𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐬【𝐠𝐚𝐰𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧】

1

The back seat was so much colder. It was so much bigger, and yet so much tighter and constricting and heavy. Geoff had a girl in the front seat.

Of course, that seat used to belong to Awsten, and they'd sing and laugh and cry until their heads hurt. But it wasn't his anymore.

It was that blonde's, just like everything else was now.

The steady bump, bump, bump of the car made Awsten sick. The road was riddled with big rocks and potholes and anything that didn't belong in a road. Awsten struggled to remember why even decided to come along.

The trio were headed to some party- one in the middle of the woods in a big cabin, and with lots of people. They'd be stuck there for a week. A whole week, where Geoff would be all over that fucking girl. His hands would tease her thigh, and then they'd stop, or maybe they wouldn't, because Geoff had a reason to love her and that was the difference this time. 

Awsten didn't like her name at all. Aubrey. Hell, it even sounded like Awsten! Her pretty button nose, her soft skin, her wispy long hair, her perfectly reasonable attraction to the brunette sitting next to her- everything Awsten could never and would never have.

His head on the window bounced with the car- bump, bump, bump- and he tried to make his thoughts go away with it. There was something wrong with him, wasn't there?

Yes, there was. That's the only reason Geoff would use their beautifully bloomed friendship until it had shriveled up like a dying flower and drop him when he realized Awsten was a freak. But Geoff never truly dropped him.

It must have been Awsten's fault. He knew it was. That's why Geoff's hand would still travel up Awsten's thigh on occasion, but stop when he got his hopes up, and leave Awsten alone like that dying flower. Geoff kept Awsten around because he liked the game of it all, Awsten thought, and Awsten stayed because he just couldn't bring himself to leave.

And how could he leave his best friend of ten years?

"Hey, Awsten, are you good back there?" Aubrey asked. The reflection in the window was rather worrying. Of course she would be sweet enough to ask.

That was one of the problems. She was so undeniably good. There was a single reason why Awsten could hate her and Geoff was the only one who knew it.

"Yeah."

The green-haired boy brought his attention to the rear view mirror. Geoff's eyes were fixed on his. There was something behind them, something that was mean or sad or worried, something that would never have been there when the shotgun seat belonged to Awsten.

It wasn't his anymore. And maybe it never was.