Not Warriors- Awsten Knight

Chapter 13

The bunk situation was figured out pretty quickly amongst everyone, Jawn offered to move all of his equipment out of the bottom bunk so that Claire didn't have to sleep on the couch and Awsten didn't have to terrify himself for the sake of her comfort. 

She was thankful that it was resolved effortlessly, and painlessly. She had meant it when she said she would just sleep on the couch, she was thankful that they everyone had agreed to let them stay even though Otto didn't inform anyone else. 

They could of easily said no, and the boys and Claire would of been stuck on the hot bus for the next few days. 

Speaking of which, Chris was still on their hot bus trying to prove his point and Claire thought it was ridiculous. 

She didn't want to fight with him, she hated fighting with the boys because she truly never saw a need for it. 

In the years she had known all of them she could count on one hand the number of actual fights they had gotten into, and all of them were stupid and mindless things that would of been fine if someone had just communicated instead of being stubborn. 

When you mix five personalities into one big group of friends, disagreements are bound to happen but they did a damn good job making sure that everyone was on the same page on a day to day basis. 

Claire was sitting on the bus, going through her camera bag and going down the hand written list she has to make sure that everything was in place and ready to go for the boys set. 

While she had, had fun playing up on stage with them she was beyond thankful to be back in her comfort zone and out of the lime light. She thrived while taking pictures of the boys, and selling their merch. 

She got to talk to fans, but for the most part didn't actually have to deal with them which was a nice happy medium for her. 

"You excited to be back taking pictures?" Jawn asked her, ploping down on the couch across from her while opening up a Dr. Pepper and Claire smiles. 

"Now some things really never change" she says, pointing to the soda in his hands. 

Claire reaches down into the pocket of her backpack, remembering that she had some snacks in there. She pulls out a bag of Trolli gummy worms and throws them his way smiling. 

Jawns face lights up, he opens up the bag before looking back at Claire. 

"Have I mentioned you're the best?" he says with a smile on his face. 

"Not in recent years no, but I would like to think I am still the best after all of the time." she says in a joking tone before answering his previous question. 

"To answer your question, yes. I am very excited to be back taking pictures. I am not cut out for the whole band thing."  she says seriously and Jawn nods, still snacking on the gummy words she tossed his way. 

"Why do you think I am not in Waterparks?" he says with a laugh. 

Claire hadn't actually thought about it prior, years ago Jawn was always in every band that Awsten had formed. He was a talented bassist, and it almost shocked her that he wasn't actually a member of this newest band. 

"You gave up the rockstar life?" Claire asks him, zippering up her bag and getting the last of her things together with a little bit of time to spare before she had to be down at the merch tent. 

He shrugs slightly, "Just realized that I had more love and passion for taking the pictures, and videos of the bands than being in it myself. It's more private, I still get to have a life ya know?" he says causally and Claire gives him a confused look. 

"Do Awsten, Otto, and Geoff not get any privacy?" she asks him genuinely and Jawn laughs so hard he almost spits his drink out, when he sees how confused she looks his laughter almost immediately stops. 

"Oh God, you really know nothing about the band do you?" he asks her shocked, and she shoots him a look. 

"The fans are, well they're great. Most of them at least, but there's a large majority of them that pry into everything and anything that they can. It's the worst for Awsten, he's constantly dealing with people's opinions on absolutely everything 24/7" Jawn tells her sadly, and it tugs on her heartstrings. 

Awsten was an open person, but he also liked to keep his family and loved ones private and close to his heart so she couldn't even imagine how it felt that he had fans that were trying to insert themselves into every aspect of his life regardless of if this was what he had always wanted. 

Claire nods in response, not really knowing what to say and decides to change the subject. 

"Awsten said you wanted to talk photography with me?" she asks, recalling the conversation that the two of them had outside of the bus just a few nights prior and Jawn nods. 

"You've been doing this a lot longer than I have, I would love some pointers." he tells her.

"I'll tell you what, I am heading down to the merch tent right now. Want to meet me there and we can talk then? Bring your camera too if you want." she tells him picking up her bag, securing it onto her back waiting for his response. 

He jumps up off of the couch, "I'll grab my stuff now and meet you there in a few" he tells her excitedly and Claire smiles and nods making her way off of the bus. 

The merch tent wasn't as busy as it had been the first few dates but it was still early in the morning and she figured it would pick up as the day went on, she was running through the inventory that they had making a note of what they were running low on and would need to be reordered. 

Claire is lost in her own little world when she hears a small voice from behind her. 

"Um excuse me? Are you Claire?" she hears as she turns around to face someone that couldn't of been older than 16, they had the same toe tokens on that Awsten wears but in a different color scheme and Claire figures that this person probably just wanted to know when Waterparks was going to be at their tent.

"I am! Parx will be down here in about 20 minutes for their meet and greet!" she says sweetly, giving them a smile thinking that she was being helpful.

The person standing in front of her rolls their eyes and scoffs, "Yeah no shit, the question is why are you here?" they ask her, and Claire is confused at the situation at hand. 

"I'm here because my friends band is on the tour..?" she says hesitantly, pointing to the tent above her head with the Sonic Heros logo on it.

"Right because it just so happens Awstens ex girlfriend's friends band ended up on the same tour, right next to the merch booth by complete accident. Leave Awsten alone, we know what you did. No one wants you here." they say viciously before turning around and walking away. 

Claire stands there, mouth open in disbelief. She wasn't even upset or mad, she was just plain fucking confused. 

"We know what you did?" Claire repeats to herself with her eyebrows furrowed, "What the fuck did I do?" she asks herself and she feels a hand on her shoulder making her jump slightly. 

Turning to face whoever was next to her she relaxes a little when she sees Jawn who just looks concerned. 

"Let me guess you heard, whatever the fuck that was?" she says with a laugh and he nods, a saddened look on his face. 

"You weren't kidding when you said their fans are brutal god damn." she replies, still laughing. 

"Jawn, I'm fine. A fifteen year old is not going to ruin my day." she tells him matter of factly. 

Claire was just going to ignore it, she knows for a fact that there was not a single one of Awsten's fans who knew what happened between the two of them. 

But she couldn't help but think that although this was the first, it certainly wouldn't be the last time she was going to deal with this.