The Boy From Italy (Pentatonix)

Ch 20. Soup and Sleep

Scott is sitting up in bed when the front door open and closes again. He hasn't moved much, but Scott is wearing a fresh pair of pajama pants and a large hoodie. The Jurassic Park themed pajama pants are fully there just to make himself smile and so far it's working a little bit. He can hear quiet chatter happening in the living room and Scott can almost grantee he knows what it's about. Mitch is asking how Scott is doing.

The fact is that Scott doesn't even know how to answer that question right now. His heart hurts, but there's more to that. It's Scott's mind that can't seem to catch up with everything that's happened in such a short period of time. Standing up, Scott wraps his duvet around his shoulders.

"Hey, guys," Scott speaks softly after stepping into the living room. Avi and Mitch turn towards him. "Thanks for coming, Mitch. Means a lot."

"Of course, ragazzone," Mitch says softly. He opens his arms up and Scott finds himself crouching down to fit into Mitch's arms. It feels almost normal for someone to hug him, for someone to hold him, like this. Scott really loves being held. Not that the super macho soccer captain part of him like to admit it often.

They stand there for nearly a minute as Avi gets the living room ready for their sleepover. Scott knows that his mom won't mind. She understands that the worst thing for someone who's hurting to do is to be alone in their greatest moments of weakness.

"Alright, the couches are made up with pillows and blankets. I can drag that spare mattress in here unless two people want to share." Avi's gaze stays on Scott for a few moments. He knows that Scott won't want to sleep alone tonight, but Avi isn't going to say anything first.

Scott nods softly. "Can we just share? Please?"

"Yeah, of course, Hotwing."

"There's no way the two of you can fit on one of these couches. You can share with me, Scott." Mitch flashes a charming smile. "If you want to, that is. I would never force you, amico."

"Okay. I'd like that. Thank you, Mitch."

When Scott turns around he just barely catches the smile on Avi's face. Soon his oldest friend is speaking and the smile is hidden. "Then it's settled. You two can have the bigger couch and I'll take the love seat. I don't want your back getting messed up, Scooter."

Scott manages a small smile. "That's for the best if we don't want my mom to freak out and make me see my chiropractor again."

"Chiropractor?" Mitch tilts his head slightly.

"Oh, yeah, I have scoliosis. My back is all fucked up and shit. It's not really a big deal. I'm just meant to stretch and have good posture now."

"Oh, that makes sense." Mitch smiles. "We should eat. The food will get cold."

"Great idea, Mitch." Avi grins. "Let's eat!"

Avi plops onto the love seat and starts rummaging through two very large brown paper bags. Scott raises an eyebrow as he takes a seat on the larger couch. "Jesus, Av. How much food did you buy?"

Avi grins at him before going back to rummaging through the bags. He stands up, holding a black container of food. "Here's the veggie stir fry you ordered, Mitch."

Mitch takes it before sitting on the couch next to Scott. "Grazie, Avi." He smiles and rests the container on his lap before looking back towards Avi and the boys of food.

"Okay, so I know you only wanted egg drop soup and lots of the crispy mother fuckers, but I thought I could splurge a little and get you a few extra things." Avi's grin never seems to leave his face. It must be contagious because Scott soon starts smiling too, even if his is much smaller. Avi places items on the table as he pulls them from the bags. "Of course, here's your soup. And I got you three bags of the crispy things for your soup. Then I got two orders of crab ragoons because it's cream cheese in a fried thing. I also got a large order of sesame chicken because I know it's your favorite. Oh, and cashew chicken for me."

Scott looks at him for a few seconds before he busts out into laughter. He isn't sure why this is all so funny to him. Maybe it's what he witnessed yesterday finally hitting him or maybe Scott has finally lost it. He laughs long and hard, and when Scott finally stops he's wiping away a few stray tears.

"Thank you. Thank you both for being here. It means too much to me."

Mitch leans over and hugs him again. God, he gave really great hugs. Mitch mumbles something into Scott's ear. "That's what friends are for, amico."

---

It was later in the day and most of the food has somehow been eaten. Avi had explained everything to Connie after she had got off work since Scott wasn't sure he was ready to talk about what happened yet. Scott and his mom hugged for a really long time after that and she told him everything would be all right. Maybe it would be.

"I think I'm gonna head to bed," Scott mumbles this sleepily, rubbing his eyes. "I didn't sleep well last night."

Avi nods. "Alright, Hotwing. I'll turn the volume down so you can get some sleep. And I'll drive us all to school tomorrow so you won't have to worry about it."

"Thanks, Av."

"Okay, how do you want to do this, di bell'aspetto?" Mitch speaks softly, gaining Scott's attention. Scott has noticed that Mitch only seems to come up with nicknames for him. Not that Scott is complaining any. It's nice to feel special sometimes.

"You're being nice enough to be on the same couch with me, so I'll let you decide. I don't want to crush you or something..." Scott seems unsure of himself and he is. He isn't sure how strong his relationship with Mitch truly is. What if this is pushing some unknown boundary between them? Scott isn't sure if he can handle losing anyone else for a while.

Mitch is quiet for almost a minute. His brows are furrowed, eyes squinted as his nose crinkles. It strikes Scott as pretty damn adorable. How could someone's thinking face be so cute? It was an expression that made no logical sense to be charming.

"Okay, lay down, Scott." Mitch's voice breaks through the silence and Scott moves to do as he was told. "I think that we can figure this out."

Scott looks up at Mitch, now laying on his back on the couch. The blonde can almost see the gears turning in Mitch's head. "What now?"

"Turn onto your side so that your back is completely pressed against the back of the couch," Mitch instructs and Scott once again moves to get into the position. Once he's like that Mitch lays down as well, pressing his back against Scott's chest. At some point during the night, Mitch has changed into fitted sweatpants and a black t-shirt. It seems that they're finally ready for bed.

"Y'know, you could have just said we were going to spoon."

Mitch shrugs, getting more comfortable by moving Scott's arm so it drapes over his waist. "Yeah, but that was much more fun, Scottie."

The Italian nicknames were great and all but Scott's heart seems to do something strange whenever Mitch uses his real name or a variant of it. Weird. This wasn't the time to worry about that. Scott just needs to try to get some sleep before facing school, but more importantly Kirstie, tomorrow.