Chapter 2 #3
It would probably be another sleepless weekend as he did his damnedest to get everything done.
If Mitch wasn’t completely in love with his school and his program and his hockey team, he’d throw his arms up in defeat and call it a day.
But he did love his school and his program and his hockey team and he’d earned them all on his own.
Fuck if he was going to quit and prove his mother right.
So not happening.
She believed, in her own Greta Westlake way, that sports were “an enormous waste of time. It’s not a real career, Mitch.
It’ll make you irresponsible and immature and if it’s really what you want, then you’ll have to do it without my help.
When you come to your senses and realize that you need to pursue a business degree, like your brother, then I’ll give you your tuition money back. ”
He shook his head, remembering. Even if, for some reason, he decided to drop both hockey and kinesiology and transfer to a business program, there was no way in hell that he’d ever ask for her help.
She’d made it perfectly clear that she didn’t respect his choices.
He’d make it on his own, thanks. He didn’t need her help. He didn’t need anybody’s help.
Determination was all well and good. However, if he wanted to stay past this year, he had to keep his grades up so the school would renew his partial scholarship.
And keeping his grades up meant putting in the work, which was what he should’ve been doing tonight instead of waiting around for Alex to show up.
Mitch might’ve told Alex this party was for a friend, but the truth was that he had no damn clue whose party this was.
He’d heard about it somewhere and it had seemed like the perfect opportunity to hang out with Alex.
Mitch wanted to go home, but he also wanted to stay in case Alex showed up, though the chances of that were laughably small.
As in somewhere around negative twenty. He hadn’t had any trouble reading the clear “Hell no” on Alex’s face when Mitch had invited him.
Alex either wasn’t gay or wasn’t interested.
But for some reason, Mitch couldn’t leave it alone.
The way Alex looked at him… He wasn’t checking Mitch out.
It was more like he was trying to figure Mitch out.
That alone meant Mitch should steer clear of him. He didn’t need another person in his life he was bound to disappoint.
Fuck, he wanted to go home. Because seriously, that bee farm was looking better and better.
His phone vibrated against his thigh and he fished it out of his pocket to find a text from Cody.
Need a rescue yet?
Cody always seemed to have a sixth sense for when Mitch was ready to commit murder. Or kill himself, whatever got him out of this miserable party faster. Cody wasn’t even here and he knew Mitch was slowly dying of forced cheer and gregariousness.
I’m about to sneak out the back door, Mitch texted back.
I’ll come pick you up. Give me 5.
The door to the restrooms crashed open, bringing with it the sound of voices and music that were once again muffled when the door closed.
“I’m not having sex in a bathroom stall, you jerk,” a giggling female voice said.
“But it’s Mama Jean’s.” An amused male voice this time. “You know it’s clean.”
“Not happening, Eddie. My brother’s here and I don’t want him walking in on us.”
“Your brother loves me.”
“Not if he finds you macking on his sister in the restroom. Besides, I have a perfectly good dorm room with a roommate who’s away for the weekend.”
A gusty sigh. “Fine. I must love you if I’m willing to wait an extra fifteen minutes.”
The woman’s laugh was throaty, and then she too sighed, but hers was tinged with desire. Gasps, moans, and the sound of wet sucking reached Mitch’s ears.
Great. He was stuck as the unwanted third wheel as his two uninvited guests settled in for a make-out session.
It made him realize that he hadn’t had a make-out session of his own in a few months.
Not since he and Cody had headed back to the Hamptons to visit for a couple of weeks over the summer holiday, and he’d found a hot guy in a gay bar in Manhattan who’d been just as willing and eager for a one-night stand as Mitch.
There was a clang, then, “Ow, crap!” Sounded like she bumped into the exposed piping next to the sink.
“Sorry, baby.” The guy’s voice was low, gruff.
“It’s okay.” A fast kiss, a second, a third. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
They left.
Mitch rubbed a hand over his chest and leaned his head back against the stall wall.
Sometimes he wished he had an Eddie. Someone to come home to.
Someone whose family would welcome him. Someone to soothe his hurts.
He was usually too busy to acknowledge the loneliness inside him, but listening to Eddie and his girlfriend kiss not only with affection but with tenderness?
The loneliness hit him suddenly, like a check into the boards he hadn’t seen coming.
He might’ve promised himself that he wouldn’t let anybody close again—he had to protect himself somehow, so he wouldn’t be hurt when the world found him lacking—but that didn’t mean he didn’t miss the connection with another human being.
Not necessarily a sexual one, but an intimate one, like the one he used to have with Dan.
It was because of Dan, and because of his mother’s callousness, that Mitch had come to GH in the first place, determined to start fresh.
No one knew him here except for Cody, so he could be whoever he wanted to be with everyone else, hide behind a brash exterior.
But that meant that nobody really knew him.
Sometimes, he felt the pressure of hiding who he was wearing him down, but he’d gotten into the habit and he didn’t know how to make himself vulnerable, how to let anyone in.
How could he, when he didn’t really know who he was anymore?
Had he turned into the person he’d been pretending to be for over a year, the one that was only meant to keep his heart safe?
Or was he still the same person he’d always been, the one Cody knew?
The pulsing in his temples had turned into a throb. Mitch lowered the toilet seat, sat, and waited for his best friend to come rescue him.