Music tip:
Naughty Boy ft. Beyoncé, Arrow Benjamin – Runnin' (Lose It All)

For You

Chapter 27:
Fight for It

Mitch should have known that once Adam was out of the door all hell would break loose.

Suddenly Jerome was by his side and even though he knew that the rest of his friends had to be in the room as well by now, Mitch wasn't able to suppress the bitter sobs. It hurt. Worse than before. Because Adam had been so close, so damn close that they even had kissed, but now he was even further away than before. It had to be done though – reliving the nightmare, no matter how wonderful it might seem at first, would damage them irrevocably. And this time Mitch had to be smart about it and save both of them from something life-ending.
It was the right decision.

Nonetheless it hurt as if someone had stabbed his chest multiple times and the tears burnt his cheeks like boiling water. It felt as if he was thrown back multiple months into the past – every progress Jerome had achieved was blown away by a kiss, a smile and a confession of love.
And his best friend knew exactly what had happened merely by looking at him.

"I'm going to kill that idiot. I fucking knew it was a bad idea!"

Jerome knelt down by his side and grabbed Mitch's shoulder, who had his legs pulled to his chest and his face buried in his arms. The sobs were too heavy for him to reply, so his friends took the opportunity and asked the questions that had been burning under their skin for months now.

"What happened between you?"
Vik.

"Don't look at me like that Jerome, we know something has occurred between those two and I think it's time you guys tell us about it. We are your best friends and want to support you in whatever happens, but that's not possible if you keep important things back."
Jerome's hand on Mitch's shoulder tensed and he knew his best friend was about to explode and let his steam off on Vik, who had absolutely nothing to do with the current situation.

"Maybe you better back off, Vi-"

"He's right," Mitch mumbled and Jerome froze by his side. Another sob racked his body, then he was able to take a deep breath and raise his head. Before he took an ashamed glance at the others though, he tried to dry the streaks of tears with the sleeves of his red shirt. He wasn't keen on humiliating himself any more than he already had done.
Before Mitch had any time thinking about how in the world he should start to explain the unexplainable, the door opened and Rob reentered the room. "I talked to the instructor, he is pissed but I told him there is no way we are doing the panel today."

Oh, shoot!
He had totally forgotten about that. What had started out as five harmless minutes of mere talking had turned out into one ugly, big monster. A part of him was ashamed for letting his friends down, who had been so excited before to attend the panel for the first time together as The Pack, but another part cherished them for throwing away an opportunity like that just for his sake.

"So you two have been together."
Preston earned himself multiple glares for his blunt and straightforward assumption, but it took the task of beginning with the undeniable truth off of Mitch, who shot a thankful smile at his friend and was finally able to stop the tears.

"We were for several months, while Team Crafted still existed."
When the others noticed that Mitch wasn't as uncomfortable with their questions as expected, they settled down on the ground by Mitch's side or the chairs at the table nearby. "What- Why did you guys break up?"
The tears were still gleaming in the corners of his eyes and every thought about what had happened hurt as badly as watching Adam go just a few minutes before, but it surprised Mitch how easy it was to reply to the questions of his friends. Their comforting looks and the patience they radiated reminded him that he wasn't and had not been alone in this, even if they had not known about it, even if he just now was opening up to them. Finally.

"We… fought."
But some things weren't easy to share. Some things were too private.
The screams and unfolded accusations, the blame none of them had wanted to take and the tears. The fucking tears and the hurt that was pulsating through his veins with every heartbeat.
"We broke up and the group fell apart," he whispered and sighed while burying his face in his hands.
Jerome, who had been directly by his side the whole time, took over and squeezed his shoulder comfortingly while staring at his torn best friend.

"We have tried to keep the guys together somehow, but…"
Carefully Mitch lifted his head by mere inches and glanced at Jerome. This was something he hadn't even told the Canadian, because he had always focused his energy and his time on the wounds left by Adam, instead of sharing his own feelings about the whole situation. There had never been a moment in which they had talked about the aftermath of it all, the fight and the final break-up.

