Gloom & sunshine

Chapter 6: Aversion

"I swear to God, Otto, if you keep that up, I'm pulling us over at the nearest tattoo place, I'll fucking hold you down while they pierce your dick!" Awsten shouted at their drummer who had gotten his hands on Geoff's guitar again and was being an annoying prick on purpose. Otto laughed loudly before winking at the singer.

"I didn't know you were so kinky, Awsie-poo, you gotta buy my dinner first!"

Awsten tried to take a leap at his best friend, but Geoff's stern voice stopped him.

"Hey! No roaming the bus at highway speeds!" Geoff was at the wheel now, he and Awsten had switched when they hit the Florida border, with loud hollering, prompting Otto to yell at them for being obnoxious morons.

Otto grinned, sticking his tongue out at Awsten. "Dad yelled at you!" He cackled, all the while plucking Geoff's guitar.

"Otto, quick doing that! You're gonna break a string!" Geoff snapped at him, the slightest hint of a smile on his face.

Otto pouted but put the guitar down, Awsten grinning wickedly at Otto this time. "Ha ha, you got in trouble!" He sing-taunted. Geoff rolled his eyes but smiled. His best friends were ridiculous sometimes--okay, all times. He shook his head, focusing on the road once more, his eyebrows rose seeing a familiar van come into to view.

"It's The Wrecks, wow, they're really behind. Text Nick, see what kept them." He gestured to his phone that was resting on the console.

Awsten leaned forward, easily unlocking it-- Geoff's password was Awsten's birthday, something he and Otto had both relentlessly teased the guitarist about. Awsten found Nick Anderson's contact in Geoff's phone, ignoring the small rumble of jealousy he felt seeing Jack's name with a little black heart next to it. Geoff used emojis in all his contacts, Awsten's was his name along with a pair of sunglasses. Otto's was his name along with a gold star.

'What's up buttercup? We're behind you.' sent at 7:47pm.

'Got caught in the storm, ATL isn't far ahead of us, we had to stop at some hole-in-the-wall bar. Sketchy as F U C K.' recieved at 7:49pm.

Awsten relayed the message, dinking around on Geoff's phone, taking selfies, taking pictures of the highway, taking pictures of Otto, taking pictures of Geoff-- just generally trying to fill up Geoff's storage in any way he can. He paused for a moment when Geoff received a text from Jack.

"Who's that?" Geoff asked, having heard the text jingle.

"Jack." Awsten shrugged, not opening it, not particularly wanting to see Geoff's and Jack's conversations.

"Well, what did he say?" Geoff asked with a bit of a laugh, wondering why Awsten wasn't reading the text to him.

Awsten grit his teeth a bit and opened the message app. "Jack says, 'Hey babe, we're stopping at an Irish Pub for dinner, you guys want to join?'" Awsten's grip tightened a bit on Geoff's phone. He did not like Jack calling Geoff babe.

"Hmm, what do you guys think?" Geoff asked to Awsten and Otto.

"I could go for a beer."

Awsten shrugged, turning off Geoff's phone and looking out the window. Geoff glanced at him, then back out the window.

"I don't know, I'm not feeling heavy food like that. Wanna keep on for a little while and see if we find anything else?"

"Yeah, I'm good with that." Otto said, not really caring, he was easy like that, Geoff appreciated him for it.

"Okay." Was all Awsten said, he was difficult like that, Geoff sometimes got frustrated with him for it.

Otto was watching Awsten closely, he, unlike Geoff, had picked up on how unwilling Awsten was to read Jack's message. So, in true Otto form, he darted off the couch and snatched Geoff's phone out of Awsten's hands.