Incurable

Thirty

Now seated at Group, Mitch was telling a story to the other people in the circle, Jen smiling and listening to him attentively.

Halfway through, he got a little distracted and stood from his chair to sit on Scott's lap with a smile. "You look upset."

Jen leaned forward in her chair. "Mitchie, you were at the best part!"

Mitch turned back to her, and then smiled before continuing. "Oh yeah! Okay so.. He tried to hop over a fence to impress me, but ended up falling flat on his face!"

Kirstie and Avi both started laughing, Kevin cracking a smile, but Scott pulled on Mitch's shirt sleeve.

Mitch turned to him with a smile, and Scott spoke a little louder than normal. "Was it impressive?"

Mitch giggled. "Oh, yeah. I was very impressed."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Mitch grinned widely at Scott's humor, not even really because it was funny, but because Scott usually doesn't waste his time on making jokes.

Most humor is just a bunch of unnecessary words, so Scott steers clear.

Kirstie cracked a joke based on Scott's, and had the group laughing again, but Mitch hardly even noticed.

He started at Scott, who stared back, and then Mitch reached out to gently touch Scott's Adam's apple. "I think your voice is beautiful... And it makes me happy... So I wish you'd use it more often."

Scott smiled at him, his arms around Mitch's waist.

"No one is listening. Can't you talk to me?"

Scott nodded, but still didn't speak up.

"Scott." Mitch whined, a pout overtaking his lips.

"Yes, beautiful?" Scott asked quietly.

Mitch's facial expression immediately changed and he giggled. "See? That wasn't so bad, was it?"

Scott shook his head once, still smiling.

"Say something else."

Scott just blinked at him, staying silent.

Mitch pouted. "Scottie... Please? I won't ask for anything else ever again."

"I love you." Scott responded quietly.

Mitch grinned widely. "I love you too!"

Jen stopped speaking, and her focus quickly moved to Mitch. "Oh no. Did I miss something cute?"

Mitch giggled, turning to her, although his arms were still around Scott's neck. "No. You missed something adorable."

"Shoot." She mumbled, looking back down at her clipboard and checking something off. She looked up suddenly. "Oh! Kirstie, how was your first meeting with Mr. Riley?"

Kirstie's smile faded a little, and she shrugged. "He's.. Okay, I guess. He was really mean to Scott, which was super rude because he knew Scott couldn't defend himself."

Mitch piped up. "Mean? How mean, exactly?"

"He tried to make Scott feel bad for being who he is. And that's just... That's about as rude as you can get."

Jen gasped at her. "He did what? What did he say exactly?"

"I don't want to repeat it exactly... But he made fun of Scott for liking men. And he said that Alex was a waste...." She paused to glance at Scott. "And he called Mitch a 'boy toy'."

Jen's face had become stoic. "Kirstin, this is very serious. Are you sure that's what he said?"

"I'm absolutely sure."

Jen shook her head slowly, and scribbled down several things onto one of the papers in her lap. "Unacceptable. I'm so sorry you two had to sit and listen to that. I'll do everything I can to be sure he's out of here."

Mitch let out a loud sigh of relief. "Thank God. Then maybe Allie will be able to sleep again."

Jen glanced up, her brown eyebrows raised. "I beg your pardon?"

Mitch shrugged. "Al hasn't been able to sleep since he had his meeting with Mr. Riley."

Jen tilted her head a little, and looked at the others for an explanation. "Who is...?" Her face suddenly dawned with realization. "Oh... He's the Yellow I saw crying... Was he crying because of Mr. Riley?"

Kevin nodded slowly. "Yeah..."

"Poor thing.." She murmured, writing something else down. "I'll see what I can do, you guys. I'm so sorry about that."

Kirstie gave her a small smile. "It's not your fault. Thank you for helping us."

Jen was about to speak, but she saw Scott whisper something to Mitch, so she waited for Mitch to share with everyone else.

Mitch glanced over at her a moment later. "Scott wants to know about the meeting tomorrow. If he has to go or not."

Jen furrowed her eyebrows at them, and looked to Kirstie. "Meeting?"

Kirstie nodded slowly. "Oh yeah... I forgot. He asked us to come in again tomorrow."

Jen looked back to Scott. "I think... If you're not comfortable seeing him again, then don't go. Don't put yourself in that situation. But if you decide to go, keep track of all the things he says, and the tell me at Group so I can write them down and use them to convince the Board to let him go."

**********
After leaving group, the five had about a half hour to kill before dinner.

Mitch had attached himself to Scott, and refused to let go, so that he could defend Scott if anyone said anything mean to him.

Kirstie and Kevin were walking together, just behind the other two, and Avi was sulking behind them.

Kirstie finally noticed, when she held the door open for him, so she closed it and stood in front of him instead. "What's wrong?"

"I don't want you to go back."

"Back, where?"

"Riley's."

"Aw.. That's sweet of you. But you don't have to worry about me. I can handle myself."

"I know you can. But I just... Don't want you to have to take that crap from him."

She smiled, and set a hand gently on the side of his face, to which he set his hand on top of hers.

Avi spoke up again. "Will you please come find me tomorrow as soon as the meeting is over? Please?"

"Of course."

Avi smiled a little, and looked down. He took a small pause before he spoke again. "Can't you just... Not go?"

"No, silly. I have to get dirt on him so Jen can fire him. Then Scott won't have to deal with it, and Alex can relax a little."

Avi hummed, and then met her eyes. "I'm still kind of curious as to what happened to Alex..."

"Yeah... Me too."

****