Hold My Heart (Scomiche AU)

12: Tears

 Mitch was early for the first time in his life. It was five minutes to noon and he was already seated at a table in the homey diner that he and Avi had decided to meet at for lunch at noon exactly. It had actually been a mistake on Mitch's part--he'd for some reason been entirely convinced that they were supposed to meet at 11:30--but Avi didn't need to know that. It likely had something to do with the fact that he was completely and utterly exhausted from the shitstorm he'd been going through at work, and that he couldn't properly focus on anything besides the work that had yet to be done on the album set to drop in less than two weeks.

"You're early." Avi's surprised voice broke Mitch from his whirlwind of thoughts about the work he had waiting for him back at the studio. "You're never early. What happened?"

Mitch rolled his eyes. "Nothing has to happen for me to be early, you know," he said, sticking out his tongue at Avi. "Who knows? Maybe I'm finally getting my life together."

"Well, that's just not a possibility. What happened?" Avi questioned again, earning himself an acidic glare from Mitch.

After a few moments of silence, Mitch sighed, picking up his menu as if it would shield him from the sh*t he knew he was about to get from Avi. "I thought we were meeting at 11:30," he mumbled grumpily, his frown deepening when he heard Avi's amused snort.

"Ah, that explains it," Avi said with an easy grin, picking up his own menu and looking through the options. "So, what's up, kiddo? Haven't seen you since Esther's party."

There was a brief pause in the conversation as the waitress took their orders before Mitch focused himself back on Avi. "Nothing, really. It's been a rough week, though," Mitch said with a sigh. If there was anyone he could talk to about his crappy week, it was Avi. Avi was more serious than Mitch, and they butted heads a lot, but he rarely judged and always had some words of wisdom to spare. "One of my sound engineers left the country with no warning, and I'm supposed to release a new album in a week and a half. And Hunter called me on Monday night."

Avi winced slightly at the mention of Hunter's name. Mitch knew that Avi, the protective guy he was, had almost been more angry at Hunter than Mitch himself at the time of their messy breakup. "What did he want?" Avi asked in a dangerously calm voice.

Mitch hesitated. "He invited me to his wedding," he finally admitted softly, trying to soothe Avi, whose nostrils had already begun to flare with rage. "But it wasn't a big deal, Av. I said no, he pleaded a bit, I said no again, and that was it."

"That scumbag," Avi growled so viciously that the waitress, who had just arrived with their dishes, gave him a frightened look and hurried back to the kitchen without sparing a glance over her shoulder. "What'd you say to him, exactly?"

Mitch rolled his eyes again. "I yelled a little and then hung up, Avi."

"Mitch." Mitch knew that voice. He'd heard it before. He and Avi had had this same conversation more than a few times while he and Hunter were dating. Avi had always held that Mitch should be the 'bigger person', that he should show Hunter that he was better than him. Mitch had always held that keeping calm, collected, and quiet was a waste of time. He knew that Avi's method was more grown up and mature, but he wasn't a mature grown-up quite yet. He wasn't going to waste his time trying to convince Hunter that he was a better person or that he was somehow not angry or hurt or heartbroken.

Mitch was suddenly regretting telling Avi anything. He should've known it wouldn't end well; he and Avi had never seen eye to eye on Mitch's relationship with Hunter (Avi, annoyingly sound judgment and all, had disliked him from the beginning), and there was no reason for it to be different now. "It didn't need to be a competition, okay? What does it matter what he thinks of me?. I said what I needed to say for the conversation to end, and that was it."