Chapter Twenty-Nine: He Needed Me
After a mere hour and a half of sleep, I was woken up by my alarm. I groggily reached over to my night stand to turn it off, and sat up in my bed, shielding my eyes from the sunlight with my hand. Mitchell and I had the morning shift this morning and quite frankly, I was looking forward to sitting in the guard tower with Miles and talking everything through.
I wasn't stupid, I knew Mitchell had been a complete ass last night, but in the end I had still gone to see Connor, so which was worse? A part of me knew I deserved an apology from him just as part of me knew I should tell him about my whereabouts last night even though he surely would not understand.
Because last night? I proved all of his worries and suspicions by going to see Connor.
I put on my lifeguard uniform and walked to my door, anxiously wondering if Mitchell would be down already and what he would say. When I opened it, I stood face to face with the boy in question, his fist raised to knock on the door, and his face a mixture of shame and a wince. "Mitchell," slipped out of my mouth in surprise as I saw him standing there, wearing the same clothes he had last night.
"Hi," he said softly, taking in my expression and trying to gauge my mood.
I pursed my lips and crossed my arms across my chest.
The corners of his mouth turned up in a painful wince of a smile as he opened his mouth to ask me a simple question, "Can I come in?"
I sighed and glanced into my room quickly then back at him. A part of me didn't want to let him in, but a bigger part of me knew it would be better for us to talk in private, away from the prying ears and interest of our families. I gave him a simple nod and stepped to the side. I walked over to sit on my bed, and he stood in the center of my room awkwardly. "What is it?" I asked him sharply.
He winced, but accepted it, probably realizing he deserved it. "I'm sorry," He said simply, glancing up from the floor to me as if expecting me to accept his weak attempt at a sorry.
I cocked an eyebrow at him in question as if to say 'for?'
"I know I was totally out of line last night. I was super drunk." He admitted shamefully, looking down at my floor once again.
"That's the problem, isn't it?" I asked him slowly and carefully, trying to keep the nervous waiver out of my voice. "You got drunk, and you lashed out, but not just at me, at Marco, Wes, and Connor."
Mitchell's eyes darkened at the mention of Connor and he opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off.
"Connor," I continued, my voice growing in strength, "Who has done absolutely nothing to you but for dating me in the past."
"He threw his water on me at the restaurant," Mitchell said angrily, losing his sad, shameful, sorry composure.
"Why, Mitchell?" I asked him, "Look at me, and tell me why, because I know Connor very well as you always like to point out, and I know he wouldn't do something like that without being provoked." I felt my mind shift as I realized the words I'd just said were entirely true. I had never known Connor to be violent, jealous, or possessive. Why hadn't I put it together earlier? What had Mitchell said to him?
Mitchell looked up at me, biting the inside of his cheek, his lips pulled down into a grimace and a fiery passion burning in his eyes. He stayed silent, not responding to me. It was a low blow to mention how well I knew Connor, I was aware of that, but if Mitchell could bring it up like he did last night, so could I.
"Are you seriously siding with him right now?" Mitchell finally asked in an angry bewilderment. The look on his face a mixture of shock and disbelief, accurately representing the tone of his voice.
"It's not about sides, Mitchell! It's not about Connor!" I cried in desperation, "This is about me and you. This is about us! Why can't you just leave him out of it?"
"Bullshit," Mitchell replied "Everything always has to do with him when it comes to you! Ever since that one day we saw him at the restaurant and he wouldn't look at you, but you couldn't stop looking at him!"
We were practically shouting at each other at this point, but I couldn't bring myself to care that we might me disturbing the other's in the house. I couldn't bring myself to care that maybe he was right because maybe the first time I'd seen Mitchell in years was the day I'd woken up in Connor's bed. At the moment, all I could think about was how absolutely furious I was with Mitchell right now. He had turned an apology into a scenario where he was the victim.
"I'm with you, Mitchell! I'm with you!" I told him exhausted. I was tired of fighting. "If I wanted to be with him..." I trailed off, my voice much quieter now. "Stop making everything about him, or you're going to lose me."
At this, the angry expression left Mitchell's face. "I know," he whispered, sounding broken. "It's just so hard to come to this town, where you have this whole life without me... I just I'm so afraid of losing you all the time, cause you're the best thing that's ever happened to me."
I stayed silent, watching him warily as he ran a hand through his hair. My heart was breaking for him. I never considered how hard it must be for him to come to this town as the new guy where I'd spent my past years living, forming relationships and bonds with everyone. I never imagined that there were times when Mitchell felt left out, or inside jokes that I had just assumed he knew, but he didn't.
I knew for a fact that if the roles had been reversed, and it was me who was staying with him and his family in their city home... If I had to hang out with his city friends everyday and see all the girls who he was friends with, the girls he'd previously liked or had things with... It didn't completely excuse his behavior, but it did give me a new perspective.
"I know I'm going about this all wrong. I have royally screwed up so many times. Honestly, I'm questioning why you're still with me," He said, chuckling darkly. "You're perfect, and I'm just-" his mouth turned to the side as he searched for the right word. "I'm fucked up." He sighed.
