Thick and Thin [l. hemmings]

seventy-seven

"How many times do we have to tell you we're so happy for you? He hurt you, not us. If you've forgiven him, we've forgiven him. It's not any of our lives, it's yours. If you have any other thoughts like this moving forward, it's a you issue. It's something you've internalized and have to work with."

Ashton's right, part of me in the back of my mind thinks that somewhere I have an issue with myself. I plan to go back to therapy though, and I know I'm going to work on it. Because as I've said, I want to marry Luke again. I've always loved him, and want to be with him forever. But when I'm reminded of when I said I would never put myself through this again, it makes me feel like I'm betraying myself. But like I said, I'm working though it.

"Are you okay?" Ashton asks, interrupting my thoughts.

Smiling at him, I sigh, "Yeah, I just... I fucking love Luke. I don't know what to say."

"I'm literally so happy for you, Kelsey. You really deserve to be happy with him." Ashton smiles, kissing the top of my head.

"Anyway, I think we should go out. With the roommates. To a bar or something." I tell him, suggesting someplace I know they'd all enjoy. I'm doing really well being around drunk people and not even thinking about taking a sip of alcohol.

"Yes!" Ashton exclaims, jumping out of bed.

"Kyle!" I yell, as I hear him walking in the hall outside my room.

He opens the door, a confused look on his face, "Yes?"

"We're all going out to a bar!" Ashton exclaims.

"Oh. I'm about to go out with Calum and Luke. We can all go, though. Hurry up and get ready."

"You stupid bitches never invite me!" Ashton whines, following Kyle out of my room.

"I literally asked you and you said maybe. That's your fault for forgetting." Kyle replies, closing my door behind him so I could get ready.

-

"Babe!" Luke smiles, when we all meet him and Calum at the bar. Both him and Cal didn't realize we were all joining them tonight.

Luke quickly kisses my lips, before we all head to a table for us to all sit.

Everybody has started drinking before arriving at our location, so they're already all pretty drunk. A round of shots Calum ordered arrives at our table making them all cheer.

As the night goes on, everybody continues to get more and more drunk. I'm honestly not hating it, I find it fun now, to be surrounded by a bunch of drunk idiots. It's the having to take care of them when they're sick tomorrow morning that's annoying.

Throughout the night, everybody is drinking, dancing and socializing. They're all so entertaining, I can't help but enjoy myself even though I'm nowhere near their level of wild.

When a girl I was closer with in a lot of my classes comes over to say hi, I stand up from the table so that I can have a conversation with her. I stay by my chair though, simply because I still want to keep an eye on my friends. Well, the ones who are still sitting at the table at least.

As I'm speaking with her, I can still hear the conversation happening at our table.

"Luke! L-Luke." Ashton slurs.

Luke giggles, "What?"

Looking over at them, overhearing some of their drunken actions, makes me giggle and shake my head at them.

I go back to my conversation, until I hear Ashton say something that makes me want to kill him.

"Did you know Kelsey wants to marry you?"

Quickly, I excuse myself from my current conversation, saying a quick goodbye so I could go scream at Ashton.

Luke doesn't seem to have words for what he just heard. So I just grab a shot off the table, bringing it to his lips and tilt his head back, to force him to take it before telling him to go find Calum.

After taking the shot he makes a face, "Wait-"

"Nope!" I exclaim, pushing him along.

Luke listens to me, wandering off to find Calum. I sit in the chair he was just in, reaching across the table and slapping Ashton across the face.

"Kelsey!" Ashton and Kyle both yell.

"Did none of you hear what this idiot just said?" I exclaim, embarrassed by what Ashton told Luke, and also by my sudden outburst just now.

"You're going to get us kicked out for assaulting him!" Kyle groans, rolling his eyes.

"Ashton just told my boyfriend I want to marry him! I'm perfectly fine getting kicked out because I'm going to kill him!"

"What did I do?" Ashton slurs, his face red from either anger or the alcohol. It's hard to tell.

"You told Luke about our conversation! I swear to god, you better hope Luke has blacked out. If he remembers this tomorrow I'm going to lose it."

"You- you said you were going to t- talk to him about it, he'd know eventually!" Ashton replies, trying his best to form a proper sentence. Getting slapped seems to have helped sober him up.

"But he would've heard it from me! Not you two drunk as fuck just casually talking about it."

"I found Calum!" Luke proudly announces, sitting back down at the table.

Calum waves, sitting down at the table as well.

"Hey, baby. I'm going home. Have fun." I tell Luke, patting him on the shoulder as I stand up and head towards the door.

"What?"

I don't reply, I just call for an Uber as I approach the door of the bar. There's just no point in me hanging around here. I'm annoyed with Ashton and I don't want to face Luke. Tomorrow morning is when I'll have discussions with whoever I need to.

For now, I'm just going to sleep and pretend this never happened.

_______________________

hi this was wild I hope u liked it tho idk

also hope the new book covers are ok!!!!!

thank u for reading this!!!