Chapter 34

After arriving at the beach, Mitch felt as though his heart would leap out of his chest. And the feeling only got worse as the night progressed on. He felt a little better each time Scott would mess something up. Like when he spilled wine on the table, or dropped something. Yes, he'd allowed Mitch to have a glass of wine. But only a glass. End of discussion. Mitch especially liked when Scott offered him some of what he was eating, passing a little of his steak over to Mitch on a fork, but it fell off the fork before Mitch had a chance to eat it. Mitch only giggled, but Scott rushed to get rid of it with a heavy blush on his cheeks. Scott then looked down at his lap, all the wrong things he'd done flooding through his head. "I'm sorry, Mitchie." "Don't be. Just hand me a different one." Scott obeyed him, but shook his head a little. Mitch didn't understand. But it's okay. Scott vowed not to make anymore mistakes. And he didn't, through the rest of the dinner. After they ate, Scott helped Mitch stand from the table so they could stand on the shore of the lake to watch the sunset. Mitch tucked himself under Scott's arm, grinning up at him every now and then. Scott caught him once, and smiled back. "What?" But his smile dropped, and he covered his mouth with his hand. "Don't tell me I spilled something on myself." That would only add to his mistakes. "No, no... You look fantastic, still. Just... Your eyes look beautiful right now. Not that they don't always, but... Right now especially." Scott smiled again, leaning forward to press a kiss to Mitch's forehead. "That's nice of you to say, Sweetheart." Mitch beamed up at him when he pulled away. "I wish you could see how beautiful your eyes are right now." "Well I'll just look at your eyes and then subtract a little. I'm sure that'll give me an idea." Mitch rolled his eyes and hit his chest lightly. "Oh please. You're gorgeous." Scott just smiled, glancing over Mitch's head at the sunset. "It's about to happen, Mitchie. Turn around and watch, babe." Mitch turned immediately, just in time to watch the sun slowly sink below the horizon. He leaned into Scott's front, feeling Scott's arms wrap around his waist as he set his chin on Mitch's shoulder. Mitch just stared out at the distance. "Wow.. That never gets old." Scott just smiled, giving Mitch's midsection a squeeze. "Can I tell you something?" "You don't have to ask, Angel. You know that." "No, I know... Just... It's kind of sad, and kind of sappy. So I thought I'd ask." "In that case, yes. You may tell me your sad sappy story." "It's not as much a story as it is a short paragraph. I was just gonna say that... Alex used to love the sunset. Because... When we were with Jamie, they left us alone every time they went to eat dinner. And... That was usually around the time of the sunset. So Alex and I would always watch it together." "That's cute... I'm glad you two were able to find some form of happiness to keep you going." Mitch nodded slowly. "It was just weird, how normal it all felt... Like... When Alex and I would watch it, it felt like we were just two friends having a nice evening. But then dinner would end, and we'd be right back to where we started." "I'm sorry, Mitchie... I wish there was more I could say to make you feel better..." "It's okay. I feel fine. I just... I was just having a moment." He chuckled a little, setting his hands on top of Scott's arms. "Mitchie..? You said 'used to'. Does Alex not enjoy the sunset anymore?" "No. He doesn't. We stopped watching it during the last month we were there. Because... We used to sit on the roof sometimes to watch it, Alex always had to help me up." Mitch grinned for a second at that thought, and then continued. "But once, Chris got really mad at us about it." Scott's arms tightened around him a little, knowing where this story was going. "And..?" "And... Of course Alex took the fall for it. He tried to convince them that he forced me to sit with him, but... We both got punished anyway. And Alex didn't want to see me get hurt for something he believed to be his fault, so he tore himself up about it. And we never watched the sunset again." Scott was quiet for a few seconds. "Fuck... Mitch, I am so so sorry that you two were put through that." "No, I-- That wasn't the purpose of me telling you that. I was getting to my point... I'm just glad that I have new memories of the sunset. I'm glad that... When I see it, I won't have to think of that punishment anymore."