Not Warriors- Awsten Knight

Chapter 12

Claire was frantically trying to put a bag together before they needed to be down at Left Foot stage for the boys set in just a short amount of time. 

"What the fuck do you mean he just invited us to stay on their bus?" Chris asks, the distaste for the entire situation clear in his voice. 

She groans dramatically, seeing as how this was going to be the third time she was explaining the situation. Chris was just too stubborn, or maybe too mad at Awsten to believe that anyone from their band would be so kind to invite them to do something. 

"I told you already Chris, what are you not understanding?" she spits back at him, too exhausted and hot to deal with this at the moment. 

"I'm not understanding how they expect us to just stay on their bus for the next two days after what he did to you." he deadpans, crossing his arms stubbornly in defiance like a small child who was fighting a losing battle. 

"They don't expect us to do anything! Otto offered because it's a nice thing to do, you are the only person here who has an issue with it. The rest of the guys already agreed why are you being so difficult dude? Isn't it tiring to always be the guy who fights everything?" she asks him, pleading for him to agree for once. 

Claire knows that he's arguing because he thinks it's whats best for her, but she could fight her own battles and this wasn't one that she was willing or needing to fight right now. 

It was bad enough that Otto had offered their bus up to her, and her friends without even consulting anyone else and she would have to deal with the awkwardness there of going onto the bus. She didn't need to be on guard from someone that was supposed to be on her side here too. 

Chris thought that he was doing what was best, he thought it was stupid that the rest of the band was so quick to forgive Awsten when Claire hadn't even done so herself. 

He knew that she was obviously old enough to make her own decisions, but he worried that she was pushing her feelings aside for the sake of everyone else and would just end up getting hurt all over again and that's the last thing that he wanted to see happen. 

"I'm not staying on that bus." Chris says defiantly. 

"Fantastic, you sit on the bus that it is so hot you cannot breathe without sweating because you are too petty to actually see that those guys are good people and let me know how that works for you Chris. I'm not arguing with you all summer, or at all actually. Don't make this harder for me than it has to be." she says, anger seeping through her tone as she attempts to get the last of her stuff together. 

The rest of the guys had been on the bus the entire time, just sitting not wanting to get involved. As much as they all hated to play devils advocate they knew that Chris had a point. 

The unfortunate side of the situation was how gray everything was, there was no right or wrong person here and they didn't want to take anyone's side because it would just lead to issues and that was the last thing that any of them needed. 

"Is everyone else coming? I'm going to bring my stuff over now." Claire calls out to the back of the bus, and the Collin, Derek, and Tyler come shuffling out of the back one by one, shooting Chris sympathetic looks as they are met with daggers on the way by. 

"Claire are you sure that this is a good idea?" Tyler asks hesitantly as they make their way off of the bus. 

Claire lets out a deep breath, shaking her head "no I am not sure, but what else are we supposed to do here? Wither way on the bus?" she asks him, and he just nods in response. 

All four of them hope that Otto was kind enough to inform the rest of the band and crew that they were going to have guests for the next few days, but their hope was quickly diminished when once on the bus they were met with confused looks from Awsten, Geoff, and Lucas at the sight of their bags and belongings. 

"Otto didn't tell you a damn thing did he?" Claire asks sarcastically with a pained look on her face. 

Geoff shakes his head slowly as Awsten calls out "Otto! What's happening?"

Otto emerges from the back of the bus, drying his hair off with a towel "Oh!" he says excitedly as everyone around him is still confused. 

"Sonic Heros bus's AC broke! So I invited them to stay over until it's fixed on our day off two days from now!" he says happily, as if everyone was going to automatically agree with his offer. 

Claire cringes when she notices that the look of confusion stays on everyone's faces around them. 

"We can just go back to the bus, we're not on it that often anyway it's not a bit deal at all" Claire says hurriedly, and the boys nod along with her not wanting to cause any problems. 

"No absolutely not, we didn't have AC our first tour and we felt like we were dying constantly we won't do that to you. Otto was right, we have extra bunks and we'll probably only see each other at night anyway so it's totally fine with me." Geoff tells her quickly, and in the most reassuring tone that he can find. 

Claire doesn't know much about Geoff, but she can tell that he is a lot like Otto, Awsten, and Jawn in the fact that he has a big heart. It meant the world to her that he was willing to offer up their bus on such short notice just because of the fact that their AC had gone out. 

"Yeah I'm cool with it too." Jawn says brightly. 

"Just like old times" he adds in nudging Claires shoulder softly and she smiles back at him. 

Years ago, every Friday night Otto, Jawn, Awsten and Claire used to have sleepovers in Awstens parents basement. It was more chaos than sleeping, but those days held some of Claire's favorite memories of all time. 

"I'm fine with it too." Lucas says matter of factly, nodding his head. 

The only person who hadn't said anything yet was Awsten, regardless of the conversation that they had last night. Or the fact that Claire had held his hand, and he had hugged her. She wanted him to be comfortable, and if that meant her not being there then she would gladly go back to the bus no questions asked. 

"Uh yeah, it's only for a few days that's fine." Awsten replies, trying to be as convincing as possible but Claire could see right through it. 

She frowns softly, making direct eye contact with Awsten and he tries to give her a smile that just falls flat. 

"I can show you guys which bunks aren't taken yet" Geoff suggests, breaking the silence between everyone on the bus. 

"Yeah that would be great man, thank you." Collin says nodding his head. 

"Make sure Claire gets a bottom bunk, she gets car sick if she's up to high Geoff." Awsten says looking over at Geoff who glances over at Claire. 

Her eyes widened, not expecting Awsten to remember such a small detail and she nods quietly replying to Geoff "he's right, but if there's not any open it's okay I can just sleep on the couch or something."

"Claire we're not letting you sleep on the couch, if we can't find you something you can have my bunk and I'll sleep on one of the top ones." Awsten says quickly, and in a tone that let Claire know that even if she objected she wouldn't win. 

Still though, she shook her head very quickly. 

"You hate heights, that's not happening." she shoots back at him. 

Geoff stepped in again, trying to ease the tension before it could even start. 

"I'm sure we can figure it out with everyone, no one is sleeping on the couch, and Awsten's not sleeping on the top bunk." he says positively, moving towards the back. 

It was abundantly clear these next two days, were going to be difficult for everyone involved.