Project Ugly// l.h au

3.4// Mileage

"Community college for me, until I really figure out what I want to do," Cal sighed.

"Hey me too!" Autumn beamed, "I'm just trying to save money for now though, I want to study psychology."

"Alright enough of you smart people, I actually got a job at the tattoo parlor near Luke's work," Michael grinned.

Ashton patted him on the back showing his approval, "Why haven't you told anyone this? How long have you known?"

"I was just kind of waiting until we were all together or something, I wanted to tell everyone at once I guess."

Ashton nodded, "Well if you all must know, I've been networking and using my charming personality to get in touch with people that can help me work for record labels."

Melody raised an eyebrow, "Go on then, how'd it work out for you?"

"Well, I'm working for this up and coming record label so I think everything went just fine!"

It was Michael's turn to ask Ash why he hadn't told anyone about his job, "You hypocrite! You didn't tell anyone about your job either!"

Ashton scratched the back of his neck, "I didn't want to jinx it or something."

"Well congrats curly," Nikki teased Ashton, she was always making comments about how long his hair had gotten and how he really needed to cut it but he never listened to her. "I'm going to cosmetology school!"

Melody and Autumn already knew about this, since this had been Nikki's plan for the past four years. She had always been interested in hair and makeup, so beauty school was perfect for her. "And now the moment we've all been waiting for, Melody and Luke what are you two doing?" Calum asked.

Melody looked at Luke, who nodded at her to go first. Better to rip the band-aid off quick and fast than draw it out longer than necessary. "So I kind of have to pick between some schools, but I'm leaning towards the University of Hawaii."

It was dead silent, and Luke was pretty sure his heart had completely dropped into his stomach. His girlfriend was going to be on an island hundreds of miles away from him. Melody broke the silence with a little giggle, "Guys, I'm kidding. I'm not leaving any of you, I'm sorry."

"I literally just almost cried, you horrible person!" Autumn scolded Melody. Luke on the other hand was still recovering from thinking he wouldn't be able to see his girlfriend for months.

"Ok but seriously I think I'm going to school that's half an hour away from here, so you'll all still have to put up with me," she clarified. The reason she hadn't really talked about where she was going to school with Luke was because she wasn't sure about where she wanted to go yet, but she knew it was going to be somewhere local so she didn't think it was that big of a deal. 

Luke had to clear his throat before he spoke, mostly because his nerves were still all over the place because of Mel, "I'm taking a year off, and then seeing what happens because I'm eighteen and I don't know what I want to do for the rest of my life yet." 

Nikki clapped, "Well there's that everyone, we're all going to be adults after graduation!"

Melody snorted, "I wouldn't go that far, Nik."

Melody surely was not ready to do real adult things, and neither was anyone else really. College was going to be that buffer time between high school and being a real functioning member of society, which was pretty terrifying, but also something to look forward to. Luke kissed the side of Mel's forehead, in return she rested her head on his shoulder.

"I really thought you were going to Hawaii," Luke confessed.

"I don't have the money for that," she laughed, "and I'd be way too homesick."