Let's be Cliché || Lashton

And We All Fall Down

A/N: Well fuck, I was gonna wait until after my exams to update but I couldn't help myself. Nearly 4000 words for your viewing pleasure.

Also, someone nominated Let's Be Cliché for eight awards?? Eight?? Different?? Awards?

I don't know if I ever mentioned it in an author's note but we made it to the top 6 stories in four different awards and won first in the Humorous category during the summer Lashton awards, which is absolutely outrageous and I didn't think we would make it this far. And here we are again.

Sorry for being gone for such a long time.

"Lucas!" Ashton's mum greeted with a smile, coming down a row of chairs with her arms open. Luke stood up from his chair and engulfed the smaller lady in a hug.

"I haven't seen you in ages, Dear." She continued as she sat comfortably in the seat next to Luke, he noticed that neither Rory or Owen were tailing her so he could only assume that they'd split.

Luke gave her a weak smile, "Yeah, Ashton has been studying really hard for exams and I ended up on vacation for a while before I came back for the tests."

She gave him a sad smile in return. She looked like she wanted to tell him something, something she'd wanted to spit out for a while but the music began playing and a silence fell over the crowd.

"Good Afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen. Tonight we are honoured to present this year's Graduating Class." The principal paused, and the music rose up in the silence and was followed by the thumping of approaching footsteps. A group of teenagers spilled in through the main door to the auditorium, organized in deep green robes and caps but somehow still disorganized. They all sat down in a section and looked up to the stage as everyone else followed. A sea of graduation caps and nervous smiles.

"I know what you're thinking, I'm not going to bore you with a speech about your future or their education. That's the valedictorian's job. This year I'd like to present our valedictorian, Michael Clifford." The principal scurried away from the podium and Luke wondered how much he knew about the principal actually knew about this year's graduating class.

The parents of the graduates searched the sea of emerald clad students, waiting for someone to stand up. They were looking for a faceless Michael.

"Hey dudes, my name is Michael and I'm this year's val." Michael greeted, managing to make it on stage without gaining much attention. It wasn't very hard for him to get up there considering he wasn't even in the graduating class.

"You're all probably confused by now, expecting a Sophie or Tyler to start this ceremony with a heartfelt speech and then receive like eight awards for being perfect--I'm here, not because I got my friend to totally rig the votes for me." Michael paused, and Luke shot his fist up in the air and shouted an I love you! into the silence that brought on a bit of laughter.

"I'm here because one of my other very dear friends is graduating tonight and I don't want him to look back at this day and think about how long and boring Sophie's speech was. I wrote a speech for tonight, believe it or not, I know I don't look like the type. I actually dressed up for this occasion." Michael flattened his dark grey tie against his untucked white button down, the chains pierced into the tie clacked and the mic managed to pick up the noise and Michael smiled awkwardly at the crowd.

"I'm not a graduate in case you're a bit behind, I'm just a overbearing friend that wanted to make the night a little more special for him." He wet his lips before he continued.

"I actually think tonight is the most special night one can have at a school after being here for four years, you get to celebrate the fact that you survived four long years of stress and paperwork, and you've done it with adequate grades. Let's just applaud that small accomplishment."