shadows - lashton

Chapter 1

*Ashton's P.O.V*

My gaze remained fixed on him until I felt an elbow digging in just beneath my rib cage, and I let out a small yelp.

"Stop staring Ash," Michael sighed as I rolled my eyes at my best friend, massaging my side. "He sits by himself for a reason, leave him alone."

"But what is that reason?" I asked, raising my eyebrows slightly. "I just don't understand it. He had everything, the entire school at his feet. Then he suddenly just decides to isolate himself and not talk to anyone, what could possible explain that?"

Michael dismissed me with a flick of his wrist, continuing to munch on his soggy, homemade cheese sandwich. We had this conversation almost every day, talking about him just like everyone else in the room probably was.

Luke Hemmings had once been the king of the school. Blue eyes, blond hair and a personality you couldn't help but adore, I couldn't have named a single person capable of finding a flaw in him. He was just so unlike the others, his aura always devoid of cheap perfume or alcohol.

No, Luke saw anyone and everyone as his friend. Never once did his face lack a grin, and he wouldn't ignore you if you attempted to start a conversation. So many times before had I tried to do just that, but whenever I grew close enough to make out his features I would panic and walk on past, my eyes fixed on the floor.

But then one day everything changed. Luke walked through the school gates as a completely different person, as though something had cracked inside of him. Overnight, he had dyed his once blond hair a staggering black, and his eyes were presumably matching coloured contact lenses. No longer were they filled with joy and hope, just - nothing.

Luke wore the ripped skinny jeans which had become his signature outfit of recent, and a thick, black leather jacket hung securely over his shoulders. He had pierced his lower lip, fiddling with the shiny metal ring that was now there using his teeth.

His sudden altered appearance was important, but not crucial. That was the first day of many to come that Luke chose to sit at the empty lunch table, and was rude or simply ignored anyone who tried to communicate with him.

Nobody could explain the transformation that had undergone in him, but most suspected he would soon return to his normal self. Weeks passed and nothing had changed, so gradually but surely, people began to give up on him. Over such a short period of time, Luke Hemmings went from the most to least popular person in the entire school.

Before that day, it had always been me subject to the finger pointing and name calling. I had Michael there for reassurance, that not everyone had a dislike for me and I could always rely on him to be a good friend. But very few bother to make fun of me anymore, when Luke has no friends at all.

Part of my fascination in him was likely to be sympathy, for so long I had been in his position, and it was unbelievable how quickly the tables had turned. It always made me wonder if there had been something about the way he was before that triggered a reaction leading to this point. I doubted that there was anyone he had ever been particularly close with, he always had friends but perhaps not one he held a little closer to his heart than the others.

There was just so much about him I found simply riveting. Every lunch time without fail he would arrive and take his seat on the small table by the window, and remain there until the school bell would signal the next period. He would never eat, just look at things. At people.

"Dude, c'mon," Michael muttered, a slight hint of frustration evident in his voice, but he laughed in order to disguise it. "You're probably freaking him out."

But I wasn't sure I cared. However crazy it sounded, Luke had become a fundamental part of my day. We never spoke, never made eye contact, he probably wouldn't even know who I was, but there was just something about him that made me want to change all of that.

Of course I had to be careful, the story of little Charlie Taylor was more fact than myth now. His determination had once driven him to Luke's table, where he struggled to amuse the lone boy. A week later and he failed to turn up to registration on time. In truth, he failed to turn up at all.

Rumours promptly began to circulate, most settling on the idea that his family had moved away. But there was always a small shadow of doubt lingering in everyone's mind, that maybe his involvement with Luke was the root cause of his sudden disappearance.

It wasn't that I didn't trust Luke, it was just that I didn't fully understand the new him.

I didn't know what he was capable of, but I was certainly willing to find out.

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A/n: I hope this was okay! xx