"Babe it's time to get up."

"No, five more minutes." The brunette groaned. He turned over, accidently smacking his taller friend in the face.

"Grace could you give us a couple of minutes please?" Geoff whispered, shielding his eyes with his hand.

"Oops. Sorry Geoff, didn't know you were here." Grace apologised to the pile of hair and cushions. She moved off the bed and left the room, shutting the door behind her with a soft click.

Geoff opened one blue eye and sat up with a moan. His head fucking killed. Swinging both legs out, he searched for his jeans that had been previously discarded.

"Otto get up."

"Piss off."

"I will hit you. Get your ass up."

"Dude leave me alone!" Otto growled. "Ow! Why did you hit me?"

Geoff shrugged and dropped the pillow. "Get your ass up." Otto threw the pillow back at him and rolled to the end of the bed, unceremoniously flopping off the edge.

"Well done." The taller boy yawned. "I'm using your shower first."

"No!" Otto whined. "It's my shower. Why would you do this to me?"

"You snooze you lose."

-

Warm air erupted out the end of a metal cylinder, blowing straight at Geoff's face. He squeezed his eyes shut and positioned the dryer approximately where his hair was.

For ten minutes he just stood drying his hair with eyes closed and one hand on his hip. Finally satisfied with how his hair felt, Geoff switched the dryer off and combed his hair.

Otto emerged from the bathroom with a single damp towel hanging loosely from his hips. Water dripped from the ends of his hair onto the already soggy carpet.

He saw Geoff struggling to use his straighteners and rolled his eyes. "Aha! Thought you could defeat me, bitch you thought. You ain't got shit on me." Geoff yelled in triumph as he finally figured out how to switch them on.

"You need help." The younger muttered. "And you need to put clothes on." Geoff counteracted. He grabbed the metal tongs and clamped it around chunks of hair, pulling it down slowly.

With clothes in hand, Otto disappeared back into the bathroom leaving Geoff to his own devices.

Twice Geoff almost burned his scalp but burnt his finger once. A string of profanities slipped from his lips yet he carried on. Beauty is pain and there's beauty in everything.

Otto walked back into his bedroom to find Geoff still on the floor, in front of the mirror, cursing at the burning metal in his hand.

"Dude your hair is straighter than you, let's go."

Blue eyes glared at Otto but he sighed and turned them off. Geoff put them down on a heatproof mat and unplugged the straighteners.

"Where's my bag?" Geoff asked looking around wildly. Otto cleared his throat and held out his hand. "Not that you're gonna use it."

With a grateful smile, Geoff took the heavy bag and placed it on his shoulder. The two friends clattered down the stairs where Grace was waiting patiently.

As soon as Otto reached the bottom subconciously entwined his fingers through Grace's as if her hand was made of metal and his were a magnet.

Otto yelled a quick goodbye to his Mom and the three embarked on their journey to Hell.

"So why were you at Otto's?" Grace asked once they were out in the blistering heat. The blonde slipped her sunglasses on and Geoff followed suit. Otto searched for his, a panicked look on his face.

Grace passed him his glasses that lived in her bag so he wouldn't lose them. Otto smiled and kissed her. Momentarily Geoff forgot what Grace asked him until she repeated the question.

"Hmm? Oh right. I went out last night and didn't wanna go to Jawn's 'cause I knew he would wake me up way too early, so Otter let me crash at his."

Otto pouted at the nickname and Geoff ruffled his hair lovingly. The smaller brunette growled and narrowed his eyes, ducking his head.

"We have music first and we have that new kid in our group." Otto reminded Geoff, causing him to roll his eyes and smack his face with his palm.

Out the corner of his eyes, Geoff saw the mark on his scarred wrist. He hoped to see the blue boy that day and hopefully speak to him. Geoff didn't dare tell Otto about it but Grace knew. She knew everything and she promised to say nothing.

That's another reason why Geoff loved Grace. She didn't ask questions and could be trusted with anything. Otto had himself a keeper.

-

He wasn't ready. His palms were sweaty, knees weak, arms were heavy. He couldn't breathe, couldn't think.

There he was. Blue haired, wide eyed and a tentative smile placed on his clear skinned face. His name, Geoff knew his name. Awsten. It was Awsten. His name was Awsten.

"Geoff!" The brunette tore his gaze away from the angel and looked over to his small group of friends. Well by small group, he meant two people.

