AN:
Before the chapter starts I want to thank my lovely reviewers TheAmazingQwerty, BlazetheDragonite, Stars Above The Moon & Chocolatepie277!
Please keep in mind:The more reviews, the sooner I'll try to upload the next chapter. ;)

Music tip:
Jaymes Young - Parachute
youtube: watch?v=Rfut_-POtGM

Lovers of Freedom

Chapter 6:
No Blame

Mitch was glad that he could drive in his own car.
The silence on the way to the parking lot had been unnerving, but obviously Adam was keen on giving Mitch the cold shoulder. Sadly he couldn't even blame him for it. Mitch deserved it. Every hateful glance, every horrible remark.
Why should Adam forgive him for his actions, when Mitch himself couldn't do so?
No, Adam was right.

But it hurt nonetheless.

It took them about half an hour to reach Adam's house. Mitch had not been here before and just knew the place from various photos and videos. It was around 2am, as he got out of his car and looked around curiously. Adam was already on his way to the front door, so Mitch hurriedly took his luggage out of the trunk and followed him. During the day the temperatures had been pleasant because of the sun, but now during the night it got really cold.
Mitch had left his jacket in the car and was shivering now. Adam took his time to open the door, but as he finally stepped aside to let Mitch in, the heat was a wonderful change. He couldn't hold back a relaxed sigh and glanced around happily.

"It's wonderful here, I really like it", he tried his luck and looked back to Adam, who just closed the door. His reply was not the one Mitch was hoping for, but at least the other one was talking to him at all. "You can sleep on the couch. I'll bring you a blanket."
Before Mitch could answer, Adam had disappeared in one of the rooms down the hall. He tried to ignore his nervousness and began to wander around the hall that led to the living room. It was admirable.

Opposite of Mitch was a whole wall made out of glass, so he was able to see the water. The moon was reflected on the surface and spent some light. Between the glass wall and the pathway from the hall was a large dark couch, standing in front of a furnace. The wall surrounding it was made out of stone and beside it hung the TV.
"Here you go."

Mitch flinched and turned around quickly – just to see Adam standing behind him with a large blanket in his hands. The offensive tone was gone and what surprised Mitch the most was the friendly expression on his face. There was no smile, but the hate had disappeared. He didn't know if it was just temporarily and what had caused this change, but Mitch wouldn't say no to it.
"Thank you!" With a smile he took the soft fabric and glanced at the furnace. "I don't want to be rude, but can I maybe-"

"Sure, use it. You'll find the wood outside."

Slowly Mitch turned around again to look at Adam. Before it had not been as obvious, but the tone of his voice gave it away. The reason for the sudden change in his behavior was sadness.
"Are you okay?" he carefully asked and frowned, without moving an inch. Adam silently regarded him for a moment, before he shook his head and turned around again.
"See you later I guess."

"…Good night."

It was hard to fall asleep. Mitch turned around a thousand times, but no matter what he did, he couldn't relax at all. It wasn't due to the couch - more likely the restless thoughts roaming around in his head were responsible for it.

The day had been unimaginable so far.
At first there had been his little moment of self-hatred and remorse. His dad had caught him and he wouldn't have let it go this time, had there not been the phone call of Mr. Murphy interrupting him. The conversation itself had been a disaster. Mr. Murphy's threat and he blackmailing Mitch… Of course meeting Adam had been the highlight of the day.

And so it surprised Mitch even more, that a very small part of him was glad.
He'd met Adam again, no matter how angry and disappointed he was.
Maybe things could turn out good, maybe there was still hope for them.

Maybe he could be forgiven one day.
Closing his eyes, Mitch snuggled under the covers and dreamt of a bright future with Team Crafted.

Even though he'd gone to sleep very late, Mitch was up at an early hour as usual. The sun was blocked by some thick clouds, but the colorful leaves on the road and the lawn made Mitch feel comfortable about this autumn day. He felt the strong urge to run again and ten minutes later he began his morning routine. The cold air felt good on his heated up skin and his lungs were grateful for some fresh breaths. He barely met anyone, just some people driving off to work.

The neighborhood Adam was living in was quiet and peaceful, something the famous youtuber needed as a welcome change to the usually stressful life. Roads meandered through the little suburban area, while the hills to the right of Mitch rose. On his left side was the water, a steady companion to his workout. The large trees on the hills and between the houses made it hard to see the sky and gave Mitch a cozy feeling. It reminded him of his parents' house in Pennsylvania. Home. So Adam was home?

Mitch smiled due to his random thoughts and enjoyed the music he was running to. His dark thoughts from the day before disappeared slowly and made room for some helpful ideas. First of all he needed breakfast. Adam probably had some stuff at home, but on their way to his home last night Mitch had seen a bakery shop. Back then, when Team Crafted had still been a thing, Adam often got himself something to eat from a bakery in the morning. With a little bit of luck it would make the coming hours more bearable. Then he had to leave.

Next step: Finding a hotel. Or should he drive back to his parents? It just took him a second to dispel the idea. He definitely would have to explain himself and right now he wasn't ready for it. And of course there still was the threat of Murphy.
How long would it take him to convince the rest? How long to get a house for everyone? There still was the possibility to go to LA again – the mansion still belonged to them, even though they had planned to sell it some time ago…

Even if Mitch still had his house up in Montreal, which he already sold, it would be too far away. Murphy told them to stay nearby, so for now it would be a hotel. All in all the next days would be really stressful for him. Hopefully he could record a video on his laptop, before Adam would kick him out.

