"Dani, where were you on Saturday?" Brooke asked. She shoved Luke's hand away from her slice of pizza that he had been trying to get at and brought it to her mouth, taking a bite.
"Saturday?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, we all hung out." Brooke said, referring to her, Luke and Calum. "We tried calling you but you never answered."
"I forgot my phone at home." I blurted out, remembering now that Saturday was the day I had spent with Ashton and his friend Michael. It's not that I didn't want to tell Brooke about it, but I was afraid of how she would react when she found out that I blew her off for Ashton.
"Oookay, but where did you go?" Brooke smiled sweetly at me. Clearly she wasn't going to leave me alone about this, I may as well just tell them.
"You told us on Friday that you would be free to hang out then. We went to the mall." Luke frowned, like he was disappointed I wasn't able to make it. I had completely forgotten about making previous plans with them, I didn't even recall being busy earlier in the day on Saturday, before Ashton showed up on my doorstep.
"I was an awkward third wheel!" Calum pouted.
"I'm sorry, guys. I totally forgot." I apologized, even though I really didn't mean it. I had more fun with Ashton than I probably would have with my actual friends.
"Where did you go?" Brooke asked.
I sighed. "I hung out with Ashton, actually."
"Ashton? The one in my gym class?" Calum asked.
"Are there any other Ashton's?" I retorted. Calum seemed a bit dumb sometimes, I felt that if I was left alone with him I would want to tear his head off because of his stupidity.
"There's this Freshman - "
"She wasn't looking for an actual answer, Cal." Luke cut him off. He gently pat Calum on the back, almost as if he was assuring him that he wasn't as stupid as we all thought he was.
"What do you mean you hung out with Ashton?" A sly smile appeared on Brooke's lips, as she already knew too much about the relationship between Ashton and I.
"We just . . . went out." I said quietly. I wasn't ready to spill every little detail out to them, that wouldn't be right. I liked the idea of Ashton sharing things with me that he didn't share with anyone else. Telling my friends about it would ruin this whole thing.
"On a date?" Luke leaned forward. This was the first time Ashton had been brought up and Luke wasn't being weird about it. He actually seemed interested this time, instead of upset.
"No, it wasn't a date. His friend was there." I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back in my chair. Suddenly I didn't want to discuss this anymore. I didn't like the feeling of my friends interrogating me over this day out with Ashton.
"He has a friend?" Brooke gasped.
"Uh, yeah. He's a year younger than us, though. Ashton's dead girlfriend's brother." I said bluntly. There was no point in hiding any of this now.
"Michael Clifford?" Calum asked.
"How did you even know that?" I rolled my eyes. I placed my head in my hands, at this point I was completely done with Calum.
"Oh, well I knew that Ashton's girlfriend was Michael's sister." Calum shrugged. "That junior that I was dating told me once because they had to do some science project and - anyway."
"You dated a junior?" Luke turned to Calum.
"Yeah, Kayla Sanders." Calum answered, looking proud of himself.
