Double Dare II waterparks

030

  

Grace never really thought she'd qualify time without her best friend as some of the best time of her life but, standing here now, watching All Time Low perform, Grace is certain almost nothing else can measure up to this, save for when she hugged Otto after graduation because that felt pretty amazing. It's not to say that being around Awsten never made her happy, some of her best memories are with him, but, for way too long, her feelings for him made it hard to be completely happy like she is now. Escaping from all those feelings, finally taking some time away from him to really get herself together, has been amazing.  Even the best things come to an end, though, and as she gets ready to start taking a video of the performance of the next song from her spot side-stage because she absolutely adores Weightless, Awsten's face lights up her screen along with the options to either ignore the call or answer it. Grace glances at the group on stage, briefly making eye contact with Zack when he looks her way, knowing she loves this song. She gives a short shake of her head, silently telling him to ignore her and holds her phone up to show she has a call. Zack gives a subtle nod of understanding before refocusing on the crowd in front of him. Grace , despite really wanting to hear this song, quickly makes her way outside to where it's quiet so she can talk with Awsten.  "Hey," she greets awkwardly, not sure how to talk to him after the way they left things off. She heads a little further away from the building the band is playing in, still able to hear the wonderful yet extremely distracting music and wanting to distance herself so she can focus on the conversation.  "Hey," Awsten replies quietly, sounding nervous. He hesitates before speaking again. "I'm sorry...for snapping at you the way I did that night and for not apologizing sooner and for acting like I had any right to talk to you the way I did. I'm sorry and I'd get it if you didn't want to talk to me but I want to fix this. You're still my best friend, Grace ."  "And you're still mine," she assures him, letting out a tired sigh, "and I'm gonna forgave you because, apparently, you were right about me being a total pushover but I'm still mad at you."  "Yeah, I get that," he concedes easily, "I'd be pissed at me too...but we'll be okay, right?"  "Of course," she assures him, "all other things aside, you've still been my best friend since we were five. I'm not going to push you out of my life because of one fight. I'm passed being in love with you but I still love you as a friend. That'll never change, Aws."  "I love you too," he tells her honestly, "and I definitely don-"  Grace unintentionally cuts Awsten off with a little grunt of pain when a passing stranger suddenly pushes her into the alleyway between the venue and the building next to it. She's held against the wall before she can even begin to process what's happening, her hand keeping a shaky grip on her phone. She can hear Awsten's worried voice but is more focused on the stranger holding a knife to her throat and demanding she hand over her valuables.  Not wanting to fight this fight when she's clearly at a disadvantage, Grace tries to figure what valuables she even has with her. She doesn't have her wallet, and even if she did she doesn't carry cash because who even carries cash these days? credit cards are so much easier. She has the admittedly cheap, but sentimentally valuable, necklace that Otto had gotten her from a truck stop in Georgia a year ago. Truthfully, the only thing of any monetary value she currently has is probably her phone. Grace hands it over.  "Th-that's all I have, I swear," she stammers, trying not to look at the blade or even think about it.  "Bullshit," the person mumbles with a distinctively American accent. If this person is going to rob her the least they could do is have a cute accent and not the same American accent she's used to. The sarcastic thought is entirely a product of lifelong friendship with one of the sassiest people on planet Earth: Awsten Knight. Definitely not grace's own train of thought. She's pulled out of her brief escape in her thoughts by the person shoving their free hand in her pocket, making her extremely uncomfortable.  The person comes up empty from the search just as a yell is heard approaching. At some point, Awsten had hung up the call with Grace when she stopped responding and called Jawn a dozen times before he finally answered. He didn't bother with a hello before telling Jawn to "fucking find Grace , I think she's outside and there's someone-sounds like she's getting robbed, fucking find her!"  "Hey! Back the hell off," Jawn shouts as he starts running over. Panicking, the person decides their best shot at a getaway is forcing the focus to stay on Grace . Not having expected to really have to take it this far, the person squeezes their eyes shut before jamming the knife into Grace's gut and taking off running as she falls to the ground.  Jawn is left with the choice of either chasing after the mugger or stay with Grace and call for help. He chooses the second option, unwilling to leave her side.  "Fuck," he mumbles, eyes wide as he skids to a stop and drops down to his knees by her side. "Shit-you'll be okay, this'll be fine-are you-fuck, what's the emergency number out here? Wait, fuck, I don't even speak French-shit...uh-" Normally Grace would tell him to calm down but she's panicking herself, gasping for air as the shock sets in. Jawn's eyes dart around and he sees a person across the street. "Hey," he yells, knowing that it's definitely not French but it'll get their attention and any decent person would come over to help in a situation like this. Much to his relief, the person sees and hurries over. They say some stuff in French but seem to come to the conclusion that Jawn doesn't understand them and calls the proper authorities without another attempt to figure out what happened. Common sense is enough to tell the person that now is most certainly not a great time to waste on trying and failing to communicate with each other.  After the call is over, Jawn pulls off his pass for the show and hands it the person, pointing towards the building the band is in to signal that he needs them to get someone from inside. He then puts more emphasis than probably necessary on showing that it's the band he's looking for. That was pretty easy to conclude based on the nature of his pass. It's in French so Jawn has no clue what it says but the person reads clearly that Jawn is working with the band.  The person nods and takes the pass, rushing inside and using Jawn's pass to get where they need to be and explaining to the security guards, who make quick work of getting the band off-stage and clearing everyone out. The show had almost been over anyway and the orderly exit the security guards are now enforcing will make it easier for the ambulance and police to get in and do their jobs.  Zack, Rian, Jack, and Alex rush outside to meet Jawn, now holding the pass that the person had handed over before slipping away, not wanting to be any more involved in this  This is not the night anyone was expecting.