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Chapter 13

"I've got nothing," I told him. Ashton sighed out a deep sigh. I wasn't sure what to do, so I awkwardly patted his back. "I'm sorry, Ashton. I'm not good with presents."

Ashton turned his head so that he was looking at me. His eyes were sad and desperate. "You mean you don't have any experience with gift-giving? At all?"

I shrugged. "My parents did all the gift-giving to our external family members. My name was sort of plastered on the 'From' section."

Ashton sighed again. The desperation and sadness was radiating off of him, and I could feel it coming towards me.

"Listen, Ashton," I said, grabbing his attention, "I know absolutely nothing of gift-giving, much less of being in a relationship as strong and loving as yours with Michael. But I think I have the slightest amount of knowledge to tell you to don't try so hard. If there were top ten ultimate facts that were implanted in your brain at birth, 'Michael loves Ashton to the end of the universe' would be the very first one. He loves me you, mate—hell, you loves you a fucking lot. You don't need to try so hard to please him. Michael loves you, and you don't need to do anything to keep it that way. Stop thinking of the most amazing thing you can give him. Christmas will come, Ashton, and you will have a gift to give to Michael that came from the heart, and he will love it so much that your Christmas sex will last all the way to New Year's. Don't try hard. You'll come up with something special, and Michael will love whatever it is."

Ashton smiled. "Thanks, Luke."

I returned the smile. "It's my pleasure."

✘✘✘

Soon enough, it was Friday the 14th, the last day of school. At least, for this year. We were going to go on holiday for three weeks, and go back to school in January to start second semester. I was glad that the year was ending. I got a 76 out of 100 on my quiz, which was far better than my average of 40 out of a hundred. It brought up my grade just enough for me to pass the class with a 60.5%, and I was bouncing off the walls. I still had a chance of graduating.

Ever since last Sunday, I've been talking to Calum every single day, and at almost every hour of the day. I always sent him messages before I went to school. We talked before homeroom, during homeroom, during nutrition, during lunch—I even risked it and messaged him during Miss Malone's class, because all we did the past week was watch movies as she graded quizzes. I've been talking to Calum nonstop, and I couldn't be any happier.

At the same time, though, I didn't let him distract me. I knew very well that I was going to have to work my ass off over the next three weeks, and not just because I was afraid of Liz yelling at me again. I had a science fair project to do, and I was going to stop at nothing to get it done perfectly. I had the perfect hypothesis, too! I managed to mix music into behavioral science, and honestly, I was pretty excited for this project. It was always in the back of my mind, however, that it would've been much easier if I had started in September when it was assigned, but I thought it was okay. Three weeks, in my opinion, was enough to complete a science project. I had everything I needed. I was prepared, and nothing could stop me now.

I lied down on the floor in the middle of the night, staring up at my ceiling fan. "Should I, or should I not?" I wondered aloud. "I don't like to run, much less any physical activity besides swimming. Then again, it would look really good on the final result... I don't know."

hiiiii :-)

wait no

i shouldn't have messaged you

you better be asleep, lucas!

haha i'm not asleep

wHAT'RE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT?