Seven Levels Below

XXIV

Avi lied.

It has been hours since dinner, and Scott has most definitely not come to see him.

Mitch is doing his best to at least pretend to not be glancing at the door every time he hears literally anything move, but Kirstie keeps watching him carefully. He's pretty sure she thinks he's just on edge, considering the events of Monday night, but he's also pretty sure that it's the only reason she hasn't sent him to go bother someone else yet, regardless of the late hour.

Well, that and the dress. She loved it, (much to Mitch's relief), and had squealed so loud when she saw it finished for the first time, that Matt had stuck his head in the room to check that they were okay.

(So what if it reminded Mitch of last Thursday when Matt had done the same thing to him and Scott in the dining hall.)

That had been hours ago though, and now he's just been sitting here, unable to focus enough on anything to try to distract himself from the ticking clock.

It must be after 10:00 now, and Mitch feels kind of ridiculous. He should try to sleep or something. Tomorrow's Friday—at last—and as much as Mitch was anxious for Scott to be crowned already, (okay, so maybe Monday night was bothering him a bit more than he'd care to admit), he also knew it was going to be a long day.

But he could hear shuffling feet outside the door. And sure, it was probably just the guys rotating guard shift again, but... There's always a slight chance that it—

Mitch flew upright from his burrow of blankets on the couch.

No, he couldn't have imagined that knock.

He was about ready to fling himself over to the door, but Kirstie was already there and opening it.

"Hey, Kirstie. Mind if I borrow Mitch for a little bit?"

Mitch could have jumped for joy. He frantically squirmed his way out of his little cocoon and stumbled over to the door.

"Oh, thank God," Kirstie was saying. "I was beginning to worry that you'd forgotten."

Okay, then maybe she wasn't as oblivious to the cause behind his jitteriness as Mitch had thought.

He followed Scott out the door and down the hall. When Scott turned to lead them down further into the depths of the palace instead of heading for his room, Mitch turned to look at him.

"Where are we going?"

Scott grinned down at him. "I wanna show you something."

"Show me what?"

"Nope. It's a surprise."

Mitch groaned. Scott's surprises could be anything from a random dinner outing to that silly-string stuff being sprayed in his face upon opening his apartment door.

"Don't worry, it's a good surprise. Kirstie says you'll like it. And I have actually talked about this before."

Mitch grumbled as they kept walking. They'd talked about a lot of things. How was that supposed to help?

The elevator was a surprise. It was one of those tiny ones that were inside really tall buildings, like some of the skyscrapers in the upper-city that had fancy restaurants Scott had insisted on taking him to.

When they walked out into the little room at the top, Mitch was still confused. They must be in that massive tower that was behind the Senate chamber, but why would Scott take him here? It was late, there was no way they could see the city that well.