Sex Education • Ashton Irwin

twenty - biology is sexy

I stab my fork into the single piece of broccoli left alone in my plate, feeling as if the piece of broccoli was potentially Ashton's face and all I wanted to do was keep poking at the piece until it completely fell apart.

Ashton hadn't spoken to me all day at school, in fact he did at one point - he asked me to borrow a pen because he had accidentally thrown his out of the window on the third floor. I had way too much to worry about with school and exams to be wasting every second of the day wondering what Ashton's up to right now and if he's thinking about me almost as much as I do about him. I thought that things were finally going in my favour and then something had to ruin it.

I know Ashton's not entirely to blame for all of this - I probably didn't help the whole situation. I wasn't trying to stress him out with those rules, although the fact that I had wrote rules for a relationship probably doesn't sound too healthy anyway. It's just that I'd had to go through so much to get to where we were and I didn't want anything to mess it up. I guess by trying to prevent the relationship crumbling, I just made this worse.

I continue to jab at the small green vegetable in the centre of my plate, swirling the piece around until the bits on top began to flake off. My mom and dad look across the table to me confused, giving each other a glare.

"Lacey, whatever did that piece of broccoli do to you?" My mom questions with furrowed eyebrows.

I whimper, "It broke my heart."

My dad lets out a sigh, before dropping his fork onto the table with a loud bang and turns to my mom. "You see, Mary, I told you that she shouldn't leave the house," My dad states. "This is where socializing gets her."

Whilst my parents continue to bicker about how I shouldn't interact with people (although I do quite agree), the doorbell rings. I rip out my fork from the centre of the broccoli, placing the fork down on the table before dragging myself over to the door. I had no idea who would be turning up at our doorstep at seven in the evening, but I guess it was an escape from the chaos around the dinner table.

Family dinners never seemed to go to plan. In fact, every family dinner seems to turn out a disaster. I've seen everything round that dinner table - from my mom punching a hole in the wall, my dad spilling wine down my grandmother's skirt and my younger brother jumping onto the table, stuffing his face with cheesecake and yelling that he's the cake monster. Ha, life sucks.

I pull open the front door, not quite managing to make out who it was by the shadow through the glass window. 

"Luke," I gasp, wearily looking at the tall boy stood in front of me. "What are you doing here?"

 Luke's teeth fiddle with his lip ring, effortlessly making himself look attractive. I was glad that around school things didn't seem to be awkward with Luke and I, in fact the short smiles from across the classroom seemed to be assuring enough that there was no problem. Besides, Luke called things off between us in the first place - he knew as well as I did that it just wasn't meant to happen between us.

"I called up the guys and they said they were all out tonight," Luke explains, shoving his hands into his pockets to comfort himself from the cold. "So I figured that we could hang out, right?"

I look at Luke nervously, a little apprehensive about his offer. Although, it wasn't a hard choice to decide between hanging out with Luke or spending the evening watching crappy soap operas with my parents. Perhaps getting out for a little while was exactly what I needed to distract myself from the millions of questions about Ashtion. Luke and I got along pretty well too, so a little adventure wouldn't do anyone harm.

I smile at Luke, before nodding slowly. "I'll just grab my coat."

Luke nods awkwardly as I turn around to grab my coat off the hook. "And I'll just wait here and watch you...grab your coat."