Let's be Cliché || Lashton

Green Lights

"Luke, there hasn't been a drive thru let alone civilization in the passed half hour." Ashton mumbled, tongue still feeling a little sour from the way his brain was thinking of Luke.

Luke couldn't even explain the full story to Ashton without pausing mid sentence to frown deeply, the tanned boy would have to wait it out and ask when Luke sobered up. Despite being the only one who hadn't drank, Ashton could feel a headache coming on. The chances that he'd be able to live it out in peace were slim, Calum had decided maybe three minutes ago that he is going to be the next big pop star and proceeded to start singing his heart out.

Michael, being the oh so supportive boyfriend he is, quietly attempted to smother the boy with a jacket before Ashton took it away. Calum was entirely unphased by the ordeal and continued to sing Marianas Trench at the top of his lungs.

"That's okay, I'm feeling sleepy anyway." Luke gave a closed mouth smile that made him look even more adorable with his eyes dropped from tiredness. It didn't take long for Luke to entirely pass out, the lull of wheels traveling on asphalt had him almost immediately.

Ashton was careful to avoid potholes as best as he could without swerving out of his lane, the road was practically barren to the point where Ashton wanted to question whether or not they'd fucked up entirely and ended up on one of those dead end country roads.

"You know he didn't mean to right?" Calum's obnoxious singing creased suddenly and his subtle question was whispered directly in Ashton's ear.

"How could he not mean to kiss someone?" Ashton muttered, grip tightening on the steering wheel as he thought it over.

"Well he sure as hell wasn't kissing the guy back." Calum said in a tone that suggested he thought Ashton was dumb for not knowing, naive even.

"How am I supposed to know?" Ashton was grumbling now, not exactly thrilled to be trapped in a conversation like this. He ran a hand through his hair in an attempt to settle down a little, he felt uneasy in the driver's seat suddenly like he could possibly be doing something that could upset someone.

"Ashton, Luke was crying when I called you. He felt absolutely horrible about something that he didn't have any control of," Calum confessed, finally sitting in the backseat properly after so long of leaning forward.

In the mirror Ashton could see Michael bobbing his head enthusiastically along with Calum's words, "Luke actually thought the guy was going to steal you away from him, he went through a lot of trouble to keep you two apart. The guy's name is Rory and Luke had no interest in him whatsoever, he was pretty much avoiding Rory the entire party, Rory just took him by surprise."

"Luke really really likes you." Calum assured, nodding his head like a bobble head. Him and Michael became caught up in their own world without much trouble after that, Ashton had to strain his ears to hear the two giggling boys.

They were planning their wedding.

In hushed voices, Michael would make some absurd suggestion about whatever to make Calum giggle and then his smile would grow into a full blown grin with a fond look in his eyes and Ashton had to look back at the road to avoid the jealousy crawling up his throat.

"Your eyes remind me of the stars." Michael whispered to Calum as the two shifted even closer, heads ducked towards each other so they could hear one another clearly. Calum blushed and asked why and Michael could only shrug as he pinched his boyfriend's cheek only to receive a groan of annoyance.

"I'm legitimately going to throw up," Ashton said with his voice raised a few octaves so the boys would hear him and hopefully shut up.

×

The morning was crawling closer with little success in finding out where they were, the other boys were currently dead to the world and Ashton knew he would have to deal with extremely hungover teenagers in a bit.

Maybe not in a bit, the sun was just beginning to crawl over the horizon at a snail's pace. The sun began painting the sky different shades of pink and orange, sometimes a stripe of deep red would catch his attention.

Today seemed like it would be pretty average, and for once Ashton was betting on it. Some kind of lazy day if you would, he was excited for some kind of normalcy.

Luke woke up then, skull feeling like it'd splinter right down the middle at any moment. At first he was confused by his surroundings, last thing he remembered was Ashton showing up at the party and not being able to find his lighter.

He was in the passenger seat of a car as far as he could tell, out his window still had hints of the night but as soon as he looked to his left the sunrise blinded him. It took a long time before his eyes adjusted enough to see Ashton's silhouette and by that time the latter realized he was awake.

"Good morning!" Ashton smiled, hair outlined by the sun and thankfully blocking most of the blinding light.

"Not so loud," Luke groaned immediately, hand going up to rub his temple subconsciously. He looked severely tired, hair half floppy and half up in his uniform quiff, it still looked strikingly good on him like he purposely styled his hair to look like a controlled mess.

Despite his sour mood, Luke still managed a small content smile as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "Morning."

"There's a proper greeting," Ashton teased, keeping his eyes on the road, he'd made a full one eighty hours ago when he realized they were probably going in the opposite direction.

"Luke," Ashton began, pausing to gauge the blond's reaction. The time he used indicated that he was about to be very serious about whatever topic. "The two idiots in the backseat told me what happened..."

Luke groaned, not knowing what the two idiots could have possibly told him.

"It's not your fault." Ashton stated, feeling like that was the only thing that needed to be said but something else followed his words up. "Besides, we're not even dating."

Ashton and Luke looked at each other for a long moment and both of them could feel the underlying pain to that sentence. Sure, neither of them had made it official but both felt like it was a real thing.

Ashton came to a stop when the traffic light turned yellow, the crossroad was completely empty but he wanted to say something else that might make things right, he didn't feel like his words had reassured the other boy.

Instead, he just took one hand off his steering wheel and grabbed Luke's. The blond removed his gaze from out the window and glanced down at their hands. It was a simple gesture, but Luke couldn't help but smile and Ashton was happy to see his dimple.

The tanned boy just examined the boy he was holding hands with for a long time, taking in the paleness of his skin and the way he used his tongue to move his lip ring, the small details. He already knew Luke's mannerisms but it was always pleasing to watch them. Luke did this thing when they held hands that every few minutes his other hand would play with Ashton's fingers, at times Ashton thought it was merely a subconscious action.

"The light's green," Luke mumbled, the tips of his ears reddening as he spotted Ashton staring at him.

"No way, the light should still be re--" Ashton paused, seeing that the light was in fact green. Odd to see that the light switched between just green and yellow. There was an empty socket where red should be.

"Looks like we can only keep going," Luke joked, Ashton rolled his eyes are the loser next to him.

"Yeah, I guess so. Hey Luke?"

"Hm?"

"Can I kick Rory's ass?"