Bad News | Punk Michael Clifford

fifteen

"Alyx?" Luke looked slightly confused as I stood at his door.

"Hey, Luke. I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to snap at you. I was just frustrated." I apologized.

"No, it's okay. I overreacted. I guess I should have been more clear last night. But it's not that big of a deal." Luke shook it off.

The next few moments were filled with silence. Neither of us knew what to say. We just stood in the open doorway looking everywhere but at each other, or so it seemed.

Finally, I was the first to speak. "Can I come in?" I asked. All I really wanted to do was to cuddle with Luke.

"Um, yeah, sure. My mum's not here, but I don't think she would mind." Luke stepped back away from the door, gesturing for me to enter.

Luke and I walked to the familiar living room, the one that we had sat in when we were first forced to socialize with each other.

"Do you wanna watch some tv or something?" Luke asked.

"Yeah, sure." I replied, flopping down on the couch.

Luke grabbed the remote and sat down next to me. He flipped mindlessly through the channels, searching for something interesting to watch. As he did this, I inched myself closer to him and eventually rested my head on his shoulder. He seemed surprised at first at my sudden closeness but adjusted quickly by putting his arm around me and pulling me closer.

We sat comfortably in that position for a while until a slamming door startled us both.

"LUKE!" A thick Australian voice called out.

"IN HERE!" Luke called back. He obviously knew who it was that had just burst into his house.

"Hey, Luke, I was wonder-" He cut off when he noticed another person sitting in the room. "I didn't know you had company..." The boy trailed off for a minute before a realization hit him. "Wait...you're that girl from the store! Alyx, right?"

I nodded in reply as I remembered my encounter with Ashton.

"You guys know each other?" Luke looked really confused.

"Kinda...well, not really...he helped me get a box of cereal down from a shelf at the grocery store." I explained briefly. That was pretty much the extent of my knowledge of Ashton.

"How do you know each other?" It was pretty obvious that they were friends already, but I asked anyways.

"We're best mates!" Ashton let out a loud giggle, and I could help but laugh back. His laughter was contagious.

After our laughter died down, Ashton squeezed himself on the couch between Luke and I. I was sad for the separation, but I tried not to let it show.

The three of us sat in silence for while. It wasn't uncomfortable; it was actually quite relaxing.

Sometime later Ashton received a text message. "Hey, guys wanna go to a party tonight?"

"Yeah, sure. You up for it, Alyx?" Luke leaned over Ashton to look at me.

I had never been to a party before. It wasn't really my thing back home. But since I was starting pretty much a new life, I decided to go.

"Why not?" I smiled and Ashton cheered. I decided that I was going to like Ashton. But only as a friend. He was so full of life, and I could tell that he was probably the life of the party.

-

Two hours laters I was walking into a large, mansion-like house in a short, tight black dress with loosely curled hair and my old converse shoes. I knew that they didn't really go with the dress, but I could care less. They were comfortable, and I didn't wear heels. They were too painful.