The Mess {Muke}

Thirty-Six

"So Luke," James said as he opened the cell door. "I'm going to take you home now. Come on, we can use the sirens if you want." I shook my head, I never wanted to get home faster than I had to. I followed James outside and I got into the car with him.

"Are you going to be alright, Luke?" James asked. "I'm not going to lie, I'm kind of concerned with sending you home. If something's the matter, you should say so." I shook my head slowly. "Well, I talked to your boss last night. I went up to the hospital where Michael was."

"Am I fired?" I asked.

"No, she was really worried about you." James said. "I didn't know you were one of the kids who got locked in the freezer, but it was you and Michael. I remembered seeing you sitting on the curb alone, Samantha told me when I talked to her last night that you and your parents very seldom interact."

"It's true." I shrugged.

"She told me to tell you that she doesn't like what you did," James said. "But she appreciates the fact that you care about Michael so much."

"Mhm."

"Do you want to go see him?" James asked. "You might feel better if you do."

"We argued when I saw him last," I replied.

"That's exactly why you should go and see him." James said. "You don't want something like that on your conscious for a long time. Maybe you want to see Ashton too while you're there."

"I'm getting a feeling that I don't have a choice." I said, I could hear James chuckle, if only he knew I was not joking. Either way, he drove up to the hospital, and I walked through the doors. James walked up to the desk and spoke to the women before dragging me down the hallway.

I walked to a room and James entered first. "Is it alright if we come in?" I heard the reply of a yes and we walked inside, I could feel my body start to shake when I saw Ashton's mother glare at me.

"What is he doing here?" She scoffed as she gestured towards me.

"Now, now, Mrs. Irwin." James said. "Relax, I brought Luke here, can we talk out in the hallway?"

"And leave my son in here with him?" Ashton's mother asked. "Absolutely not!"

"I have a few questions," James said. "I'm just trying to put some things together."

Mrs. Irwin looked at me and let out a sigh. "Alright. Two minutes." She stood up and left me in a room with Ashton, his eyes were locked on me but I could never meet his glance.

"So, Luke's a convict now, huh?" Ashton asked. I raised my eyes to him and almost winced at how damaged his face looked, but he was smiling. "Don't worry, I am one hundred percent sure I deserved this. But I didn't deserve the choking, okay?"

"S-Sorry.." I mumbled.

"You were right though, I shouldn't have said what I did to Michael, I didn't think he would actually try.." I could hear Ashton swallow hard. "Is he okay?"

"I think so." I replied.

"You can stop looking so guilty." Ashton shook his head slowly. "I don't think you did anything wrong, and I'm sorry for what I said, but I don't want to end up losing you because of something I did."

"I beat the hell out of you and you're acting like that's fine." I said, ultimately confused. "That makes about zero sense to me."

"I could never hate you for anything." Ashton said. "I guess..I was just jealous."

"Jealous of what?" I asked.

"Because you and Michael got along better than anything we had. You never opened up to me the way you did with him. You could see it your faces, that you knew each other inside out. I didn't know you the way Michael does, and that made me angry." Ashton said. "You never came to me, but you always would with Michael. When you needed someone, you went to Michael. And he went to you. I was sick of seeing it, I guess."

"Why didn't you just say something?" I asked. "We could have avoided so much turmoil."

"I know, it was stupid." Ashton sighed. "I'm sorry Luke."

"I guess you don't have to apologize, you should see your face." I said.

"Yeah well, how was jail for a night?" Ashton asked.

"Peaceful." I replied. "But I wasn't in an actual prison, so I don't intend on going there."

"You know," Ashton said. "They let me see Michael and I'm pretty sure he's still here, you should consider going and talking to him." I began to shake my head but Ashton continued you. "Luke, he could never simply turn away from you. You are legitimately his everything, whether you see it or not."

"Twenty-four hours ago you were telling him that I didn't care about him and he didn't care about me." I scoffed. "Why do you see so set on making things right?"

"Because if I ruined everything and didn't try to put even a little bit of it back together than I would have regretted everything." Ashton said. "At least this way, I have faith that I won't die guilty."

Mrs. Irwin entered the room with James and he began to tug on my arm. I could hear Ashton's mother chewing him out for what he had done to Michael, and ultimately knew that she was not as peeved at me as she once was. But I could not understand where the forgiveness was coming from, I did wrong and I knew it. But only I saw it that way?

"We can go see Michael now." James said. We walked down a hallway, and I could see Samantha sitting outside the room, I wondered why she always sat outside the room and never inside of it. Either way when she saw me she ran over to me and hugged me, I froze in my spot though.

"Oh Luke," Samantha said. "My little jailbird."

"S-Samantha, please." I mumbled and pushed her away from me.

"Michael is in there if you want to talk to him," Samantha said. "But Luke, I wanted to talk to you for a second." She looked to James and he excused himself.

"I'll be outside waiting for you, Luke." James said as he began to walk down the hallway.

"I have to send Michael somewhere where he can get help," Samantha said. "I don't know what to do with him. I just want you to know this. You have to understand this." I nodded my head. "You don't seem really upset about it like I was expecting." I gave a shrug. Samantha's eyes softened at me. "Luke, are you alright? You're not acting like your normal self, I expected you to rebuttal it."

"Well clearly I can't take care of him." I said quietly. "I can barely take care of myself."

"Do you think that you would be okay with Michael gone?" Samantha asked.

"It's not about me," I replied.

"But Luke, I care about you and I want to make sure you're alright too." Samantha said. "You look so fogged over, right now. What happened?" I looked away from Samantha and never answered her. "Why don't you go and talk to Michael?" I walked around Samantha and into the room, Ava and Calum were sitting in the room and they each hugged me but I never moved.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Ava asked and I could tell entirely she was crying. "Getting sent to jail!" I rolled my eyes and heard Calum chuckle about it but ignored both of them.

"We'll leave you two alone, come on, Ava." Calum said and the two walked out of the room. I turned to see Michael, he was sitting in normal clothing now and was on top of the blankets with his legs crossed. Every time he looked at me, I looked away and whenever I looked at him, he looked away.

I could feel my hands shaking as I folded my arms. "Are your hands okay?" Michael asked and I looked at my hands, they were still wrapped and I could feel my eyes pricking with tears. "Luke?"

"I-I'm sorry.." I whispered, shaking my head. I went to turn and leave the room but Michael leaned forward, grabbing my wrist and pulling me down onto the bed with him.

"What's the matter? Why are you crying?" Michael asked. Michael's arms wrapped around my waist as he pulled me closer to me. I said nothing and barely reacted to anything, let the tears silently slip out.

AUTHOR'S NOTIFICATION; Ariana

Guys, guys, guys. I finally figured out to finish this book. It took me, thirty five chapters but I figured it out.

Also I'm releasing a new Muke tomorrow so watch out for it.

Hugs, Kisses, Cuddles and Serenades xX