became friends with him by the end of his first visit. They constantly teased the poor blond about Mitch anyway but whenever he was here in the flesh, they couldn't help but be overjoyed. "Well, I'll cheer you right up. Unless you need to study, that's a pretty big coffee you've got there. You have a test coming up or something?"
"Oh, no." He blushed a little, looking down at the huge cup of iced coffee in his hand. They'd stopped at a Starbucks on the way and Scott had ordered a venti iced latte for him, and Mitch had been so surprised when the man working in the drive thru handed him this. It was huge! He'd never gotten a venti anything before and he nearly asked Scott to exchange it for something smaller before he drove off. "No, this is just a treat from Scott. You want some?"
"Nope, I'm fine. You're so sweet for asking. Want me to do your nails again? It'll be fun!"
Mitch didn't even get a chance to respond before Scott interrupted, saying he wanted to do them, but Esther quickly waved him off.
"You have work to be doing, kiddo. I scheduled a girl this morning who wants senior portrait hair and makeup done and she specifically asked for you. I know they're supposed to call a few days in advance but you can still do it, right? You just have some haircuts today and a couple of eyebrow appointments, so you might even have time for some walk-ins. I'm sure you can manage."
"I can, that's fine. When's she coming in?"
"Fifteen minutes." Esther smiled at him apologetically. "I know, I know. She'll probably leave you a nice tip though since she really wanted you. Go ahead and set up your station and then try to give the floor a sweep before she comes in, alright?"
Scott obediently went off to start working, leaving Mitch and Esther on their own. She took him to her own station and tried to urge him to choose something other than his usual black so he settled on a nice dark maroon polish that was nearly black but not quite. He wasn't in the mood for adventure today but the color was pretty and seemed to make Esther happy.
She cleaned his short nails and filed them into shape all while updating him on everything new she'd done with her business. Esther had opened the salon on her own just a year before Scott had finished beauty school and gotten a job here and it was nice to see her business growing. Most of the details of flew right over Mitch's head but he was glad to hear of all the progress she was making. She paused when she finally got the first nail painted and smiled, rotating his finger side to side for him to see.
"You picked a good one, this is so pretty on your pale skin. Wow, very sexy. Scott's gonna love this on you, isn't he?"
He blushed at her teasing and Esther laughed, bringing her attention back to working on the rest of his nails. He didn't understand how nails could possibly be sexy, but he did agree that the color looked nice. He knew Esther wouldn't even dream of charging him or Scott for this and made a mental note to bake her cookies or something to pay her back.
"So what brought you down today? Am I allowed to ask? Was it school?"
Mitch watched as she finished up his first hand, almost too distracted by how pretty his fingertips looked coated in the maroon polish to respond. He could have have never done them so quickly or perfectly or even in one sitting. Everyone who worked here seemed so talented painting nails so flawlessly like it was no big deal and he was always taken aback by how easy they made it look. "Oh, no. Not school, I was doing rotations at the hospital and the guy I worked for kinda sucked. The surgeon."
"I'm sorry, honey. What did he do?"
"He didn't really do anything. He was just really rude, you know? I don't even know how to put it in words, doctors are just really mean to nurses sometimes. Like, the surgery we were doing wasn't even that hard but he was yelling and calling some of us names and it just sucked and put me down."
"Oh, no! I'm so sorry. Nursing is such a respectable field, I hate hearing stories like that. You work so hard, honey, nobody should be treating you so badly."
"I know. It's alright, I'm over it. You're doing an amazing job cheering me up. Thanks Essie!"
"No problem at all, hon. Come in anytime, alright? We all love you here." She gave both of his hands a once over, shaking the bottle of top coat in her hand as she waited for the dark polish to dry on his fingers. "What else is new? Is Scott still treating you well? I know it's none of my business, but believe me when I say I'll put that boy in his place if I ever hear about him acting out!"
"No! No, he's great to me!" He had to giggle at how intense she'd gotten for a moment. "Why, is he talking shit about me here? Do I need you to put him in his place?"
Her aggressive demeanor slipped away and even though she tried to keep it up, Mitch could see the edge of her lip tugging up into a smile again. He wasn't surprised, he knew how much Esther loved them together. She started brushing the clear layer of topcoat over his nails as he watched, trying to figure out how she did it so perfectly and efficiently.
"No, you don't. He doesn't shut up about you, but he's never said anything bad. He still harasses clients with fun facts about you, they probably know way more about you than they need to."
"Yeah?" He thought about how excited Scott had been to take him to work earlier and he had to stifle a yawn, the mental image of their home reminding him how tired he was despite the huge iced latte he'd been sipping. "What's he saying about me now? I wanna know."
"Well, he came in just a couple weeks ago gushing about your A+ on your test. He's still talking about it, how it's your second A in a row even though your last year is supposed to be the hardest. Oh, and he can't wait to see you graduate. He talks about your graduation all the time."
"Really?" Scott had mentioned it a few times in passing, but Mitch hadn't really paid attention. Of course he was happy to graduate, but he hadn't really considered that Scott might be just as excited about it as he was.
