Being Grassi-Hoying

Chapter 24

**Mitch's POV**

"Mitch!!" Scott whisper yells at me, I walk with Karlie down an aisle, "Problem, biiig problem." "Wha-" "Shhhh!!!" "Scott Richard!!" I quietly growl. "Fans." My heart stops. I love our fans and they normally don't bother me but Karlie. "Shit." I whisper. "Can I get that??" Karlie asks so quietly I almost didn't hear her. "Get what baby??" I smile warmly as she points to a Lalaloopsy Doll. "Sure honey bun." I toss it in the cart, we walk around a bit more, keeping watch of the two girls Scott saw. I walk around with Karlie, telling her one more thing so we can still get her birthday and Christmas presents. She turns the corner, and I see the two girls with a little boy. The girl with the PTX shirt on looks up and locks eyes with me. I smile sheepishly as I see the other girl smack her and point at Karlie, making the girl's gasp get caught in her throat. "Hi Mitch..." The Scomiche shirt girl waves, shyly. By now Karlie has locked herself behind my leg and Scott was catching up. I walk over to Scott, picking up Karlie and handing her to him, "Busted." I whisper as I watch his expression go from nervous to extremely worried. "Stay here." I walked back, saying hi to the girls and doing my Mitchy thing. "Where's Scott??" The girl in the Scomiche shirt, Tiana, asks. "He stayed home, I'm just here to grab a present for my cousin's daughter." I make up an excuse. "Oh." She nods. "It's weird," The other girl, Jaclyn, says,"not seeing you with Scott, you guys seem to be inseparable." I nod, "Honey, we usually are. But he's still not feeling one hundred percent better." I pretend to explain, hoping they buy it. "Oh yeah, he was in the hospital." Tiana sighs, remember they made a cover story. I remind myself. "Is he okay?? Do you or him need anything??" Jaclyn asks politely as Tiana pulls her brother back, "No, thank you though." I smile warmly, remembering how blessed we are to have the fans we do. After a moment they leave, and I go back to Scott and Karlie. I find him calming her, rubbing her back and shushing her. "What happened??" I ask as Karlie reaches desperately for me. "Oh honey," I grab her from Scott, "She was terrified because you disappeared." He explains. "Oh, baby girl, I'm alright." I kiss her cheek. "Me scared Daddy." She whispers. "I love you." I hug her, "I love you too, Daddy." she mumbles into my neck.

After we get home from the mall, Wyatt seems to be bouncing off the walls. "Hyper Myatt!!" Karlie giggles repeatedly. Scott and I just laugh, "Don't hurt yourself babe." I say to Scott, he insisted on being the 'man' and opening Karlie's toys. "I," He shoots the box knife I didn't know we had in the air, almost hitting his hand, but sighing in relief when the box is open, "got it." He smiles, opening the box enough to get the toy out, handing it to Karlie. "Give me that." I grab the knife from him, I quickly and easily open the lalaloopsy doll, taking it to Karlie, who had already ran to her room. "Hi!! I Madine." I hear when I reach her doorway. I walk in as she keeps playing, so I set the doll on her bed. "Have fun, princess." I say when I walk out. When I get into the living room, Scott was on the phone. "Yeah, we're home, come on over." He says, looking at me. He mouths 'Kirstie' and I nod. "Thank you so much, you seriously don't know how amazing you two are." He continues, me moving Wyatt so I can sit by my husband. I pull out my phone, checking Twitter. "Love you too, Kit-Kat. See ya." He hangs up, scooting closer to me. "She said that they're on their way to the store, and they'll be right over." I nod, continuing to stare at my phone, "They??" "Yeah, her and Jeremy." I nod slowly. I text Kirstie when I hear Karlie giggle in her room.

"Hey, be careful if Jer comes in with you, Karlie." "Ik Mitch I already warned him." "Okay good."

Scott sits up to grab the t.v. remote, but I stop him. "We need to film, Scotty boy." I remember. "Oh yeah." He says dramatically, "But we should wait until after Kirstie and Jeremy bring Karlie's t.v." I shrug. "Probably." Scott still sets the remote back down, "But, we should call Esther about Thanksgiving." He pulls out his phone as I nod in agreement. When I hear Scott's phone ring, signalling that it's calling Esther, part of me silently prays that were doing something, I just don't feel like dealing with my family right now, well everyone besides Scott and Karlie. "Yeees??" Esther answers. "Put that there, Darien. Thank you." We hear her say away from the phone. "Sorry, what do you guys need??" She asks. "Hey, Mitch and I were wondering what Pentatonix has for the holidays??" "Right!! Umm, well let's see." You can hear her tapping on her phone, and I can feel my anxiety go up with each tap. "Looks like nothing for Thanksgiving, Avi'll like that." I mentally start stabbing myself. "But we have a flight scheduled for November 29th. Where are you guys gonna be?? I know Kirstie is going to be in Texas, I was guessing you guys would be too??" Scott looks at me, "Hang on." He mutes the mic as we hear Esther doing things. "Babe, we don't have to go." He puts an arm around me. "Yes we do, Karlie." "No, we don't. Because of Karlie. Both of our families would be a lot for her." I hear Karlie laugh again from her room. "That's true, but I would much rather to go ahead and get this over with. Karlie needs to meet our families. We'll talk about her safety later." I explain as he nods. "Yeah." Scott answers after un-muting the mic. "Okay!! And guys, I promise you Karlie will be fine there. Just take it slow." "Esther, how do you know us so well??" I find myself laughing. "I just do." She laughs along. "What are you gonna do about Marli??" Scott asks as I smack his arm. "What?!" He defends, rubbing his shoulder. "Mitch it's okay. I talked to Jessie and she said that it would be a good thing for Mar to go ahead and meet my family, and we're all gonna be here in Cali this year." You can hear the smile in her voice. "That's great Esther." I say, smiling at Scott. "Well, I gotta go help. I'll talk to you guys later." "Alright Esther, thanks!!" Scott and I say thanks at the same time, so we start laughing, and so does Esther. "Alright guys. Bye!!" "Bye." Scott says, hanging up. "Go where??" We look up to see a terrified Karlie at the end of the hallway. "Oh honey," I say, opening my arms, "come here." She walks over to me, climbing in between Scott and me after I hug her. "Well Kar," Scott starts as I wrap an arm around her. "You know how Daddy and I have other family besides you, right??" She nods slowly, "That what Marli told me." She whispers. "Well, Thanksgiving is coming up so we're gonna go to Texas and visit that family. Okay??" Her eyes go wide, "No!!" "Karlie, shh." I cradle my small daughter in my arms. "Nothing scary okay?? They aren't mean." She starts to tear up. "Pwomise??" She cracks. "Yes baby. I promise." I answer. At least I hope so.