Chapter 21 #2
The doctor, a tall, thin lady with brown hair going to gray tucked back into a ponytail, didn’t give him a chance to respond. “I’m Doctor Pariselli. You’ve given your family here quite a scare, Mr. Greyson. I assume they told you what happened?”
“I passed out from exhaustion,” Mitch said woodenly, resting his head against the pillow and closing his eyes against his family’s haunted and haggard expressions.
“You were dehydrated and had low blood sugar. Have you been ill recently or were you on any medications?”
Mitch shook his head.
“We’ve got you on some nutrients here, and once that’s done—” Mitch opened his eyes to find her checking how much liquid remained in the IV bag. “—which should be any minute now, you’re free to go. Assuming you have someone to take care of you.”
“I can take care of myself.”
Silence.
“Yeah, okay.”
“I’ll be right back with your discharge papers and instructions for the next few days.” The doctor left, leaving him with an angry giant of a boyfriend, an unimpressed best friend, and a concerned father.
“Could you two give us a second?” his dad said to Alex and Cody.
“Sure.” Cody patted Mitch’s foot and followed a tense Alex out the door.
“I’m sorry, Dad.”
His dad took his hand. “Cody says you’ve been taking on extra kids to tutor, leaving you less time for schoolwork and other important things like eating and sleeping. Why didn’t you tell me money was so tight?”
Damn Cody and his big mouth. Mitch shrugged and picked at a thread in the bedding.
“More importantly,” his dad said, squeezing his hand to get his attention, “why didn’t you tell me your mom took your tuition money away?”
His dad was hurt. Realization came so fast, Mitch’s eyes burned. His dad was hurt that Mitch hadn’t confided in him. “I didn’t want to cause any more strain between you and Mom.”
“Kiddo, your mom and I have been sleeping in separate rooms since you moved out for college. Except for Christmas, when we put up a pretense, but… We’re meeting with our lawyers in a couple weeks to sign the divorce papers.”
“You—” Heart jackhammering, Mitch sat up, the lumpy pillow falling off the bed. “I did this.” His dad deserved better than his mom, but that didn’t mean Mitch wanted his parents to divorce, even though it was probably best for both of them. Fuck, he was so conflicted.
“No.” His dad actually chuckled. “No, none of this is your fault. The divorce has been in process for a long time now. I tried to make it work with your mom, but… She turned into someone I don’t recognize anymore.
I’ve spent years trying to bring out the part of her that I fell in love with, but…
” He smiled thinly and patted Mitch’s hand.
“Anyway, we’ll talk more later. I’ll be around for the next few days and we’ll discuss the money thing and the divorce and anything else you need to talk about, okay?
Right now, I’m going to let Alex in here before he blows a blood vessel. ”
“He’s so mad at me.” Mitch’s eyes burned again and he wiped them using the collar of his hospital gown, pissed at himself, at the situation, at the fear he’d put in everyone.
And oddly scared that this was what was going to do it for Alex and have him running in the other direction as fast as he could, leaving a trail of heartbroken Mitch-dust behind.
Ever since Alex had caught Mitch snooping through his journals last month and hadn’t blinked twice at the intrusion of privacy, Mitch had wondered what it would take to make him angry.
Looked like he’d found it.
* * *
Out in the hallway, Alex kicked the wall and stared at a smudge in the white paint.
“Stop doing that,” Cody said, leaning against the wall. “It’s annoying.”
Alex swallowed his retort. Don’t yell at Cody.
The self-loathing practically dripped off Cody’s stiff shoulders and tight fists, and Alex wasn’t a big enough jerk to add to it.
He might be pissed at Cody for not realizing sooner that Mitch was in danger, but Cody was clearly already beating himself up over it. He didn’t need Alex’s censure too.
Besides, Alex was equally, if not more, pissed at Mitch’s dad. How could the man not know that his own wife had withheld his son’s tuition?
To top it off, Alex was also equally pissed at himself, and even more so with the person sitting in the hospital bed in the room across the hall.
It was quiet in the hallway, still too early in the day for visitors.
The hospital didn’t have official visiting hours, but it had quiet hours between ten p.m. and eight a.m. Murmuring voices reached them from the nurse’s station further down, a beeping machine from someone’s room, the hum of the fluorescent lights.
