Ashton's POV
I like the summer rain
I like the sounds you make
We put the world away
We get so disconnected
You are my getaway
You are my favourite place
We put the world away
Yeah we're so disconnected
I look over at the door of Luke's garage as it opens in the middle of our song. Luke wasn't going to be happy, mostly because it was his step brother Michael. I didn't mind much, and I doubt that Calum did either, we'd been at this all day long.
"What Michael?!" Luke snaps at the boy. I was slightly shocked at that because I had never seen Luke be so uptight with someone; I'd also only seen him a few times with his step brother.
"U-uh..." Michael opens and closes his mouth at a loss of words for a moment before looking over to the other side of the room away from Luke. "Mum said dinner was done, and that Ashton and Calum could stay if they wanted." He quickly says before rushing away closing the door behind him.
"He is so annoying sometimes, I mean he's a cool little brother to have, but he just doesn't get it. He acts so weak and helpless all of the time." Luke complains putting his guitar on it's stand.
"He does seem really helpless at school all of the time." Calum comments setting down his bass.
"Wouldn't know really. I've only seen the kid when I'm here, I avoid Freshies." I say leaning back in my seat behind the drums, spinning one of my drum sticks around.
"Yeah we remember, even though you were a Sophomore you acted so highly to us." Luke says giving me a glare. "What exactly do have against them?"
"I don't really have anything against them. I just think that they shouldn't be in high school yet, they aren't ready for it. When our parent's went to school, there was only Sophomore's, Juniors, and Seniors. No Freshman, and that's how it should have stayed." I bark. Everyone always asked me this question and it was always going to be the same answer. Luke and Calum have asked me this question a few too many times, and it was getting on my nerves.
"Is it really that Ashton? Or is it two years ago, when you got together with a Freshman and she dum-"
"I TOLD YOU TO NEVER SPEAK OF THAT!" I yell at Luke stopping him from finishing his thought. That was never to be spoke of. No one ever talked about that anymore, mostly because they were scared of me. That was such a bad year for me, but when life kicks you in the ass, you kick it right back in the face.
"Alright sorry." Luke says holding up his hands. I glare at him for a moment longer before grabbing my coat. "You gonna stay for dinner?"
"Well, I'm gonna go and see if my dad locked me out, if he did then yeah I'll be back. You know, the normal." I tell him before he nods and I walk out. I walk down the street, about 15 houses down, most of the block. I was at my house within 5 minutes. I always rush to see if my dad locked me out, because I know that if he hasn't while he's still home and not at work, I was in deep shit. I always like when my dad locks me out because Mrs. Hemmings says that I can come over for dinner or just whenever I get locked out of my house.
I walk up to the front door of my house as I get the and jiggle the nob. Doesn't move, it's locked. I'll get in once my dad goes to work tonight. My dad just doesn't really like me at all. Why he took me when he and my mom split up, is beyond me, but he did while my mom has my sister and brother. I do see them, just not as much as I would like.
I run back to Luke's house knowing that I shouldn't keep anyone waiting if they were. I walk back into the garage when I get there finding Luke and Calum standing there looking down at something.
"Locked me out again." I say making them look over at me. Both of them had a look of horror on their face. I look past them and find Michael standing behind them, his head hanging, tears streaked down his face.
"What did you do to the kid? Hit him? Make him fall and scrape his knee? Scare him so bad he wet his pants?" I throw questions at them walking closer.
"N-no." Michael spoke up. I look at the kid after looking at Luke and Calum again.
"Then what happened?" I ask crossing my arms over my chest. My arms flexed showing a few of my tattoo's a little more clearly.
"Well, I found Michael in my room playing with my acoustic and when I walked in he dropped it and it broke. I started yelling at him, and soon he ran out of the room crying. I chased him all of the way down here and..." Luke says holding the back of his neck looking down at the floor biting his lip.
"And what? What happened Luke?" I glare at him walking closer. They all take steps back at I walk to them. They soon have to stop because Michael trips over something.
Michael stands back up and picks up the drum sticks that he had stepped on making him trip. "Ashton please don't hate me..." Michael says handing them to me.
"Michael what happened?" I ask him, my voice filled with anger.
"When Luke was chasing me, I ran in here and wasn't looking so I fell over your drums and broke them. I'm really sorry Ashton! P-please don't hate me!" Michael explains hiding behind Luke.
"Ashton, don't be mad at him, it's really my fault. I was the one chasing him." Luke says defending his step brother.
I walk around Luke and look at Michael grabbing his arm. I bring his body closer to mine. "You're lucky your cute kid." I whisper in his ear before letting him go. Michael looks at me like I'm crazy before giving a weak nod and hanging his head.
"I'll see how bad it is later. Let's just eat." I say walking into the main house. I smile as soon as I walk into the kitchen seeing Mrs. Hemmings setting everything out on the table.
"Locked out again Ashton?" She sighs.
