Luke's P.O.V.
I run out of the Irwin's house after babysitting Ashton, and into my room, ignoring my moms question of how it went.
I go to my dresser, and pull out the stack of bills that I had saved up from babysitting.
I sit on my bed and count them eagerly.
"Yes!" I cry happily a few minutes later. "Yes yes yes!"
I run down the stairs, shoving the money in my pocket as I go.
"Mom!" I call. "Can you drive me to the music store?"
"Now?" She asks. "I'm cooking dinner. We can go after."
I groan, my mood ruined. "But I want to go now! I finally have enough money for the Aviator Soul and I need to go buy it before Calum and Michael do!"
"Alright fine. Go thank Mrs. Irwin first and then we can go." My mom relents.
"But I already said thank you, before I left!" I say, getting my shoes on.
She gives me a look and I know to shut up and go next door now or else I will not be getting the AS anytime soon.
I knock on the door and a few moments later it opens.
"Lu!" Ashton shrieks happily from the floor.
I crouch down to his height and grin. "Hi Ashy! Did you open the door yourself?"
"Not yet." Mrs. Irwin smiled.
I straightened up. "Oh, uh hi. Um, my mom wanted me to come over and say thanks for paying me, because now I can go buy this guitar I really want."
She smiles. "You earned it. Thanks for watching Ashton. You should bring the guitar over next time you watch him, Ashton loves music."
"Okay, I will!" I smile and wave goodbye.
"Bye Lu!" Ashton raises a hand and waves bye quickly before becoming unbalanced and falls over.
I laugh and set him upright, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Bye Ash. See you tomorrow."
I hand him over to his mom and run back to my house, where my mom waits in the car.
"Now drive!" I say eagerly. She gives me a look and I sigh. "Please."
-
"Yeah, it's so light! Like, it looks heavy but it's not." I collapse onto my bed as I have a three way talk with Mikey and Calum on the phone.
"Dude, I can't believe you finally got it. When can I come over and play it?" Michael asks.
"Yeah, I wanna play it too!" Calum whines.
"Maybe when you two are older." I say, studying my nails and admiring how great they look holding the Aviator Soul.
"We're both older than you!" Mikey protests.
"Sorry, can't hear you over the sound of me playing this amazing guitar." I say and hang up. I slip the AS over my shoulder and tune it. I plug it into its amp, turning the volume all the way up.
As I decide what to play first, my mom
knocks on the door.
"Luke?"
I huff but open the door. "Yeah?"
"Mrs. Irwin's been called down to work an emergency shift, and her husband won't be home for another three hours. Can you watch Ashton quick?"
I sigh, but remember I can bring the AS to their house. "Sure. Tell her I'll be over in a sec."
I pack up the Aviator Soul and quickly head over to the Irwin's.
"Luke! Thank you so much for doing this. Sorry it was such short notice." Mrs. Irwin exclaims as she grabs her purse, halfway out the door already. "Ashton's already eaten dinner so don't worry about that." And she's gone.
I smile and shut the door behind her.
Ashton's in the living room, sucking on his pacifier and staring up at the TV in fascination.
"Hey there Ashy." I sit beside him, laying the AS on the couch. "Whatcha watchin?"
He points to the TV and I nod. "Ah. Good show."
I watch it with him for a little bit. He turns around and notices the guitar case on the couch behind him.
He crawls over to the couch and pulls himself up, patting the case with his hand.
"No no, careful with that Ashy." I say. I pick him up and set him down gently beside it.
He kicks his footie covered feet in excitement. The pacifier falls out of his mouth as he babbles, staring at the guitar in wonder.
I realize I have to go to the bathroom and decide he can stay there for a minute while I go.
I go to the bathroom and shut the door behind me.
Just as I was finishing up, my phone dings.
It was a text from my group chat.
Can i play the AS now? -M
Yeah, quit hogging it :(!-C
Uh, its mine. and i havent even played on it yet! buy ur own -L
Ugh come on! pleeeeeeeeze? -M
*puppy dog eyes* -C
Damn u Calum Hood -.- ok fine come over, im watching Ashton but u guys can stop by quick. -L
Yes!! -M
Woooo thank u!-C
I roll my eyes and put my phone away. I wash my hands and study myself in the mirror. I fix my hair, which had gotten messed up from leaning against the couch.
Thump!
I froze. And then I heard Ashton call out.
"...Luuuu?"
I open the door quickly and run to the living room.
Ashton is laying on the couch, peering over the edge of it. He looks up at me with big, round, hazel eyes, his curly hair falling over his face.
He points down. "Uh oh."
I follow his finger.
The Aviator Soul had fallen out of it's case when it hit the hardwood flooring of the living room.
The case had a dent in it, and there was a large crack running down the new guitar. A tuning knob had broken off, and a string had snapped.
It was broken.
My brand new guitar was broken. And I haven't even played it yet.
I sunk to my knees as I stared at it. "Oh..."
Ashton started crying. "Sowwy Lu! Sowwy sowwy sowwy! Lob you! Lob Lu!"
And I realized as much as my heart broke to see the Aviator Soul broken, it hurt more to see Ashton crying.
I crawled over to him and scooped him up in a tight hug. "Oh, it's okay Ashy. I still love you."
Ashton sniffed into my neck. "Ashy lob Lu."
"It's okay, it's fine." I smiled reassuringly at him. "Lu lobs Ashy."
The front door opened then. "What's up fuckers?" Michael shouted.
I glared down at him. "Dude! Baby present!"
"Oh sorry." He looked guilty. "Forgot."
"Luke...what-what happened to the AS?" Calum asked, staring down at the broken instrument in horror.
Ashton's face crumpled and he sobbed into my shoulder. "Sowwy sowwy sowwy!"
I held him tighter. "Nothing Calum. It's fine Ashy, it's okay baby."
He continued to cry so I went into his room and grabbed his Nanu. "Lu lobs Ashy." I soothed and handed him his blanket. He buried his face into it.
"Lob Lu."
I walked back out to the living room where my friends were trying to fix it.
"Seriously guys, it's fine. Could you put it back in the case?" I asked, taking a seat on the couch.
"But what happened?" Calum asked as Mikey carefully placed the broken guitar and its pieces back into the case.
Ashton sniffed.
"It was my fault." I say. "I wasn't paying attention and it fell off the couch." Which was true.
"Dude are you an idiot! You can't treat a guitar this way!" Calum glared. "Stupid you for breaking it before I could play it."
"You guys can have it. Like, you could probably fix it." I put Ashton on my knee and bounce him up and down. He giggles, his curls bouncing everywhere.
"Seriously?" Mikey gasps. "You're just gunna give this away for free?"
I shrug. "Well it's not like I could sell it."
"I call it!" Calum shouts, tugging on the case.
"No way!" Mikey pulls it back.
Ashton giggles as he watches them. I smile down at him. "Yeah, they are idiots, huh Ash?"
"Diots!" Ashton shouts happily and I laugh as my friends pout.
Later on, they take the guitar away to a shop nearby to see if they could get it fixed.
I walk around, holding a sleepy Ashton.
I wait until he falls asleep to lay him down in his crib.
I cover him with Nanu and shut the lights off.
"Night Ashy." I call softly. "Lob you."
I close the door.