Geoff Greyson came out of Mitch’s room, hollow-eyed and weary, bags beneath his eyes, lines of stress and concern etched into his face aging him ten years. He nodded at Alex. “Go on in. I’ll go see about those discharge papers.” He clasped Alex’s shoulder. “Don’t be too hard on him, okay?”
Oh, Alex wouldn’t be too hard. No, he was going to be very hard. Someone as smart Mitch should’ve known better than to push himself to the edge.
But the sight of Mitch sitting on the hospital bed, his shoulders slumped, lip caught between his teeth, a butterfly bandage on his forehead where he’d landed on glass, had Alex’s ire turning to relief and affection.
He sat on the edge of the bed and ducked down to catch Mitch’s gaze. Mitch’s eyes were wet and he gave a surreptitious sniffle. Alex pulled on his arm. “Come here.”
Mitch scrambled onto Alex’s lap, careful of his IV, and tucked his nose into Alex’s neck. Alex held him close and sighed into Mitch’s messy hair, touching him everywhere, inhaling his scent, reassuring himself that Mitch was in one piece.
“You scared me,” he whispered. Cody’s phone call had scared the absolute shit out of him, despite the other man’s reassurances that the doctors were sure Mitch had only fainted from exhaustion and not something else—not something deadly—and that he’d be fine with rest and nutrients.
“I’m sorry.” Mitch slumped into Alex, as though it was too much effort to hold himself up. The doctor had warned them that Mitch would be lethargic for the next few days.
“You know things need to change, right?” Alex said.
Mitch’s body went rigid and he sat up, climbing off Alex’s lap with movements mired in molasses. He didn’t meet Alex’s eyes when he said, with no expression whatsoever, “You’re breaking up with me, aren’t you?”
“What?” Alex’s heart broke for him, and he cursed Mitch’s mom and brother, who’d made Mitch so wary and distrustful. “Mitch, no. Of course not.”
Mitch’s brow furrowed. “But I made you so mad.”
“Yeah. Yeah, you did. But I’m also really fucking relieved that you’re okay.” He pressed a kiss to Mitch’s cheek, and his throat went thick when Mitch nuzzled into him like a puppy seeking comfort. “But things do have to change. You have to ask for help when you need it.”
“My dad said we’re going to talk about the money. He’s going to help me with tuition, I think.”
“Good.” Alex pulled back to meet Mitch’s contrite gaze. “But it’s not just about the money, okay? You have to take better care of yourself. Better time management and a better diet. And you’re going to let me help too, in any way I can.”
Mitch nodded, half-reluctant, half-accepting.
“You’re not going to fight me on it?”
“No.” Mitch wiped his nose with the back of his hand.
“This scared me too. It scared me to wake up here, not knowing what was happening. A true come-to-Jesus moment.” He ran his fingers over Alex’s jaw.
“I’m sorry I scared you. And I’m sorry you had to take a flight all the way here. You must be so tired.”
“We’ll take a nap when we get back to your place. How’s that?”
Mitch’s sad eyes brightened. “You’re staying?”
“I’ve got a flight out Tuesday morning. Game Tuesday night.”
“If it helps,” Mitch whispered, his voice choked, “it’s really damn good to see you.”
Alex pulled Mitch into his arms again, and Mitch sank into him, laying his head on Alex’s shoulder. “I miss you.” Alex kissed Mitch’s temple next to the butterfly bandage. “I miss you so much. It’s like I can’t breathe when you’re not there.”
“Yes.” Mitch kissed Alex’s neck. “Yes, exactly.” He sniffled once and relaxed against Alex. “This is going to end up in your book, isn’t it?”
“Not if you don’t want it to.”
It was quiet as Mitch seemed to ponder that for a minute. “I think it should,” he eventually said. “Chapter Seven: The Dangers of Spreading Yourself Too Thin, Mitch slash Adrian-style.”
Alex released a puff of relieved laughter into Mitch’s hair.
Cody and Geoff found them like that a few minutes later, tangled together on the bed. Cody’s face was drawn and sallow, and Mitch took one look at him, extricated himself from Alex, and threw himself at his best friend, letting one arm dangle where the IV wasn’t long enough.
