The Boy From Italy (Pentatonix)

Ch 12. Talks And Tacos

Scott is still sitting on the sidelines when Mitch finally walks over to him. He sits down without a single word and Scott knows he'll have to be the person who breaks the silence.

"I don't know what's happening."

"Do you want to talk?" Mitch speaks quietly, his heavy accent somehow soothing to Scott in his current state.

Scott sighs, turning to meet Mitch's dark brown eyes. "I'm so sorry. I promised you that we would go explore the town and look at all my favorite spots. I'm really ruining-"

"Amico, stop. You're not ruining anything." Mitch sets a gentle hand on Scott's back. "Parla con me. Talk to me, please?"

"I don't know what I want right now, Mitch. I'm just so confused and hurt and maybe a little mad. I spend so much of my time trying to make everyone happy and I can't even seem to make my own girlfriend happy. And I thought I was good at the whole being a caring boyfriend thing. It seems I was wrong about that too."

"Scott, you two are just going through a bit of a rough patch. That's all."

"It feels like more than that, Mitch. I can't explain it but something doesn't feel right about all of this." The blonde doesn't know what to say other than that. When did things go get so complicated? Most of Scott's life was or had been drama, that just wasn't something Scott wants more of right now. He's sick of the drama. He's sick of all of it.

Neither of them speaks after that. Scott finds some sort of comfort in the silence because it isn't a swallowing silence that never seems to end. It's the kind of silence that would be easy to break but doesn't need to be. Scott lets his head fall into his hands, lets himself be weak for a moment. And, even if it is only for a moment, Scott feels better once that moment of weakness has been let out.

Sometimes it can feel good to just be weak for a moment. Normally, Scott makes sure his moments of weakness are spent in private places where there are no peeping eyes or people to talk about something they don't understand. But being here, with Mitch on a field that he's made many memories on, Scott doesn't worry about anyone else. It's just him, Mitch, and the silence.

Scott finally breaks the silence with a heavy sigh. "I promised you a tour. Well, I don't really feel up to that anymore, but we could still go grab a bite to eat if that sounds okay to you."

"It does, amico. It does."

---

Scott drives to a little place a few blocks from school. For being as close as it was to campus barely anyone knew it existed. Scott had only ever shown two people his special place. Avi and Kirstie were the only ones who knew about it, well now one more person has been added to the list.

Scott turns to Mitch once they're parked on the street outside of a very small building. Most kids would just overlook it and keep moving. "Okay, I'm about to let you in on one of my biggest secrets, Mitch. You can't tell anyone else ever, yeah?"

Mitch nods. "I promise, amico."

Scott grins. "How do you feel about tacos?"

"I feel pretty good about them."

"I was hoping you'd say that." Scott hops out of the car, going to the other side to help Mitch out of the truck. Once they're both out of the truck, Scott locks the car and leads Mitch inside of the small brick building they were a few feet away from.

Scott opens the door for him, ushering Mitch into a small dining area. There are a few tables for two in the middle of the restaurant and a couple of booths around the walls. There isn't much seating, but it's also never so busy that much seating is needed. And, if it is ever busy, people just get the food to go. It's worth it after all.

"Welcome to possibly the best taco place in Texas." Scott grins and walks over to the counter. "Hey, Mario. Can I have two menus?"

A man standing behind the front counter grins. "Ah, Scott! Of course, of course."

"Gracias." Scott smiles and gestures for Mitch to come a little closer. "Mario, this is my friend, Mitch."

"Ah, well, any friend of yours is a friend of mine!" Mario exclaims, turning around to give the pair some privacy.

Scott turns towards Mitch. "He's a really good guy. His dad bought this place almost thirty years ago. Now it's a family owned place." Scott hands him a menu. "Here you go. If you need any help understanding it just let me know. It's all in Spanish."

"How often do you come here?"

"Uh, couple times a week I think. I don't know, it's super close to school and it's almost always open, meaning it's a great place for food after soccer matches and practice."

"How important to you is it that I end up liking this place?"

Scott looks Mitch in the eyes. "I might just end our friendship right this moment if you don't end up liking it."

Mitch giggles and Scott smiles at the noise. "Noted, amico. Lucky for you, I love tacos and anything even closely related to them."

It takes Scott seconds to know what he wants and Mitch a few minutes to finally decide. Scott goes ahead and orders for both of them since Mitch has a little trouble pronouncing the Spanish words with his accent. For some reason, Scott feels good knowing there's at least one thing he's a little better at than Mitch is. He doesn't mean it in a mean way, more in a self-deprecating way than anything else.

They sit down at one of the booths, smiling at each other. Scott doesn't speak, not because he has nothing to say but because there's too much to say. He wants to apologize again for being a bad tour guide and for making Mitch wait during practice just to witness an over the phone fight. He also wants to get to know Mitch better, but Scott has no idea what to ask first. There's so much that he doesn't know about Italy, there's just so much that Scott doesn't know about Mitch.

Luckily, Mario soon comes to their table with a way too many tacos for two normal people to eat. Of course, most of them are Scott's. "Here you two go. Disfruta tu comida!"