Chapter 28:
"You love me, right?"
Eloise-Anne
My eyes are watery as I almost finish the movie. I haven't been feeling quite well the past few days. Mostly debating my choices. I know Ashton means well, and I don't like Luke at all, but you can't quite force people to not see each other, right? It's literally been all I've been thinking about. I just want a peaceful relationship, instead, I'm here. I'm crying about the whole situation and the movie ain't helping. I haven't quite reached out to anyone. I have called in sick for school and work, not wanting to get out of bed.
I grab another tissue from the box and wipe away my tears. My sleeves are soaked and currently, my face is very sensitive to the number of times I've rubbed it. I hear a knock on the door and wipe faster, but it's useless. I am a mess and you can see I've been crying. Besides all, I probably have my period next week. I always get so emotional the week before, it's not funny anymore. I hum in response to the door. Michael walks in and smiles weakly.
"El, can you come with me?" I frown as I sniff my nose. He sighs and looks at me. "You've been hiding in here for a week, you have to come out."
"I don't want to." He rolls his eyes and walks up to me, lifting me up. I hold him tightly, scared he might drop me. He walks downstairs and puts me in the bathroom. "Do I smell?"
"Yeah, you have this union scent going on. It's horrifying." He says, leaving the tiny room. I lock the door and take a shower as I am here. I didn't feel like taking a shower. Sometimes things are very hard on a daily basis.
As I have finally wrapped the towel around my body, I open the door and walk up to my own room. Michael is laying on my bed. My dirty laundry is gone from the chair and the floor. My bed has new sheets and the leftover pieces of food are gone. On my bed, there's a sweater from Michael. I smile as I put it on over the towel. It is mid-thigh length, even longer actually. I grab the towel from underneath the sweater and put on some underwear as I lay down beside him. He looks up from his phone and smiles when he sees me.
"Thank you, Mike. You are the best." I kiss his cheek.
"You finally smell good." I roll my eyes at him. "Okay fine, you didn't smell that bad." I give him a nudge and chuckle. "Just know you can talk to me, okay?" I nod and open the laptop, starting our lazy tv-show, Brooklynn 99. I know I can talk to him, I just don't know what's bothering me.
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"El, have you heard?" I frown at my best friend beside me. "You know about the thing where the song actually gets produced, right?" I tilt my head a bit, not knowing what she's talking about. "The music major, the assignment you head with Luke." I nod at her words, finally understanding her. "Because it's a group assignment, although it's not quite a group but-"
"Moral of the story..?" I ask her.
"The best duo wins. So let's say you and Luke win, you win together, no matter what your grade may be. The piece you handed in will be in the newspaper!" She says, her voice getting an octave higher. "They will announce the winners this afternoon."
"How is it that I never know these kinda things?" I ask annoyed. "I swear I pay attention." I feel an arm around me and look up to see Ashton. "Hey," I smile at him. He brings his loose hand to my face to kiss me right after. I stop talking and move my lips against his. His smile makes him break the kiss.
"Hey, baby." We continue walking towards the entrance of the school. "I am sorry I was being so harsh on you. I wanted you and Hemmings to be friends, I didn't know he'd fuck around like this. I should've known."
"I still think it's a dickhead move," I say shrugging. "I know I don't like the guy, but still you have no right to force me with whom I go out." His facial expression changes immediately.
"Do you have a thing for him or something? You keep on defending him."
"I haven't defended him!" I say immediately, knowing I didn't. I've been defending myself for hanging out with whomever I want to hang out with. "I am just saying that I decide what happens in my life," I tell him, softening my voice. I don't wanna be mad at him again. "Can we please just drop it?" I ask, pouting a little. I don't want to keep on having this conversation. It's agree to disagree, it's yes against no, it's undebatable. We both think we're right.
"No," he says. "You hated him and now you can't be without him." I frown at his words. That's so not true. I don't know what the fuck he's been doing in his mind, but it's not good.
"Don't talk bullshit right now, Ashton," I say, standing in front of him, poking his chest with my finger. "You know damn well that that's not true. Why are you being so jealous?"
"Have you fucked him? Is that it?" I am lost for words, I don't even know how to react. Why does he even think that? "See, I knew it." He says as I haven't answered in some seconds.
"Ashton, we haven't," I say, but he's sternly walking away from me. I groan annoyed and walk toward the guy. "Ashton, we really haven't done anything. Why is it so hard to believe me?" I ask him. It actually kinda hurts me that he is thinking I would cheat on him just like that. Yes, it happened, but I was drunk and high.
"The guy is into you, Eloise. He'd do anything to get you in his bed and you're being fucking naive. You'd be in his bed in no time." I raise my brows at myself. He really thinks I'm capable of such a thing. "I am wondering if you even want to be with me."
"So am I." I spit out, walking away from him.
"Eloise, I didn't mean it like that." He says, grabbing my wrist. "I love you," he says, kissing my lips. "I am sorry, I just don't like other guys around you."
