Just a forewarning that Michael has only bleached his hair in this story. He has not completely dyed it.
Luke & Michael later on <3
"Luke, sweetie, you have a visitor," Liz said, appearing in the doorway of Luke's room.
Luke didn't hear her since he had his headphones on. She stood there, waiting until he looked up from his laptop. Liz was always irritated that he had his music up so loud that he couldn't hear or notice anything around him, especially since they were Beats and were noise cancelling anyway. She was just being a mother about it, but she didn't say anything because she knew Luke would get ticked off about her nagging him about it.
"Sorry, mum," Luke said, finally noticing her and slipped off his headphones. "What?"
"You have a visitor, sweetie," Liz said, a small smile forming on her face because of how adorable and innocent her son looked.
"Who?" he asked, his face twisting into a questioning look.
"Who would the only person that would come to visit you?" she asked, a playful smile on her face.
"I'm guessing it's Clifford?" Luke smirked, taking his headphones out completely and set down his laptop on the bed next to him.
Liz nodded and Luke got up to follow her downstairs. Liz branched off into the kitchen and Luke saw Michael standing in the doorway, looking excited about something. Luke was hoping he wasn't going to obsess over the party anymore, but that's like telling Miley Cyrus to stop twerking.
"Luke! Lukey, Lukester, Lucifer, Luke-alicious," Michael started.
Luke quirked his eyebrow at his best friend, knowing that he wanted something from him. He never asked for money, so Luke knew it probably wasn't that. It's that he wanted to do something with him or wanted to hang out with him. He did things like this often when he's determined and he was just awkward sometimes.
"Are you trying to rename me? Because I really like Luke-alicious," Luke joked, moving his eyebrows up and down.
"I'm never calling you that again just because you did the pedophile eyebrow thing," Michael pointed out, causing both boys to start laughing.
"What do you want?" Luke asked.
"So...I have to get a few things for my mum and I wondered if you wanted to go with me?" he asked awkwardly.
"Sure, but let me che-"
"You don't have to ask, Luke. It's Michael, I know he won't kill my child," Liz called from the kitchen.
"Well, I guess I can," Luke chuckled and then followed Michael out to his mum's car.
----
Luke didn't question why they went to the mall, at least not at first. He figured that she needed some perfume or something from Macy's or some store that Michael wouldn't normally shop at. It was until Michael started going towards Hot Topic that Luke knew why they were actually there. Michael's mum didn't shop at Hot Topic unless she was getting something as a present for Michael.
"So, when did your mum take interest in this wonderful establishment?" Luke asked his bleach blonde haired friend with a smirk on his face.
Michael turned to face him as the two walked into the shop and Michael's cheeks tinted pink like they usually did when he was lying. "When she decided that she was in love with bands just as much as I was."
"That's a lie, Mikey," Luke chuckled. "She didn't need anything here, did she?"
"No..." he trailed, not facing Luke.
"Why didn't you just ask me if I wanted to go to the mall with you? You know I would've said yes. I can't turn down Hot Topic, bro," Luke said.
"Because you would think that the reason I wanted to go was kinda stupid," Michael admitted quietly, sifting through the clearance rack of t-shirts.
"Why? Because you wanted to get a new band shirt or something for tomorrow? That's not stupid; I actually expected that," the blonde said, confused as to why Michael was acting so weird about this.
"No...it's something else I came here for," he said, sounding ashamed. "I didn't want to do it alone because I don't know what I'm doing and I didn't want to bring my mum because she doesn't know about it yet...so I brought you instead because you're my best friend and I'm hoping to God that you won't judge me for it."
"Well, you'll never know if you don't tell me what the hell you're really here for. Please tell me you're not going to make me buy some sex shit at Spencer's for you because I refuse to do that," Luke told him. He knew he didn't have to worry about that because as far as Luke knew, Michael was single. But you could never be too sure nowadays.
"I...you're going to call me a girl," Michael said, purposely dragging on.
"I can't if you don't tell me!" Luke said, starting to get impatient. He gave him a glare. "I won't call you a girl, Mikey. You're my best friend; you can tell me anything."
"I...want to dye my hair," he finally spit out, quickly averting his eyes from Luke's.
