A Good Night Full Of Mistakes

Ch. 4

It's 3:52 pm.

Mitch is half a step away from his bedroom door and reaching for the knob when there's a knock, and then Scott's voice. It startles him; he instinctively flinches back but his momentum was already carrying him forward so he winds up stumbling and smacking his elbow on the door. In an attempt to recover from that bit of sheer grace, he throws open the door to a blinking Scott holding - oh my god, yes - two cups from Starbucks.

"Oh, hey," Mitch says, trying to appear casual. "I was just on my way..."

Scott's face falls. "Sorry, I didn't know you were leaving, I wanted to..." he trails off. "I mean, do you have a minute before you go?"

Mitch tilts his head, bemused. "If you'd let me finish my sentence, shit-for-brains..." he says pointedly. "I was just on my way to find you and see if you wanted to grab Starbucks. Apparently that's a yes."

And the roiling pit of stress and worry in his gut that's been brewing all day eases a little - especially when Scott cracks a smile. Mitch smiles back. This is almost normal. This isn't a complete disaster. Scott doesn't seem to hate him; he wouldn't be holding coffee and knocking on his door if he hated him.

Scott offers one of the cups. "Can I come in? Or do you want to sit on the balcony, or...?" Mitch quickly steps aside, taking his coffee and sweeping his arm back to indicate that Scott should come in. He does, hesitantly, and suddenly Mitch doesn't know what to do with himself. Where should he sit? Should he sit? He'd been practicing what to say for the last three hours but he never thought about how to deliver his apology.

It's a small comfort that Scott doesn't seem to know quite what to do either. They stand there, awkwardly staring at each other for a moment.

"Look, I -"

"Okay, I just want to -"

They stop, then try to talk over each other again, stop yet again, and it's so ridiculous that Mitch can only laugh. Scott joins in and a whole lot of tension leaves the room. This isn't exactly how Mitch pictured the whole apology scene going, but he'll take it.

"Let me go first," Scott says once their giggles die down, perching on the edge of Mitch's bed. Mitch hesitates, then sits next to him - not too close, of course. Wouldn't want to make things weird or anything.

"Look, this... I really screwed up, Mitch. I put our friendship at risk. I am so sorry." He fidgets with Mitch's comforter, face looking pained. "I know better. I shouldn't have acted like I did, and -"

Mitch holds up a hand. "Wait. Okay, I mean, apology accepted and all, but this isn't all on you, Catherine. I'm more to blame. You had way more to drink than I did, and I'm the one who..." he pauses and swallows hard. "I'm the one who kissed you, so I should be apologizing here." This isn't going quite how he'd planned it. "I'm sorry. You were just being you. I crossed a line."

Scott looks to be considering Mitch's words while studying his hands. "Well. Apology accepted too, but I don't totally agree with your assessment."

They sit in silence for a moment. It's not uncomfortable, even if a lot of everything else is.

"It was a nice kiss." There's a smile in Scott's voice, and Mitch looks up at him. He smiles back. "Damn right it was. I'm good at what I do."

Scott forcefully exhales a half-laugh. "So am I, usually. Hopefully that was the case last night, because I don't remember much of it."

Oh. Well, that's fucking fantastic. Both of them remember enough to know they had sex but neither remember enough to know if they enjoyed it. "Me neither, sis," Mitch mutters.

They're quiet again for a minute, and when Scott speaks up his voice is ... strained. And small. "We gonna be okay, Mitchy?"

Mitch sighs and gives Scott what he hopes is a reassuring smile. "Yeah, just fine, henny. We'll be laughing about this whole thing in a week."

It comes out a lot more confident-sounding than Mitch feels.