Colored Bracelets (Lashton)

9. Clearly Under His Control

Once he was back on the house's main floor he could hear shouting from the basement about the body shots, which made him walk down the second staircase quicker because he didn't want to miss it. He couldn't believe that he was already acting so much more confident.

His eyes found Luke right away. For some reason that confidence he just had went away as soon as his eyes locked with Luke's, the owner of those blue eyes was now nodding him over to come and join him.

Ashton's hands slowly curled into half-open fists at his sides. His own eyes narrowed their focus onto one single path, not raising to meet with anyone else. He wasn't quite ready for all of the trading like he really wanted to be. Just like at school, he wasn't ready for all other pairs of eyes to be on him. He needed more bracelets first. Luke had put out there that he was quite giving so Ashton could rely on his mentor for more.

Luke smiled at him when he stopped next to him, his arm draping over his shoulders and a small chuckle leaving his lips when Ashton's body had to stiffen underneath him before relaxing.

"You're just in time." Luke told him, his tongue licking over his lips. "I'm guessing since you're here that you're ready to play some more?"

Ashton nodded his head as Luke's arm dropped from being around his shoulders. He couldn't help but glance over at one of his empty shoulders as his body was feeling overwhelmed with that feeling of absence that seemed to haunt him still.

"Great. Have you ever done one of these before?" Luke asked him, turning his head to look over at Ashton.

"N-no." Ashton said, ready to let his head look down to the floor in shame with flushed cheeks.

"Hey," Luke gently nudged at Ashton's side with his arm, "it's okay. You're learning and I promised you I would help you along the way. We'll stand back and watch the first few then."

He nodded again in agreement with Luke and let his eyes look over to the paddle ball table, where a girl was laying on top of it, propping her upper body up by her elbows while she grinned at the boy who was getting cheers from his friends as he stepped up to the table. He was rubbing his hands together as a third person was explaining how he was going to take the shot, pouring liquor into the girl's navel.

Ashton noticed that neither of them traded off bracelets with one another.

"Ash!" Michael had joined him and Luke, placing his chin on Ashton's shoulder, his face appearing between Luke and Ashton's. "You gonna do a few?" He smiled, looking at Ashton and then over to Luke.

Ashton started his reply off with a silent nod before saying the actual words quietly to Michael.

"Thank God!" Michael said loudly with a matching sigh of relief. Then he turned his head to place a kiss onto Luke's cheek. "You've got one with a lot of potential this time, mate. We might have to celebrate later on." He chuckled lightly.

Luke motioned over to where the paddle ball table was. "Isn't this all celebration enough?"

Michael shook his head. "Nonsense. You've done a good deed and good deeds get rewarded. How does a little orange time sound?"

Ashton couldn't help but to hear the conversation between the two and he wanted to know which one the orange one was. Michael made it easy to listen because he talked about the bracelets so freely and cheerfully.

Luke just shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe. I'm gonna be with Ashton for the remainder of the trading." Luke nodded over to Ashton and Ashton suddenly felt a heated sweat wash over him.

Michael gave Luke a fake pout. "Fine. We have all the time in the world to go orange." His hand then ruffled through Ashton's hair. "Lucky for you, I don't mind sharing Luke."