We Protect Each Other

Chapter 8

Mitch's pov

Cheated and lied,
broken so bad.
You made a vow,
never get mad
You play the game,
though it's unfair.
They're all the same,
who can compare?
First you lose trust,
then you get worried.

Like every morning, I stood at the corner by Starbucks and sang the lyrics with all my heart. I poured all my emotions into these songs, it was my way of letting go of my sadness or anger or frustration. 2 songs a day was always more than enough for food. It's been nearly 2 weeks that I've been doing this and every day I save some money to go towards buying Scott a new shirt. Hopefully today I will have enough money.

Scott. I'm still not sure what I think about him. He is really nice, don't get me wrong. But he seems to be fairly short tempered and he keeps pushing on subjects that I clearly don't want to talk about.  But, he makes me feel so.. so.. I don't know. He just makes me feel so something. Over the past few weeks we have gotten pretty close, I guess that's what happens when you share a tiny crawl space with each other.

I grabbed the cup and ducked into the alley once I finished my song. $17.45, damn. I pulled out the spare money I had from the other days and counted all of it together. Not including the $10 I took out for food, I now had about $40, that is definitely enough to get him a new sweater, which is even better than just a shirt. I shoved the money in my pocket and headed towards the grocery store first. We don't need water yet, I bought enough water to last us quite a while already. I got a box of cereal, a small loaf of bread and a container of peanut butter. I remembered Scott told me he used to be obsessed with peanut butter.

I walked out of the grocery store and just wandered around until I found a clothing store called Abercrombie and Fitch. I walked in and looked around for a while before I found a nice sweater, it was plain black with a logo over the heart. It was on sale so it was only $30 which is still quite expensive but Scott deserves it. I payed and headed out of the store.

The walk back was short, probably because I was basically running since I wanted to get back and give Scott his present as fast as possible. I hid the bag with the sweater in it behind a box that was laying around. I slid the scrap metal door aside and called inside, "Scott, come out here."

"Why?"

"Just do it." I probably sounded like a whiney child but I don't care.

I heard him groan then I heard him shuffling and right away his head was peeking out. I think I woke him up, whatever.

"Hurry up!" I extended my hand and he took it in his and pulled himself up. He got out and stood in front of me.

"What."

"Firstly, look at what I got." I pulled the jar of peanut butter out and the smile that spread across Scott's face was so adorable.

"Oh my goodness."

"I remember you telling me that you were like obsessed with peanut butter so I got this for us."

I tossed him the container and threw the rest of the food into the crawl space before I started talking again.

"There's also one more thing."

"You spoil me!" Scott exclaimed with a smile.

"Close your eyes."

"Again? Last time there was a chocolate bar waiting for me."

"Yes, again."

He closed his eyes and crossed his arms. I ran and grabbed the bag out from behind the cardboard box then brought it back over to him.

"Hands out."

"Okay."

He put his hands out and I placed the bag on top of them.

"Okay, open."

Scott opened his eyes and looked down at the bag. He spoke before he opened it, "no way."

"Yes way! Open it already!" I sounded more excited about this than him and I probably was.

He quickly opened the bag and scrambled to get out the sweater. When he pulled it out to look at it, his eyes began to water a bit. He grabbed me and pulled me into a hug that I didn't even hesitate to return. Our first hug. This is making me feel some sort of way that I can't explain.

"Thank you." Scott's voice was wavering and tears were slowly leaking from his eyes.

"Scott, how long has it been since you've gotten new clothes?" I asked him because this small gesture was enough to make him cry so it must've been a while.

"I'd have to guess about a year."

"Wow, that's a long time."

"Yeah, I know."

"Well, I'm happy that I'm the one to help you out." I smiled shyly at him and he pulled me into another hug.

"Thank you Mitch." He said quietly into my ear which caused me to smile.

"Anything for you." I don't know where that comment came from but I can't take it back now.

Wow, Scott is good at hugging.