Color

Hundred Seventeen

Scott and Mitch resumed their game on the couch, after they'd eaten. 

Mitch snatched the phone again, resulting in Scott's hands resting on Mitch's hipbones. 

Mitch leaned back further, as he scrolled through Instagram. "Aw, is this your cousin? He's so tiny."

"Yeah, he's adorable." Scott agreed softly, pressing a kiss to Mitch's shoulder. 

Mitch kept going. "Oooh, speaking of cute... I love that you're in love with Ariana."

"She's a queen, what can I say."

Mitch giggled. He stopped scrolling on the half naked torso of a very sexy man. "Oh damn!" He paused. "Wait what? Alex accepted you on his private Instagram? I had to do him a bunch of favors for that privilege." 

Scott spoke softly, right beside his ear. "What kind of favors?"

"Not like that, you pervert. Contrary to you and Avi's weird relationship, Alex doesn't want to fuck me."

Alex spoke loudly from the table, where he was studying. "Says who?"

Mitch suddenly sat up, to lean toward the dining room so he could make eye contact with Alex. "Hey! How come Scottie got into your personal Instagram? I worked hard for that."

Avi was sitting across from Alex, on his phone. "Wait what? You let them see that?"

Alex's face was bright red, as he tried to hide it in his hands. "Baby... It's just the people in this house... And Kevin, I guess."

"I thought that was just for me." Avi said.

Alex just shook his head. "Sorry, oh my God, I'm so embarrassed... Kirstie, Kevin and I used to send pictures like that to each other, to motivate each other to work out and stuff. And then Scott got in on it when we met..."

Avi blinked at him. "So then... Why did you put them on an Instagram page instead of keeping them in your groupchat or whatever?"

"Uh... I got really single, like.. Sophomore year-ish. And Mitch made the page for me, because he said he knew all my best pictures."

Scott held up a hand. "Okay, I think I have the synopsis for everyone."

Mitch softly spoke. "Good word choice."

Scott just continued. "So, Mitch made you a thirst trap page, and then Avi wanted you to private it, so only he could see it when y'all got together, because he's possessive like that."

Alex nodded once. "Yes. And I could delete it, but I don't think Avi would want me to."

Avi shrugged. "I mean, I might. How many people are on there? I thought it was just me and Mitch."

Alex shrugged, looking uncomfortable. "Uhh, I don't know I don't really check it very oft--"

"Oh, damn!" Mitch had already clicked on the page, from Scott's phone. "There's like, hella people on here, Alex! I told you to put it on private so people had to request to follow you!"

Scott then spoke quietly, kissing Mitch's shoulder again. "I love that you say hella now."

Mitch ignored him, just as Scott had ignored him earlier. "Allie, you're like. Hot."

Avi was already out of his seat, and walked over to snatch the phone from Mitch's hand. When he saw that the follower count had a capital M at the end, he snapped. "What the fuck! Alexander, what the fuck are you thinking?!"

Alex was hiding his face in his shirt now. "I'm so sorry! I wasn't paying attention! I don't even post on there, babe!"

Mitch stood from the couch, not liking how loud it was getting. "Avi, come on.. It's okay, we don't have to be upset. He hasn't interacted with anybody on there, he doesn't even respond to comments or anything. The last time he posted was back in high school." 

Avi turned to face Alex again, the phone still in his hand. "Alex... Have you read some of these comments? Why haven't you deleted this since we've started dating?" He stepped closer, with a different tone. "Am I not giving you enough attention or something?"

Alex couldn't have hidden further in his shirt if he wanted to. "It's not like that, babe... I just... Wanted to impress you."

Avi paused, frowning at him. 

Alex felt he should continue. "I'm sorry that I left the page up, I honestly wasn't thinking about it... I forgot about it, because I use my normal page more."

Avi passed the phone back to Mitch, and then walked over to the table to put a hand flat on the table top in front of Alex.

Alex peeked out of his shirt, to meet his eyes. "I'm sorry."

Avi just shook his head slowly. "You are so ridiculous sometimes. I have always been fucking impressed by you. And I just decided, I want you to keep the page up, totally public. I think it'll be good for your self esteem."

Alex just stared at him. "You're kidding, right? This is some kind of test."

"Not kidding at all. You should read some of the comments, babe. It'd probably be good for you. Maybe you should post some stuff again."

Alex was still shaking his head. "This feels like a trap. You're sure you want that?"

"Yep. Maybe you and Scott could do some together. Might be good."

Mitch was excited now too. "Ooh! And you could accept some of those sponsorships that you got offered! Make money that way."

Alex was still unconvinced. "You're sure..? You were really, really upset a few seconds ago."

"No, I'm sure. It'll be so good for you. I just realized. I gotta stop trying to keep you caged up. You've got a lot of light to share with the world... I don't want you to feel like you gotta hide it."

**