"That's it?" Luke asked him, waiting for something more outrageous than that.
"Y-yeah," he stammered.
"What's so bad about that?" Luke asked.
"Guys don't usually dye their hair. I've never dyed my hair; I've only bleached it," Michael told him. He always seemed confident, but when it came to certain things, especially his looks, Michael got a bit insecure. He liked to think of himself as good looking, but he didn't want to think he was and then look like a complete doofus.
"Well, what color were you thinking?" Luke asked, not thinking that Michael's desire was that bad.
"Um, black maybe? I don't want to go extreme and get blue. I know that black would match my clothes," Michael explained, getting a bit more excited about it.
"Not too bad. Are you going to get the dye stuff here or get it done at a professional place?" Luke asked.
"That's what I was going to ask you," he chuckled nervously.
"Me? Why would I know? I don't dye my hair either!" Luke answered.
"Yeah, but you're more...girlier than me," Michael said, trying not to laugh.
"Says the one who wanted to plan out their outfit for a damn party," Luke scoffed.
"What? I like to be prepared," he said.
"I guess I would get it done professionally since it's your first time and your mum doesn't know about it," Luke suggested.
"Okay...so could you come with me?" he asked.
"That's why you dragged me here," Luke told him.
----
Ashton was changed into a pair of his basketball shorts and a sleeveless shirt, trying to act focused on the game of basketball he and his friends were playing. So far, he was a brilliant actor because none of them were asking him what was bothering him. Either that or they were completely oblivious to his feelings.
"So, Ash, why are you hanging with us again?" Ricky asked.
"Because I had nothing better to do," he panted, dribbling the ball past Seth.
"We're just your back ups when you're not banging Sierra now?" Jack asked, sounding pissed.
Ashton stopped dribbling the ball, catching it in his hands. "Excuse me?"
"Well, you basically said that you were only hanging with us because you were bored and you couldn't hang with Sierra. That means we're just here for you when you get bored," Jack explained.
"Where the hell is this coming from? I didn't mean it like that," Ashton defended, confused as to why one of his friends was trying to pick a fight with him.
"You're putting that slut before us, you dick. Are you that oblivious?" he spat.
"Jack, knock it off," Ricky warned. "C'mon, Ashton. Let's just play."
"Fuck that. I want to know why he's trying to fight with me," Ashton told Ricky. He turned to the shirtless Jack. "She's not a slut either."
"Oh, really? You actually think that you were her first? Have you not seen what a flirt she is with all the guys? How she basically throws herself on them?" he continued egging. "Did you not see how she was acting today? She's with you and she was this close to taking Danny's pants off in the middle of the hall."
"Well, she has every damn right to! She's single, so she can throw her God damn self at whoever the hell she wants!" Ashton screamed at him, furious at how Jack was insulting her.
All of the boys froze, looking at Ashton with surprised looks. And then he realized what he had said and that he wasn't going to say anything because they weren't going to think of him as the alpha male or as highly of him because he wasn't dating the hottest girl in the school anymore.
"What?" Ricky asked.
"You're not with Sierra anymore?" Seth asked.
"Is that why I didn't see you around her at all?" Alec asked.
Jack stayed quiet, just staring at Ashton with an expressionless glare. Ashton looked between the four of them, tears rimming his eyes, but he wouldn't allow them to fall because he couldn't look like a lovesick and broken hearted weakling. He couldn't do that in front of them. They would never let him live it down.
"That's why you told me not to reserve the master bedroom for you guys tomorrow night, isn't it?" Ricky pointed out, just making Ashton want to run away and cry like a little child more so than he already did.
"When did this happen?" Seth asked quietly, grabbing his shirt from his things.
Ashton didn't say anything. He didn't want to be faced with questions and end up crying like a baby. He just wanted to go home where he could bawl in the presence of hopefully Clare. She would understand like she usually did.
The four boys continued peppering him with questions and Ashton couldn't find the will to hold down his tears any longer, so he grabbed his things and took off towards his car so he could be in his own privacy. He agreed to this basketball thing to take his mind off of Sierra, not leave in tears.
----
He decided to take the long way home and just let out his tears and sadness in his own privacy in case if Clare wasn't there. But when he pulled up to his house, he saw her car parked in the driveway. The only thing he could wish for now was that his mum or siblings weren't there also.
