Chapter 6
Luke
"It's okay Ashton, I'll take Luke home. He lives on my road."
I couldn't have gone any redder. To use my fake ID and enter a club was bad enough – but to bump into my chemistry teacher and Calum? I was literally about to breakdown right there in front of them.
"Be grateful I'm not reporting this to the school," Mr Irwin warned, giving us both evil eyes. "Michael, where do you live?"
Michael mumbled his road name. "I can take the bus, it's chill-"
"You think I'd trust you to do that? No, I'm calling a taxi for you."
I don't think I'd ever seen Mr Irwin so mad; maybe it was the alcohol? Either way Michael and I were screwed. Calum said a few words to the guy he was sitting with at the bar, before putting his hand on my shoulder.
"Home time, buddy."
I sucked in my cheeks and stuffed my hands in my pocket, walking out with him. "Sorry I ruined your night," I said with a tinge of embarrassment. He just smiled.
"It's okay. I wasn't having that much fun anyway."
"What about that guy you were talking to?"
"Eh, he was Ashton's friend. We were just having a chat."
On the way back, we didn't really speak at all, despite my increasing urge to say something.
However, once we'd finally gotten to our road, Calum asked, "Do you wanna come in for a drink? Since you're already out?"
I internally screamed and replied with, "Sure, that sounds great!"
"We could even have a look at your chemistry, if you wanted?"
Fuck no, let's just talk and maybe make out-
"Shut up!" I yelled, making Calum jump. "Oh shit sorry, I was talking to myself!" I added, quickly turning away so he wouldn't see my tomato-like face.
I was expecting him to freak out and tell me he wasn't actually free that evening or that he was tired and I should just go home, but he didn't. "Come on, it's cold outside."
The house was totally different without two little people running around. Calum had tided all the toys away so it literally looked like I was entering a normal guy's house. I gulped, a little too audibly, but Calum didn't seem to notice.
He went straight to the kitchen and reached in the fridge for two cans. "You're okay with beer, right?" I nodded. "Oh shit, I feel tipsy. The alcohol's finally catching up with me..." he groaned, lifting one hand to his head. We sat down at the table and he got out some snacks, laying them out in front of me. "Help yourself."
But I went straight to the questioning. "So, I hear-"
"Hey, wanna play a board game?"
I raised my eyebrows. He really was drunk, wasn't he? Jeez, what was I gonna do now? "Uh... sure!"
He scampered off in search of one, coming back like a dog would after throwing a ball for them to fetch. "Scrabble!"
"Seriously..."
"Yeah! Blair and Ellis are too young to play this game properly, and it's literally the game of my childhood."
"I'm not sure I'll be any better than them, but okay..."
~
We ended up playing till like 2am – it was surprisingly fun and addictive. I found that actually, I knew a lot more words than I gave credit to myself for, and it wasn't long before I was creating super long ones and bagging a bunch of points.
"You're good Luke!" Calum exclaimed, as he moved onto his sixth can of beer.
"Hey um, I think you should stop now," I said with caution. I didn't want to upset him, because I'd had to deal with crying drunks (i.e. Michael) on one too many occasions to know it wasn't something I wanted.
"C'mon Luke, guys my age would still be out partying at this time..."
"How old actually are you?"
He giggled, pressing the side of his face against the wooden table. "22."
Time paused momentarily as I took in what he'd just revealed to me. Twenty-two?! How even... that wasn't possible! He looked so much older! And he had kids – two! I cleared my throat, eyes returning to his relaxed posture. Turns out, he was fast asleep – gentle snores accompanying his back as it rose and fell. I smirked, dropping to eye level and letting my eyes devour his beauty.
If he continued sleeping like that though, he'd wake up in the morning with a neck ache and possible muscle cramps, so I did what any normal human would do, and left him there.
Haha, I wish. No, I lifted one of his arms and pulled it over my shoulder, dragging him with all my might up the stairs. His dead weight was a bit too much for my weak ass muscle, so once I'd dropped him on his bed I collapsed beside him, rubbing my biceps up and down.
Then, once I'd recovered, I leant in, so that our noses were inches away from each other. I could feel his alcohol breath fanning onto my face, which kicked me off the edge and sent my lips straight towards his.
Feeling incredibly hot and flustered, I smiled briefly and headed downstairs, grabbed one of the throws from the backs of the sofas, and lied down ready to dream about how fucking awesome that evening had been.
Calum
When I woke up, I was lying on my bed still fully clothed from last night, with the familiar ache of a hangover lingering around my head. The first thing I did was thump my way downstairs and make for the medicine cabinet, where I popped a painkiller out and gulped it down with water.
What day was it again? Oh, that's right, Sunday. Holly would be dropping Blair and Ellis back off after dinner, meaning I had until then to clean the house so it didn't reek so much of all the beer and snacks I got through last night.
Come to think of it, there must've been someone else there, because there were two piles of beer cans (one considerably larger than the other) – not to mention I had somehow ended up on my bed which never ever happened when I was drunk.
I made myself some brunch and sat down in front of the TV, watching the late morning cookery channel. That was when I noticed I was sitting on top of a throw – clearly someone has slept here last night. Ashton? No... if it was late he probably still would've gone home. He didn't seem like the type to do sleepovers.
All I remembered was that Luke was coming over later to do some chemistry with me, so I headed up to the attic where I kept my high school things. Boy, was it nostalgic bringing them out again... high school felt so damn long ago.
~
"Luke, hi come on in!" I greeted, letting him pass through to the living room. "I hope you're ready because we're gonna get through so much today."
He smiled cutely and took off his shoes, swinging his backpack off into the floor. "Okay so I brought my file but the notes are really illegible and inconsistent..."
We sat down on the couch and I laid out his folder on the coffee table. He was right – it was a mess.
"Okay first tip. Spend some more time making your notes neat, because you're gonna be revising from these later on. You should also add to your notes using your textbook – did you bring that?" He shook his head. "Okay, well no worries – just keep it in mind."
He flicked through my old file in awe. "Damn you were like a straight A student!" he said.
"Chemistry was just one of those subjects that just clicked," I admitted. "But I was absolute crap at languages, humanities, maths... we just can't be good at everything, can we? Anyway – first topic, organic. So organic chemistry is the basis of a lot of chemistry you'll learn. In my opinion, it's also the most useful part – you'd be surprised at just how much it comes into daily life."
Luke stared at me, and honestly I wasn't quite sure why. His eyes were all lighty-uppy and he had this subtle pink tint on his acne cheeks.
"You all right Luke?"
He nodded slowly, blinking a couple times. "Can I just borrow your file?" he asked.
"But then what would be the point of me tutoring you? The answers would all be in there."
Then, he smirked, edging slightly closer to me, lips curving cheekily as he said, "Do you remember anything from last night?"
I frowned. "How is that even relevant-"
"I was thinking we could do something else, make better use of our time?"
Was this seventeen year old teenager really trying to flirt with me right now? I sighed, placing my hand gently on his shoulder. "It's not that I don't like you, don't get me wrong, I just don't like you in that way," I explained.
He gave me this blank look. "What?"
"Well uh, the tone of your voice sounded like you were insinuating something..."
All of a sudden he went bright red and covered his face, shutting his eyes and screwing up his face. "Shit I'm so sorry. I was hinting at maybe playing a game of scrabble or something – we were up playing it last night for hours."
And now it was my turn to get embarrassed.
***
cute
:)))