Color

Forty Five

When Scott rushed in through the front door, he could hear arguing down the hallway.

He didn't even look at Kirstie as he hurried down the hall, to run in to Alex's room.

He literally shoved Ben out of his way, but calmed a little when he laid eyes on Mitch. "What the fuck is going on?"

Alex just rolled his eyes. "Ben is a raging homophobe and he pissed me off."

Ben immediately tried to defend himself. "No, I'm--"

Scott held a hand up less than an inch from Ben's face, eyes still locked on Mitch. "Shut up." And then he spoke to Mitch. "Babe, are you okay?"

Mitch nodded once, one of his arms around Alex's waist to feel protected. "Yeah."

Ben turned to face Scott suddenly. "Ohh, so you're the fiancé?"

Scott's head turned slowly. "Yeah? And?"

"Nothing. Just asking."

Alex couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Scott, is Avi home now? I'd like to talk to him."

"Yeah he's here."

"Okay, can you send him in here? And can everyone else just like... Get out of my room?"

Scott pushed past Ben again to take Mitch's hand and pull him out of the room. 

Alex raised an eyebrow at Ben to wait for him, and then when they were all gone, Alex threw the door closed and began changing out of his sweaty clothes. 

He'd only gotten as far as taking his shirt off when Avi burst into the room and slammed the door behind him. "Alex, what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Don't you fuckin' lie to me. Mitch said you have an attitude because of the try out. So... What happened?"

Alex just shook his head, his back to Avi. "I'm fine. Ben was being an asshole so I called him out and Mitch thinks that means I have an attitude."

Avi stepped forward, put a hand on Alex's upper arm to turn him around roughly. "Hey, look at me."

Alex met his eyes for a moment, but then pulled his arm away from Avi. "Let me get a shirt on and then we can talk."

"No, Alex. Stop doing that. You're attractive as all Hell, and there's no reason for you to be insecure. You're one of the most talented people I've ever met, so there's no reason for you to feel discouraged by how you played today. Because I'm sure you did an amazing job, but you're being too hard on yourself."

"You don't know that."

"Yes I do. Because Scott Hoying is my best friend, and he does the same thing."

Alex sighed loudly. "That's different. Regardless, I don't want to talk about this. I need to ice every muscle in my damn body because I'm exhausted, and then I need to take a long shower so I can cry."

Avi rolled his eyes, giving Alex's ass a quick smack. "Listen, babe. I'm not trying to be rude or pushy, but you're being difficult. Why don't you just talk to me? Then you don't have to cry?"

"Honestly, I think I just need a good cry."

"Okay... Okay. Then let's take a bath, okay? I'll come with you, and we can talk about what happened today. And if you still need to cry, you can."

*

Scott marched out into the living room, where Kyle was already heading toward the door because of whatever Avi said.