Mitch woke up in the middle of the night, seeing the bathroom light on in the hotel room.
He rubbed his eyes a little, and looked at the clock.
As he did so, Scott walked out of the bathroom, phone in hand. He hopped back into the bed, phone pressed to his ear. "I don't give a shit. I'm spending a night with my boy, leave me alone."
Mitch grinned widely. "Your boy? That's cute."
Scott looked over quickly. "God damn it, I woke him up. I blame you. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Who was that?"
"Nobody."
"Was it Rick?"
Scott frowned at him. "How did you know..?"
Mitch just smiled. "I'm a good wife, and I know what you sound like when you talk to him. So what did he want at this hour?"
"He'd just woken up from whatever. Wanted to make sure I was coming to see him tomorrow. Or... Today, technically."
"That's weird... Why would he..?"
"He's probably just lonely, because he's such a shit that he has no friends."
Mitch moved over a little to be closer to Scott, only for Scott to put his arms around him. "I'd disagree if he wasn't so awful to you... How's he doing? Do you know?"
"Nope. I didn't ask. Feels well enough to give me shit though, so... There's that."
Mitch shook his head slowly. "I'm getting like... Second-hand irritation. Let's just go to sleep, okay?"
Scott nodded, pulling Mitch's head forward so Mitch's forehead was against his chest.
Mitch pressed a kiss to the tattoo he found there. "Goodnight, sweetheart."
"Night, babe."
Mitch had literally closed his eyes for about five seconds, when his phone started buzzing on the bedside table. "Goddamn it."
Scott chuckled a little, reaching past Mitch to grab the phone lighting up on the table and taking it off the charger to look at the screen. "It's Alex, baby."
Mitch moved quickly, taking the phone from him to answer. "Hey, babe. Everything okay?"
Because of how quiet the room was, Scott could easily hear the conversation. Mitch still felt bad, and put the phone on speaker before setting it on the space of the bed that was between the couple.
Alex spoke quickly, like he was afraid. "It's fine. I'm fine. But... I'm in need of friend advice. And--And I know it's late, I'm so sorry for calling this early in the morning, but I haven't slept at all and I can't--"
"Honey, slow down. What's wrong? Are you at home?"
"I'm driving to Kirstie's right now, because she wants to hear all the drama and wants me to stay over because she's worried about me."
"Avoided the first part of my question, babe. What's wrong?"
Alex took a deep breath, and Mitch could faintly hear the ticking of the turn signal. "Avi and I are in a weird place right now... I just left his house."
"You left his house at three in the morning?" Mitch clarified.
"Uh... Yeah. Kirstie was up..."
"Okay the suspense is killing me. What happened, Alex?"
Alex tried to laugh a little, but it sounded almost like it hurt. "Well, uh... It's no secret that he can be a little mean, and... Kinda bossy, and... He kinda pulls me around sometimes, and... Kirstie said he's kind of verbally abusive."
"Right... Did something happen? Did he do something to you?" Mitch sat up a little, his voice suddenly carrying a hard edge to it. "Alex, talk to me."
"I know Scott can be the same sometimes, but I'm not like you, Mitch. I don't tell him to knock it off, and... I don't stick up for myself. So maybe it's kinda my fault, I guess, even though--"
"No, absolutely not. His actions are not your fault, Alex. I'm serious, tell me what the fuck happened."
Scott reached out to put a hand on his upper arm in hopes of relaxing him, meeting his eyes in the darkness of the room.
Alex suddenly groaned. "Hang on, Kirstie is trying to text me an address, and I'm really bad at multi-tasking."
"Take your time. Don't crash, please."
Scott quickly muted the phone so Alex couldn't hear them speaking. "Mitchie, take a deep breath, babe. You're freaking yourself out."
"Okay well as far as I understand, Avi is being verbally abusive to the nicest fucking person I've ever met. That's not okay, Scott."
"I understand that, Mitch. But we don't know the full extent of what's going on."
Alex spoke up again. "Sorry, sorry. Anyway--"
Mitch quickly turned the mute off. "Tell me what happened, Alex. Did this happen just now? Like while you were at his house?"
"Yeah, it's the reason I asked to leave. Kinda lied and told him I was going home. But... Mitchie, before I say this, please know that I've seen his softer, kinder side and I know he's not an awful person. I think he just made a mistake."
