BLOOM • awsten knight

67

DECEMBER 2018

Awsten goes back to Los Angeles once tour ends; though, it's not long before he's on the road again briefly, to tour the podcast with Travis.

He goes back to Houston for Christmas, and he's painfully aware that both he and Elle are in the same place at the same time.

He knows she was in Houston at the start of the month, when they played their show at Warehouse Live, but he left shortly after, so he didn't feel the effects of it as much.

But now, he knows she's no more than ten minutes away from him, and he feels weird about it.

However, he tries to ignore it over the holidays; he spends some much-needed time with his family over Christmas, and stocks up on plenty of orange juice, along with other things that he's found he can't get in LA.

Awsten finds it strange to think about how he used to write about wanting to get away from home; now that he's gone all the time, all he wants to be is home.

Maybe it's because he's realised how much he can miss while he's away; it's affected more than he'd like to admit, but he can't change it, so he doesn't let himself think on it too often.

He goes back to LA for the New Year, going to a party with a couple of friends he's made while being out there.

It's a whole different scene compared to what he's used to, and he can't tell whether he loves or hates it yet - maybe a bit of both.

//

Elle frowns when Taylor walks through the door.

Looking at the time, she sees that it's not even 5pm yet; Taylor is never back from work before 6pm, and she doesn't usually seem this frazzled either.

"You're not normally home this early," Elle observes, slightly concerned.

Taylor sighs, dropping her bag and collapsing onto the sofa next to her.

"I'm not getting the fucking store anymore," she grumbles, clearly upset.

"What?" Elle sits up to face her. "What do you mean you're not getting the store?"

"It's not being passed to me anymore, when she, you know, passes," Taylor huffs.

"But, I thought it was in her will? Wasn't there this whole agreement?"

"It wasn't final," she rolls her eyes. "She's giving it to her fucking grandson, because he's started playing nice now, and he's just gonna turn it into some- I don't know, some shit."

"What the fuck?" Elle frowns, feeling angry for her best friend; she knew how much she wanted to own the florist's - it's been something she's always wanted.

Ever since they were younger, Taylor said she was going to be a florist; she'd pick out flowers from the field while they were at school, tying them together in mini bouquets.

No one else could figure out how to do it the same way that she did, and on Valentine's Day when they were nine, all of the boys in their class wanted one for their 'girlfriends' - or whatever you'd call it at that age.