The Dead and The Blind [Lashton]

Day 539

((OH NO. OH NOOOOO. YESTERDAY WAS A DOUBLE UPDATE AND I FORGOT TO POST THE FIRST ONE. THIS CHAPTER COMES BEFORE THE LAST. I'M GOING TO UNPUBLISH AND REPUBLISH THAT ONE.

I'm sorry kiddos I'm a MESS))

((So I don't know Ashton's mom's name. I'm a fake fan. It's Anne now.

-Mel))

Luke knocks on the door twice and waits patiently, rocking on his heels with his hands clasped behind his back. Calum fumbles with the plate of cookies in his hands while Michael curses at him. The two of them had made them that morning while Ashton's family was at work and school.

Luke wishes he could eat cookies again.

There's some pounding behind the door before Ashton's mom pulls it open, looking flustered. She eyes the three of them curiously, but use just beams, as do Michael and Calum from his sides.

"Can I help you?" She asks. Luke doesn't remember her name.

"We're your new neighbors!" Luke enthuses, gesturing vaguely down the street to reference their supposed house. "I'm Luke, this is Calum, and that's Michael!"

"Hi," the other two echo.

Ashton's mom looks thrilled, Luke almost feels bad for lying to her. "Oh, nice to meet you! I'm Anne! You boys look a little young to be living on your own."

"I'm 17, I just graduated," Luke nods enthusiastically, then gestures to Calum. "He's 17-" Calum coughs obnoxiously. "-I mean 18, and so is Michael. We're just hanging out for a bit before we go to uni next year!"

"Oh, wonderful, my son is your age!" She says, all too happily, and Luke smiles again. "I'll go grab him so you can meet him. Come in, please!"

Luke steps in and Michael and Calum follow, Calum hands off the plate of cookies with a proud smile, like he hadn't ripped off the plate and the cookie recipe from her. "Here, we made these earlier and thought you'd like some!"

"We have a plate just like this," Anne laughs and Calum grins smugly, flicking his eyes over to Michael. Michael grabs his hand while Anne hurries away and Luke looks around curiously. He doesn't get downstairs much, though he really should since he was killed down here. It makes him shudder a bit, so he turns back to Michael and Calum.

"This fucking itches," Michael tugs on the hem of the black turtleneck they'd stolen from Ashton's closet, letting the collar snap back against his neck a second later.

"Well, next time don't kill yourself so your scars are so obvious, stupid," Calum pulls his free hand up and flicks his forehead, making Michael's lip drop in a pout. Luke sighs at them and glances around again.

"Next time, don't kill yourself at all," Luke mutters under his breath, but Calum and Michael pretend not to hear him. There's a large rug on the floor, right over where Luke was shot. The sight of it makes the healed over scars littering his skin itch.

When Anne comes fluttering back into the room, Luke says, "I like this rug, it reminds me of one my mom used to have."

She waves a small hand at it distantly. "There was a nasty stain on the floor, we had to cover it with something." Calum shoots Luke a pointed look, but quickly turns back to the door when he hears dog tags. "Now, I might as well mention," Anne adds gently. "Ashton is blind."

"We know," Luke nods, just as Ashton steps a foot into the room and instantly freezes. Ralph bumbles up behind him and knocks into his legs in confusion. "I came over to introduce myself yesterday, but Ashton was the only one home."

"Ah," she reaches for Ashton and gently pulls him further into the room. Calum and Michael look thrilled when they notice Ralph isn't wearing her do not pet vest.

"Can we pet?" Calum asks eagerly.

Anne nods and snaps for Ralph, then points to the two of them so she trots over happily. Meanwhile, Anne tries to pat down Ashton's loose curls, only to get slapped away with a scowl.

"Uh, yeah," Luke says awkwardly. "Hi, Ashton. Sorry for yesterday, I was an idiot. Sorry. We brought cookies to make up for it. Nice to see you again."

Anne hands him a cookie and Ashton mutters, "Wish I could say the same." The blunt words startle a laugh out of Michael, who generally appreciates crude humor, which makes Ashton crack a smile as he takes a bite of his cookie. "These are good. They kind of taste like the kind my aunt use to make. I think we have the recipe somewhere, but it's not like I'm going to find it."

"Oh my god," Michael giggles as he pets at Ralph's thick fur. Calum has the decency to look guilty about stealing the recipe, but just shrugs hopelessly when Luke looks at him.

"Why didn't you send your nice friend over yesterday?" Ashton turns to Luke in his fancy sunglasses. "At least he's not an asshole and he laughs at my jokes."

"Ashton!" his mother sounds scandalized, but Ashton just shrugs weakly and reaches up to tug a hand through his caramel colored curls.

Michael, however, glances up with a nod and his fingers buried in Ralph's fur. "That's true, I'm not an asshole. Most of the time, I mean."

"Yeah, see," Ashton gestures in his direction while still facing Luke. Calum, unfortunately, has a possessive sort of protection over both Michael and Luke and instantly grabs Michael's wrist to shoot him a glare. Michael shakes him off easily and continues petting the big dog.

The air shifts and it starts to get awkward, so Luke quickly says, "We actually have to get going- dinner parties and all that jazz, but it was nice meeting you both. Let us know if you ever need anything, we're right down the street. Green house."

Luke reminds himself to keep a close eye on Ashton and Anne whenever they leave the house, from now on. If they look like they're actually going to go to the green house, he'll stop them outside.

"Great!" Anne enthuses as she smiles a nice, award winning smile again and reaches forward to shake Luke's hand. "It's nice to see some people Ashton's age are in the neighborhood. He doesn't have many friends."

"Oh my god," Ashton runs his hand down his cheek in exasperation, then rubs at the bridge of his nose under his sunglasses. When they slip up, Luke catches sight of his pretty pale eyes and has to stop his breath from hitching. He's a ghost, he doesn't even breathe, so he's not sure why it's caught in his throat from a glimpse of Ashton's eyes. Calum notices, the intuitive little fucker, and smiles knowingly up at him.

"Sorry, sweetie," Ashton's mom smiles sadly at him and pets at his hair, only to get slapped away again. He clicks his tongue and Ralph pulls away from Calum and Michael instantly to trot over, despite the tiny distressed noise Michael makes when the dog leaves.

"Whatever," Ashton mutters as he follows the sound of Ralph's jingling tags, presumably back up to his room.

Anne sighs and smiles apologetically at Luke. "He doesn't make a lot of friends. No one wants to help out the blind kid, you know?"

"Yeah," Luke sighs. He wasn't bullied or anything in school, he tended to just stick to the edges and avoid being noticed, but he watched both Michael and Calum go through it. Calum ended up killing himself and, at one point, the only people Michael was willing to talk to were the two dead boys hanging out in his room. Luke watches as they both glance at each other and quirk an eyebrow. He glances back to Anne and says, "We understand. Really, let us know if you or Ashton ever need anything."

Calum nods vigorously. "Yeah, really." She thanks them again as they hurry out the front door. They walk down the sidewalk in front of the house until they get to the property line and vanish into thin air.

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