All I want is for you to be happy

An Intro

Hi, my name is Mitch Grassi, I am 21 years old. And I would love to tell you my story, so maybe you won’t make the same mistakes I have made. Perhaps your life would be much happier than mine.

 I am from Arlington, Texas. It was there where I met my best friend, Scott Hoying, at the age of ten. We met at community theatre. And it was there also were we tuned into an awesome group of three, when we met the sweetest girl in the world, Kirstie Maldonado.

We became really close friends, really easily. They are two amazing people, who are always there for you, trying to make your life as good as possible. Both have always been there for me. I would like to believe that I would do the same for them, but I am not the one to judge that. So to know the truth, you must ask them, I guess.

I suppose that everybody who knows our story, even if it is just a little bit of it, would agree that the glue that stuck us together was, and still is, music. Are you smiling while you are reading this? Well, maybe if you are, it is because you know us, but let me explain a little bit for those who don’t.

When I say music, I am not talking about similar taste in music, which sometimes we do agree, but for the most part we are very different. What I mean is choir, a capella, music with our voices, just our voices. During school and high school we were always singing, we even uploaded some videos to YouTube.

To make the songs sound as perfect as we wanted to, and to make our arrangements; we normally spent a lot of time together. Well I guess that it would only be fair to say that we spent every minute of our lives together. Because when we weren’t singing or arranging, we teamed up to study together. So actually, we were apart only to sleep, and only the nights in which we had class the next day. Because if we could we would stay at Scott’s parent’s house and we will have some amazing slumber parties.

Needless to say that spending that much time together, I started to have feelings… I was really scared because I didn’t want to break our friendship. I was sure that if a relationship were to start, but for whatever reason it didn’t work out; it was not going to affect the two of us in the couple but the three of us. And I wasn’t sure if it was worthy, so I spent a lot of time thinking in the pros and cons.

Finally I talked to Scott, and following his advice, I invited Kirstie to our first date. We went to a beautiful restaurant to have dinner, and after that we went to a Paramore concert. We were together for a while, but neither of us felt that sparkle that you have to feel when you are with ‘The One’. So we talked about it, and we decided to break up.

It was really hard; I was really scared of our trio being over. So, we talked to Scott, and he told us that there was no problem with him, as long as we (Kirstie and I) were happy. But he also made himself very clear by telling us that he was not going to take sides. He also asked us to never share with him any details, neither of our relationship nor of the break up.

Since that day, we went back to having a great relationship, but, it was never the same. I think I can safely say that even today there are some moments between Kirstie and me that are a little bit awkward.

Just like this, time went by. We started college. In the middle of the first semester, along came Scott with the biggest smile I have ever seen in my life.

Scott: Hi Mitchy!

Mitch: Hi Scotty!

Scott: Isn’t Kirstie here yet? I told her to be here at five o’clock. What time is it?

Mitch: 4:58. She can still be on time though! Chillax! What is going on? Did you win the lottery?

Scott: You are so silly!

(Kirstie opens the door)

Kirstie:  Am I late? Impossible!

Scott: No, you are fine, come, have a sit.

Kirstie: What are you up to? You are way too smiley.

Mitch: Agreed.

Scott: What would you say if I tell you that I want the three of us to go to the auditions for the a capella show, ‘The Sing off’?

Kirstie and I looked at each other and then back to him, trying to figure out if he was drunk, or worst, maybe he was mental.

Scott: Well?!

Mitch: Are you being serious?

Scott: YEAH!! I was talking to Susan last night. I told her the idea, and she said it was great, but maybe only three people would not be enough, so she recommended that we should look for a bass and a beatbox. What’d you guys think?

Mitch: Just, tell me, looking me in the eyes, that you are being serious.

He grabbed my face with his two hands and looked me in the eyes, so serious. For a second I thought that, looking me that intensely, he was going to be able to read my deepest secrets.

Scott: I am being totally serious.

Kirstie: Ok, let’s do this.

Scott: Yes!

Mitch: Ok.

Scott: She told me about a friend of hers. His name is Avi, and seems to be the sickest bass she has ever known. She told me to text her if you guys agreed to talk to him and find a day to meet.

Mitch: Sounds good to me. What about the beatbox?

Kirstie: Let’s look online, maybe we find someone.

So the three of us took our respective computers and started searching for a beatbox everywhere we could think of. Until, we had two or three, each.

Scott: I got two, but I don’t think I want to search for more, ‘cause I am obsessed with one of them.

Mitch: Same here.

Kirstie: I only have one, but if you guys are done, let’s do this.

Scott turned his computer for Kirstie and me to watch a YouTube video. As soon as I saw the cello, a little scream come out of me, and so did Kristie. We looked at each other, she showed me her computer, I showed her mine, and we started laughing without being able to stop.

Scott: What is so funny?

Kirstie and I turned our computers with different videos of the same guy beatboxing while playing his cello. So we wrote him a message. And that was the beginning of our amazing new family, Pentatonix.

That night when I arrived home, as I entered all happy-clappy, my mother looked at me with the biggest ‘I am a mother and there is something going on with my son’ look of all times. And she just bluntly asked me: Are you in love?

For some estrange reason I felt as if my heart had missed a couple of beats hearing that question. I don’t really know if my mother realized that I had just had a micro heart attack. I tried to answer as fast as I could: No mum! Kristie, Scott and I, and another two amazing musicians are going to go to the auditions for ‘The Sing Off’.

Mum:  Is that all?

Mitch: What else do you want?

Mum: I don’t know, for some reason you seemed ‘love-happy’ no ‘excited-happy’ to me. I was wrong then.

That conversation with my mother made me think. That night I couldn’t sleep. My heart was beating so fast. Every time I closed my eyes, trying to fall asleep, all I saw were the same scenes over and over: Scott’s greatest smile. His hands grabbing my face. His sky blue eyes searching my soul.

Why was I so scared of Scott finding any secret? He is my best friend! I don’t have secrets from him, do I?

All of a sudden my mother’s words entered my head as a lighting struck: Am I in love?... Am I in love… with… Scott?