Luke just barely made it to his English class before the bell on Thursday morning, and if he had been just a second later he would have gotten marked tardy.
All week, Luke purposely took an extra long route to get to class today in order to avoid his friends. He was just not interested in talking to them at all because he knew that no matter what he did, his friends would find something to make fun of him for.
So Luke took an extra long time at his locker and just stared into it, pretending that he was searching for something. Then he went into the bathroom and took an extra long time looking at himself in the mirror, trying to flatten out his hair this time instead of sticking it up. Finally, Luke took an extra long time walking down the hallway, going as slow as he could so there was no chance of him running in to Calum or Michael.
"Hey, where were you?" Ashley whispered as Luke sat down, out of breath from running the last few feet down the hallway.
"I just took my time walking from math to here." Luke shrugged. He took out the homework that his teacher was going over and set it down on his desk, even though he already knew that he'd done everything right and didn't need to make any corrections.
"Luke, why are you doing this?" Ashley sighed. She reached out and fixed a piece of Luke's hair that was probably sticking up still.
"I'm changing up my look, I don't think that my hair looked good like that. Ashton wears his hair down flat and all these girls like him, so - " Luke said nervously, trying to search for any reflective surface in the room that he could use to look at himself.
"That's not what I meant." Ashley chuckled quietly. "I was asking why you've been ignoring your friends for the past few days."
"Oh, right." Luke nodded. He shrugged, not seeing why Ashley was thinking so much about this. "I'm just mad at them right now."
Luke hadn't spoken to any of his friends since Saturday night, when he got drunk at Ashton's house and all everyone cared about was a frozen pizza. Luke ignored when Calum and Michael tried to talk to him in the halls and he rejected all of Ashton's calls. At lunch, Luke would go to the library and eat there while playing around on his phone instead of sitting with Calum and his girlfriend like he normally did.
He was sure that he'd make up with them eventually, but for now Luke was enjoying his time alone.
"Why don't you just talk to them about this? I'm sure that they'll apologize to you once you tell them how you feel." Ashley suggested. She always seemed to look at the brighter side when it came to things like this, and Luke thought that it was funny that she'd offer advice like this to him and then not accept any of his own.
"No, that won't work." Luke sighed, shaking his head. "This has happened before, it'll all blow over in a week."
"I just feel bad, Luke. And I hate the fact that you spend your whole lunch period in the library." Ashley said, no longer even attempting to pay attention to what was going on in class. It looked like they were all getting into groups to read again, so Ashley and Luke could probably sit there and talk for the rest of class anyway.
"It's kind of interesting, actually." Luke chuckled nervously. "And one of the librarians is really nice, she always offers me these mints that she keeps behind her desk."
"Do you take them?" Ashley laughed, raising an eyebrow.
"No." Luke said, scrunching up his nose and shaking his head. "I really don't like mint that much."
"I don't really either." Ashley laughed, finding yet another thing in common between her and Luke.
"I wrote a song about mints once." Luke shrugged, picking at the corner of the paper set out in front of him.
"You write songs?" Ashley questioned.
"Yeah, I taught myself how to play the guitar when I was 10." Luke said, shrugging again. "I've written a few songs, but nothing serious."
"Well, yeah, obviously they're not serious if they're about mints." Ashley laughed again, tucking some hair behind her ear.
"It was a pretty deep song, actually." Luke chuckled. "I probably have it buried in the back of my closet, I'll have to look for it the next time you come over and then I can play it for you."
"How'd you teach yourself to play the guitar?" Ashley asked. "I feel like that's a really hard thing to teach yourself, and you were only 10."
"Oh, it wasn't that bad. My grandma gave me a book and a guitar for my birthday that year and I just used it." Luke explained vaguely, leaving out a lot of details. "I was never really interested in video games, so I'd play the guitar instead."
"That's cool." Ashley nodded. "I can play the piano, but that's it."
"Michael plays the guitar too. We've thought about getting a band together or something, but I don't know now." Luke said, a little disappointed that things just weren't working out with him and his friends. Being in a band would be really cool.
