Duplicity (Luke Hemmings AU)

Seven

I had to admit eating lunch with Luke was the highlight of my week. Eating Chinese food and talking gave me the upmost joy, a simple feeling I had been missing out on the past few days. I would probably have diagnosed myself with mild depression if I hadn't had today. I felt like I was distancing myself from my friends, and although that bothered me, I couldn't be bothered with it. They were distancing themselves from me, too, in ways that I didn't know.

Everything was going great, until I remembered I had detention.

Cursing Luke under my breath had never felt as good as it did now.

"Ashton!" I yelled, seeing him pass me. He was rushing. I struggled to keep up with his long legs.

"Hey." He said dryly. His eyes lacked the usual happiness and sparkle they always carried. Guilt crept up in me. How could I not care? How could I let myself stray away from Ashton? It was mainly Katherine who I was having problems with, yet I took it out on Ash, the person who drove me to school when I couldn't get a ride or when I didn't feel like driving.

"I hope Katherine told you I left campus for lunch." I said quietly. I hoped he knew I would never ditch him.

"No, Raelynn, it's not that. Somebody spray painted my drum kit pink." He rested his forehead against his open palm. His curly hair almost looked lifeless. He must have been sweating. A lot.

"Ashton, I'm sure you can spray paint it back to black." I reassured him, patting his shoulder. Amy Winehouse started playing in my head on cue. You go back to her, and I go back to...black.

"I know that! I just-" he breathed heavily. "Somebody saw it and told people I'm gay. I'm not gay! That isn't me!" He yelled. The hallway was empty. No one but me heard him. I felt really bad for the guy.

"Of course you're not! We'll fix it, don't worry." I gave him a sad smile. By tomorrow, the whole school would know. You would think they'd understand Ashton loved boobs too much to be gay, but of course, people would assume the spray painting incident was intentional. Ashton's drum kit was in and out of the band hall, the band director rented it occasionally for percussion practice, since they didn't want to pay money for two drum kits.

"It's not fixable. Nobody will like me now." He sighed. No one ever liked me to begin with, but I could only image what it would feel like to be thrown away. "Would you tap that?" He pointed at himself, more specifically, his crotch. He already knew the answer to the question. Raelynn Littlefield was a world renown virgin to everything. No kisses, no loving, and certainly, no tapping.

"I don't 'tap' people, Ash," I winced, "but I'm sure plenty of people would." I offered, shrugging.

"Well obviously plenty of people would now! But what happens when they hear the gay rumors?" He groaned, tugging at his floppy hair. His bandana would fall out if he kept at it.

"You're talking to the wrong person. I don't know anything about rumors, or solving them. We need to find Katherine, she could fix your problem." I left out the part about me having to leave within two minutes.

"I don't really want to talk to Katherine about this." He mumbled.

"Do you want to tell her now, so we can fix it before the storm comes, or wait until after to explain yourself and hope she buys it?" I crossed my arms. He only told me because he had nothing to be embarrassed about with me. I was too socially inactive to comment. Katherine, on the other hand, actually had a social standard. I still never understood why she hung out with me.

"Fine." He rolled his eyes. I flicked him, he needed to stop doing that, just like Luke needed to stop chewing on his lip ring, and I needed to stop chewing at my nails.