"Yeah, but I would have stayed here to eat either way." I tell her. She smiles before taking her seat at the head of the table. Us boys take our seats on the sides of the table. We all grab plates and start setting food on them. I watched Michael from across the table, seeing that he didn't grab much. I questioned that in my head; but made myself think that it was because he wasn't hungry.
"Thank again for having us for dinner Mrs. Hemmings." Calum says not long after we'd started eating.
"You're welcome Calum, it's always nice to have you and Ashton. I love my boys, but they get a little boring." She laughs giving a wink to Luke who smiles and roles his eyes. Michael sits there quietly. He picks at his food at first before almost stuffing himself.
"So tomorrow is the last day of Spring Break boy, what will you be doing?" Mrs. Hemmings asks us.
"Maybe a little more band practice before our gig at school on Monday. We kinda wanted to go the fair also." Luke says after taking a bite of his food.
"Lucas don't talk with your mouth full." Mrs. Hemmings snaps before giving a smile. "I think the fair is a great idea, but only if you're taking Michael with you."
"No, mum, I don't really want to kill their fun. Plus I wanted to stay home tomorrow." Michael said finally coming into the conversation.
"No way! You should come with us Michael! It will be fun." Calum says leaning over the table to give the kid a fist bump. Michael awkwardly looked at Calums fist before hitting it with his own.
"Yeah, join in Michael. You always want to stay home and play video games." Luke says giving a had slap on the shoulder to his step brother.
"I don't know..." Michael says looking down at the table.
"Come with us Michael. We'll show you how the cool people have a good time." I say leaning back in my seat, stretching out my legs and crossing my ankles as I do. My feet soon hit his making him jump.
"A-alright." He says quietly. "Can I be excused?" Mrs. Hemmings nods giving him a kiss on his head before letting him leave the table. He practically runs out of the room and up the stairs.
"You know, you guys should let Michael help with the band. Even if it's just moving stuff around, I bet that'dmake him feel like you guys liked him." Mrs. Hemmings says getting up from the table. "Luke it's your turn with the dishes, Ashton and Calum can help you. Leftover's go in the fridge." We all let out a whine at that. I always forget that Saturdays are Luke's day to do the dishes.
"Can you guys take stuff into the kitchen, I'll be right back." Luke says before running the the stairs. I look at Calum before grabbing the plates while be grabs the leftover food. I clean off the plates, also rinsing them off and putting them into the dish washer. The hard part was going to be putting the food in the fridge.
"Lads," Luke walks into the kitchen with an acoustic guitar in his hands. "This isn't my guitar." He says.
"Then who's is it?" I ask. He holds a post it note out to me which I read out loud.
"Luke, I'm sorry for dropping your guitar, I'll have it fixed, you can have mine for now unless you want to keep it after. Michael."
"That's really nice of him." Calum says taking the guitar from Luke's hands. "It's really nice, how did he get it?"
"His mum got it for him years ago I guess, before he could even play it. I don't think he's ever really played it, it's like brand new." Luke said looking up at the stairs. I look up,swearing that I seen something move from the top of them.
"Yeah... I'm going to go look at the drum set." I say walking out the garage. I sit down in front of my drum set seeing drums everywhere. I examine each one of them finding that there was nothing wrong. Michael just pushed on them enough when he tripped that they feel apart.
"I'm sorry." My head snaps up to where Michael was standing at the door.
"About what? You didn't break them Michael, they just fell apart." I tell him starting to reassemble them. It only took me a few minutes, and I knew Michael was watching me the whole time. I take my drum sticks out of my back pocket and sit down.
Taking a deep breath, I play our song Heartache On The Big Screen, humming along as I play. I look over a Michael every now and then, seeing that he had sat down and was now watching me with wondering eyes. he had his arms on his knees, his head leaning on them. He had a small smile on his face.
When I finish his smiles fades slightly. "You're really good." He says giving me a smile.
"Thank you. You wanna learn?" I ask him holding out my drum sticks.
"Oh no, I tried, the guitar is more of my thing." He says holding his hands up, laughing slightly.
"Yeah most people don't have the right sense of rhythm to play." I say giving a small beat. I wasn't saying that Michael didn't have a sense of rhythm, it's just that you have to have a rhythm for most things you do, and it's different from every other one.
"Do... Do you think you could play another song?" Michael shyly asks.
"Sure, what do you want?" I ask him.
"Um..." He rummages around in his pocket before pulling out a sheet of paper. "Can you play this?" He asks handing it to me. I look at the paper, finding it was sheet music. I just give him a nod before hanging up the paper and playing.
I look over at him every now and then seeing Michael singing to himself. He smiles at some points, other's he frowns shaking his head. All I can say is that, whatever this song is, and this kid wrote it, it's good.
When I finish Michael shoots up and grabs the paper. "Thank Ashton." He says before running out of the garage. That was strange. The whole thing was, I'd never spent time with Michael without Luke being around, and even then it wasn't for long. Now I've spent almost 15 minutes with him, and tomorrow, we're all going to the fair. What more could happen between me and his kid?