Best + Bitter = Better

One day before

"There it is again." Mark smiles. Him and Awsten are curled up on Awsten's bed. Awsten is trying to type out an essay, but Mark keeps pestering him. Geoff has on headphones because he's watching Netflix, but he can still hear them.

"What?" Awsten asks, a quizzical look on his face. Geoff remembers that look from when he tried to teach him how to fold a paper crane.

"You better not smile for anyone else like that." Mark continues, a goofy smile on his face. Awsten smiles and kisses him. Geoff lets the laugh slip out of his mouth; it's the breathy one that's basically a snort of derision. Mark looks up and glares at him, but he keeps his attention focused on his laptop screen - pretending that he was laughing at a show. It was sickly sweet, how he said it, and feels like poison down Geoff's throat. 'Well he does,' Geoff thinks, 'he smiles like that all the time with me'. Geoff doesn't realise his thoughts, he doesn't realise what they are.

A minute later, Mark has gotten bored of just lying with his boyfriend. He decides to trail kisses all over Awsten's neck, making him giggle.

"Babe, I have to finish this essay. It's due tomorrow." Awsten insists, he's lighthearted in the way he says it, but Geoff sees the flash of anger that crosses Mark's eyes.

Mark makes an attempt to close Awsten's laptop screen, but fails when Awsten pushes it up again. Mark lets out a disgruntled sound and whines, "No, spend time with me."

Awsten gives him a long look before sighing, "Okay." Mark rewards him by kissing him. Mark shuts Awsten's laptop and shoves it off the side of the bed, letting it crash to the carpet slightly. Geoff was nervous about the screen, whether it was cracked or not.

Geoff concentrates on his screen, shutting the gross couple out. He didn't like seeing it, he didn't like seeing them together. He took a quick glance and saw that they were properly snogging and, faster than he ever had before, flicked his eyes back to the screen.

-

It's almost ten by the time Mark leaves. It's dark outside and as soon as the door shuts Awsten picks up his laptop and starts furiously typing. By this time, Geoff had moved on the practising his guitar. He looks up at Awsten; he looks tired and stressed.

"Hey, Aws?" Geoff starts. Awsten doesn't look up and keeps typing, but hums to indicate he's listening. "Maybe you should calm down a bit, yeah?" Geoff puts his guitar down and scoots to the edge of the bed.

"No!" Awsten snaps. "No, there is no time for calming down. This paper is due tomorrow and I have to write four pages and I have no idea what I'm doing." Awsten almost yells. Geoff stands up and takes hold of Awsten's hands, so that he can't type any more. He perches next to Awsten and looks at him.

"Four pages is about eight paragraphs, so you just need eight topics for your paragraphs. Okay?" Geoff explains and can see Awsten's rigid form loosen with the words. "How many have you done so far?" Geoff asks, letting go of Awsten's hands.

Awsten looks through his pdf and replies, "Four." He nods to himself and Geoff can imagine the imaginary conversation in Awsten's head: 'half way, which means that you are almost done. You were worrying about nothing.'

"See? Not very stressful at all, is it? And if you spend ten minutes on each paragraph then that is only forty minutes." Geoff smiles at Awsten and he smiles back with the smile that Mark mentioned. "And I can edit it if you want, yeah? What time does it have to be in by?"

"Midday." Awsten answers immediately as if there's a storm in his head and the only clear thing is the due time.

Geoff lets go of his hands and stands up, "I'll tell you what, " Geoff smiles, "You get two more paragraphs done and we'll go for a drive. Like old times, yeah?" Geoff and Awsten used to go on late night drives all the time, it was one of Awsten's favourite things of all time.

"Yes!" Awsten cries excitedly, yanking his laptop back onto his lap and returns to typing like a mad-man. Geoff smiles and goes back to his guitar; absentmindedly strumming chords while he planned a route in his head.

-

So, there they are, driving down an empty freeway with the large expanse of sky above them. It's black, but it fades to grey just above the horizon. Awsten sits with with knees to his chest while Geoff drives his sister's old pickup truck. It's almost become Awsten's second home. They used to lie in the back and look up at the stars. That was before Awsten got a boyfriend. They both miss these nights and the time they used to spend together.

They're in the 2+ lane even though there is nobody else on the roads save a few cars driven by coffee fuelled teens. Geoff chose this freeway because the roads have newly been resurfaced and he knows that even in the day it's often empty.

The sky is now sable and opaque, as if someone has taken the sun and crumbled it into stars.

They drive for hours, conversation drifting from everyday irony to what to get Geoff's sister for her birthday. They decide on a nice necklace from a fancy place or something.