Remember the days when photo booths were a thing?

The thing I love about Mitch is that he really loves to impress. He’ll do anything to get Finn’s attention, even if he might be a little brash when doing it. He’s lucky that Finn finds it charming, even if he does roll his eyes from time to time.

This little short is based on a scene I have in a bigger story and may be different from the final product, but I wanted to write it to get some practice to keep my juices flowing. As always, Mitch belongs to Mue. Thank you for letting me write to your loser boy.

These shorts are practice pieces that build upon the lore of my characters. These pieces may feature characters that belong to my friends, but those characters may not appear in my final story. However, they should be taken as extended lore. I hope you enjoy these shorts.

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“What are you―twelve?”

“Twelve plus six.”

“Oh, so now you can count?”

“Only when I got the brain box hanging out with me.”

The boys verbally bounced off each other while managing to keep track of the people coming in their direction, weaving through the gaps without taking their eyes off each other for two long. Although Finn could feel a connection, the river-blue sparkle of Mitch’s eyes kept his attention, and he kept himself at an emotional distance, taking regular notes of how fast his heart was beating. He didn’t want to have a crush on his best friend’s boyfriend, but Mitch had taken some sort of liking to him, constantly texting him and asking to hang out. He knew he should make a better effort to say no, but his selfish desire to be the one Mitch looked at made FInn say yes every time.

‘This isn’t fair on Lis.‘

“There. There it is.”

Switching to a light jog, Mitch crossed the mall floor, weaving through people as he made his way over to the photo booth in a private space underneath the escalators. It was concealed away from the general public, likely to give privacy as kids would always try and photobomb someone who was inside. Mitch pulled at the curtain, checking that no-one was inside, but Finn could tell from the absence of dangling feet.

“Why we doing this?”

Mitch turned and beamed a cheeky smile at Finn. “Because we’re friends, aren’t we?”

“I was more going with acquaintances,” Finn started, chuckling before adding, “but what the heck, I guess.” It was supposed to be a snarky response to tease Mitch, but the actual answer FInn needed still hung in the air, and he knew he had to address it more directly. “But isn’t think something you should be doing with Lissie?”

“We did it last week.”

“Oh!” Finn replied, a little startled at Mitch’s quick response.

“Yeah! I figured I should do the same with you.”

There was a lot to read in that response, including that which was unspoken. Considering that they had spent a bit of time with each other, Lissie was Mitch’s love interest. Finn understood why he’d want some sappy little square photo of the two of them to keep in his wallet cause that’s the only reason people go in these booths together these days. But to want one with him? There had to be something more there, something that Finn’s heart was rattling in his chest excited for.