Color

Sixty Seven

Mitch finally shook his head, and put both hands on Scott's face. "Baby, will you please knock that off. Please?"

"Why? Because I'm right?"

"No. Because you're making me sad, honey. You are such a wonderful, beautiful person. And I want to spend time talking about you. But you never let me."

"But you dyed your hair and--"

"But we can talk about that any time. You rarely get all insecure like this, I really wanna pay attention to it so you feel better."

Scott just shook his head. "I'm fine, Mitch. I really am."

"You know what? I have a better idea. Let's ditch the bet. How about that?"

"What difference will that make?"

"We can do the body praise thing that you hate so much. Always makes you feel better afterwards."

"But I'm not really in the mood... I'm kinda hungry. Is that... Rude?"

"Of course it's not rude. We can go eat. Wanna invite the others as well?"

"Sure. Anything you want."

Mitch kissed him once. "Okay."

*

"Do you have practice today, Al?"

"Had it already."

"You did..?"

"Yeah..? I was late to class because of it, but. Yeah."

"That kinda sucks... Was your teacher pissed?"

"No. See... The difference between college and high school, is that the professors don't really give a shit. They're getting paid either way."

"Ah, I see. That's... Fun, I guess. So, other than that. How's college so far?"

"I've been to like three classes, babe. But it's alright. I'm decently smart, so I'm doing okay."

"Good. No one's being mean to you?"

"No, not yet." Alex responded with a giggle. "Hey, do we still have those pretzel things?"

Avi immediately stood from the couch. "Yeah maybe. You want them?"

"Please."

Avi walked into the kitchen to grab them, but Alex felt bad and followed him. 

Avi glanced back. "I can grab them, Lex. You didn't need to follow me."

"Sorry, I felt bad for making you get up."

"It's all part of my role as a housewife. Scott and I are getting good at it, I think."

Alex giggled a little. "That's kind of cute, actually."

"I guess." He looked up at one of the taller cabinets, directly beside their pantry. "I think they're up there."

Alex quickly stepped forward. "I can grab them if you want."

"Callin' me short?"

"No, no! Of course not! I just didn't want you to feel embarrassed if you couldn't reach--" He wanted to smack himself in the face. "Not that you wouldn't be able to reach! I just mean--"

"Whatever, just go ahead and insult me. That's cool." Avi glanced at him. "So are you gonna grab them or not?"

Alex stared at him with wide eyes. "I'm genuinely unsure if you actually want me to or not."

Avi gestured to the tall cabinet. "Go for it. I'm not stopping you."

Alex hurried forward to reach over Avi, opening the cabinet and looking through it. Without even really thinking about it, he pressed the front of his body against the back of Avi's.