Mitchell's Power Play

Help

SAMMY

I didn't know what to do. Mitch was on a downhill spiral. We'd been in Michigan for two days and it was obvious that he was not in a good place. I could barely get him to eat any of the food I'd gotten us.

He had just picked at the breakfast bagel I'd had delivered in the morning. It was supposed to be from the best breakfast place in town, but he hadn't even reacted.

And last night, when I climbed into bed naked after my shower, he'd rolled over onto his side, with his back facing me, and pretended to be asleep. I knew he wasn't, because his breathing wasn't relaxed enough.

I knew he was upset, so I didn't let it bother me that he didn't reach for me the way he normally would.

Mitch had spoken to his sister while I'd been in the shower. I had hoped that she would be the reasonable one, but that didn't seem to be the case. That call had been no better than his attempts with Marshall, and that was saying a lot. It may actually have been worse, because she was the youngest of them all. She had looked up to both her brothers while they were young and Mitchell had hoped that might still be the case.

I tried to tell Mitch that neither one of them deserved him. That his heart was way too big for the kind of family he'd been born into. I had gotten a small smile and a quick kiss on the cheek for that.

Mitch continued to withdraw from me throughout the day. He spent most of it lying on the bed watching old reruns of some kind of cowboy show I'd never heard of. When he refused to leave the room to go get dinner at the end of the day, I was at my wits' end.

"I'll go pick up some pizza," I told Mitch, but only received a grunt in reply from where he laid on his side on the bed. I grabbed the keys to the rental and took the staircase down to the parking lot.

It was dark out, and the lot was empty, which was just fine by me. I turned the heat on in the car to get the chill out of the air, even though it wasn't cold. It was just my insides worrying.

I sat there for a couple of minutes and wondered what the hell I'd gotten myself into? It was so overwhelming to be in a place where I knew nobody except for Mitch, and he needed help I wasn't capable of giving.

After allowing myself a short breakdown, I wiped the tears and pulled myself together. I didn't have time to fall apart. I had to be strong for both of us, so I needed to figure out a way to handle this mess.

I put the car in gear and drove the few blocks over to the pizza place. It had been years since I drove a car but I managed alright. I might have ruined a few bushes along the way, but I had bigger things to worry about.

The pizzeria wasn't crowded, so I decided to wait. There were just a few teenagers hanging by the booths and a couple of men in work clothes at a table in the back. I took my soda at sat down at the bar disk and waited for them to finish my order.

I texted Mitch, but he didn't even respond. Maybe he was sleeping, or maybe he just didn't feel like answering.

It was on my way back to the hotel that I came to the conclusion that it was time to call in the big guns. I couldn't handle this on my own.

As soon as I pulled into the hotel parking lot, I picked up my phone and called Kennedy.

"Hey Sammy," she answered happily. "How's Mitchell's dad doing?"

"Uh, it's a long story Ken, but he... he died. We didn't even get a chance to see him."

"Oh, no." Kennedy sighed. "Poor Mitch. I feel so bad for him."

"Yeah, I know. It's a bit rough over here."

"I bet. I'm so sorry to hear that, Sammy."

"Thanks."