Page 67 of Under the Texas Sky
“Why are you picking the lock to my front door?”
A very manly, deep scream escapes from my mouth. I turn around on my heels, and standing at the bottom of the porch is Trent and… oh my god. Is that–
“Mitch?” I say in disbelief. Because the man in front of me does not look like the man I left behind. His skin is pale and he’s halfway hunched over.
He’s been sick,I remind myself. Trent told me he had cancer. Past tense, right? I’m not about to lose Mitch. I can’t. I won’t survive it. The same way I feel about the possibility of losing Trent.
"Get your ass over here and give me a hug, you little shit.”
My laugh is broken and tears flow freely down my face while I run and wrap my arms around him. Mitch is so small now, he feels fragile compared to how he used to feel when he would hold me tightly in his arms.
I rest my head on his shoulder and let my tears soak into the fabric on his jacket. I’ve spent so much time running. It’s amazing to be home again.
“Quit crying,” Mitch says. “Come on, Trent was just ordering pizza before his doorbell went off.”
“I was?” Trent asks, amusement in his tone. I lift my head off Mitch’s shoulder and stare into those brown eyes I love so much.
“Yes, you were. I had already asked you in my head, but didn’t have a chance to get the words out,” Mitch remarks, stepping away from me but wrapping his arm behind my back.
“Pepperoni and sausage, with extra cheese?” I ask hopefully. It’s been so long since I’ve had pizza. Let alone a pizza with all the best toppings.
“Is there another option?” Trent smiles at me, and my heart stutters in my chest.
“No, of course not,” Mitch says. “Now, let's go. It’s cold outside, and I’m hungry. I’ll be bitchy in no time if you two don’t feed me.” It’s good to know that no matter time, or sickness, he’s still the same man he was when I left.
It might have taken me two years to come home, but I’m never leaving again.
???
My stomach is pouched out from how much pizza I ate. I should have stopped after the fourth slice, but my eyes were a lot bigger than my stomach. So I just kept eating. Trent isn’t much better than me, splayed out lying on his back on the floor. Mitch is the only one of us who’s fairing well.
“I told you two not to eat so much,” he remarks, and I crack an eyelid open to watch him smile at his own attitude.
Trent moans from his spot on the floor, not in a sexy way, but in a miserable way. “Can we please not talk about eating? I might throw up if I think too hard about food.”
“I second that.” I lift my hand, but don’t have the energy to hold it up, so it falls back onto the couch like a limp noodle.
“Whimps,” Mitch mumbles under his breath. As soon as I’m able to move off this couch, I’m smacking him upside the head with a pillow. Not too hard though, because I am worried about hurting him.
“Just leave me here to die,” I reply when Mitch stands up to go to the kitchen.
“You’re more than welcome to stay here for the night. Y’all’s room is exactly how you left it.”
A tense silence envelops the room, and I don’t know what to say.Our room.The implication is there. My and Trent’s room that we used to share, and then it was the room that Trent stayed in while I needed space. Mitch kept it the exact same?
Trent pulls himself off the floor and stands, tilting side to side, cracking his back in the process. “I better get going.”
“So soon?” Mitch asks from the kitchen.
Trent hesitates and quickly glances at me before he looks away just as fast. “Yeah, I have to go into the office first thing in the morning. I don’t want to be too tired and mess up some rich person's quote. Adam would never let me hear the end of it.”
He walks over to Mitch and gives him a hug. The moment is sweet and sentimental.
“I’ll walk you home,” I blurt out, and then immediately flush red. His house is next door, it’s ten steps from Mitch’s front door to his. Whatever, I’m already committed to doing it, and I’m not backing down.
“Uhm–sure. Yeah. Okay,” Trent stutters. He can try and avoid this conversation now, but I'm not letting go easily.
“Bye Mitch,” I call out, not wanting him to see the look on my face.
