See Through

26 - Carpe Diem, TV

"Why on Earth would I move? I live here."

Mitch forgot to breathe and almost started to choke. He gathered himself and cleared his throat. "You're not leaving me?"

"Of course not. You were an asshole. Besides, regardless of what you said out of anger and frustration, you need me almost as much as I need you." Scott laughed. "I just needed to get away from you for a few days. You were right... I was being a total mom."

"God, Scott, I'm so sorry!" Mitch ran over and Scott opened his arms and accepted a huge bear hug.

"I know." Scott laughed. "Trust me, I know. You've told me more times than I'm able to count."

"You didn't learn how to count over a million? For shame." Mitch shook his head.

"Hush." Scott started tickling Mitch's sides.

"STOP!" Mitch squealed and squirmed in Scott's hold as Scott continued finding every ticklish spot. "Stop it! I hate it!"

"I have to make up for a few weeks!" Scott pinned Mitch to the floor and continued to tickle him. Mitch laughed and yelled until he cried, but he didn't care. He missed this.

"I. Hate. It!" Mitch squealed and finally he gave up and let Scott tickle. Whenever Mitch releases his tension in his body from trying to block the tickle pain, Scott stops. It's always the hardest part when your body is being violently attacked. At least this wasn't a terrible situation.

Scott stopped and laid on the floor next to Mitch. They were both out of breath.

"Can I ask you something?" Mitch spoke with a shallow voice, trying to catch his breath.

"Shoot."

"Are we going to be friends forever?"

"Why would you even ask that question?" Scott laughed. "You know my answer."

Mitch rolled onto his side so he could face Scott. "No. Please, answer it."

"We're going to be friends forever."

"No matter what, or who happens to us?"

"Alex isn't going to break you and I apart. He understands that my friendship with you is vital to my existence. Besides, if we break up, Melanie, Pentatonix is dead. So, I have to be friends with you."

"You're so funny." Mitch said with a sarcastic tone. He smirked, and grew serious again. I feel like I need to tell him the truth. Be see through. "But in all seriousness."

"Nobody can take you away from me. Not Alex. Not Hillary Clinton. No—"

"Hillary?" Mitch laughed. "You're hysterical. You need to sleep."

"You need to sleep."

"I can't. I sort of need to tell you something." Mitch sat up and brought his knees to his chest.

"Sort of?" Scott sat up as well and his long legs stretched on either side of Mitch. "Tell away, wonder boy."

"Okay." How do I even word this? I'm kind of in love with you and that's probably what's causing all of our problems. No. I've got cancer and the virus is you. You're not writing for Hallmark. I have this friend and I... no, that would be lying. But that excuse is always seen through. He'd see right through it. But that's what I want, right? To have him see through me? To know everything? "Scott, I've got an idea of why things have been kind of tense with us for awhile."

Scott nodded, acknowledging his intent listening.

"Well, I think it's because... it's like this... Scott, I—"

Scott's phone pierced through Mitch's shaky voice. Scott groaned and pulled his phone out and saw Alex's face on the screen. "I'm so sorry. Give me a second." He answered the phone. "Hey baby. ... Oh, shit. Where are you? ... Yeah, I can come get you. ... Have you called anyone yet? ... Okay, well I'll be there soon. ... Yeah, I love you too. Bye." Mitch stared at Scott with laser eyes the entire conversation. "Sorry, Alex has a flat tire and he doesn't have a spare. I've got to go pick him up. You can come with me and continue the conversation?"

"No, that's okay. You go get your man." Mitch flashed a fake smile. "I'm going to go ahead and get to bed, seeing as how I was clearly tired enough to fall asleep during the best show ever."

Scott smiled and patted Mitch's knee. "Don't forget what you were going to say and we can talk about it tomorrow when we wake up, okay?"

"Okay." It's kind of hard to forget the thing that haunts you every waking minute. "Be safe." Scott stood up and reached his hand towards Mitch, helping him off the floor. Scott gave Mitch a quick hug before leaving once again to be with Alex. Mitch hadn't left Scott's room. His eyes lingered on the paper that was set on the desk next to Scott's piano. The curious mind in the room figured that he could take a quick peek at it and just pretend he didn't see anything.

At the top of the page, surrounded by two hearts, a beautiful calligraphy title was written: For HIM. Chords were written out on the paper, but no lyrics to accompany. Mitch turned Scott's keyboard on and set the paper down on the piano music stand and he began sight reading the music to his best ability. The music flowed so beautifully that he'd wished he hadn't torn the lyrics to See Through up. He did remember the five note pattern that he'd written for the beginning of the chorus, and it popped up in this song quite often.

Mitch had finished playing what he could read of Scott's handwritten notes. He smiled and wondered what Scott would do with the lyrics to this song. If only he could have those shredded words. At the bottom of the page written in the same calligraphy as before, but in red ink, was Carpe Diem, TV. 

Mitch crinkled his nose. Seize the day, television? I hope that's not the song title. Mitch laughed, clearly not seeing Scott's plan written in red on the page. Scott knew that Mitch would look at the music. He just didn't want to give anything away just yet.