ANIMALS [Mitch Grassi fanfiction]

9

 "I guess you didn't notice this one," he showed a white envelope and he dropped it on the floor. From the distance between them Mitch could clearly see that the guy was using colored contact lenses. His eyes were bright green, making his stare very uncomfortable. He was wearing a black hoodie as usually and he seemingly didn't shave in the past days. Mitch unconsciously held his breath as he was waiting for the next step. His whole body was frozen in fear.

"You are just as gorgeous as I remembered," the man smiled, showing his perfectly white teeth. He was a psychopath, Mitch thought. He wasn't the stereotypical crazy sloppy weirdo, no. He was seemingly working on his body, his cheekbones were sharp, his eyebrows were neat and his clothes were clean. He looked absolutely normal except one thing: he was in Mitch's hotel room.
"Look, I don't know who you are but you must be in the wrong room," Mitch tried but he felt failing even before starting to talk.
The guy laughed. "Please, I know that you know me by now. I can't believe that we finally get to be together a little bit."
"No, we can't! Please, leave! Right now!" Mitch raised his voice in panic. His entire body was tingling in adrenaline. He tried to step away and open the door but the man caught his wrist, holding him back. He was so much stronger than Mitch. He kept him close with seemingly no effort while Mitch gave in everything to pull his hand out of the man's grasp.
"Your hands are so beautiful." He sighed. "Look, darling- Stop fighting. I don't wanna hurt you. You're too precious for that."

It was so damn creepy. Obsessive people weren't any better than haters when it came like this. And this dude definitely needed treatment. Finally, Mitch was able to escape from his hold and took a few steps back.
"You know, it hurts my heart to see that you're still afraid of me. But it's okay, we can take it step by step. At the end of the day, you'll know that you belong to me."

Mitch stepped back again and took a deep breath. "Leave!" he shouted as loud as he could.

And it worked.

A few seconds after there was another knock on his door. "Mitch? Are you alright?" Scott's and Mark's room was right next to his. The man's face stiffened. He clenched his teeth and his expression became wild.
"Scott!" Mitch was loud enough for his friend to hear but he couldn't say a word more because the man was quick to catch him and within a minute his hand was pressed to Mitch's mouth.
"Shut up, you dumb bitch!" he hissed. "I hate you, I hate you so much!"
Mitch tried to escape frantically. This guy was absolutely crazy. He was impulsive and completely insane.

Just as Scott opened the door, Mitch was free again. He could see the puzzled, shocked expression on Scott's face. "Did I interrupt something? Who are you?"
"I just came to tell Mitch something," the guy spoke like nothing was wrong with the fact that he literally broke into the hotel room.
"Hey, aren't you the man from VIP?" Scott wrinkled his forehead. "You're not supposed to be here. You can meet Mitch tomorrow if you've bought a ticket but you're not allowed to be in his room- unless he told you so."
"I see, I'm sorry. See you tomorrow then." A small smile appeared in the corner of the man's lips as he looked Mitch in the eyes. Then he turned on his heels and left.

"I swear, some fans are unbelievable," Scott blew out the air as the man faded away.
It took Mitch a couple of seconds until he got himself together again. "Scott, why the fuck did you let him leave?!"
"Well, he didn't seem particularly dangerous. He left without an issue," Scott shrugged. "Obsessive people are the part of our jobs, it's not a big deal."
Mark appeared behind Scott, putting an arm around his boyfriend's waist. "Hey, is everything alright here?"
"Yeah, just a fan has found Mitch's room. But everything's fine now." Scott answered, then he turned to Mitch. "Would you like to come over for a while? We could make a Superfruit live or something to get this incident out of your mind."

To be honest, Mitch was close to a panic attack. He was dizzy and out of breath. The last thing he wanted to do was live streaming. He didn't know what to say. Scott let this crazy man go and promised him that he could see Mitch the next day. It all felt like a bizarre dream.

Meanwhile Kirstie came out of her room and Scott has probably explained her what happened without Mitch noticing it because she was wrinkling her forehead. She was worried. She placed a hand on Mitch's arm which felt strangely uncomfortable. He didn't want to be touched anymore. The group was talking but Mitch couldn't make out a single word of it.

Scott has made the final decision. He grabbed his arm and dragged him into the bathroom. "Is it okay if I close the door?" he asked. Mitch nodded. "Mitchy, I wanna talk to you. For real now. But first, you need to calm down a little bit, alright?"

He waited silently until Mitch collected his thoughts enough. They've been living together for long years, he knew this side of Mitch more than anyone of the band. They both sat on the floor in the front of each other, Scott cross-legged. It felt like middle school again. Mitch couldn't help a smile at the memory which caused Scott smile, too. But then he started talking. "Hey, we don't wanna lose you, okay? I don't know if you just started getting tired of being known or something else but we don't want you feel the way you seemingly feel nowadays. We all noticed it."
"Noticed what?" Mitch asked even though he knew the answer. He just needed more time before figuring an accurate answer.
"That you're isolating yourself from us. From the band. You barely hang out with us if we go somewhere. And you look very stressed. Is something going on that I don't know about?"
Mitch nearly burst out laughing but not in joy. How many times did he need to tell Scott? Seemingly he was convinced that the 'stalker' was just a side-effect of something and not the main happening that has caused everything else.
"It doesn't matter if I tell you again because you obviously won't believe me," Mitch mumbled, not daring to look into his best friend's eye. He couldn't believe that once they have been kissing. They moved together and often fell asleep in the same bed even though they were only friends. They used to be so close. Now they were like strangers.
"It's not that I don't believe you, it's just-" Scott sighed. "It's just that I don't think it's as dangerous as you feel it. Someone sent you letters that he likes you. We all get that."

Was it all that Scott saw of the situation? Right, Mitch didn't tell him the nearly break-in. He didn't show him all the letters. He didn't tell anyone the actual break-in when there was a bouquet on the kitchen counter with a note. He didn't tell Scott when he saw the stalker at his house and he couldn't convince Beau that it was the stalker. He didn't tell the SMS anyone.

He barely told anyone anything, yet he was begging for them to believe him. He should've told Austin. He definitely should've told him but now it was too late. No one would believe him anymore because he had no evidence but the letters, the exact letters that made everyone not believe him.

He didn't know when and how it happened but the next thing he felt was Scott's palm on his back as Mitch buried his face into the orange sweater of his best friend and sobbed. He literally couldn't stop crying. He was so desperate and lonely. He hasn't been doing very well mentally anyway but these past weeks wrecked him.

Scott pulled him closer but didn't say a word. His heart was aching for his best friend. Obviously, he knew that Mitch wasn't the same type of person as him and he didn't even need to be but sometimes he wished they would've been a little bit more alike. Either Mitch would care less about small things or he would understand Mitch more. Despite all those years Scott often felt like a bull in a china shop.

They ended up spending some time in Mitch's room instead of joining the others. After Mitch got himself together, they ended up making a quite short, only 20 minutes long live stream. Many of their fans were questioning why Mitch didn't post lately and if he was doing alright.

After dinner Scott was about to leave Mitch's room when he saw the white envelope on the floor. "Hey, I guess you didn't notice this one," he said, smiling. He put the letter on the top of the small cabinet at the door and then left.

It was only a coincidence that Scott used the same words as Mitch's stalker but it was enough to wash all the calmness away. His stomach started to hurt again, he felt dizzy and he was about to cry again only in less than five seconds.

But he opened the envelope anyway.