Jawn and Otto. The two people that never failed to make him smile...or wake him up.

"Hey guys." He slipped into his seat beside them and sighed. Then it clicked. "Jawn, why are you here?"

"Media class is boring as shit, Grace is ill and Travis moved to History." Jawn explained while Otto looked crestfallen beside him.

"Wait, she's ill?" Geoff asked, "how? We were with her this morning."

"She got weirdly sick in form and went straight home." Jawn explained, concern filling his expression.

"I can feel her. She's in pain." Otto whispered. Geoff couldn't sympathise but he could be supportive. He knew Grace wasn't in serious pain, she was probably just sick; Otto could feel everything she felt.

"Yo are you gonna talk to that kid or not?" The red haired boy asked nodding towards Awsten -who was situated at the front of the class- the perfect target for Patty, Ben and Andy.

"Nah, not now. Maybe later." Geoff shrugged, placing his feet on the graffitied table and leaning back, teetering on two legs of his chair.

"But here's your soulmate, Geoff, you have to speak to him at some point. He might not realise it." Otto surprised everyone by speaking up. Geoff was the most surprised.

"What? How did you know?"

"Because I've seen your mark, I'm not blind Geoff."

Geoff sighed and looked at the strange new boy. "Ok fine, you have to come with me though. He's in this band now."

Otto nodded slowly and stood up, dragging his feet as he walked over to Awsten.

Awsten was startled by someone clearing their throat above his head. He looked up to be meeted with two kind brown eyes.

"Umm...hi?" The blue boy asked nervously. "Hi. I'm Otto." The brown boy smiled. "I'm in your group along with Geoff over there." He pointed to someone behind Awsten.

Awsten turned around and noticed the same boy that bumped into him the day before. He had the same blue eyes with the same sad look. His eyes held sorrow and a hidden pain but his face showed curiosity and boredom.

"Geoff get over here! He doesn't bite." Otto called, desperate to get the two to talk.

Reluctantly, Geoff removed his legs from the table and stood up. He took his time walking over which infuriated Awsten greatly.

"Hey." Geoff greeted Awsten with a small wave. "Hi." Awsten's tone was short and final.

Otto tried his hardest not to roll his eyes and smack the back of Geoff's head. He attempted to make eye contact with his friend which was seemingly impossible as Geoff and Awsten were locked in an intense staring competition.

"Ok we should probably get started." Otto finally interrupted. Awsten broke eye contact and nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, good idea. What instrument do you play?"

"Drums and Geoff here plays guitar and sings to some extent. What about yourself?" The smaller brunette asked, genuinely curious. Geoff was a decent singer but his attention was more on his guitar playing than lyrics.

"I sing and play guitar. Well, I say I do. It's probably really bad but by my standards it seems ok."

Awsten scanned the room until he saw the guitars and his breathing hitched. There were so many!

At home he had one acoustic, which was his own, and an electric he shared with Gracie. Here, he had a whole range. Well not the best range obviously as school was cheap, but he had more than he had at home.

"Ok cool! Are you any good at writing lyrics?"

"Yeah, I have a few songs already..." Awsten trailed off. He noticed that somewhere along the conversation Geoff had drifted away towards the guitars and was sat in the corner, playing a few soft riffs Awsten couldn't quite hear.

"...Awsten? Awsten?" Otto snapped his fingers in front of the youngers face. "You still with me?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah. Uh I have a book in my bag with some shit in it. You can have a read through if you want." Awsten said although he wasn't paying full attention.

With skill he opened his bag and searched for the book without removing his eyes from the enticing brunette in the corner.

"Ugh where is it?"

"Why don't you try actually looking for it?" Otto suggested helpfully. The blue boy nodded and looked into the dark depths of his bag, a place no one wanted to go.

However through the volumes of books, mountains of scrunched and paper and random pieces of plastic, Awsten found more than a notebook.

Something glowing. Something blue and green.

"Ciara." He whispered. Finally he had proof that she was the one.

Simply meant to be.

"She's the one. Otto, she's the one! Ciara is my soulmate! Finally I knew it!" Awsten couldn't contain the overwhelming joy and relief he felt inside.

He was too caught up in screaming that Ciara was the one to see Otto's shocked expression and Geoff drop the guitar and run out the room.