Off Ones Rockers II • Lashton

Chapter Twenty-three

Chapter Twenty-three

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Ashton was running gel through his hair, to keep his curls firm and preventing them from falling in his face when the blonde walked through their bedroom door. Ashton scrunched up his face at the putrid smell of sick and the stains on the blonde's shirt but softened his features when recalling why Luke was here.

This wasn't sick from a hangover like most teenagers at Luke's age, it was from an eating disorder. "Oh Luke," he sighed, standing up wanting to comfort the boy.

Luke, however, did not acknowledge the older boy, his mind numb and vacant. He simply pulled off his t-shirt, dumping it in his laundry bin and throwing on another similar black one.

Ashton frowned at the boy's body. It was rare he saw Luke shirtless. Luke often went to the bathroom, changed when Ashton was elsewhere or shyly asked the curly-haired boy to turn around whilst he did so.

But, Ashton knew that it wasn't normal for someone so frail to be so bloated. "Luke, you should see someone about that," he suggested. "Does it hurt?"

Luke caught Ashton's eyes at he sat in the corner of his bed. "Just part of recovery they say, nothing that can be done."

Ashton smiled sadly. "Want to go get breakfast with me, I haven't gone yet. I woke up late, did you have your weigh-in this morning?" Sometimes it annoyed Luke how much Ashton could talk and how optimistic he could be, especially in the morning when he was still tired.

"I'm going back to sleep," he stated, letting his head resting on the pillow, and curling himself into a ball.

"Luke you need to go and have breakfast, and then you can sleep if you want," Alex said in between breaths, rushing into the room.

Ashton looked over at Alex who was red, and his shirt was slightly untucked as if he had been running. Luke completely blanked his therapist, just curling up tighter into a ball.

"Do you know about the bloating?" Ashton asked curiously but also with concern for his roommate, picking at his fingernails.

Alex nodded. "Yeah, there's not much we can do about it. Luke either you got to breakfast or I will get someone to escort you to Victoria's office."

Still not moving, the blonde laid still facing the wall, his eyes wide open the words going in one ear and out the other. Luke couldn't focus on anything. His mind was hopping from one thought to another, he didn't know what to do or think which only caused another abundance of tears to fall, followed by sobs.

Luke couldn't overcome the information he had learnt this morning, the number was a huge step for the blonde and he wasn't ready for it yet. The number, alongside the total number, made Luke indefinitely decide that he couldn't eat, that he had to lose weight again because he was even close to perfection anymore.

His skin felt foreign and wrong once again. He was aware of his body, and all the weight, and imagined fat, that was attached to it.

Alex leaned back against the wall. "Luke, we've talked about this. Gaining weight isn't a bad thing, it's essential for your recovery."

Hiccuping, Luke responded irritated that the man couldn't understand his mentality. "Well not all of us want to be fat, you might be okay with it by I'm not."

Both Alex and Ashton's eyes widened. They knew Luke could be stubborn, and often talk harshly of himself but never had he been cruel to someone else which only indicated that there was something not right with the blonde, possibly more so that before.