7 Minutes In Heaven // Lashton

Chapter 16

I've never thought doing homework could look so sexy.

Luke was sitting in the library after school, working on his AP Chemistry lab report. He didn't want to have to do it when he got home, so he decided to just stay after and finish it. Michael left, being that he didn't want to stay in the school any longer than he had to, so Luke was just sitting quietly by himself, doing his work and listening to his music.

Normally, the school library was closed right at 3:15, but since he was in good spirits with the old librarians and they liked him, they said that they could stay until 4:30 to finish his work. He thought it was sweet, being that he was considered one of their favorite students and it made him feel a sense of power since he was the only one he knew that they did that for.

There was a tap on his shoulder, nearly scaring him half to death. He pulled out his earbuds and went to turn around, expecting to see the librarian standing behind him but was instead greeted with Ashton. He got a confused scowl on his face, wondering why the hell Ashton was bothering him, let alone stepping foot in the library. Luke thought that was considered social suicide in the popularity world, hence why he wasn't considered popular.

"Um, can I help you? If you're looking for Mrs. Garfield, she's in the office," Luke told him, figuring that Ashton was returning a textbook or something.

"Who?" he asked, but shook his head. "Nevermind. I was actually looking for you and I found you."

"Me? Why?" Luke asked, coming out more rude than he intended, but whatever. It was Ashton. He didn't like him, so why should he care if he's rude to him?

"Because I needed to talk to you," he responded.

"How did you know I'd even be in here?" Luke asked. Ashton didn't know that Luke spent most of his free time during the day in the library. If he would've, Luke was sure that Ashton would've harassed him about it by now.

"I don't know. You're a nerd, so I put two and two together," he shrugged.

"Gee, thanks. I'm glad my label helped you locate me," Luke said, narrowing his eyes, turning and going back to working on his lab report. He didn't have time for Ashton to sit and insult him. He worked in silence for a few minutes, nearly forgetting that Ashton was even there. It was until he heard Ashton clear his throat that he turned his head towards him. "What are you still doing here? Can't you see that I'm trying to do my homework? Wait - sorry, I forgot that you don't know what homework looks like since you never do it."

Luke's words surprisingly somewhat hurt Ashton. Usually, Ashton would just shrug it off, but this time it kind of stung. But he wasn't about to let Luke know that, so he just rolled his eyes and pretended that it didn't bother him. He didn't like Luke, so why let his words hurt?

"I need to talk to you, like I said before," Ashton said, a little more sharply.

"About what? Whatever you want to talk about surely isn't that life altering and I'm pretty sure it can wait until some other time," Luke snapped. He didn't want to talk to Ashton if he could help it.

"Actually, I don't think it can. It's not going to make much of a difference what I say because I still hate you and you still hate me, but I think that it's for the better," Ashton started, causing Luke to roll his eyes. Ashton never did anything for the better, so Luke doubted that he'd start now.

"Fine. Since you're going to be annoying as fuck, spit out whatever it is that is so important so I can go back to finishing my homework, unlike you," Luke spat harshly. He was in a mood and it wasn't a very good one.

"I'm sorry I acted like an insane escaped mental patient when you came over to my house that day. I should've just heard you out instead of screaming at you and kicking you out. I know that you didn't mean any harm by it, but I just assumed you did and I didn't like what you were saying because I felt like you were trying to attack me. It was something that I didn't want to believe, so I decided to yell at you in order to convince myself that it wasn't and that was wrong because you didn't do anything except try to tell me something," Ashton apologize.

Luke sat in the chair, speechless. Ashton seemed rather sincere in his words and Luke found that to be quite different for Ashton. As long as Luke has known the boy, he's never heard him apologize or saw him as the apologizing type. He didn't know what to say.

"Luke...?" Ashton asked, trying to prompt the kid to say something so he didn't feel like a complete idiot.

"Um, it's okay. I mean, I didn't appreciate having you jump down my throat like you did, but I guess I don't completely blame you for doing that. I would've probably done the same, except not as ape-like. When somebody comes at you and tells you that they think that you're gay, you're not going to like it and it's going to upset you. I shouldn't have just come at you like I did. I should've approached it differently," Luke said finally, apologizing as well because he knew that he didn't approach Ashton in the right way and that wasn't smart of him.

"So...I guess, yeah. I'm sorry," Ashton responded awkwardly.

Luke smiled awkwardly. He never thought that Ashton would apologize for anything that he ever said to him, because the majority of it was rude just like Ashton. So this was kind of a step in the right direction for them. Not that the two would ever become friends, because they won't.

"I'm, um, going to go," Ashton said, feeling awkward because he didn't know what to do now.

"You don't have to. I mean, if you want to stay while I finish this, it isn't a big deal," Luke offered, wondering what the fuck he was doing right after he said it.

Ashton looked at Luke, not sure if he should take the kid's offer. Sure, he didn't really like him, but at the same time, he didn't think that hanging out with him for a little bit would be that bad. "Um, I guess. I wouldn't be bothering you, would I?"

"No, I'm almost done," Luke said with a small smile.

Ashton went to the chair next to him and sat down, putting his nearly empty backpack on the table. He had his English notebook in there, but he didn't want to do it because Luke was supposed to read it over tomorrow during class and Ashton was going to make a fool of himself because he gets frustrated with English most of the time.

"Are you okay?" Luke asked. "You look upset. I'm not forcing you to stay."

"No, I was just thinking..." Ashton trailed off.

"About?" Luke pressed.

"Um, English," Ashton said quietly.

"You were thinking about English? Why?" he asked as he quickly typed a sentence to conclude the paragraph.

"Because it's hard," Ashton admitted, feeling his cheeks heat up in embarrassment right after he admitted it.

"What we're doing isn't too hard. Do you want my help?" Luke offered, figuring why not.

"N-no, it's fine," Ashton stammered, feeling stupid. He always felt stupid around Luke. The boy was a fucking genius.

"Ashton, I'm offering to help you because you're struggling, but you're going to turn it down?" Luke asked, confused. He knew that if he was offered help, he wouldn't turn it down. He would accept it in a heartbeat.

"I just...I don't want it, okay?" Ashton said, trying not to raise his voice. He wasn't necessarily getting mad at Luke, he just didn't want to feel stupid.

"Okay, okay," Luke said, putting up his hands in defense.

----

About forty minutes later, the two boys were walking out of the school. Luke had finished his lab report and Ashton had worked on his English, despite not getting it. Both of them had to admit that hanging out with each other for that short period of time wasn't too bad. They seemed to get along, but at the same time they hated each other. It was a weird relationship.

"Do you want a ride home?" Ashton offered, figuring that Luke wasn't the type to have his own car.

"No, I have my junker over there," Luke smiled, gesturing to the beat up little car on the other side of the lot.

"Oh, okay," Ashton said, offering a small smile. "I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Yeah, see you tomorrow," Luke said, giving him a small wave. He started walking towards his car, but then turned around. "Oh, Ashton?"

"Yeah?" Ashton called, looking up from unlocking his door.

"Thanks for staying. It was...fun," Luke said.

"Yeah, I guess it was."

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