will they? won't they? | gawsten

chapter ten: the end of an era and jawn being serious for once

then next morning was a little awkward; geoff remembering bits and pieces, and awsten attempting to avoid all contact with him. jawn and otto were dying to question, but knowing it really wasn't any of their business at the end of the day; they had to wait til either one of them approached themselves about it.

tour was over soon; three shows left, and then it would be back to houston, separately. and yeah, geoff and awsten could hang out, but they also knew they needed time to themselves; one, because tour is long and hard and taxing, and two, due to whatever it was they had going on. they needed to figure things out, themselves out.

the charlotte show went fine, just fine. the second awsten got off stage he made a beeline out of the venue, not wanting to make another stupid decision this week. geoff watched him go-a disheartened look on his face-but he made no move to go after him, knowing he most likely caused this.

"where's aws?" the brunette heard otto ask, his voice sounding distant and far away, his brain clouded.

"left," geoff replied, turning around to face his friend. "best guess, to the van."

"what do you mean 'best guess'? did you not ask?" otto asked, getting more and more worried.

the silence was all he needed, sighing out angrily before calling over to jawn. "stay with him, i'm gonna go check on awsten," and with that he left too, practically sprinting to the bandwagon and hurriedly making his way inside.

he swears his heart halts in his chest as he heard a soft sniffle, and then silence, almost as if the person-awsten-were trying to hide. otto sighed out solemnly, approaching awsten's bunk, heart-wrenching as he saw his blanketed form shaking, presumably from his sobs that he was desperately trying to keep inside.

"aws," otto said softly, sitting down by awsten's feet. "we don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but you're clearly not alright."

he heard his friend let out a shuddered breath before he sat up, not caring about the tears falling from his cheeks. he held his arms out and otto immediately returned that, holding his friend close-which felt drastically different than when geoff held him, but awsten wasn't about to open that can of worms, at least not now.

"i might not know what's goin' on," otto said quietly, rubbing awsten's back carefully. "but i'm here for you, we all are," he made sure not to mention names, not knowing who or what caused this episode. "and i'm sure everything will work out like it always does."

awsten nodded against his friend's shoulder, internally debating whether to open up or not. but the sound of the bandwagon hurriedly opening and closing again gave him the answer. and in walked in the two people he didn't want to see at this moment.

"aws," geoff's voice spoke soft, he didn't want to even look at him.

"guys," otto interrupted before his friend could fuck this up further, "go."

it sounded like geoff wanted to argue but jawn pulled him away, realizing what they'd walked into. he warned geoff not to go in there, but of course he did anyway. the brunette had a heart of gold, but man was his head empty. he walked geoff outside, ready to chastise his friend until he saw his crestfallen expression.

"what's up?" he asked, not knowing where to even start with whatever was happening here.

"nothing, jawn," geoff sighed, and the redhead knew this wouldn't really go far.

"if you don't wanna tell me, that's fine," he began, laying a gentle hand on his friend's shoulder. "but know that you can tell me whatever you want or need. and i promise i won't be goofy about it."