"Did you see his boots?! Holy hell. My acne is gone. My skin cleared. My soul is pure." Awsten said making me laugh. He had a hilariously weird sense of humor. It was really great to spend time with him.
"Dude. His hair." Otto says, fake moaning at the thought. We were all currently fangirling over the artist Guardin. He was at the arcade for about 20 minutes before he had to leave but it was great to get to meet him. He's honestly super underrated and underappreciated.
"Oh god I know right. And his smile!" Geoff said, practically fainting.
"There's no way you're all straight." I say, taking a sip of my blue slushie.
"It's not gay if you don't make eye contact." Awsten says shrugging.
"You stared at him for like 5 minutes straight. There was definitely eye contact." Otto laughs.
"Oops." Awsten giggles, scrolling through his Twitter feed.
"Your prize, my dear." Jack says, bowing in front of me with his arm stretch out holding a stuffed kangaroo.
"Oh my god I love you." I smile, hugging the kangaroo.
"Aww, I love you too."
"I was talking to the roo."
"Ouch." Jack laughs and I smirk, hugging him too.
"Young love. Aw." A woman says, walking by. Jack and I both look at each other and fake vomit.
"You guys aren't a couple?" Geoff asks, confused.
"Oh god no." We both answer at the same time before looking at each other bursting out laughing.
"We aren't together. Tori is a loser." Jack says, grabbing the Kangaroo sassily.
"Says the 30 year old man aggressively groping the kangaroo, but okay." I shrug, sipping more of my slushie.
"Do you two ever stop bitching like a married couple?" Alex says, throwing his arms around both of us.
"No." Jack and I say in unison. We instantly do rock paper scissors to settle the battle. I won. My prize was another slushie. I happily slurp along.
"I hate to ruin the party, but we gotta go. We've got a meeting." Rian says, sighing.
"Oh. Well I-"
"It's just us this time, kiddo." Jack says and I frown.
"I'm not a child. You're literally only 6 years older than me."
"Such a child."
"I hate you sometimes."
"I hate me all the time. Your point?"
"Jack!" Alex and I both say and we look at each other with narrowed eyes.
"We've gotta start seeing other people or this shit is gonna keep happening." Alex says and we all laugh.
"We'll talk to you later. Don't have too much fun." Alex says, winking. I flip him off.
"So, what do you wanna do now?" I ask and the boys shrug.
"Is 'go take a really good nap' an acceptable answer?" Otto asks, raising his hand.
"You took a nap earlier." Awsten said, looking at Otto confused.
"There's never a bad time for a nap." I say and Otto agrees.
"Uggghhh. Fine." Awsten sighs.
"You guys are welcome to crash at my place for a bit. I bet you guys are getting sick of the bunks in the bus." I suggest and the boys debate it for a moment.
"Would that be okay?"
"Of course. I just gotta clean up some stuff in the garage but yeah you're welcome to chill."
"Alright." They all smile and we go to leave.
"Wait!" Awsten runs to the back of the arcade, the complete opposite direction of the exit. I sigh, debating whether to follow him or not. About 2 minutes later he runs back with an absolutely massive panda.
"I had to cash in my tickets." He says, smiling.
"That's adorable." I touch the pandas head to see how soft it is.
"It's an adorable panda for an adorable person." He says, pointing it at me then changing and pointing it at Otto.
"Aw, that's so sweet!" Otto jumps up to hug the panda and Awsten points it back at me.
"Sike!" He giggles and Otto fake cries. I hug him to cheer him up.
"I got you a bear and you hug him?" Awsten asks, pouting. I roll my eyes, laughing. I hug him tightly, smiling. I got perfectly in his arms. He smells like vanilla and his arms just felt safe.
We eventually let go and I grab the bear, smiling.
"What are you gonna name it?" Otto asks, curious.
"You name it. We can co-parent." I laugh, letting him suggest names.
"QUEEN ELIZABETH!" He suddenly yells and then gets quiet, embarrassed.
"That's great. Queen Elizabeth." I nod, looking at the bear.
"She needs a tiara!" Awsten runs back to the prize booth and returns a moment later. He places a tiara onto the panda and nods in approval.
"That's really cute." Geoff says and then looks at Awsten, shaking his head. Awsten was wearing a matching tiara.
"How many tickets did you have?" I ask, laughing.
"Like... 4."
"4? There's no way you got this with 4 tickets. It took Jack an hour to even get the kangaroo."
"Well. I got a lollipop with my tickets, I made a deal with the manager for the Queen, and the tiaras were necessary." He explains, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Awsten, how much money did you spend on the Queen?" I cross my arms, looking up at him.
"Uh... 30$? Maybe 40?"
"Awsten."
"Okay fine. 45."
"Awsten!"
"It was necessary! She needs love!"
"I'm never letting you buy shit for me ever again. That is wayyyyy too much."
"It's not enough." He smiles innocently.