“I’m sorry, Cody.”
Cody stood limp for a second, his arms hanging at his sides. Then he clasped them around Mitch and squeezed his eyes tight. “Asshole. Don’t ever do that again.”
Alex couldn’t imagine what it must’ve been like for Cody to come home and find Mitch passed out on the floor, not knowing if Mitch was dead or alive. He shuddered hard and ran his hands over his face.
Geoff cleared his throat. “Kiddo, there’s someone outside who wants to talk you.”
“Coach Bedley?” Mitch asked. He sat on the bed and Alex stood to give Cody his spot next to Mitch since Cody looked like he needed the assurance of being close to his best friend right now.
“No. But I did speak with your coach and he wants to see you as soon as you’re up for it,” Geoff said. Mitch winced. “No, this is someone named Jenny Lynn?”
“Okay?”
“Says she’s a writer with the Mountain Chronicle?”
Shit, the Glen Hill College student newspaper hadn’t wasted any time in sending someone for an exclusive, had they?
Barely seven on Sunday morning. That was ambitious for a tiny college like GH.
Probably Coach Bedley had something to do with it.
But why would he send someone to interview a hockey player about something that had nothing to do with hockey?
When Mitch gave his okay and Geoff let Jenny Lynn into the room, he got his answer.
“Coach Bedley wanted an exclusive on a student athlete’s perspective on mental and physical health,” she explained.
That didn’t make any sense. Alex distinctly remembered Coach Bedley telling him that they tried not to put Mitch in front of reporters because he tended to speak before thinking.
However, it turned out that Jenny wasn’t a sports writer.
She wrote for the Issues & Ideas section of the newspaper, and Coach Bedley had requested her, not only because her pieces were thoughtful, but because he didn’t want the article run in the sports section, which only sports enthusiasts read.
He wanted it somewhere that would gain the most attention.
Jenny told them all this as she settled into the only chair in the room with her notepad and a small recorder.
Cody didn’t leave Mitch’s side and Alex leaned against the wall next to Geoff and rested his eyes.
He didn’t pay much attention to the interview, but he heard enough to be proud of Mitch, at his smart and concise answers, despite how tired he must be.
Until it all fell apart.
“Just one last question,” Jenny said half an hour later. “I did some research on you before coming.” If that was true, she must’ve been up for hours. “And I understand you’re part of the Westlake family? Your mother is a Westlake?”
Next to Alex, Geoff tensed.
Mitch crossed his arms over his chest. “So?”
Jenny faltered briefly at the flash of temper on Mitch’s face, but managed to carry on.
“From what I can tell, the Westlakes own Westlake Waterless Printing, a family business started by your mother’s grandfather, yes?
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I assume that, since you’re majoring in kinesiology, you don’t intend to go into the business? ”
Mitch nodded once.
“Despite being in the hospital, things seem to be going well for you. You’re the Mountaineers’ top scorer with a current GPA of three-point-eight.”
Mitch grumbled something.
“Sorry?”
“I said, it used to be four-point-oh,” he said. “Stupid creative writing brought me down.”
Alex couldn’t help an amused snort. As if three-point-eight was anything to sneeze at. Jesus, his boyfriend wasn’t just smart, he was smart.
“Oh.” Jenny wrote something down. “Anyway, I was wondering how the support of your mother has affected your studies. She must be so proud.” She smiled wide, as if she thought this was going to be an easy answer. Yup. My mom couldn’t be more proud of me. End of story.
Instead, she got a scoff from Mitch. “Support? I haven’t seen any support from my mother, emotional or otherwise, since I told her I wanted to play hockey and study kinesiology.
The reason I work so hard for my GPA is that if it slips below a three-point-two, I lose my partial hockey scholarship.
And since I don’t get tuition money from my mom, losing the scholarship would mean no more school and no more hockey. ”
Jenny’s mouth fell open. Then she shut off the recorder, thanked Mitch, and left.
Geoff sighed deeply and his head thunked back against the wall.
“That, uh…” Alex scratched his head. “Could’ve gone better,” he said diplomatically.
Cody slapped the back of Mitch’s head. “You’re an idiot.”
Geoff grunted, apparently agreeing with both of them.
Mitch rolled his eyes and asked if he could go home.