"Yeah. I know he didn't get to, I think that's why it's such a big deal to him. He's so proud of you, Mitch. He's always bragging about how you're the first person in either of your families to have a real job."
Mitch tried not to groan at that and fell silent for a moment, embarrassed. "I hate when he says that. It's so annoying and not true, what you guys do is just as real. He literally makes all of our money, I don't bring anything home. That's so stupid of him to say."
"I know, honey, but you will bring something home once you're done with school, and it's gonna be more than what he makes for sure. Don't be upset with him for saying that kind of stuff. Do you know how many people get jealous of their partner for silly things like how much money they make? Instead of being jealous he's so proud of you for becoming a nurse that he can't help but make a big deal out of it."
"It still doesn't make me better than him or our families or whatever. And I'm late, too. I should have graduated last semester, there's no reason to be that proud of me."
"Mitch." She looked at him pointedly and he immediately regretted opening his mouth. "Don't say that. Some people need more time and that's just fine, you're still succeeding. It's okay to be the first one in your family to be doing something big. How can you say that Scott shouldn't be so proud of you for graduating when he didn't even get through a full year of college? It's a huge milestone, Mitchie, especially to people who don't get to do it."
"I know. Sorry."
"Don't be. I didn't mean to get so defensive, I just love that boy and need to take his side on this one. So you've been doing a lot of surgeries lately from what he's told me, is that what you wanna stick with?"
Mitch shook his head, relieved at the change of subject. "No, definitely not. We kinda have to do a little bit of everything during rotations but I don't really like surgery. I'm okay with it but it's not my first choice, too graphic and stressful. I wanna do something in pediatrics or maybe neonatal. I love working with babies, I wish I got to do it more often."
"Babies, huh?" She raised her eyebrows at him and winked. "Whoa. Okay, don't get mad at me but I really wanna know. Since we're already talking about babies, is there anything, you know, happening between you two? Like, relationship wise...?"
Mitch tried to read her coy expression, confused at her question. His mind instinctively wandered back to what they'd been doing in bed just before they'd come here and he blushed. That couldn't be what she was asking about, right? She knew they were far enough into the relationship that they had to already have gone there. And she had to know that they couldn't actually make babies doing it. That was biologically impossible.
"What?"
"Oh, come on, Mitchie." She grinned as she screwed the top back onto the bottle of polish and set it back in its place, cozying back into her chair now that she was officially done with his nails. "How long have you guys been together? Six years? Seven?"
"More like five...ish." He tried to calculate how far back his junior year of high school was. Or was it senior year? He wasn't even entirely sure when they'd officially started dating, there wasn't really a set day when their friendship had evolved into an actual romantic relationship. "I don't know, maybe six. Why?"
"So nothing's happening? Really?"
"What does that mean?"
"Oh, please. You don't think? 'Cause he seems even more obsessed with you than normal these days."
"What?!"
"It's legal now, too!" She peeked over to Scott to make sure he wasn't snooping but he was too far away and too busy styling someone's hair to be listening. "Come on Mitch, you two haven't even talked about getting married?"
"Oh. Uh..." He couldn't help but blush a little and hoped Esther didn't notice. "No, not really. Um, no. I think we're too young."
"Oh, please. How old are you?"
"Twenty two."
"Oh." She paused for a minute, taken by surprise. "Wait, how old is he? Isn't he twenty four?"
"He's turning twenty three this month. We're way too young, Es, I don't even have a job yet." He looked over at Scott nervously, wondering if she'd had this talk with him too. "I'm still in school, I can't get married. I wanna be able to support myself before we start thinking about that, you know?"
"But you're so in love! Money doesn't matter that much, Mitch. People go their whole lives searching for what you have, don't you wanna seal the deal? I kinda can't believe that Scott hasn't put a ring on this pretty finger yet."
Mitch fell silent. He definitely could believe that Scott hadn't gotten him a ring yet, because how could he? With what money? Of course he'd though about maybe marrying him some day and he was sure Scott had thought about it too- especially with Esther around- but this soon? There was no way. It would just be impractical. They were barely passing by on his two small salaries and neither of their parents had enough money to help them out much. Investing in a wedding would just be stupid and irresponsible at this point in their lives.
"Aw, I didn't mean to make you think so much. I got a little too excited there, didn't I?" She ruffled his hair, bringing him back out of his thoughts. "Sorry about that. Alright kiddo, Kate's about to go on lunch so I need to cover for her and then I'm booked the rest of the day. Scott's gonna be working till we close, too, so I hope you brought something to keep you busy. You can stick around if you want but the break room's empty and quiet if you wanna get some studying in."
She gave him another little squeeze before strolling off, leaving Mitch to melt back into his chair in confusion. His mind was buzzing with everything Esther had said but he was physically too tired to worry about it much and he couldn't decide what to do with himself. He watched Scott and his coworkers work for a little while before he gave in to his urge to go into the quiet break room and start studying to take his mind off of everything.