Best + Bitter = Better

Thirty Seven days after

Geoff wakes up before anyone else in the room. Judging by last night, he reckons that Awsten doesn't want to be seen in his bed, so he wakes him up.

"Aws." He whispers quietly, shaking him a little. No reaction. "Aws. Awsten." He continues. "Awsten, baby, wake up." Awsten stirs, so Geoff just shoves him a little.

"Wha—?" Awsten mumbles as he wakes up. He looks around, momentarily forgetting where he is.

"Baby, you're at my house." Geoff interrupts Awsten's thoughts with an answer. Awsten looks up at him. "I was just wondering if you wanted to go back to sleeping on the floor. You're welcome to stay here, but I'm getting the impression that you don't want to be seen in my bed." Geoff explains.

Awsten nods, "You're warm." He murmurs, wrapping Geoff's arms around his body and trying to go back to sleep.

"Okay." Geoff smiles softly and snuggles back down into bed.

-

Geoff wakes up to a flash and sees Sarah hovering over them. He gives her a confused glare, putting his hand out to cover the source of the flash.

"These are so going in your wedding PowerPoint." She giggles. She snaps another photo with her phone then skips back to her bed setup.

"Wedding? What? We're not even dating." He argues, sitting up gently and looking at her.

"Really dude?" Ryan snorts from his position on the floor. He's lying down and from where Geoff is sat, it looks like he's not even awake at all.

Geoff looks down at Awsten's sleeping form. "I don't know." Last night, Awsten said 'ex boyfriend' when referring to Mark and he was the one stopping them from being together... What's stopping them now?

"Well, either way, you two are so fucking cute together." Sarah grins, looking at her phone and looking at the photos.

"Language." Ryan scolds her. She merely pokes her tongue out at him. He rolls his eyes at her.

-

At breakfast, Awsten is awfully quiet. Geoff notices, but doesn't want to ask Awsten about it where everyone else is. His entire family and Awsten are sitting all over the living room and eating various sorts of breakfast food. He and Awsten have crunchy-nut cornflakes, mainly because Awsten said he'll have whatever Geoff has and cornflakes are one of Awsten's favourite things.

"Hey, Aws." Geoff catches Awsten's attention when his aunt got up to go to the bathroom - leaving space for privacy. Awsten looks at him. "You've been quiet all morning. Are you okay?" He asks.

Awsten puts his empty bowl on the floor next to where Geoff put his and flops into Geoff's arms. "Nightmare." He says, but doesn't elaborate.

Geoff prompts him a little. "About what?" He squeezes Awsten a little to give him some reassurance.

Awsten's eyes fill with tears, but he doesn't look at Geoff. Geoff takes his chin in his hand and forces Awsten to look at him. A single tear falls and Geoff wipes it away with his thumb.

"I had a dream that you were stabbed and you were bleeding out and there was nothing I could do 'cause—'cause it was like a pic-picture, like a snapshot and it kept moving and I thought it was real." He whisper-cries. There are tears in his eyes, but they haven't fallen.

Geoff's face falls. For Awsten to think about that is terrifying. "Oh, baby." Geoff coos. "I'm never gonna be stabbed, okay? I'm a superhero, remember? And anyway: I feel like when people are stabbed, the stabber wants to stab the person more than the person who is about to be stabbed doesn't want to be stabbed. Like, with adrenaline and stuff you run faster. If I'm ever stabbed I'd be okay taking forty percent of the blame." Geoff laughs, trying to lighten the mood. Awsten smiles lopsidedly. "I don't want to be stabbed at all, so you know what? I'm not gonna get stabbed, yeah?" Awsten nods, wiping his eyes.

"Okay."

-

Elf is on cable and the entire family is gathered around to watch it, bar Geoff's parents who went out to get some last minute shopping. There's an advert break, so Geoff uses the time to go to the bathroom. He gets up and pats Awsten's shoulder to let him know he's not behind him anymore. Awsten nods and gets swept into conversation with Rebecca - Geoff's sister.

Geoff returns to the living room to see that Awsten is telling a story that has all the the family's attention.

"And then my mum - bless her heart - said 'yes, yes, we know. I'm going to burn the bread'. And I swear to God I lost it. I spent years overthinking what they would say and I got 'alright, son' and 'I'm gonna burn the bread'." Awsten laughs. Geoff's family is in hysterics. Geoff remembers the words. It's his coming out story.

Geoff's heart swells. His family loves Awsten. This is gonna work. He slips back into his place behind Awsten on the sofa and Awsten looks back at him with a beaming smile. Geoff can't help but smile back.

-

Geoff drops Awsten off outside his house. Once again, it's painful. Geoff can't even get out the car in fear that he'd never get back in again. It shouldn't be this hard, but it is.

"I don't wanna go." Awsten whines playfully. He grabs onto Geoff's arm. "Come with me." He pouts.

Geoff laughs softly, "That may have worked last time, but not now." Awsten frowns childishly. "We can meet up tomorrow, yeah? We can exchange presents together and have our own little Christmas together." Geoff suggests.

Awsten sighs. "Yeah, I suppose. I just don't want to leave you." He admits, undoing his seat belt and resting his hand on the door handle.

"Trust me, I don't want you to leave either." Geoff sighs.

Awsten opens the door and goes to step out, but leans over to Geoff and kisses him on the cheek, then steps out. "Bye Geoff." Awsten sighs.

"Bye Aws." Geoff offers a smile, but they both feel the disappointment growing inside them.

-

It feels kinda empty without Awsten, at home. Even Geoff's family comment on how much they miss him already. Geoff tries to occupy himself with helping his mum and aunt with pre-Christmas preparations. Although, it doesn't work very well because it doesn't fully engage his mind, so it leads to him wondering what he would be doing if Awsten were there.

-

It's the same for Awsten at his home. It just doesn't feel right not having Geoff around. His family warmed to Geoff immediately and it made Awsten happy. When he had brought Mark home for Thanksgiving, they were a little standoffish... By a little he meant a lot. Gracie even went as far to insult him a few times. But with Geoff, they fell in love just like he did...

Awsten picks up his phone and opens text messages on his phone. Mark had tried calling him and texting him, but he ignored him. He clicks on the type bar and the keyboard appears... Mark. In short, this is a break up text. I know it's cruel and cowardly to do this over text, but right now I can't even look at you. You hit me and it is unacceptable to expect me to put up with that. Don't ever talk to me again. He types. His thumb hovers over 'send' for a few seconds... A few minutes...

Gracie sits next to him on the sofa and looks over to what he's doing on his phone. "Send it." She states simply.

Awsten looks up at her with a conflicted expression. "Is it alright? Are there any errors? Do I add anything?" He asks worriedly.

"Just do it!" She snaps. It shocks Awsten enough, so that his thumb clicks send for him. "There. That wasn't so hard." She smiles. Honestly p, she couldn't be more glad that Mark is out of Awsten's life because if she saw him again, he might just end up in a coma.