Pathways // Gawsten [Book 2]

17 - Waterparks Return

"Yeah, that's great!.. Thanks, bye." Geoff hears Awsten say as soon as he walks down the stairs that afternoon. 

He leant against the wall at the bottom of the stairs and watched as Awsten ended the call and put the phone down on the counter before cheering quietly to himself. He smiled fondly at the radiating happiness, and soon Awsten turned around.

"Fucking hell," Awsten said quietly as he jumped, placing a hand to his chest,
"You scared me."

"Sorry, Candy, didn't want to interrupt your exciting phone call?" Geoff inquired, and raised an eyebrow. Awsten coughed and flushed slightly before beginning to explain,

"That was the Madden Brothers... They've booked us an interview, and..." Awsten paused and bit his lip,

"And?..." 

"And a UK tour." Awsten grinned.

A smile spread across Geoff's face,

"Really, we get to tour again so soon? That's amazing!" Geoff gleamed and Awsten nodded enthusiastically,
"I can't believe it!" Geoff said as he walked towards Awsten and kissed him, causing Awsten to giggle, but place his hands around Geoff's neck regardless.

It felt like everything was finally going right, like somehow every sacrifice they made a year ago was worth it... Like all the pain they went through had paid off. To Geoff, it felt like nothing had every happened, like he and Otto had never been threatened or forced to move back to Houston. But it had happened, and there was always going to be consequences. Some of which they hadn't even faced yet, and couldn't even imagine.

Before Geoff could continue on with his thought train, Otto's voice echoed out throughout the kitchen,

"Woah, woah. Boundaries guys!" He yelped, and Geoff pulled away to turn around and see Otto stood at the bottom of the stairs with his hands over his eyes. 

"Sorry, man." Geoff chuckled, and Otto peaked through the gap of his fingers before sighing over dramatically.

"So why were you two making out in the kitchen?" Otto asked, and walked over to the fridge to pull out a half sandwich in a small plastic bag.

Geoff and Awsten glanced at each other, both smiling, and Geoff nodded at Awsten to tell Otto.

"We're going to tour again!" Awsten blurted out loudly, and Otto immediately put down the sandwich in his hand.

"Seriously?" He asked, with his eyes shining brighter than Geoff remembered seeing them in a long time. Awsten nodded and watched as Otto smiled widely and rushed over to them to pull them into a group hug. 

"I'm gonna ring people and sort some tour stuff out, okay?" Awsten rushed out, and hurried into his bedroom before the other two boys could answer.

Geoff sighed and sat down at the kitchen table, eyes trained on Awsten's bedroom door. He could hear Awsten's faint voice sounding through the walls, but tried to ignore it. He looked up at Otto and saw his eyes also on Awsten's door, but for a different reason. His lip was between his teeth and he now had a worried look in his eyes.

Geoff recognised that look, and he couldn't help but agree with it. He knew what Otto was thinking - of course he did - and Otto was completely right. Otto flinched his eyes over to Geoff, and quickly lowered his gaze once he saw the concerned look he was giving him. 

"Everything will be okay, Otto." Geoff said quietly. Otto dipped his head and sat down on the chair next to Geoff.

"We don't know that," Otto started, but Geoff interrupted him.

"Nothing has gone wrong while we've been here so far... Why wouldn't touring be okay too?" Geoff said with a hopeful tone in his voice, but Otto shook his head, disregarding what Geoff had said.