Hello, How May I Help You? | Lashton

Chapter 17

He. Is. So. Damn. Adorable. 

[Ashton's POV]

I waited inside my house, not sure if I should start walking or if I should text Michael to see if he was still going to pick me up. He had called into work last night, claiming he was sick, but I had a feeling that it was because of me that he didn't show up. But when we would usually get in an argument, it wouldn't last that long and we were back to being friends the next day. 

"Hello, my darling. What are you still doing here?" mum asked as she came into the kitchen. "Where is your period colored hair friend?" 

"I don't know..." I trailed. For the most part, I told my mother everything. But I just didn't want to go into details on this one. I never really discussed guys with her and I didn't want to tell her that was the reason Michael and I got in an argument, even though he didn't know that.

"What happened between you two? Two days ago, you were almost lovers," mum said to me, making me quirk my eyebrow at her. "What? You guys have that best friend relationship where people question his sexuality."

"I'm pretty sure he's straight, mum," I responded to her. 

"Anyway, what's going on?" she wondered. 

"We got in an argument. It's not that big of deal," I shrugged, not wanting her to press on about it, but I knew that she would. 

"You two never get in arguments. I know for sure that it's a big deal, mister," she said. "What was it about?" 

"Nothing. It was meaningless, mum. Just forget about it," I told her, kind of getting an edge to my voice. 

She was then quiet and I fought the urge to smile to myself. Finally, she was going to listen to me and not press for details like she usually would. But before anything, I turned to look at her and saw that she was on the phone. With Michael.

"Hello, my third son," she said into the phone with a big smile on her face. I was ready to tackle her to the ground right then and there. "Would you care to inform a loving mother as to why her son and might-as-well-be-my-son are fighting? Ashton is acting like a little priss and won't tell me after I casually asked him why he wasn't obsessing over you."

"Mum! Get off the damn phone right now!" I hissed. 

Michael must have been telling her because her smile faltered and she had gotten a confused expression on her face as she looked at me. "Well. I can tell you right now that there is something going on in his little soft hair covered head. I will ask and try to get it out of him, but you're going to be my partner in crime." She put her hand over the mouth of the phone and looked at me. "Is there anything else that you need from him?"

"A damn ride," I scoffed, not thinking that she heard me.

"He would also like to know if you're still picking him up this rainy morning," she asked, earning a quick glare from me. Sometimes, I wanted to punch her. "Great. He'll be waiting. Goodbye, my son!" 

She set her phone on the counter and then looked at me with a confused expression. "What's going on? Michael told me his side and he wants to know if you're okay."

"I'm fine, mum. Don't worry about it." 

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The ride to school was rather awkward because of what all was happening with the three of us. Luke and Michael seemed to be getting along as if nothing was happening. I was trying to make it awkward. I just didn't know what to say because I knew that Luke was angry at me about the kiss. We needed to talk, but I couldn't just tell him that I had a crush on him. What if he didn't like me at all? I would make a complete ass of myself. Not that it would be the first time.

I twiddled my thumbs as we pulled into the parking lot, wanting to make a run for it, but at the same time, I didn't want to look like a prick and ditch them again. 

The three of us started walking towards the school, Michael and Luke chatting away and leaving me out of it as the third wheel. It was probably how Luke felt with Michael and I, so I guess it was karma. I started walking a bit faster, wanting to just get away from them because I knew that they weren't going to talk to me anyway. I would rather be by myself instead of being treated like the third friend that nobody ever gives two shits about.

As I got into our locker bay, someone grabbed the sleeve of my jacket. I turned around to see that it was just Michael. "What do you want?" 

"Ashton, we need to talk," he said simply. 

"Not now! We have class in a few minutes," I protested. 

"You're going to choose some boring ass class over whether you lose your best friend or not? Made up my mind," Michael snorted, going to turn around and walk away until I stopped him.

"Fine. I'll talk to you," I huffed. 

Michael nodded towards the stairs and started walking towards it. I reluctantly followed, not really wanting to get into this now, but it's better now than never. The two of us went underneath the stairs where nobody could see us. It was the only stairwell that was open underneath. The school filled the rest up because they were more open then this one and too many teachers were catching students doing the frickle frackle under there. 

I stood under the stairs and looked into Michael's green eyes. His stare was intense and it was obvious that he had a lot to talk about, but he just didn't know how to put it into words. 

"I know, Ashton," he finally said. I felt my eyes widen. Dammit, Luke. I knew that he couldn't keep his mouth shut. "I know about Luke. That's why you were over at his house yesterday morning, wasn't it?" 

"Y-yeah, but I was only trying to help him, Michael," I said, quickly jumping to defense.

"I know. But is that why you were acting weird? Because you weren't sure how to react?" he continued.

"I guess...I'm sorry that I took it out on you. You know that I'm not very good when it comes to hiding things, especially like that. I want to forget the fact that I kissed him, but I just can't because I like that kid," I admitted.

"It's - WAIT. What?! You kissed him?! What the actual fuck, Ash!?" Michael asked, nearly dying. "You kissed Luke?! Why?! Did he want you to?!"

"Wait, what did he tell you? He didn't tell you about the kiss?" I asked.

"No! He just told me that he was gay!" he told me and I instantly started blushing in embarrassment. Instead of getting paranoid about Luke telling him, I should've been paranoid about myself. "That explains so much. Did he ask you to kiss him?"

"Well, no...I was just trying to help him because he told me that he wasn't sure, so I couldn't think of any other way other than to kiss him. That's how you find out, right? Right?!" I rambled.

"There's more than one way to go about it! You do know that he probably wasn't ready for that, right? And you do realize that he probably doesn't have the same feelings for you like you do him, right?!"

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