ambivalence ☆ // awsten knight

☆ so far ☆

☆

margot's life was going pretty well. she'd spent most of the past few weeks with awsten, not even doing anything special, just hanging out with each other.

obviously, awsten had taken her on a couple dates, but they were both just happy to be near each other most of the time. she was either at her apartment (with awsten), at awsten's apartment (with awsten), or at work (thinking about awsten). olive called them cringe but she had the apartment to herself way more than she used to, so she wasn't complaining too heavily.

margot unfortunately had work that day, as well as not seeing awsten the day before because he had been with friends, so (despite how unserious it was) it was one of her worst days in a while.

she prepared herself to be utterly bored for her whole shift because she knew if she got her phone out she would never put it down and probably written up (despite the fact that she was the best employee).

it was pretty busy in the morning, so until it slowed down in the afternoon, she wasn't too bad of a time. but once it slowed down, she gave herself random tasks to pass the time. she dusted shelves, reorganized the vinyls, and rewrote labels for things. probably all stuff she should have done ages ago, but hey, at least it got done eventually. maybe she'd get a raise for it.

she was the only one in the entire store too, so she couldn't even go in the back or take a break. flynn trusted her enough to work the store on her own considering they maybe got one hundred customers a day at most.

margot decided to go through the emails they were sent and finally clear their inbox. flynn read most of them, but never deleted anything, so there were thousands of useless emails. she got pretty into it, laughing at some of the stupid requests they had gotten from vendors or people wanting to host events at their store.

because she was distracted, she didn't notice someone had walked into the store. the bell went off, registering in the back of her brain, but she didn't actually look up until the person was around the corner where she couldn't see them.

she shrugged, deciding to just wait until they came up to the counter to say anything, figuring they couldn't need help if they didn't come up to her. she was a great employee.

the person didn't take too long, coming up to the counter maybe ten minutes after entering. she looked up and paused. the guy looked familiar.

she racked her brain trying to think of where she knew him from, scrambling to remember before he got up to the counter.

he was tall with brown hair and blue eyes, and he smiled at her as if she knew him.

then it clicked. the reason it took so long was because she literally had only met him one time. it was one of awsten's hometown friends from the party he'd thrown a couple months ago. she figured he was one of the people he was with yesterday.

she panicked trying to remember his name. she knew it started with a g... george? no that wasn't right.

she ran out of time due to him reaching the counter. he smiled at her and started talking.

"hey, margot right?" he asked. "we met at awsten's party a couple months ago."

"yeah! i thought i recognized you," she laughed. geoff! his name was geoff. "it's geoff, yeah?"

margot prayed she wasn't wrong. that would be so awkward. she was rewarded with him nodding.

"yep! nice to see you again, i didn't know you worked here. figures that's why awsten recommended it." geoff said, laughing slightly.

"awe, he's supporting my business." she joked. she finally looked at what he was trying to purchase, an old cd of a band she'd seen a couple times in store.

"he's obsessed with you." he said. she looked up from scanning, because the wording sounded like a joke, but he seemed a little too serious. he was smiling still, but he wasn't laughing.

"oh?" was all she could get out.

"yeah, he talks about you a lot. honestly, we all knew he was being serious about it because he doesn't usually gush about the girls he's with." geoff didn't seem like what he was saying was all that world-changing but it was to her.

she could feel a blush building, her face surely scarlet at this point. maybe she'd just dated bad people before, but she'd never dated someone who liked her enough to "gush" about her.

"oh, well, i'm sure my friend is tired of me talking about him all the time." she said. "i'm sure it's annoying."

"awsten's annoying all the time, but it's nice to see him so optimistic about a relationship." he replied. they chatted for a few more seconds, and then geoff left.

she was so going to make fun of awsten later.

☆

later didn't take much longer. once margot got off of work and got home, awsten was asking to face time her. since his friends were still in town, they obviously weren't seeing each other in person. she didn't want to take up the short time he had with them.

"hey, pretty girl." awsten said when she picked up the call.

"hey, baby." her mood was already improved despite being on the phone for a few seconds. "how was your day?" she asked, flopping on to her bed.

"good, i just laid around the house with my friends." he said, running a hand through his hair. it was getting quite long and his roots were crazy, but it was still somehow bright green.

"oh, fun." she said. "you'll never guess who i saw today." she started.

"who?"

"your friend, geoff! he said you'd recommended him the place?" she goaded.

awsten laughed, "i didn't think he'd actually go in, what did he say to you? weird stuff about me?"

"no, we actually had a nice conversation. he recognized me first, which was embarrassing for a bit." margot explained. "he also said that you talked about me a lot." she teased.

"oh, did he now?" awsten said, not seeming embarrassed. "i'm not surprised, you're with me all of the time, so you're, like, eighty percent of what i talk about. and i just really like talking about you." she smiled.

"you're lucky i talk about you just as much." she admitted.

"we're so obsessed with each other." he laughed. even over the phone, his laugh was still so comforting.

"oh, truly. he also said that he's, like," she paused, not sure if it was shared with her in confidence, but deciding to said it anyways. "never seen you act like this with a girl before. made me feel special." she giggled.

he didn't speak for a little bit, but when he did his voice was different, "oh."

she wasn't sure how to answer, but she didn't have to, because he spoke up again.

"i, uh, i gotta go. i'll talk to you later, margot."

she barely got out a goodbye before he was hanging up. weird. she wondered if she'd said something, but she tried to reassure herself that his friends probably just wanted his attention.

it didn't stop an uncomfortable feeling building in her stomach.

what the hell just happened?

☆