Chapter 9

Jake and Todrick went downstairs into the lobby to see if there were any restaurants that the others might enjoy, while the rest of the group stayed upstairs to unpack. Scott was doing most of the work, which left Mitch to face his fears and try to talk to Alex. He was lucky that Jake was gone, so he could talk to Alex without someone hovering around. Mitch stood in the doorway, until Kevin walked into the bathroom to unpack both he and Todrick's things in there. Mitch carefully walked over to Alex, standing a few feet away. "Are you just going to ignore me until you move out?" Alex looked up, and then right back down. "No. But... Maybe it's easier if we don't talk about it..." "I want to talk about it." Alex stopped what he was doing, but he still refused to meet Mitch's eyes. "Can we please not do this? It happened. Past tense. It's not important anymore." "I disagree. Why didn't you ever tell me? I treated you so terribly, and I had no idea..." "So what?" Mitch walked over to him, now less than a foot away. "I would've been nicer to you if I'd known you sacrificed so much for me." "I don't think you should be nice to someone just because of that." "Are you just... Trying to let me down easy? You don't want to have anything to do with me anymore?" "Mitchie, no. Of course not. I don't mind if you're mean to me. I just didn't want you to feel guilty about any of it." "I don't feel guilty." "Good." Mitch's eyebrows came together all of a sudden. "Wait, no. Stop that. My point is; you didn't need to get yourself into more trouble in an attempt to help me. That's not fair to yourself." "I was already so far gone, Mitch. It doesn't matter anyway. We're both here, and we're both better." "That's not true. You act like you don't deserve to exist. Like an Omega is supposed to act at their extreme. And that's... Not healthy." Alex tried to walk past him. "I brought this on myself." Mitch grabbed his arm. "Allie, wait. You're not listening to me." "Please let go of me. I'm sorry I was ignoring you, and I won't do it anymore. I promise." Mitch tightened his grip though. "That's not the only problem!" Alex tried to pull his arm away. "Mitch, please." "You aren't listening to me." Kevin walked back out of the bathroom and smiled at them. "Hey guys. Do you need help with unpacking anything?" Alex tried again to pull his arm away, and this time Mitch let him go. Alex met Kevin's eyes before hurrying into the other room. Mitch pouted, and then sat down on the edge of Alex's bed. "Kev... I give up. I don't know what to do." Kevin tossed something onto his bed, and then walked over to him. "What's wrong, Munchie?" "Alex is mad at me, I think. Or... No. He's not mad, he just... Doesn't want anything to do with me." "Why?" "Long story." Kevin sat down beside him. "Give me the short version, then." "He did me a really, really big favor a long time ago. And he didn't tell me until recently. But... If I'd known about it, I'd have treated him better. But... Now I'm trying to make it better, and he doesn't want to talk about it." Kevin hummed in understanding. "He doesn't want credit. He was just doing what he thought was best, and doesn't want any special treatment for it. Why can't you just thank him and treat him better from now on?" "Because... That doesn't seem good enough." "All Alex has ever wanted from you, as far as I've seen, is your friendship." Mitch finally looked over, to meet his eyes. "Is that.. Enough?"