"I've noticed," I say, my voice having no emotion in it. I have no clue what he's trying to do, but it's nothing good. Red flag.
"C'mon baby, you don't really wanna break up, right?" He says, looking me in the eyes. "You love me, right?" Major red flag, Eloise leave him.
"Ashton, I'm gonna be late for class. Can we do this another time? I think I'm a bit too naive to react right now." I say, smiling sweetly. His smile fades away as he looks at me. I walk away from him and try to find Tammy. I smile when I see her in the lecture hall. She takes away her bag and looks at me.
"What took you so long?" She asks me.
"Ashton was being unreasonable," I tell her. "Long story short, I made out with Bolton that party, and ever since he's been a jealous bitch. He was quite convinced that we fucked." I tell her. She rolls her eyes.
"You don't even like him like that." She says. "He shouldn't be acting like that."
Time passes by and I tried to avoid Ashton at all costs. I just know that whenever we see each other it won't be right. I couldn't avoid him at lunch, but I ignored him the whole time. However, everybody is gathered in the lecture hall we were in when they announced the assignment. Everybody is seated this time. Luke is sitting with Calum and they're throwing some paper balls at the teachers. I lean my head on Michael's shoulder.
"I swear I'm not stealing your boyfriend, Tams." She chuckles at me.
"When it's you I don't even worry about it." She tells me. Michael coughs uncomfortably, sitting in between us, both our heads on his shoulders. It must look like we had some crazy threesome. I honestly couldn't give a flying fuck. The teachers start talking, but I can't quite pay attention. I know my story is great and I know Bolton's song isn't bad, but I don't think we're gonna win. I heard some other duos being fucking incredible.
"... Without further a due, the winners of this assignment are.." The teacher opens the envelope painfully slowly. I think I had a class or two from her, but I can't remember it very clearly. Somehow I feel a bit nervous. I know it's not gonna happen, but the fact that my name might be in there is. The teacher walks around the lecture hall and smiles brightly. "Luke Hemmings and Eloise-Anne Hood! Please come forward." I shockingly look around, did she call out my name? I look at Michael and he smiles brightly. My eyes find Ashton and I can't place his reaction. It's not very happy, probably because I have to be with Luke right now. "C'mon guys, don't be shy." The teacher jokes. This woman really isn't funny.
"Go, El!" Michael encourages me softly. "You won," he smiles. I stand up and walk forward. As Luke sees me walking down, he also makes his way to the front of the class.
"You know Ashton is watching us right now, right?" He whispers softly at me. I smile weakly at him, at least he's trying, it's already more than I'm used to with him.
"Congratulations on winning!" She exclaims happily. "You guys did great, the pieces of work you handed in were almost as if you guys were made for each other." Luke smiles sheepishly. I look into the audience and see Ashton leave the room. I feel some disappointment running down my body. As if I chose for this? "Do you feel like singing the song in front of everybody here?" She asks Luke.
"No, not really." He says, shrugging a bit. She chuckles over his words as they maintain to have eye contact. Is this dude eye-fucking with a teacher or is he just very good?
"How about we'll discuss the details later?" She asks us, and we both nod in response. "Class dismissed!" Everybody leaves the room except for us. "Next week we'll have an appointment with the newspaper. We'll simply copy-paste your work. If you'd like you can explain what it's about, what it's about for you. Tell them why you wrote it and what the story around it is." She tells me. A male teacher comes to stand next to her and looks at Luke.
"I'll take you with me next week on Monday. We're going to a great studio and we can record the song. We even got the privileges of it being produced." I give him a little nudge when he stays quiet.
"That's sick," Luke smiles.
"I'll send you the details later." Luke just nods and grabs my wrist, pulling me along with him. I try to escape from his touch but it's nearly impossible. He pulls me into the men's bathroom and I look at him as he pushes me against the wall. His breathing is heavy and his pupils are dilated. There's something in his eyes I can't place.
"Bolton, what the fuck," I hiss at him. "You almost broke my wrist and now I need to disinfect myself for years," I say disgusted. He rolls his eyes annoyed, getting out of the weird trance he got in. "What do you want?" He shakes his head for a second as if he's shaking off thoughts. "Bolton, you good?"
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine," he says softly. I frown at his mumbling, he never mumbles.
"What's going on?" I ask him. "I can see there's something going on."
"Eloise-Anne, I'm good." He says, his voice stronger and steadier than it was seconds ago.
"If you say so, big boy." He rolls his eyes.
"Do you wanna go for a smoke?" He asks me. "Ash is already pissed off, so I guess it won't matter anyways." He shrugs a bit. I still don't trust his whole attitude, there's clearly something going on. I get it that he does not want to talk to me, still, he's the one pushing me into this hellhouse.
"Yeah, sure," I mumble, I can't go wrong with this.
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Too bad Eloise is near the end of her Ashton era, but a better era is yet to come heheh. i hope you guys like it!!
Loads of love x