powerless 🌹 gawsten

two

"alright guys, we're on in five. make sure you guys drink some water right now!" jawn yelled, working on the merch store.

awsten stared off into space, barely listening. he went over in his mind all he had to eat today--an apple and a slice of cheese. it was only 5pm. he was a failure.

geoff came and sat beside him, patting him on the back. "y'ready?"

awsten shrugged geoff's hand off and stood up, grabbing his guitar and taking a drink of water. geoff sighed.

"awsten, please, just talk to me."

awsten rolled his eyes in response. he turned to otto, who had been watching this whole encounter, and muttered, "can you get geoff off my ass?"

"he's just worried, awsten."

"i don't want him to be worried! tell him i'm okay!"

"tell him yourself."

"i-i can't do that--"

"then you're not actually okay. c'mon, it's time to go on stage."

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"for the past couple weeks i've felt kind of great..." geoff sang into the mic, the crowd going wild. awsten's hands absently strummed the guitar, his mind somewhere else.

geoff was soon done with his solo, but awsten didn't come in. he wasn't even playing at this point. geoff and otto both stopped playing, looking at their friend.

"uh, alright, we're just gonna--yeah, uh, yeah, we're just gonna tune for the next song--" geoff stuttered into the mic, the crowd murmuring with worry.

geoff went over to awsten, going to grab his shoulder, when otto ran up and put a hand between them.

"don't," otto whispered, "i know you just want to help, but...there's something wrong, and he needs my help. go get him a bottle of water and a pack of crackers."

geoff frowned and went backstage, greeted with a very worried jawn.

"what's wrong with awsten? is awsten alright?" awsten awsten awsten.

"i don't know."

"why not? you're his best friend!"

"i'm not his fucking 'best friend'. he doesn't even talk to me anymore."

jawn sighed and turned away. geoff grabbed the crackers and water, walking back out on stage to see otto playing a drum solo and singing, making the crowd go fucking wild. geoff went back up to awsten, handing him the items.

"why the hell did you bring me crackers?" awsten growled, standing up.

"o-otto told me to--"

"fuck off, geoff! you're not helping anything! i'm doing bad enough, and you come up with fucking food. are you trying to ruin me?"

otto had stopped playing, and by this point, the crowd was completely hushed.

"wh-what do you mean, 'ruin you'?"

"i-i--" awsten aggressively tried to cover-up for his mistake.

"alright guys, we're waterparks! hope you all had a good night!" otto yelled into the microphone, pulling awsten and geoff off stage before anything happened.