Fifteen minutes later Mitch returned and opened the door with one of Adam's keys. Thankfully he wasn't up yet and didn't notice his little robbery. Before Mitch went to take a quick shower, he began to brew coffee. Adam hated him and Mitch wasn't blaming him for it at all, but he would make it as difficult as possible for Adam to kick him out.

It was already past 10am, as he finished preparing a nice breakfast. He didn't pretend to think Adam would eat together with him, so he took a cup of coffee and a plate of bread to go outside to the terrace.
Finally the sun was visible. The clouds parted a little bit to let the now rare rays of sunshine warm him up a bit, as the picked out his phone. Carefully he took a sip of the still hot coffee, while he opened Twitter. Jerome had sent him some messages since their phone call, so he had to give him a ring sooner or later for sure-

Mitch chocked on his coffee, put the cup aside and leaned forward.
Adam and Alesa had broken up.

The tweets were not even a day old – no wonder the other guy seemed so sad yesterday. He probably wanted to be all angry at him, but the feelings from the break-up must have been too strong.
To say Mitch was shocked was an understatement. During the holidays, as Team Crafted had still been together, he'd met her. At first she seemed to be a nice girl, humorous and as crazy as Adam himself. Later on, shortly before Adam and Mitch's big fight, things had begun to go down. Break-ups, getting together again, broken hearts… She meant the world to Adam obviously, but Mitch couldn't get rid of the feeling that she did more harm than good.

He'd been hurt too much already during his life.
The last he needed was a girlfriend that slowly but surely destroyed him.
Mitch wouldn't say it out loud in front of Adam, but he was glad they broke up.

Half an hour later Mitch was still sitting on the porch of Adam's house, arms crossed in front of his chest and staring at the lake. His eyes were blank, his thoughts at rest. Absentmindedly he took a moment to finally relax and get some rest. This place was heaven. He would never move back to LA, no matter what Murphy said. The stress of the city was too much. He needed exactly this, a peaceful place to find himself and to just take a timeout to breathe.

The restless sleep of the last night finally got to him and his eyes closed, as he slowly fell asleep.
He woke up some time later, blinked and yawned. Then he noticed, that the cold wasn't getting to him anymore, but not because he got used to it. As Mitch glanced down, he noticed the thick woolen blanket around his shoulders. It was so long that it covered his knees as well. The sun was hidden behind the clouds again, but as Mitch glanced up into the sky, he noticed something else from the corner of his eyes.

"Morning."
Adam was sitting in the chair beside him with his feet propped up on an empty chair.

His stare was hard, even though his posture was lazy. The sadness was gone and replaced by the same look Adam had given him the night before. It was so controversial to his nice gesture with the blanket, that Mitch couldn't hold back the shiver. He knew he deserved every single second of it, but with the help on his early workout he'd tried to get a more positive view of things… Obviously he was heading in the wrong direction.

As Adam looked away to the water, Mitch released a breath he didn't know he was holding. It hurt. He didn't want to admit it, but every glance and every hateful word by the person he admired the most was pushing him further and further into the self-dug pit. For a moment he tried to be selfish – wasn't he punished enough already by all the self-hatred?
His mood was down most of the time and with every single video it got harder and harder to put up a smile and a convincing laugh for the viewers. Everything in his life seemed to be influenced by it and now he had to expose himself to the critique and the hate of his former friends?

He started to get out of the chair to have his mental breakdown elsewhere, as Adam picked up the word again.
"We are not going to be friends anytime soon. You know that, don't you?"

Cold. Hateful. Mitch tried to hold back a whimper and replied with a quiet voice,
"Of course I do."

And then Adam changed again and suddenly the anger was replaced by a soft tone Mitch wasn't used to at all.
"Still, you don't have to stay in a hotel, it is way too expensive. And… thanks for the breakfast, I really appreciate it."

There he was, facing the doorway but being unable to move at all.
He bit down forcefully on his lip, tried to steady his breath and closed his eyes tightly.
His hands were balled into fists, his breath quickened.

"Mitch?"
Adam's voice was suspicious.
He could only see his backside, the fists and his trembling shoulders.

There he was.
Caught between the desire to run from Adam's taunting words and the longing for a formerly friend, who reached the surface every so often.
He wanted to scream at him, punch him out of the chair and force him to decide for one side.
Hate or friendship.

But all he could do was force out the usual sentence that he got so sick of during the past weeks and months.
His shacking voice betrayed him, nonetheless he tried to keep the act up.
Keep it up until he was falling down his pit with no way of getting out of it ever again.

"I'm alright," he tried to convince Adam and himself at the same time, "Everything's fine."
He failed with both of them.

I've uploaded two one-shots, if you're interested check them out:

- Muderous Night: About Halloween and Mitch, who's alone at home and is being watched by something...
"Never before in his life had he been so scared. His hands were trembling, his heart was pounding painfully in his chest and he held his breath, despite his burning lungs. The fear was dominating him and flowed through his veins, but there was something so much stronger than his dread could ever be. Curiosity. An emotion as deadly as love itself."

- Bury My Love: About the last Merome stream and all these little moments. What could have been.
"Love. In another world they would've embraced it. In this one it was unreachable."

Don't forget to check out my Twitter for further infos about my stories and stuff =)
- at - Milumaus