I stood up from my bed and walked up to Mitchell. "No, you're not," I grabbed one of his hands in mine, "And I'm not perfect." I grabbed his other hand and wrapped them around my waist, leaning my head on his chest. I knew that if I were in the city with him, and he still had interactions with an ex of his like the ones Connor and I had, I'd be pretty jealous too.
His arms tightened around me and I felt him place a gentle kiss on top of my head. "I'm sorry, Hallie." He whispered quietly as we silently swayed in each other's arms.
"I know, M." I murmured back into his shoulder.
When we pulled back from each other, he cleared his throat before muttering. "We should probably get going."
"How about I drive, and then we can go hang out somewhere after?" I asked him with a smile.
"Sounds perfect," Mitchell agreed with a smirk.
+++
I was pulling into the parking for the beach near our tower when my phone dinged. We were running a couple minutes late because of traffic, so I assumed that it was Miles asking where we were. "Can you answer that and tell Miles we'll be right there?" I asked Mitchell as I began reversing into a spot.
"Sure," he said, picking up my phone from the cup holder and looking at my lock screen. As I put the car in park, I could feel his grip on my phone tighten. He wasn't texting. I glanced over to him and watched as a storm clouded his eyes. His mouth turned down, and his eyebrows furrowed slightly.
The light smile that had been resting on my face faded as I took in his expression.
"Care to explain?" He asked, showing me the lock screen of my phone.
'hey hal'
'just wanted to say thanks for last night'
The texts were from Connor. My expression formed into one of worry as I looked at the pure disgust that was forming on Mitchell's face.
"It's not what you're thinking-" I started quickly.
"I can't believe I trusted you," Mitchell said calmly and quietly, and it was then that I realized just how pissed he was.
"Mitchell-" I tried again, a plea in my voice for him to just listen to me.
"Thanks for last night?" He asked reading out the text on my phone, laughing because of just how angry he was.
"Mitchell-" I said again, more firmly this time. I had to make him listen to me.
"This is exactly why I was scared. I knew that you would always run back to him, I didn't expect it to be while we're together. It's bad enough that you're always hanging out with Miles, not to mention Lani, Wes, and Marco, for all I know, you're screwing them too!" Mitchell chuckled lowly, his anger simply rising as he kept talking.
"Nothing happened last night!" I told him seriously, ignoring the comments he'd made about my best friends.
"Well if nothing happened last night, why did you go in the first place?" Mitchell asked seething. He was angry, and he had every right to be. If I'd seen that text on his phone from a girl, I know I would be furious, but truly nothing had happened last night.
"He needed me," I admitted, looking down and biting my lip, avoiding Mitchell's gaze.
"Of course he did," Mitchell said, rolling his eyes.
"It wasn't just us! It wasn't even him that called me, it was George." I told him, trying to convince him nothing had happened without giving him the real reason.
"Oh that makes me feel so much better," Mitchell said sarcastically while rolling his eyes, "George, the guy who fucking dared you to give Connor a lap dance and then made you go skinny dipping with the ocean. That makes everything okay."
"Logan was there too," I muttered quietly. I didn't want to betray Connor. I didn't want to have to tell Mitchell what had really happened, why I actually needed to be there, why Connor didn't want to leave...
"So what? You had a damn foursome?" Mitchell asked. Another time I might have laughed, but the serious tone of his voice and the fact that he really wasn't joking wiped out all of the humor.
"No, Mitchell." I looked into his eyes pleadingly, "I can't tell you why, the reason is personal to Connor, but please believe me, I didn't even touch him." So the last words were a lie, but hopefully I'd said them convincingly enough, Mitchell did not need to know about the hug or how I'd laid my head on Connor's shoulder. "George practically tricked me into coming." I added as an afterthought, "You know how manipulative he is."
I placed my hand on Mitchell's tense shoulder and felt him slowly begin to relax.
"I haven't texted him since we started dating," I told him, and felt him finally fully relax into his touch.
"You promise me there's nothing going on?" Mitchell asked.
"Yes." I said quickly, possibly too quickly, but Mitchell didn't seem to care or notice.
"Okay," he sighed, and then unlocked his door to get out. We were definitely late for work now. We walked to the tower silently, but hand in hand, and once we got in front of the tower, I heard Miles call to us.
"Hey lovebirds, where have you been?"
Mitchell pulled me in for a possessive kiss before answering, "Oh you know how it is..." He replied with a smirk, pulling me to his side.
Miles's eyes widened in surprise and his mouth formed an 'o' shape. I forced a smile onto my face. Mitchell was putting on a show for Miles, letting him know that I was his, something Miles was fully aware of. If it would appease his insecurity about me leaving him for one of my other friends, I would allow it.
I kissed Mitchell on the cheek and said, "I''ll see you after work, babe-" and went to walk up to the tower with Miles where we could talk.
I felt Mitchell's hand wrap around my wrist and pull me back. "How about you stay on the beach with me today?" He asked with a smile.
It was an order framed as a suggestion of a question, but I knew that there was only one right answer, and it was "Yeah, okay."
I sent Miles a shrug before turning back to Mitchell, who placed another possessive kiss on my lips. "Perfect," he said and flashed me a grin that I returned.
expect more frequent updates my lovies, i'm trying to finish this story and put it in the Wattys! we've already passed the minimum word count (50k)
about 8-9 chapters left <3