8

A/NUmm, I'm definitely not too quick to update. But finally we start to have some action here! Enjoy!

***

Mitch was so tired. His head hurt from the lack of rest and the wine he drank with Austin but he wasn't able to get back to sleep. Though it was only 8 in the morning, he could hear someone messing in the kitchen – probably Austin's fiancé. She came home before midnight but went straight to bed to let the boys have some time together.

Mitch unlocked his phone once again and turned on the mobile net for a distraction until Austin wakes up. Scott had a night out with Mark, Kirstie was with her dogs and Ben, the others didn't have new Instagram stories yet. He saw the green dot at Beau's picture and a small smile appeared on his lips. His boyfriend was awake. They've been chatting for a while until Beau needed to leave for work.

He pushed his phone away and decided to use the bathroom. The guest room had its own so Mitch only needed to sit up and walk across the place. For his surprise he felt very lightheaded but then remembered that he didn't really have a proper dinner last night. It was a bad decision and now he was paying the price.

And let's not forget that he was tired.

No, not only tired. He felt completely drained, his body longing for a long, good sleep but his mind was refusing it. He felt numb, like he wasn't able to think but his chest hurt from all the stress happened in the past weeks, so for a while he just sat on the bed and tried to breathe.

After he got himself together, he finally walked into the bathroom, hoping for cold, refreshing water. The man staring back at him in the mirror made him clench his teeth. It was a bad habit of his that he could find plenty of things he didn't like in himself right away instead of focusing on the features he was grateful for. His eyes were darker than usually and his skin was ghostly pale.

Hanging out with Austin was supposed to be relaxing and fun but still, he felt like trash. Inside and out.

He should've posted something on social media because his fans were questioning how he was doing these days. He just couldn't make himself putting things online knowing that his stalker was going to see it. He hated the feeling that he was letting his fans down but he wasn't able to do it.

Someone knocked on the bedroom door. Mitch was quick to open it, revealing Austin. "Morning! Did I wake you?" he asked, and Mitch shook his head. "Kelly has left already but she- Are you okay?" Austin interrupted himself, furrowing his brows. Mitch shrugged. He didn't want to lie. His heart was already pounding faster, thinking of a proper answer. They didn't drink enough for a bad hangover. "I don't really wanna talk about it," he spoke finally. Austin bit his under lip but let the topic go. He took a breath and started to talk about the breakfast Kelly has made for them.

Mitch got dressed and walked downstairs. Despite his empty stomach he didn't feel like forcing anything down. The smell of bacon made him weirdly nauseous. It would've been very impolite to make a scene so he just sat down and grabbed a fork, silently hoping that everything will be alright.

The kitchen was unusually quiet. Austin sent him a weird look before taking a place in the front of Mitch. "You know..." he started but didn't know how to finish. He cleared his throat. "You know that you can tell me anything. And by anything I mean anything. I promise I won't judge." "Nothing interesting," Mitch mumbled the response. He got a lump in his throat. "I don't care if it's interesting or not. I'm your friend, I love you and I'm here for you. No matter what." "Thanks but nothing's up. Everything is alright." Mitch forced himself to look into Austin's eyes. He knew that Mitch was lying but for his luck Austin was the polite type of friend. He was listening, he noticed everything but never forced anything.

And that was how Mitch left Austin's place.

***

Returning home was hard. It was difficult when your house was the place of constant uncertainness, stress and panic. He needed to pack again because next day they were leaving for an interview and concert but each sudden noise made him jump. He felt so exhausted mentally that after a while he just wrapped himself into a blanket and put on a Netflix show as a distraction while crying quietly.

Next morning he woke up on his phone ringing. It was Scott asking if he needed a ride to the place they were supposed to meet that day. Mitch said yes but then he realized that half of his clothes were on the floor at his suitcase. He literally jumped out of bed and frantically threw as many things in as he could before Scott arrived. He only had time to dress up and fix his hair a little but no breakfast.

Mitch never necessarily liked travelling with the tour bus but it was definitely better than staying at home or at hotels. They barely had space in the living room because everyone had their partners there – except Mitch but he was happy to know that Beau will be following him to their destination. His plane was landing that day in Los Angeles so he was spending a day at Mitch's place on his own before taking another flight next morning. Mitch wasn't happy for that at all, he didn't want Beau to be there alone. Though it would've been very suspicious if he suddenly decides not to let his boyfriend in as he did before. He tried to reason with the almost break-in that has happened not so long ago but Beau only laughed and told him that the police would arrive before someone manages to break the new lock. He couldn't be scared easily.

It was already dark outside when they arrived to the hotel. Mitch got his own room as usually. To be honest, this time he wasn't too anxious. No one said a thing about where they were going exactly for the interview next day so there wasn't really a chance that anyone could find him.

He put on a nice face mask and chilled, watching some YouTube videos. They were guests in talk show in the morning so he needed to sleep enough and look presentable, and finally the result of all those nights spent awake with his racing thoughts were about to vanish.

***

He was actually happy when he woke up. He wasn't too tired, he didn't look crazy in the mirror and no disturbing texts were to be found anywhere. He quickly realized that he forgot to send Beau a message last night so he apologized quickly and went to dress up. His suitcase was still packed because they only spent a night there. He met the others in the hotel restaurant for a quick breakfast. The partners of Pentatonix were planning some sightseeing while the band was participating the talk show. Floof was literally all over the place that morning and Mitch volunteered to tire him a little bit on the tour bus.

The interview went just amazing, it was a great day overall- Until they arrived to the next hotel. It was near the concert hall which made Mitch quite uncomfortable but he tried not to ruin his day as long as he could. Beau was arriving next morning, he only needed to keep his things together until that time.

As he was sitting on the hotel bed, scrolling through Instagram, his phone rang. It was Beau. "Babe, are you okay? Do you still want me to come?" "What? Why wouldn't I? I miss you so much," Mitch answered, furrowing his brows. "I don't know, you just don't really talk to me lately and you were pretty hesitant about me staying at your place so I thought- Anyway, are you sure that you want me there? I don't wanna be too clingy, you know... If you have other things to do." Beau was hesitant. He had this weird tone in his voice that made Mitch's heart sunk into his stomach. "You could be never too clingy, I love being with you. I love you babe, don't ever question that." "I just- I feel like- You know what, nevermind. I can't wait to see you tomorrow. Love you, too." No, Beau didn't sound like himself. Was it because Mitch forgot to send him a message last night? But he apologized for that. Did he find something? Did he find the letters? Did his stalker do something?

Afert a couple words Beau hung up the call and Mitch was left there with all the questions. If Beau finds an evidence of Mitch cheating on him, he's going to be fucked. He was literally hiding information in order to avoid Beau assuming things. He could see now that it was clearly a mistake. He should've told at least Austin.

There was a sudden knock on his door, making him jump. His legs automatically carried him to the door and his hand opened it without thinking. His mind was too buzzy to only peek out first and boy, that was a mistake. Someone pushed him over and while he was concentrating on not falling, the door was being closed and a tall, broad shouldered figure stepped into his view. "Well, well. Finally, we have some nice time together, don't we?"