The Bet (Lashton)

Chapter 10

The cafeteria.

It was usually Luke's least favorite place to be—hundreds of hungry, teenage kids hardly being supervised, what could go wrong?

Luke sat in his usual spot in the back, eating a sandwich when someone stood in front of his booth.

"Hey, Lukey. Want to come sit with me and my friends today?" The familiar voice of Ashton greeted cheerfully.

Luke looked up in shock. Sure, Ashton had been nice to him in private, and they'd gone and hung out together—alone. But to allow Luke the honor to sit with the Popular Kids at lunch...that was a big deal.

"Uhm..."

"Ah, you don't have to," Ashton said quickly. "But I'd really like it if you would, then all my friends could be together, it would be great!"

There was that word, the one that sealed the deal for him. To have someone refer to him as a friend meant so much—it was actually all he'd ever wanted.

"Yeah, uh, okay." He packed up his things, shoving the half sandwich he hadn't finished into the brown bag and slipping it into his backpack before following a grinning Ashton to a part of the cafeteria he'd never been to.

"Hey, guys. Luke's gonna sit with us today," Ashton announced, walking over to his spot at the head of the table. He guided Luke, a hand on his shoulder over to his end, pushing him into the seat next to him. Ashton always sat the the head of the table so he could see everyone and observe His School.

Luke couldn't look at anyone else's face, he was too nervous. Maybe Ashton considered the two of them friends, but he wasn't sure about how the other kids felt about him. They'd bullied him too, although they were only following Ashton's lead.

"Hey, Luke, how's it going mate?" Michael asked. Ashton was at the head of the table, with Luke on his right and Michael was across from him, smiling slightly.

Luke nodded at him, not really feeling comfortable to speak.

Ashton started talking with his friends, casually eating the pizza sticks the school was serving for the day. It was kind of a lot for Luke to be here. Ashton was talking to someone two seats down, Michael was listening to that conversation while texting someone on his phone, the person Luke didn't know at the other end of the table was walking around from conversation to conversation. It was a chaotic mess and he wasn't sure how to handle it.

"Luke, are you ready for that Spanish test?" A pretty girl Luke recognized from class said to him.

He nodded, he'd spent the last two days studying for it. Languages were hard for him, but he was determined to graduate with all A's despite what had been happening to him his entire school career.

"Cool, do you think you could like, help me with this?" She asked, setting a worksheet in front of him.

He nodded and she came over near him. She leaned over the table in between him and the person on his right. Calum was seated next to him, and Ashton nodded to the curly haired boy.

"Cal, switch seats with Ava."

"What? Why?" he protested.

"She needs to sit with Luke to study,"

"But Ash--"

Ashton cut him off with a stern look and Calum huffed, taking his lunch tray and pushing it down the table to his new spot.

Luke was quickly learning that what Ashton said went, and no one was able to say anything against it.

Luke helped her with the irregular verb translations, speaking very quietly and only when necessary. She was very nice and he was glad to have another person to maybe talk to.

"Oh my god, you like One Direction?" she squealed, looking at Luke's phone case that sat on the table. His brother had ordered that for him one year for Christmas. It was a picture of the boys with the lyrics to one of their songs in a pretty cursive.

"Yeah," Luke admitted.

"Same! What's your favorite song? Who's your favorite member?" She questioned, hardly even giving him the chance to answer. Another girl game over too and sat on the table in front of him, eager to talk about her favorite boy band.

The two girls talked happily while Luke just listened. This wasn't his scene, he would be happy if just him and Ashton could sit alone and not be bothered. It was exhausting, he wasn't sure how people did this all the time.

The bell rang, ending lunch and Luke found himself feeling a mixture of relief and disappointment. He did enjoy not being alone, it was nice to be around people and not be worried about anything bad happening to him.

As he packed up his stuff, Ashton caught up with him and walked with him.

"Did you have a good lunch?"

"Yeah, I did. Thanks," He felt a little more comfortable with Ashton because of the other day, but he was still nervous about everyone else.

"Good. You still seem so shy, Lukey." He pointed out.

Luke just shrugged. He was, it was true. He was so used to staying out of peoples way and not being allowed to have opinions that it made him become a super shy person.

"You can come out of your shell, buddy, we're not going to hurt you," Ashton told him. "Trust me, it'll be okay."

Luke smiled to himself. He felt warm inside at Ashton's reassurance.

It's just he'd wanted this for so long, he couldn't turn down the chance at fitting in and having everything he'd ever wanted.

"Okay. Thanks Ashton."

"You got it, pal. I hope you start talking more. These people, my friends, they're your friends now, too. You're one of us."

"Thanks," Luke felt that warm feeling in his stomach travel throughout his entire body. He was finally doing it, he was finally someone.

This was a feeling he never wanted to end.

***

Lukey's getting what he wanted! It seems perfect. Maybe I should stop here?? Nah my favorite chapters are coming up soon. Can't do that. Get ready for lashton overload.

Have a great day/night

~ashtonfortherwin