Blink

Proxy

"He's going to be upset about the sleeve," Avi's voice says.

"No," Esther's replies. "He's going to be devastated about the sleeve. He's so in love with it."

What sleeve?

"For fuck's sake," Mitch snarls. "Romeo will figure out how to fix the fucking sleeve! I'll auction off half my fucking wardrobe if I have to to pay Romeo or whoever he recommends to fix the motherfucking sleeve."

Woah. Okay...Scott has no idea what's going on, but even he backs the hell up on the rare occasion that Mitch's mood is this bad.

Esther's always been braver than Scott. "So, um, yeah. Unrelated question. Is it by any chance time for your next dose of pain meds?"

"The good ones make me stupid," Mitch says, still sounding belligerent but at least being quieter about it. "I can't be stupid until his parents get here."

Scott's feeling pretty stupid himself. Pain meds? Parents?

"You two made me secondary proxy for a reason," Esther says gently. "In case you were both incapacitated at the same time. This qualifies, Mitchy. It doesn't have to all be on you."

"I know. And I trust you. We both do, obviously. But I can't... I need to be the one who..."

"It's easy for you to trust her with yourself," Avi says. "But it's harder to trust her with him."

"Um," Mitch says. "...Yes?"

Esther sighs. "I'd tell you you're being an idiot, but I'm pretty sure I'd still be having this conversation if things were the other way around."

"Oh, definitely," says Avi. "Except Mitch is being downright reasonable in comparison to what that would be like."

"No lie."

"You're both fucking hilarious," Mitch mutters, so quietly Scott can barely hear him.

Scott suddenly realizes there are fingers entwined with his own. They feel good, like they belong there. He concentrates and gives them a squeeze and hears a gasped "Scotty?" in his favorite voice before the fingers are squeezing his back.

Blink.