"Tell me what happened, and I'll come to my own conclusions."
Scott shook his head slowly at the tone in Mitch's voice.
Alex paused before speaking. "He's always kinda rough with me, like... Telling me what to do, and bossing me around. But I've told him before that I'm not okay with it, and he's apologized. I just... Don't think he knows that he's doing it."
"And..?"
"And... He got super jealous of Jake, and... Wanted me to call him, and put it on speaker while Avi and I were fucking around... If you get what I'm saying?"
"Like... While you two were fucking? He wanted you to call Jake?"
"He wanted Jake to hear us together, because... He was being crazy territorial and jealous and... It freaked me out. He didn't actually force me to do it, but he refused to like... Finish me off, because I told him I wasn't gonna call Jake."
"What the fuck? That's bullshit. What's his deal with Jake, anyway?"
Scott couldn't help but mumble a defense for his friend. "Maybe because Alex decided to fuck Jake after Avi confessed to him that--"
Mitch smacked his arm. "That's no excuse, Hoying."
Alex's tone changed again. "Oh, oops. I didn't realize you were listening, Scott, I'm sorry for being so vulgar."
"Don't be." Mitch rushed out. "Did you say anything to him after you guys were, like done?"
"Kind of... I tried to confront him about what happened, but he just said that he's a jealous kind of person, and that he's sorry."
"Bull. I call bullshit on that. Let me just ask this super awkward question... Did he get off? Like, he didn't help you, but did he get off before or after?"
"Yeah... He got off first, and then told me I wasn't allowed to unless I did all the work myself. And... I don't know. I really like him, and he can be such a sweet person, but... It just freaked me out. After all that went down with my coach... I don't want someone else who's gonna say stuff to manipulate me."
"And that's perfectly reasonable, Alex. I think you need to talk to him. I've had to do that with Scott too, and.. It helps a little. I even did it with Avi that one time he grabbed Scott's neck, if you remember that. And he hasn't done it since then, so."
"I'm just so bad at sticking up for myself..."
"Well you're gonna have to learn. Don't settle for less than you deserve."
Alex sighed loudly. "I understand... Thanks, Mitchie. I'm at her house now, I uh.. I'll call you later?"
"Okay. Text me what Kirstie says about it all, okay?"
"I will. Love you."
"Love you too, Allie."
Scott hung up for him, meeting his eyes. "I don't like this, Mitchie. Avi doesn't behave like that."
"You're telling me that Alex is lying?"
"No, no, I just think something's wrong... Sounds like Avi's hurting."
Mitch scoffed. "He's verbally abusing my best friend, and you think he's the one that's hurting?"
"What do you think drives people to do that, Mitchell? He's my friend, and I know how he acts. So for him to do this..." Scott shook his head a little. "Something's wrong."
Mitch stared at him for a few seconds, and then went back to his phone to find Avi's contact. "Think he's awake?"
"Mitch, you can't call him. You might make Alex upset."
"Don't care. Too tired to care." The phone was already ringing, and Mitch pressed the speaker button.
Avi was quick to answer. "Hey."
"Hey, we need to talk. What the fuck was that with Alex earlier?"
Scott scoffed at him. "Subtle."
Avi hesitated at first. "What... What are you talking about? He just left a few minutes ago."
"You were super rude to him, and wouldn't even get him off? For real? That's like, super petty."
"Wow, I don't really wanna be discussing this with you, but... I just hate hearing the name out of his mouth when he and I are fuckin' around like that. Fucking gross is what it is."
"So, you decided it would be fair of you to punish him for that by asking him to call Jake while you're fucking?"
"Yeah. I mean, if he wants to talk about him so much, Jake should know what's going on."
Scott suddenly spoke up, after laying back down in bed. "Avi, that doesn't make any fucking sense. You and Alex need to talk through your issues, or he's gonna walk out on you because you're being a fucking dick."
Avi seemed to respond to that better. "I don't mean to, Scott. He's just... He's too good to me, and I don't want him to leave."
"I know, and I know it makes sense to people like you and I. But other people, such as Mitch and Alex, are more normal than we are, and it doesn't translate the same. So you have to treat Alex better than that."
"What does better even mean, though?"
"Don't be controlling. You can't force him to stick around. You can't threaten him to do what you want. Because all that's gonna do is push him away."
**