outlines ✰ l.h.

chapter two

"Ugh, he was so hot." My head fell into my hands as I went on, again, about Luke to Ashton who was sat right in front of me.

It was Friday night and we were sitting at the coffee shop that was attached to a book store. We had just purchased 3 inch thick books to help study for our tests we'd be sending into colleges and planned on using our time wisely, but instead it fell through as we thought it was.

"What was he even in ISS for?" He shook his head, pushing his fallen hair out of his eyes.

"Mrs. Anderson caught him smoking on campus." I told him as I watched him lean back in his seat.

"That's disgusting." He scrunched his nose up at the fact, pulling his phone from his pocket and scrolling through it.

I sighed, "I know, right?" He raised an eyebrow at me, peering up at me from his phone.

"Ands, you smoke." He said. I frowned at the nickname he had called me which had caught on with the rest of my friends, then went back to the subject.

"He smokes and chances are, he's an asshole." I stuck out my bottom lip as I fidgeted with my hands. "But God, Ashton, the lip ring and he has such nice hair and-"

"Why don't you talk to him then?" He interrupted, sitting back up in his seat and scooting in closer to the table.

"Because our school is overpopulated and I can't find the kid anywhere." I groaned. He rubbed the back of his neck, obviously deepening his thought on my problem.

"Well, his name is Luke, right?" He asked. I nodded slowly, waiting for him to continue.

"What's his last name?" He furrowed his eyebrows at me as I rested my elbows on my table.

"Hemmings." I told him. Ashton tugged on his lip with his finger, trying to get any progress on this. I sighed again, sliding the book I had just bought towards me.

"I know him from somewhere, I swear to you."

"Maybe we can-"

"Calum!" He suddenly said, practically jumping out of his seat. "Calum was telling me about Michael Clifford switching into his English class." He explained.

Michael Clifford was probably the most bad ass kid at our school. And by bad ass we mean the one who gets in the most trouble. And him being a senior got him a free pass to get out of any actual trouble though. He was able to kiss ass and sweet talk while he got the whole school to do the same to him. His jeans were always ripped and I don't think I'd ever seen him wear any other color than black, or really anything dark, and he always carried around a lighter in his pocket. Always.

"What does Michael Clifford have anything to do with this?" I shook my head at him, rubbing a hand over my forehead.

"Luke and Michael are friends." He added, leaving me confused.

"I thought Michael hated anyone that was an underclassmen?" I scanned around the near empty coffee shop, becoming oddly curious of our surroundings. As if even saying Michael's name would make him appear.

"Technically, we're upperclassmen. And apparently not." He shrugged. "It looks like Luke has more perks to him than just his face." He smirked, nudging my arm.

"I'm so conflicted." I whined, lowering my head back into my hands again. "Sometimes it sounds like he could easily break our necks, but then when I talked to him it seemed like he'd enjoy playing with a litter of month old puppies." I said, earning a laugh from Ashton.

"Don't laugh." I whined again. If there was anyone worse to come to with my boy problems, it would be Ashton. Since I didn't exactly have them in the first place since I haven't been throwing myself out there like most of our class and the fact that Ashton couldn't keep a relationship longer than two months, it was a bad mix.