defect ➵ scömìche

twenty one

a/n:: lol a few pov switches

Mitch Grassi's POV

IT HAD BEEN A DAY since our walk and I hadn't talked to him once. I wanted to force myself to think he wasn't doing the disappearing thing again, but it was official when Kirstie, Avi, and Kevin told me they hadn't seen him all week, while I had except for today and some of yesterday.

I sighed, pulling the hem of my shirt down a bit. Maybe he'll be back earlier, unlike every other time.

***

Scott Hoying's POV

"I gave you four months! You weren't suppose to fall for him!" James screamed at me. I stared at him, fury clear in my expression. "I can't help it! You have to leave him alone. You can't just target random people like this every day!"

"Does he even know what you're known for, Scott?" James then smirked. "It'd be a shame if someone told him."

"James," I threatened. "Don't, please."

"I've had enough of your bullshit, Scott. I hired you because of your grandfather, not because of your weaknesses. You can't fall in love with my targets."

"Okay, first of all, my grandfather isn't in the business anymore and didn't even know of you forcing me to join until a few months ago. Second of all, I'm not in love. I just like him a lot," I stated.

"Right," he snorted. "Sure, yeah."

"Just pick somebody else," I said loudly. "He isn't a bad person. You can't ruin his life the way you've ruined mine."

"He's fit. He can handle the business," James retorted.

"Fit? He weighs like 100 pounds of cloud. He can't run very far or fast without panting and struggles to hold a bag of cat food. He can't do anything here. He isn't the right target," I sighed. [a/n: yo im the mitch scott described lmao except for the weight]

"He'll do fine."

"No," I said. "He wouldn't. Just pick someone else for fuck's sake, please."

"We don't do that. We don't give up!" James yelled.

"There's no we, James. I want to drop out. I want to have a normal life for once," I sighed. "Well, Scott, here's the thing: you can't! You either die leaving or do it miserably. You don't have a choice here, we both know you don't."

"I can't do this anymore," I shook my head. "I can't."

"Whether or not you can, you have to unless you want to die. I'd let you, Scott. I would, but I'm not him," James said sympathetically, but I knew he didn't give two shits about me or Mitch. "I can't put him in danger," I exhaled. "He can target me, but Mitch can't be targeted. He can nearly kill me if he'd like, or literally kill me, but Mitch cannot be in danger. Can you ask him? Please, James. Tell him to target me instead."

He sighed, but nodded nonetheless. "I'll ask."

***

I felt every single ounce of pain course through my body as I began to leave the building. James asked, and five minutes later, after he contemplated it, he decided — which was to beat the shit out of me and give me a flat 'no.'

I forced myself to go toward my own place, even though the perpetual pain I was feeling had put a weight on me to make me go slower than I originally wanted. He just gave me a black eye and my left leg refused to move sometimes. It was nothing compared to what he did to those who tried to escape, so I was a little glad that he didn't give me what he probably and most likely wanted to.

As I entered my smaller apartment, I closed my door and sighed, landing on my couch and checking out my eye in my phone's camera. It wasn't that bad, but it was going to turn a darker color eventually. I figured I could borrow Kirstie's concealer, it's not like she uses it much anyways. She never needed to. My leg still hurt like hell, but that's what ignoring is created for. I stretched a bit before sighing, closing my eyes and resting just for a little bit. I knew I had to do something about this, to fix it somehow, or to just get Mitch out of it at least. They never targeted Kirstie (fortunately) and it confused me on why they would start marking him.

***

Mitch Grassi's POV

"I'm sorry, you guys," I said. I felt terrible for never telling them anything. It was almost like they didn't even exist in this entire thing, like it was just Scott and I. In some way, it was just us, but it should've consisted of the other three, thus resulting in how bad I had felt for not telling them. "It's fine, don't worry. At least you told us, right?" Kevin tried. He even cracked a smile, but I wasn't in the mood for anything of the sort. I hadn't heard from Scott since yesterday and it was nearing night. It was unusual, but Kirstie told me it was nothing and that he'd probably be back by morning, but her words never stopped the worry in the pit of my stomach.

"Right," I said almost emotionlessly as Kirstie brought up her bottle of Chardonnay. I mentioned to her some time ago that I loved the stuff, but I didn't feel like drinking any of the wine at the moment.

She passed it around, and as Kevin ignored it, giving it to me, I shook my head, making him look back to Avi. Avi took it from him within a second or two, then they all looked at me, staring for what seemed like endless minutes but was probably a few seconds. I shifted uncomfortably in their gaze, and finally, when they realized it wasn't making the situation any better, they stopped and continued talking about nothing yet everything as the only thing running through my mind was if Scott was okay and if Avi, Kevin, and possibly Kirstie were still a little mad or disappointed at me for forgetting to tell them the recent things that had been happening.

***

a/n:: haha what. short. slow.

anyways.

jerstie is engaged.

scömìche are obviously dating. jk but seriously though they never even answered the goddamn question w h y.

ALSO this might become a little confusing for some of you, but Scott will explain it a lot more in the later chapters. i'm gonna try to go for 25 or 26 or maybe even more. i can't do 30 of this book lmao. so it's ending soon. :(