"You've got to be kidding me," Audrey groaned, not wanting to deal with them again.
"Just ignore them, Audrey. Pretend they're not here," Rain said.
"They weren't even invited! Why the hell do they think it's okay to just show up here?" she asked, angrily.
Rain shrugged. "I have no idea what goes on in their heads."
Luke grabbed her hand in an attempt to calm her down, but Audrey was sick of Vera and Ashton constantly trying to mess with her. She just wanted them to leave her alone.
"Come on, Audrey. Let's just chill out here. They won't know where we are, it's fine," Luke said, motioning to the swing that they were previously sitting on.
"I guess," she sighed.
They sat down on the swing and watched as Rain rushed around trying to clean up a little bit. Eventually, she disappeared in the crowd of people inside, and it was just Luke and Audrey again.
"Are you thirsty?" Luke asked her.
"A little," she admitted.
"I'll go get us some soda," Luke said, then stood up before Audrey could respond.
Audrey closed her eyes and waited for Luke to come back. After five minutes, he still wasn't there. She looked around, confused, then stood up to search for him inside, but nearly bumped into someone in the process.
She was ready to apologize when she realized who it was.
"Ashton."
"Hey babe," he smirked, taking a step closer to her.
Audrey did not want to deal with Ashton today. She hated him. She didn't want anything to do with him. She wanted him to forget about her entirely and just leave her alone.
She took a step back, glaring at the messy haired boy. "Get the fuck away from me, and don't call me that ever again."
"Why? Don't you miss me, baby girl?"
She hated the way he was looking at her. As if she was a toy for him to play his little games with. She felt small around him, and that was something she would not stand for.
She scoffed. "Not at all. Why don't you go back to your girlfriend?"
Ashton rolled his eyes. "Audrey, you're so smart, but sometimes you're so stupid."
"What the hell are you talking about?" she asked, angrily.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about. You know that Vera's just using me to make you angry so that she can get to Luke, and you know that I'm using her to make you jealous so that I can get my baby girl back," he told her, taking another step forward.
Audrey was confused. She thought he hated her and wanted revenge, but he wanted her back. Except Audrey didn't want him back. Every part of her body was fuming with rage knowing that he had bad intentions all along. He thought that he could just steal her away.
Audrey stepped back until she was against a wall. "I'm not your baby girl, Ashton. I hate you."
Ashton put his hands on the wall behind her and whispered in her ear, "No baby, you don't."
Audrey felt his hot breath against her cheek, wishing that she could escape somehow.
"You don't hate me because I was your first love. You'll always love me, even if you don't want to. And you know what? I'll always love you too," he said.
"No, I hate you. You broke my fucking heart, Ashton. And you don't even care. You never apologized, never realized. You didn't even know what you did. I loved you until I found out who you really were, and I would never be with someone like you ever again."
He scoffed. "So you'd rather be with some scrawny loser? You know you still love me, baby. You miss me, don't you?"
She stopped for a moment, but quickly realized that she didn't miss him. She only missed the idea of him. The man that she thought he was.
"You're a fucking idiot. Get away from me," she ordered, but he didn't move. Instead, he grazed his lips against her cheek, getting closer to her lips.
Finally, Audrey couldn't take it anymore. She kneed him as hard as she could between the legs and walked away to look for Luke, ignoring the sight of Ashton dropping to his knees and grabbing his crotch in pain.
After pushing through a hoard of drunk teens, she ended up finding Luke in the kitchen with no one other than Vera, but instead of barging in, she decided to listen.
"I told you that she would break your heart, Luke. She doesn't care about anybody but herself."
"That's not true," Luke said. "She cares about me."
"Oh really? Is that why she moved to New York and didn't talk to you for two months?" she asked.
"She needed to. You didn't talk to me either, Vera. You said it yourself. What are you trying to prove?" he asked.
She stepped closer to Luke. "Just give me a chance, Luke. You don't need Audrey to make you happy. I can."
"No, actually, you can't. I love her, and I'm never going to love you," he told her.
"That's not true," she said. "And where's your lip piercing?"
Luke paused. "I took it out. It's not who I am. Now please move because I need to go find Audrey."
Audrey smiled to herself.
"Yeah? Well she's probably making out with Ashton by now. She's still in love with him, you know that right?"
"Actually, I'm not, but nice try," Audrey said, walking into the kitchen and grabbing Luke's hand. "Have an amazing night."
Audrey led Luke outside without looking back. "You came here in a car right?"
"Yeah, it's over here," Luke said, directing towards his vehicle.
They got in and Luke started driving away from the house. They sat there in silence and drove, not knowing exactly what to say.
Finally, Audrey gave Luke a kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you," she said.
"For what?" he asked, keeping his eyes on the road.
"For keeping your promise. For wearing flannels that are too big for you, for taking out your lip ring, for staying true to yourself. You're the same Luke I fell in love with," she told him.
"Wait, what? Audrey, when did you fall in love with me?"
She thought about his question and smiled. "I fell in love with you when I heard you singing on your roof that day. You sang so beautifully, so freely. I just remember wanting to listen to you forever."
Luke smiled, still looking at the road.
"I fell in love with you the moment that I realized you were different from everybody else. You were the first person to talk to me at school, you know that?" he said. "Ever since, I've been head over heels for you."
"I wish I'd never hurt you, Luke. Ever," Audrey told him.
"I know, Audrey," he said. "But to be fair, I told you that you would. What did Ashton say to you?"
"It doesn't matter," she told him.
"Audrey, please."
She sighed, but decided that Luke deserved to know. They'd been through so much together in such a small amount of time. It wasn't worth it to keep secrets anymore.
"He told me that him and Vera just wanted to make us jealous so that they could get with us, then he tried making a move on me so I kneed him in the balls," she explained.
Luke started laughing ridiculously and couldn't stop, so Audrey started laughing.
"I really hope you're paying attention to the road," Audrey said, still laughing.
"I am, it's just- That's fucking hilarious!" Luke said, smiling.
"Alright, alright," she said. "Are we almost home?"
Luke nodded, then drove for about five more minutes until they reached his house. They walked inside together, already knowing that no one was home.
Audrey headed towards the couch, but Luke stopped her.
"What are you doing?"
She looked at him, confused. "I was gonna lay down and go to sleep."
"You'd rather sleep on the couch than with me?" he asked.
Audrey paused, suddenly flustered. "I, uh, I mean- no, I'd much rather-"
"Come on," he whispered, grabbing her hand.
He led her upstairs into his bedroom and took off his shirt and pants, but left his boxers on, not caring that he was half naked in front of Audrey once again.
"Want a shirt?" he asked her and she nodded.
He handed her his Green Day t-shirt, then climbed underneath his covers. Audrey took off her own shirt and pants, then pulled on Luke's shirt over her head. She climbed into bed next to Luke, who wrapped his arm around her and snuggled his face into her neck.
"Goodnight, love," he told her under his breath.
She smiled, then closed her eyes. "Goodnight."
🌿
Hey guys! Sorry for my lack of updates! I just started up school again :( but hey junior yearr only one year left and I'm out!
hope y'all enjoyed this chapter! remember to vote and comment, let me know how I'm doing :)