BLOOM • awsten knight

117

DECEMBER 2019

Awsten doesn't bother looking at his notifications once he's back on the bus; he goes straight to FaceTime, and calls Elle.

Immediately, though, the call fails, and he stops dead in his tracks.

He tries again, straight away. but gets the same result.

After the fifth try, Awsten begins to panic, now scrambling to open their texts, and finding a couple messages from her.

As he reads them, his heart sinks.

"Awsten?" Geoff calls, stepping onto the bus. "Hey, Awsten?" he touches his shoulder, causing him to flinch.

"Woah, man, are you okay?" Jawn comes from behind Geoff.

"Yeah, you look like you've seen a ghost," Otto comments, studying his pale expression.

"I, uhm," Awsten stammers slightly. "I don't know," he frowns, unable to focus on much else, other than the way his heart is racing. "I think I need to sit down."

The three boys step aside, allowing him faster access to the couch, and Awsten lets his weight fall into it.

He leans forward, his elbows resting on his knees, with his leg bouncing.

Blinking away the blurriness in his vision, Awsten rereads the texts on his screen.

"Is it Elle?" Otto speaks up, carefully, only to be met with silence. "Is she okay?" He asks. "Are y'all okay—"

"Otto, jesus fucking christ, can you give me two second to figure out what the fuck is going on?" Awsten snaps, earning even more of an eerie silence in response.

Otto stares back at him for a moment, surprised at the outburst. "Sorry," he mumbles, feeling a little guilty; he probably shouldn't have prodded so much, considering Awsten looks like he's just a few moments away from passing out.

"No— shit, I'm sorry," Awsten squeezes his eyes shut. "Sorry, I'm— Can you just— I don't know what's going on," he lets out a breath, trying to control his slight shaking.

It's at this point that he realises that he's having a minor panic attack.

It's not the worst he's had, because he still doesn't quite know what's happening, but the mixture of adrenaline he's still feeling post-performance likely isn't helping very much.

Everyone steps back, giving Awsten the space he needs, as he tries to focus on his breathing.

Geoff and Otto decide it's best if they head down the bus to their bunks, not wanting him to feel too crowded, leaving just Jawn and Awsten in the lounge.

Roughly ten minutes passes by, with Awsten taking long, deep breaths, his eyes shut tightly, and Jawn waiting patiently.

When he opens his eyes, Awsten feels a little better, the initial panic having passed, and he seems to able to collect his thoughts.

He works up a small smile, offering it to Jawn; it's not genuine, not in the slightest, but it's more of a sign of appreciation for his patience.

"D'you wanna talk about it?" Jawn asks, carefully.

"She won't answer my calls," Awsten frowns, deeply. "I tried, and tried, and tried, but they all failed. They didn't even ring once," he sighs, finally returning his eyes to his phone. "She texted me, almost two hours ago, saying 'don't bother calling after the show,'" Awsten shows Jawn the text, and he winces.

"She sent you a link," he points out. "What's that?"

"I don't know," Awsten mumbles, taking the phone back. "It's a tweet," he answers, before clicking on it, and beginning to read it. "Oh, shit."