Triphilia - together forever | one-shots

Away |2|

"Avi left."

Mitch turned around. "What? What do you mean he left?"

"Here..." Scott handed a slip of paper over to his fiancé.

"I am so sorry, but I had to leave. I can't explain, just... I need this right now.
Love, Avi."

"What? Why?" Mitch asked Scott.

"How should I know?" Scott shot back. "I only got the same lines that you just read."

"I know, but..." Mitch shook his head. "I just don't understand why he would just go."

"Mitch, if I knew what was wrong with him, I would have tried to interfere way before, but he didn't say anything" Scott sighed. "Do you think he's getting cold feet?" he then asked.

"That doesn't make sense. We've been together for such a long time and we already had our promise ceremony over five years ago. Why would he get cold feet now?" Mitch shook his head. "Something must have happened. But why didn't we notice anything?"

"Let me see this once more." Scott took the paper out of Mitch's hand and read through the few words once more. "He had to leave us, but he can't explain why..."

"Yeah that's exactly what the note says. No need to repeat it all over again" Mitch hissed.

Scott scoffed. "Geez Mitch, calm down. I'm just trying to do anything, to understand the whole thing. You been all snappy doesn't help."

"I am not snappy " Mitch returned. "I just want him back here I don't think that reading these stupid words over and over again is helping. We should do something. There must be something we can do."

"I am trying to figure this out, Mitch" Scott said, trying his very best to stay calm. "We need to stick together now. No fighting, please. I just couldn't take it."

Mitch took a deep breath. "You're right, Scott we cannot let it get to us, we need to focus on Avi now. Shall we call him?"

Scott shrugged his shoulders. "It's worth a try, even though I don't think he will answer if he really wanted to get away."

"But it is worth a try, isn't it?" Mitch grabbed his phone and dialled Avi's number. He waited, but... nothing. Even tried it a second and third time. Nothing. "You were right. He's not answering his phone." Mitch rubbed his temples in a vain attempt to curb the migraine that was approaching rapidly.

"We should leave him a message. we need to show him that we are here, that we're waiting for him, for any sign..." Scott offered. "Just in case he wants to contact us?"

"Yeah... let's just do that" Mitch said. He took his phone and sat down. "Okay... how do we do this?"

The two men took some time to compose the message, making sure that it conveyed both their love for their fiancé and their fear of loosing him.

"And now?" Mitch asked once the message had been sent.

Scott sighed deeply. "Now we'll just have to wait."

~

"Hello Avi,
we found your message and we didn't find your suitcase and toothbrush and everything. You really left.
You probably have your reasons for going away and we're trying our very best to respect your decision. Still, we just want to know what happened and why you didn't talk to us.
We love you a lot. Please contact us whenever you need us. And even if you don't want to, please just give us a sign that you're safe.
If you're ready to come back home we'll be waiting with our arms wide open. We love you.
Scott and Mitch."

Avi read these lines when he stopped for gas for the first time after leaving the house. He hadn't made it far out of the town, but traffic had been crazy and it was stop and go all the time.

He sighed deeply and a part of him wanted to just make a U-turn and go back home. But he also knew that he couldn't. Something told him that it was wrong to go back and that he needed some time away to re-evaluate everything.

So he filled up the tank of his car and got himself some water and snacks that would last him a while before he got back on the road, headed north.

Avi didn't have a destination, he had only thought about getting out not where to go. For a split second he thought about going to Visalia, to his parents or to the cabin, but then decided to just stay on the Interstate.

He just drove and listened to music with nothing to distract him. To Avi this was freedom. No obligations, nothing that would pull him down.

Of course he thought about Mitch and Scott a lot, reminisced in memories of them being together, going on their little roadtrips all over the world.

Avi had always loved driving with one of them being on the passenger seat. Oh how many memories of deep talks they had made in this car.

But this time he was on his own. And it was okay, it was what he needed. At least that's what Avi kept telling himself.

Avi didn't know how much time had passed. He stopped twice more, for gas and toilet breaks until he saw a street sign welcoming him to the state of Oregon that he realised that he must have been on the road for almost twelve hours.

When the sun started to set, Avi decided that it would be wiser to stop somewhere and get a place to sleep, even though he would have loved to drive all through the night.

So he stopped in the next bigger city, searched for a nice looking bed and breakfast and got a room with a balcony overlooking a park.

Once he was upstairs, he sat down on the balcony, had some fruits for dinner and just looked at the sunset, thinking about what he would do and where he would go. He wanted to go to a slightly bigger city, with enough people so he would blend in and no-one would really notice him. But he also wanted to be close to nature to go on hikes and everything.

For now he was happy in his room and he decided to stay a night or two and just let himself be. It would all fall into place.

Avi got ready for bed when the sun had set, set an alarm and opened the chat of him, Scott and Mitch.

They hadn't texted anything else. Should he...

It would only be fair to at least let them know that he was okay:

"Hello Scott, hello Mitch. Don't worry about me, please. I am in a bed and breakfast on the road. Thank you for respecting my decision.
I'm sorry."

~~~~~~~~~~~~