BLOOM • awsten knight

27

APRIL 2018

They manage to film another two episodes before calling it a day, and when they head downstairs Awsten spots Elle and his mom heading into kitchen.

"Hey!" He runs over to Elle immediately, engulfing her in a hug.

"Hi," she giggles into his chest. "You feeling better?"

"I am now," he mumbles against her hair, only loud enough for the two of them to hear.

She blushes as his hands run over hers, and he quickly notices how short and rough her nails now feel.

Awsten locks his fingers with her's, almost secretly, and tries to take a look, but Elle clearly notices that he's onto her, so she speaks up.

"I'm gonna go put all this in my car, quickly," she smiles simply, pulling her hands away from his gently, as she picks up her bags of shopping.

"You can just put them in my room," Awsten responds.

"Oh, okay, thank you," Elle nods, before taking a couple bags upstairs.

Awsten waits, for only a second, before disappearing upstairs after her.

Pushing his door open slowly, he notices Elle sat on the edge of his bed, with her head in her hands.

"Elle," he starts softly, causing her head to shoot up.

"Hi, sorry, I'm just-" she stamps a smile on her face.

"No," Awsten shakes his head a little. "Stop, something's wrong."

She lets out a sigh, quickly realising that he know her better than to let this go.

"I saw all of it," she mumbles, avoiding his gaze, "on Twitter, I mean. I know you did, too."

"Please don't listen to them," Awsten reaches for her hands.

"How did you even know something was wrong?" She asks, curiously. "I tried so hard to make it seem like it was fine and-"

"I know you, Elle," he responds simply. "You bite your nails when your head is somewhere else, you know," he runs his fingers over hers, and he can tell that the skin is a little tender, "to the point where it hurts."

She remains quiet for a moment longer, and Awsten just wishes that he could see what's going through her head, but he has a strong feeling that it's not just what was happening on Twitter.

"Some of the stuff they were saying, it just-" she stops herself and lets out a sigh. "I don't know what I did, Aws."

"You didn't do anything," he shakes his head quickly. "You know what they're like, some of them think they're doing something good and they're just, not."

"They think they know you," she replies quietly. "And I get it, I do, but it doesn't mean it hurts any less."

"Elle, I'm so sorry-"

"It's not your fault," she tries to force a small smile. "I'm just glad they weren't attacking you."

"I don't care about them attacking me," Awsten responds quickly. "I don't want them to attack you, and push you away. God, Elle, that's the last thing I want."