"We needed a break. A permanent one, even though we weren't willing to see that at the time. It felt good while it lasted, but… we weren't made out to be friends forever. None of us," Jerome added at the end and threw a meaningful glance at Mitch. The message was clear. In his eyes Adam and Mitch should continue to stay apart. But then, below the anger and the disapproval, something else began to spread in Jerome's eyes and Mitch froze in pure confusion.
He couldn't- he would never consider this, would he?!

"But then again I would have never thought you two could have such a connection."
Mitch's heart was beating faster as he realized what Jerome was hinting at. It couldn't be- it had to be a cruel joke of him, because he had been the one to push him forward constantly and reminded him every second of every day that looking back was neither healthy nor helpful.

"What the fuck, Jerome?" he finally asked in a low voice and showed his disapproval openly.

"I have seen how he looked at you, Mitch. I have seen how you looked at him. I've been trying to help you to get over him for months now, because I believed it to be the right choice. I saw you after the fight, the state you were in and I never want my best friend to be hurting like that ever again." Jerome didn't even react to Mitch's words and instead turned to him with an unfamiliar serious look in his dark eyes.

"But there is one thing I have missed all this time."
Jerome had been his last resolve, something to cling to when his mind was playing with his emotions again.

"One tiny little detail I refused to accept, because it would mean that this is something far out of my reach."
He had been the wise voice in Mitch's head, whenever he was about to do something stupid. Like calling Adam. Like writing Adam. Like running away from it all.
Jerome grabbed his face in both of his hands and stopped Mitch from looking away from the clear gaze and his best friend's intention.

"Do you still love him?"

A simple question.
One that he was unable to answer. His heart began to race, his breathing faltered and his thoughts stopped altogether. Mitch didn't reply, while his friends stared at both of them silently.

"Do you love him, Mitch?"
Jerome asked again, still patient and unmoved.

"You know I don-" he tried to defend himself and pushed Jerome away to get up. Instead of following Mitch on the road to the awaiting conflict, Jerome stood up as well and continued in the same voice as if nothing had happened, while Mitch passed his friends on the way to the door.

"Are you still in love with Adam?"

And then something exploded inside of him and burst open the feelings that were still wounded from the talk to his ex. With a shaking voice he turned around on the spot to face his best friends, who were torn between shock, fear and – in Jerome's case – satisfaction.

"Of course I am! What kind of stupid question is this?! How the hell am I supposed to just stop when all I can think about is every fucking moment I spend with him, every time he told me that he loved me and the fact that we wanted to move in together before it all went down the tubes?!"

Mitch fell silent, when he saw the surprise in Jerome's face becoming more and more visible with every passing second. He had never told him about their plans for the future. He had never told Jerome or anyone else about what he had only dared to imagine in his mind – a picture of what could be, a small family, Adam and Mitch, maybe, just maybe even children…

Jerome was at a loss for words, but thankfully one of Mitch's other best friends knew exactly what to say to him.
"Then why do you let him get away?"
Preston stood up from his seat at the table and took several steps towards the Canadian. The smile on his face was disarming and the anger dissolved into thin air, while Mitch struggled to put it into words.

"It's not easy. We would hu-"

"Oh dear, since when is love supposed to be easy?" he replied with a tender look in his eyes and a wise smile that left Mitch speechless. His friend was known to be more emotional than others, nonetheless his sudden motivation regarding the to him unknown relationship between Mitch and Adam was surprising even to him.
"Love is all about that. It's not bright and cheerful and simply perfect. You have to earn it, you have to overcome all the obstacles in the way and it's going to hurt a lot. But it'll always be worth it."

"But-" he weakly tried to counter the argument with his own and prove Preston wrong that all the hurt couldn't possibly be worth it, but he simply shook his head and repeated Jerome's earlier question.
"Do you love him?"

"…of course I do."

"Then go and get him, Mitch."