Sad [Lashton AU]

Chapter 2

Ashton's face at the end of the gif.

Luke is going to top in this, yet I've made him the cute shy guy. I'm not really sure how that's going to work.

"Ashton," Luke groans.

I'm not even fully awake yet, so I just respond with a tired hum.

"Ashton, I can't sleep."

"Why's that?" I mumble.

"I had a nightmare." His voice sounds broken, and I sigh and sit up, running a hand through my curls.

I used to get nightmares all the time, after what happened to me. I still get them, but not as much, and they aren't as vivid as they used to be.

I remember everything that happened quite clearly, and I can remember how scared I was, but I ignore the memories as best I can, which helps suppress the nightmares.

"What about?" I ask.

"Why I'm here. What happened to me."

I know better than to ask him what happened to him, so I just say, "I'm not good with making people feel better, Luke. Just, go to sleep, and, if you wake up again, tell me and you can come sleep down here with me."

"Okay," he mumbles.

-

"What's that noise?" Luke asks, coming down the small set of stairs leading from his bed to the floor.

I roll my eyes and sigh, standing from my bed.

"That annoying, loud wailing is the signal of a therapy meeting," I explain. "We have them once a week, on random days and at random times."

"Why?"

I stare at him blankly. "Mate, we're basically metal patients. Therefore, we have to go to therapy. Now, come on."

"I don't wanna," he whispers, hiding, yet again, behind sweater paws.

"It's not a choice of if you want to go or not. It's mandatory. And, I skipped breakfast for you." This morning, I didn't go down to breakfast, because Luke didn't want to go down there with all those people again, but he didn't want me to leave, either.

"But-"

"I'm not going to wait for you. You can either come with me now, go alone, or stay here and then have your ass dragged to therapy by Mrs. Lenolia, and that would be super embarrassing." I shrug. "Your choice."

"I hate you," he mumbles as he walks past me.

Since we're at the end of the hallway, he has nowhere to go but right, and it's amusing to watch him figure out which way to go. He keeps glancing back at me, but he won't ask for directions.

By now, everyone has already gone to the therapy room, so there's no one for Luke to follow.

I lean against the railing of the staircase and look at him with a smirk on my face.

"Luke," I say after watching him look around with furrowed eyebrows. "Come on, it's this way."

He follows me down the stairs and to a room two doors to the right of the dining room.

He stands close to me as I open the door, revealing seventeen chairs placed in a circle, all of them filled by teens except for two right next to each other.

"Is this like The Fault in Our Stars?" he whispers so only I can hear him, and I chuckle as I walk in and sit on one of the chairs.

"I guess," I reply.