Pledge

12. De-Pledge?

12. De-Pledge?

Mitch returned to the house, terrified, like he was the one pledging.

"There you fucking are," Zach nearly squeaked, taking him by the elbow and rushing up the stairs, shutting Brad's bedroom door behind them.

Brad was already there, his eyes wide. "Way to answer our texts and keep us in the loop."

"Sorry," Mitch muttered, clenching his eyes shut. "He needed to sleep. He was... terrified when I showed up. I think he thought it was you guys, coming to take him back to the house."

Zach crossed his arms over his chest and frowned.

"So I... I slept in Matt's bed, just to give him piece of mind that he wasn't alone. We got up when his alarm for house hours went off... we had a little discussion and... I left."

Brad looked like he wanted to take him by the shoulders and shake him. "And...?"

"And... he's gonna think about it."

The two men in front of him groaned.

"I told him that he has until 4am. I told him that if he de-pledges, it will affect his friendship with Matt. That seemed to hit home the most," Mitch lied, easily.

"Mhm..." Brad said, his mind clearly elsewhere. "Hey, what if we have Matt go talk to him? Scott seems like a protective guy, right? So if we have Matt go there, shaking in his boots, begging him to see this through with him, and if he tells him that he doesn't think he can do it without him, you know, the whole nine yards..." Brad rambled, pacing back and forth.

"You know what I think?" Mitch asked. Brad paused and stared at him to continue. "I think that we should let him have the morning. I think that this afternoon, you should go and say how things will be different, and that you should tell him that we respect his decision either way..." Mitch emphasized that part. "And then I think we need to leave him alone to rest and think."

"What about me? Should I go?" Zach asked.

Mitch was shocked that the two men in front of him were trusting his advice at all. It was a breath of fresh air after his recent conversations with Jax, after all.

"I think that Brad should speak on your behalf."

Zach nodded, running a hand through his hair. "I don't hate him, you know. I actually think he might be my favorite..." Zach muttered, looking at the floor, before his eyes snapped upwards, wide. "No homo."

Mitch rolled his eyes.

"Okay. This is a good plan. Thanks, Mitch. You're a good brother to have around, you know," Brad said.

"How's Jax?" Mitch asked as he turned to leave.

"Oh, he's pissed."

"What?" Mitch asked, feeling instantly annoyed.

"With us," Zach clarified. "We kind of... exchanged words. We may or may not have blamed him, he blamed us... it was a big mess. He actually got so frustrated, he cried a little. I guess we all kind of forgot that we actually like this poor kid, and now it's actually kind of funny, how we're defending him to one another, you know?"

Mitch nodded, biting his tongue from saying something judgmental about the pledge program again.

"Alright, gotta go haze some pledges. Matt's been on the verge of tears all morning, even more so than usual, so don't worry, I'm treading lightly on that one. See? I'm learning," Zach grinned.