Double Dare II waterparks

019

"Fuck," Awsten mumbles, hitting his steering wheel in frustration, "fuck, fuck—start! C'mon, start! You cannot do this today, of all day! No! Fucking start!" He quickly checks the time on his phone before letting out another string of curse words. This is not okay. Today is not the day for this; today is grace's graduation and he's already running late and now his car won't start. This is not okay. He can't not be there; Elliot already can't make it, being too sick to get out of bed. He caught the flu and feels like complete shit, to say the least. Jawn is missing it because he's in Europe touring with some band Awsten can't currently remember the name of. Travis and Geoff got caught in traffic and won't have time to stop and pick him up. Otto is apparently a genius and left early so he's already there but definitely won't have time to drive back here and pick him up. "This is not o-fucking-kay," Awsten mumbles angrily. "Fuck it, going with an Uber. Wonder how much extra it'll cost to get them to speed." ●☆●☆●☆●☆● Otto is anxious, to say the least. It's almost time for grace to walk out across the stage and receive her diploma and he's the only one here for her. Awsten, Geoff, and Travis should be here by now! A few more minutes go by and her name is about to be called but Otto is still the only one here. "Grace rountree," Otto's heart sinks momentarily because he knows not having her best friend here will hurt grace. Whatever reasoning Awsten has, she'll forgive him and pretend it's nothing but it'll still hurt. The same will go for Travis and Geoff. Otto pushes that to the back of his mind and stands up from his seat, clapping as loud as he can and yelling his support, earning some odd looks from other attendees. Grace looks at him, her eyes locking on his and Otto swears, for that second, things feel different. She's looking at him...different. He can't quite place the look and it doesn't last long enough for him to even really try to. The moment is brought to an abrupt end by the door being thrown open and Awsten running in, fully out of breath after running across campus to get here. And, just like that, grace's, and pretty much everyone else's, eyes are on Awsten. Awsten doesn't even notice anyone else, he just grins at grace, panting as he tries to catch his breath. "Go, Grace ," he cheers breathlessly before bending over at the waist, hands against his thighs as he tries to take in enough air to soothe his lungs that definitely didn't appreciate that sprint he just did. Grace smiles brightly and, for once, Awsten finally notices the way she looks at him, mostly because she wasn't looking at him that way for a few seconds before it returned. Awsten hates that he likes the way it feels to have her look at him like that. It's not okay, in his mind. It makes him think back to that dream he had where he and grace were dating and he really didn't dislike the dream at all. He's always said that he'd never have feelings for his best friend. He'd never see grace in that way. That's what he told himself for so long. Now he's starting to wonder if he could have been wrong about that.