- 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒆, ( the movie : the book. )

chapter one - awsten

awsten should have known their stupid fucking friends wouldn't have left them alone, they'd make awsten go somewhere. sure, it's a beautiful day and all, but they'd rather opt for spending their free time staying inside and watching matilda, or the conjuring. maybe even resident evil.

"aws," geoff said, leaning against the door frame with a saddened sort of smile on his face. "just because it's october, doesn't mean you can spend all your time watching horror movies."

they rolled their eyes.

"besides," geoff spoke, smile turning genuine. "i have a key to your apartment, i can throw a party here when you're asleep."

that's what made awsten agree to go out, because they didn't want a bunch of strangers to ruin their house.

"glad you could make it, short stack." jawn greeted from the passenger seat, turning to face the purple haired awsten. "nice costume."

"i'm not that short," they argued, buckling up and ignoring the comment on their homemade, last minute cat ears. they didn't plan on going to some halloween festival, they didn't have their costume prepared.

"you got dragged along, too?" awsten turns. it's ciara, who awsten hasn't seen since the breakup. she was sitting next to them and they weren't sure how they hadn't noticed before. she smiled at them, but it wasn't glaringly enthusiastic. not how it used to be. awsten offered the same faux kindness back. "come on, natural blue. it'll be fun," she insists, nudging their shoulder with old petname. "you don't have to drink, you can bob for apples!"

awsten turns and looks at the back of jawn's seat. they ignore the pain in their chest. as if they'd bob for apples, as if they'd do anything she told them to do. they're pissed at how their friends invited her, because why would they fucking do that to them? the whole thing is stupid, awsten thinks. but, when ciara laughs and calls them "babe", they inhale through their nose. maybe they miss her. misses them. when she smiles, her eyes crinkle, and awsten faces the window to hide their tears.

sure, living alone after the breakup was rough, but it was manageable. the first few months of alone sucked, because alone was never easy after her, but at least they could mope around on their own terms. now, they were forced to hide their emotions because for some reason, she thinks the two are on good terms, and so does the entire friend group. whatever.

sometimes, they missed ciara, and then decided it wasn't her. it was the company. someone to be around at all times, to make awsten feel needed. maybe they should get a dog. awsten loves dogs. they thought about all the types they could get. they settle on chocolate lab.

"earth to awsten," jawn says, waving a hand in their face.

"hi."

"i asked if you'd wanna go through the haunted house with me."

awsten ponders. they love haunted houses. they love to be scared, but sometimes they're so painfully cheap, it isn't worth the wait. on the other hand, it was something to complain about rather than think about spending the night with ciara. "sure," they agree, exhaling softly.

the rest of the drive went by quickly, as everyone spent the time to catch up. awsten tried to think of a way to make watching stranger things for the seventeenth time sound interesting.

"i've been seeing someone," geoff said and then talked about his girl called chloe for five minutes.

"i've gotten some more jobs outside of your shitty band." jawn laughs. he was a photographer, and he was damn good.

when it was ciara's turn, she said she and richard are back together and geoff sends an apologetic look to awsten from the rearview mirror.

awsten wanted to be the one to move on first, it had been three months anyway. "i wrote some songs, watched stranger things, put an ad up for a drummer."

when they got to the party, everyone gathered in a group. "alright," awsten started as they hung up their denim jacket. "let's all run loose like headless chickens."

"sounds like a plan!"

and everyone headed off, including jawn, because he saw a girl that gave him a "come hither" look, so awsten wandered aimlessly before deciding to stand in line for the haunted house. some might have said that going through alone was sad, but awsten didn't care in the moment. they wanted the night to be over with. after this, they'd bob for stupid apples and nap at the bar after having a nice bowl of cherries.

they passed time by playing mini golf on their phone.

"they line the putter up with the ball, trying to dictate the most pristine angle to get in the most difficult hole under par."

awsten turned the volume down on their phone, then realised there isn't a commentator feature. they looked behind them and-oh.

his eyes were brown.

he was smiling and his arms were crossed, and he was dressed as someone who also didn't plan on showing up there, which made awsten extremely self conscious about their ears. he had devil horns and a wicked jawline. a plus, in awsten's book.

awsten blinked, and returned to their game.

"they line up their shot, will they make it?"

his voice distracted awsten and they lost focus, shooting backwards.

"what an embarrassing moment! the crowd is booing! go back to your day job, loser!"

the line started to move.

awsten put their phone in their pocket and turned to the devil. "hey, i'll have you know i trained tiger woods! i'm the best damn golfer both sides of the mississippi!"

"please, i'm just trying to feed my wife and kids!" devil put up his hands in defence.

awsten wondered if he really was married, but they didn't see a ring. he crossed his arms again, so maybe they had missed it. they can't help but to hope not. "i'll have you fired."

the guy smiled even bigger, large hands shoved in small pockets. not married, awsten decided. he spoke. "you shouldn't go through alone. i went like three times, nearly pissed myself the first. scary as shit."

"then why go again?"

"to keep up with my job as a golf commentator."

awsten couldn't help but to snicker at the statement, then find themself puffing their chest and trying to appear taller than their height allowed. still taller than pretty devil. "i'm a brave knight."

"i believe it, you're better than tiger woods and all. that takes guts to say publicly."

awsten sighed with feign remorse. "the truth? i'm not a golfer, i lied."

"a liar? in my good christian household?!"

"you're wearing devil horns and this is a high school gym."

"stop calling me out like this, beba."

awsten almost invited him to go with them, but he got a phone call and left the line with a wave. awsten watched him walk away until he was lost in the crowd of bodies, and they weren't able to get into the scare of the house, because they were too focused on missing mystery boy.

"what was he like?" jawn asked when they were all together once more.

"he was funny?" awsten nodded. "yeah! funny, and prettier than a devil-shorter than me, real pretty long curls. and a sunshine smile! a sunshine boy, my sunshine boy."

"sunshine boy?" geoff laughed. "seems like you got it bad, aws."

"i think i'm sunshine." ciara raised her hand and looked at awsten.

they looked back. "even sunshinier than you, which, by the way, is pretty dim." awsten rolled their eyes, then placed their hands on their cheeks and sighed happily. their smile reached ear to ear.

"what's his name?"

"don't know."

"does he live here?"

"no clue."

ciara scoffed. "do you know anything about him?"

"i know he's my sunshine boy and i know i'm going to find him."