He never cried in front of his mum, only when he was little and maybe once in middle school. She just didn't understand him and basically called him a baby for whatever it was that he had been crying about in the first place. The only other person that had seen him cry was Clare. She would always help him through it. She didn't call him a baby or say that the reason he was so upset about was childish. It seemed that Clare was the only one who truly cared about him, other than Sierra, but Sierra wasn't in the picture anymore so she didn't count anymore.
He parked behind Clare's vehicle and wiped his swollen eyes as he hurried into the house. He heard his siblings in the other room, bickering about God knows what. He tried not to slam the door because he knew that Harry and Lauren would come running in and hug him like they haven't seen him in years. He normally would be in the mood to give his siblings love and be around them, but now, he didn't want hugs or anything from them.
"Ash-It is you! I thought it was going to be your mother finally, but I know better," Clare said, walking out of the laundry room. Her smile faltered. "Is everything okay, honey?"
"Yeah, just grand," Ashton muttered angrily, throwing his athletic bag on the floor and ran up the stairs to his room.
Once he was in his room, he grabbed the nearest thing on his shelf and chucked it at the wall as hard as he could. As it fell to the floor, he let out an angry scream. He didn't even know why he was so angry other than the fact that Jack had pissed him off, he was probably the talk of the school already, and he just missed Sierra and wanted to know what the hell he did wrong.
"Ashton? Please let me in," Clare said through the door. "I heard something break. Can you please let me in?"
Ashton didn't answer and just cried into his pillow. He knew Clare would only help feel a little better and calmed down, but he just didn't want that right now. He didn't want to lose anymore manliness than he already has by nearly losing it in front of Ricky, Jack, Seth and Alec.
"I'm guessing something happened with Sierra again today, and I understand what you're feeling. Do you want to talk about it?" Clare asked.
"Just leave!" Ashton yelled.
"Just talk to me when you're ready," she said more quietly.
----
Luke was casually reading one of the magazines in the waiting area of the small hair salon. He was kind of excited to see what Michael was going to look like with the extreme change in color. Of course Michael was going to be able to rock it since he was trying to have that punk rock impression.
"How does it look?" Michael said after an hour and a half.
Luke looked up from the magazine at his once bleach haired friend to see a now completely black haired Michael Clifford. "Woah."
"Is that a good woah or...?" Michael asked, an amused smile on his face.
"You look badass," Luke answered. "I like it."
Michael smirked, which fit his now fully punk aura. "Well, good. That was the idea."
"Are you looking to get anything done, sir?" Ernesto, the stylist, asked Michael.
"I think I'm good. Thanks, man," Michael thanked, following the flamboyant man to the counter to pay for his dye job.
It was going to take some getting used to for Luke because he was used to seeing Michael as a light haired, harmless kid. Now he looked like a badass, punk rock troublemaker. He wasn't the last part, but he knew that Michael was going to try even harder to live up to that image and it was going to be a bit intimidating for Luke.
"We should probably tell your mum," Luke suggested as they walked out into the mall.
"Do you think she'll be mad?" Michael asked, sounding a little scared about it. So much for badass.
"No...maybe a little about the fact that you didn't tell her, but she'll just be surprised about the color," Luke explained. He knew Michael's mum just as well as he knew his own and he knew that Karen wouldn't be mad about it. She would just need a little time to get used to it.
The two boys drove back to Michael's house because the now black haired boy wanted Luke to be there when he showed Karen and Daryl so they wouldn't lose their shit. And he just needed Luke's opinion on his outfit for tomorrow night. Luke thought it was kind of sad that Michael was acting like such a girl about this party. He might as well of gotten extensions and boob implants so Luke could claim him as his date.
They walked into the house, hearing the telly on in the other room. Michael looked at Luke, a little scared to go into the room and of his parents reactions, but Luke assured him that it would be alright. It wasn't like it was permanent, so he could change it in a month.
"Michael? Is that you?" Karen called from the living room.
"Y-yeah. Luke's with me," Michael said, forcing Luke to go into the living room first.
"Hi, Luke," Karen smiled. Michael walked out from behind Luke and Karen's eyes widened. "Michael...what did you do to your head?"
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