BLOOM • awsten knight

43

JUNE 2018

Lucas greets Elle at the entrance first, making sure she has her pass as they begin their walk to the bus; before they can even get close to the door, Awsten runs out of the bus.

"Hey!" He scoops Elle up in his arms, bending down to her height as she wraps her arms around his shoulders. "I missed you," Awsten squeezes her waist a little tighter, almost making her squeal, as she giggles into his hair.

"I missed you," she pulls away to look at him, almost tempted to lean in, as he smiles at her, but she refrains, as Otto comes bounding off of the bus.

"Congratulations, Elle!" He shouts, jumping on the two of them, to join their hug.

"Man, come on, get off," Awsten shoved him away, as Elle laughs, watching Geoff make his way out to join them.

"I'll go for a more timid congratulations," he smiles, opening his arms for a half-hug, which Elle welcomes.

"Thank you," she looks between the two of them, before Awsten quickly catches her eye again, smiling proudly.

"I'll take these inside for you, Elle," Lucas announces, taking her bags.

"Oh, you really don't- I can do that-" she starts, but he's already made his way onto the bus, waving off her comments.

"It's like, his job, Nora," Awsten laughs, "let him do things for you," he looks back at her for a moment, before his expression changes. "Have you got sun screen on?" Awsten questions, his eyebrows dipping together.

"Uh, no, not ye-"

"Oh my god, come on, you'll fry," he says, dramatically pulling her onto the bus.

"Jesus, Awsten," she laughs, as he tugs her along. He drags her all the way to the bathroom, where they find some sun cream stacked on the counter. "Wow, there's a lot of-" Elle stops her sentence, as she hears Awsten closing the door behind them. "Oh."

He leans in, taking her by surprise, but Elle swiftly kisses back, smiling against his lips.

It's short and sweet, but they both pull away with the same expression.

"What was that for?" Elle blushes.

"Wanted to," Awsten shrugs, repeating her words from a few days ago. "If that's okay?"

"More than okay," she mimics his own words, too. "Feel free to do it again, actually."

He laughs quietly, trying to refrain from being heard by anyone else, and leans in again.

"I'm so proud of you," Awsten mumbles, in between kissing her.

Elle hums against his lips, getting far too lost in him to find any real words to say.

After a while, though, they realise that they probably shouldn't spend forever in the bathroom, fully aware of how suspicious it would look.

Awsten grabs the sunscreen and drops some onto Elle's nose, causing her to scrunch her face up.

"I can do it myself, you know," she giggles, as he rubs it into her skin.

"What if I want to, huh?" He retorts, squishing her cheeks together, earning an even louder laugh.

"Y'all okay in there?" Jawn calls from outside the door, knowing full well that he'd be interrupting something.

Awsten starts to cough, a little startled by Jawn's voice.

"Oh, uh, yeah!" He calls back, trying not to laugh, as well as attempting to keep Elle quiet. "Will you shut up?" Awsten says, accidentally loud enough for Jawn to hear, as she laughs even more. "We'll be out in a sec."