Duplicity (Luke Hemmings AU)

Fifteen

Ashton ran a finger through his curly hair, smiling up at me as I finished my spiel about the lovely night I had with Luke. It was an unfortunate Monday and I was sporting the sleepy blues. There was no hiding the rings of purple under my eyes, or the small tangles in my hair. To keep it simple, I spent most of the night texting Luke about our biology homework, which we had both conveniently forgotten about until 11 pm Sunday night. But I had to admit, it felt good handing Mr. Noonan a research paper I knew was astronomically good. Fortunately, the entire class was assigned a lab on ecology, so chances were, we all had similar facts. I doubted Noonan would read it thoroughly enough to find out I had collaborated on my supposedly 'individual' assignment.

Needless to say, all of the excitement was literally over a paper about plants.

"You're in an uncharacteristically good mood today." I said, boring Ashton's over enthusiastic reaction to literally everything. My attempts to get him to explain his unusually affable mood were, up until this point, futile. However, he seemed to be more inclined to share with me after I reiterated my entire science-y conversation with Luke from last night.

"Just happy, 's all." He shrugged stretching his bare arms out. It was a wonder how he got away with bro tanks at school when girls could barely get away with in dress-code shorts. It was about time the school board let us wear tank tops too, it wasn't our fault if exposing our shoulders made it harder for guys to keep it in their pants.

"Why?" I asked. As upbeat as Ashton usually was, there had to be a reason behind his everlasting smile.

"Because." Ashton waved me off childishly. And to think he was almost two years older than me.

"Because why?" I pressed. After talking about myself, I felt it was important to learn more about others. Egocentrism was something I wanted to be as far away from as possible. The last thing anybody ought to be is a narcissist.

"Do you always have to know about everything?" Ashton sighed melodramatically, shaking out his curls that were beginning to become iconoclastic around here. Everyone wanted a head of hair like his. Unless said person preferred long hair.

"Yeah, I kind of do. If I didn't get any dirt from you I'd be living in ostracism." I answered, tucking my hands further into my hoodie. My fingertips were absolutely freezing. The school was either ten degrees too cold, or ten degrees too warm. There was no in between.

"What the heck is ostracism?"

"Social isolation." I answered like a pro. My opposition for using 'big words' was slowly fading away, so I decided it was time to utilize my larger vocabulary. Perhaps Luke would like it. Or maybe he would think I was weird.

"Oh. I answered 'like an ostrich' on that test." Ashton replied. I refrained from making a comment.

"So, did your quintessential loins necessary for the fertilization process ossify to amalgamate with the usually occluded but refulgent fruits of a significant other in yet another, but seemingly more rare, idyllic bliss?"

"Raelynn! That's not nice!" Ashton yelled, laughing in defeat. "I couldn't understand any of that."

"You probably could have, but you tuned out the minute I said 'quintessential. Haven't you taken the SAT twice?'" I smirked. "I asked you if you and Katherine got it, er, on."

"Oh. Well, not exactly. But she did let me take her out in public." He grinned widely.

"Like a friend thing, or a date thing?" I asked, hoping Ashton could be a little less vague and more detailed in his phrasing. He couldn't leave me hanging.

"Well, I'm not really sure. Like, she and I went out to dinner and everything and it was nice, but nothing happened. She didn't act coupley or anything. But she was actually kind of," he paused, "shy."