"Ugh... let's get out of here before you go broke."
×××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××
"How in God's name does he sleep like that?" I ask, pointing at Otto. He was currently curled up in a ball with one leg slung over the couch and half his body hanging off the side. Awsten and I were the only ones awake so we were sitting at the kitchen counter talking.
"Don't question it." Awsten answers, shrugging.
"Make yourself at home, I gotta do some stuff." I hop off the stool and quietly walk away to go towards the garage. Geoff was passed out on Jack's giant beanbag. It was pretty funny seeing him slowly get swallowed by the beanbag.
"Can I help?" He asks and I shrug.
"If you want to."
"Okay!" He follows me, almost tripping over Otto's hand.
"Don't wake the baby!" I say, giggling some.
We go into the garage and I instantly cringe at the sight of all the boxes. So much merchandise. I needed to package it all up to send out to the fans who preordered stuff.
"What is all this junk?" Awsten asks, opening a box.
"ATL merch. Unreleased publicly. Definitely not junk." I correct him and he blushes, apologizing.
"Sorry. What do you have to do?"
"Label it all and package it for the fans. And put half of it into the storage bins for tour."
"Are you going with them?"
"I'm actually debating it this time. I'm just tired I guess. I love them to death, don't get me wrong, it's just a lot to be around them all the time."
"I guess you could say it's... an all time low?" He smirks and I frown.
"Get out with your trash puns."
"It was good and you know it."
"Unfortunately."
××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××
After about an hour of packaging and badly dancing to music, we are stopped by a scream coming from inside.
"What the fuck?!" A girlish scream echoes through the house and I look at Awsten and he's just as confused as I am. I grab my baseball bat and run into the house, ready to fight.
"You have a snake?!" Geoff screams from the top of the kitchen counter. I look down at the ground and see a black snake. I sit down my bat and carefully scoop up the snake, grabbing it by the back of it's head and the tail.
"Is that thing yours?!" Geoff panics, getting even further away.
"Nope." I carefully walk outside, making sure to keep a firm hold on the snake.
"What do you mean NOPE?!" Geoff yells, watching from behind the counter. I quickly place the snake down on the edge of the woods next to my house and jump back. It hisses some but slithers away, not causing any problems. I go back inside and the boys look at me in shock.
"Did I not tell you that I planned on having a zoology career before taking up photography?"
"No, you definitely did not. How are you so calm right now?"
"I've dealt with worse snakes. Except those has two legs, two arms, and a cold dead heart." I say, opening the fridge to grab some juice.
"That's... that's really deep. Christ, Tori, who hurt you?" Geoff sits at the counter and I just shake my head.
"That's a topic for another day. Do you guys wanna order Chinese or something? I'm starving."
"Okay.. Yeah, sure." Awsten answers and sits at the counter. I grab a bottle of orange juice and sit on the other side of the counter. His face lights up.
"What? Do I have something in my hair or something?"
"You. Drink. HEB."
"Yeah..? Do you want some..?"
"Oh no. When's the wedding?" Otto says, sitting next to me.
"I'm confused."
"Awsten is fucking passionate about orange juice. Specifically HEB orange juice. You're now his favorite person because he hasn't had any since we left Houston." Geoff explains.
"Ohhh. Well here, help yourself." I pass him another bottle and he smiles, ripping off the top. I giggle some, opening the fridge door to show him that I have more.
"Oh my God I'm in love." He jokes, sipping some juice. I close the door, laughing.
××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××
"I want a divorce." Jack says, entering the living room followed by the rest of the boys.
"Jack I can explain-"
"Nope. Divorced." He pouts, running to his room, closing the door dramatically. I sigh.
"We got Chinese without him. He gets very butthurt over our Chinese date days." I explain to get Parx boys.
"Jack, love, come out. I've got something for youuuuu." I say from the other side of the door.
"Go away."
"I got your favorite."
"...chicken teriyaki with yumyum sauce?"
"Duh. Extra yumyum and carrots. The way you like it."
The door opened after a moment and he stood there, frowning with his arms crossing across his chest.
"Forgive me?" I hold up the take out box and he hesitates before nodding. He hugs me and takes the box, smiling.
"Divorced canceled!" I announce, laughing.
"Oh, yours in on the counter boys. Special order for Zack has the red tag and the vegetarian is the green tag for Rian. Alex, yours is the blue one for extra soy sauce."
"You're the best!" Alex grabs his box and plops down on one of the many beanbags scattered around the room.
"I know." I sit back down on the couch next to Awsten and we all continue to watch the ending of Despicable Me.
"Remind me why we are watching this?" Rian asks from the counter.
"Geoff loves minions." Awsten answers and Geoff sighs.
"I was tricked into this. I actually don't but it's a long running joke now so I have no choice." Geoff explains and Rian nods, laughing. The movie comes to an end and we all sigh in relief.
"What now?"