Best + Bitter = Better

Two days after

The next day, Geoff showered. When he woke up, he decided that he would make today a good day. He shampooed his hair and was halfway through combing the conditioner through with his fingers when he heard a crash from his bedroom. He washes out the conditioner in a rush and stepped out of the shower with just a towel around his waist.

As he steps into his room, he saw Awsten. He is back again, collecting stuff. Awsten went stiff as he looks over in Geoff's direction. He choked on air while his eyes scanned Geoff's body. It wasn't something he really noticed before.

"Um, hi." Geoff smiles. His lips only curving into a small, coy line. Tracks of water still slide down him. Awsten doesn't reply, but he can't tear his eyes away from Geoff. "If you give me, like, two minutes I can help you move stuff." Geoff offers, even though he hates the fact that he is losing Awsten to a jerk. Wait— he wasn't losing Awsten, he never had Awsten.

Awsten shakes his head and replies, "No, I don't need your help, thank you." As he says that he moves to another shelf, but his body disagrees and collapses. Geoff catches him, pulling Awsten's small frame to his own larger one.

Geoff, after a few seconds of silent eye contact, realises that he has inadvertently soaked Awsten's clothes. "Hey— uh... Sorry about getting you wet." He scratches the back of his head, then wipes his soaked hand on his towel. As he wipes downwards, the towel slips and shows his happy trail. He quickly yanks it back up and hopes Awsten didn't see the slight mishap. Awsten did. It made him lick his lips and pray to God that his soul would still be clean.

"No, it's uh— it's no problem. I guess I'm still kinda sore from—" Awsten cut himself off abruptly, a sanguine tone rising to his face. He refrains from slapping his hand over his mouth because that's a schoolboy error.

"Sore from what?" Geoff asks, sincerely. He is worried now because he doesn't want to hear that Awsten is in any sort of pain or discomfort. He saw the way Awsten shrank back at the question like he had been specifically asked the question he didn't want to answer.

"It's nothing." Awsten brushes him off, but Geoff isn't having any of it. He stands closer to Awsten, intimidating the poor boy.

He holds Awsten's chin up so that he is looking directly at him. "Tell me." Geoff made his voice sound very authoritative and demanding. Awsten couldn't help but answer because of something in his subconscious telling him to.

"Yesterday, Mark and I had sex for the first time." Awsten blurted out. That was enough for Geoff. It made him feel rotten inside. There was a feeling bubbling up from his stomach; it made him want to throw up and tear away from his skin simultaneously. "But he didn't prep me first." Words tumbled so quickly from Awsten's mouth that neither of them could really process what had just happened for a few seconds after. It was clear that Awsten was upset. He pulled his hand to his mouth and started shaking. Tears crept up from their hidey-holes and poured out. Geoff scooped him up into his arms, not caring if he got Awsten wet. "And I didn't really consent in the first place."

Geoff hugged Awsten in an iron clad grip, he was losing Awsten because he said something stupid. He so wanted to take it back and say that he never meant it; though he wasn't sure if he didn't mean it though. He hated seeing them together, he had never really been around other gay people, so he had nothing to compare it to. He didn't hate Awsten - he knew that. So why does he hate Awsten and Mark together? He wasn't prepared to tell Awsten that he didn't hate gay people because he didn't know himself.