"I think you should just talk to your friends and make up." Ashley said, as if she was reading Luke's mind. She always did that, it kind of freaked him out.
"Maybe." Luke shrugged. He wasn't sure that he really wanted to make up with his friends. He didn't want to be all alone, of course, but he didn't want to spend his time with people like that either. Maybe this was a sign, maybe God was trying to tell Luke that it was time to find a new group of people to hang out with.
"Or maybe they'll come and talk to you first." Ashley said, gesturing to Michael as he approached Luke's desk. Or maybe God wasn't trying to tell Luke anything.
"Hey." Michael said, pulling up a chair and setting his papers down on the end of Luke's desk.
Luke just gave Michael a quick nod before taking out his book from his backpack, flipping to a random page and beginning to read.
"What's wrong with him?" Michael asked Ashley, as if he was oblivious to everything that had gone on in the past few days.
"He's obviously ignoring you, dumbass." Ashley groaned. Luke had to hold back a giggle and buried his face deeper into the book, trying not to look like he was so interested in Michael and Ashley's conversation.
"And why would he be doing that?" Michael scoffed. He kicked Luke's foot under the table, trying to get his attention again.
"Because you're an asshole." Ashley snapped. "Michael, just go away."
"Alright, fine. I had something to tell you, Luke." Michael said, trying once again to get Luke to look up at him by kicking his foot.
Luke slowly looked up, showing Michael that he was paying attention. He didn't speak, though, because that would defeat Luke's whole purpose of ignoring his friends.
"Gracie Harrison is having a Halloween party next Friday. Do you remember her? From Freshman year? She's the one that used to blow me in the staff bathrooms during our lunch period." Michael said, not even knowing that Gracie was the one that gave Luke a handjob at Michael's birthday party.
"What does this have to do with Luke?" Ashley asked, clearly wanting Michael to leave. She hated him and was always ranting to Luke about it; she said that he played music too loud and always left his blinds open so she could see right in his room. Luke personally thought that Ashley had a little crush on Michael, but he never brought it up.
"I'm getting there." Michael scoffed. "Gracie wants you to come to her party, Luke, we were just talking about it last period."
Luke just shook his head, not wanting to give Michael a straightforward answer right away. He didn't do very well at parties and he knew that this one wouldn't be any different. Luke would come close to having sex with a girl and something would mess it up, then he'd get drunk and pass out.
"I think you should go, Luke, it would be an easy opportunity for you to finally get laid." Michael laughed.
"He doesn't want to go." Ashley said, trying to shoo Michael away from their desks. Luke went back to looking at the book, his eyes mindlessly flicking over the pages.
"Since when are you the boss of him?" Michael scoffed. "I've known him since elementary school and you just started talking to him a few weeks ago."
"I've known him since elementary school too, dickhead. We were all in the same class together." Ashley rolled her eyes. "Just go away, Luke doesn't want to go to the stupid party."
"If he doesn't go to the party then what's he gonna do?" Michael asked teasingly, knowing that Luke usually had no other plans. "Sit at home with his mom all night?"
Luke really should have taken that chance to speak up and say something, but he couldn't. He was completely frozen, just waiting for Ashley to say something and get him out of this mess. She was usually good at that and Luke trusted her, and all he could do at the moment was wait for her to respond to Michael.
"No, he'll be with me and I'll be sucking his dick. Thanks for inviting him, but he won't be going. Bye." Ashley said quickly, grabbing Michael's papers off of Luke's desk and throwing them at him.
Michael immediately looked at Luke, expecting him to do something. Luke just shook his head and finally opened his mouth to speak. "Bye."
Michael gathered his things up and finally walked away from Luke's desk, back to his seat across the room.
"So after you suck my dick can I finger you?" Luke asked once Michael was gone for sure, turning to Ashley. He had a wide smile on his face now, even though he knew that what he was suggesting would never happen.
"No." Ashley said, glaring at him. "No one is sucking anyone's dick and no one is getting fingered."
"Damn." Luke sighed again. "One day, Ashley, one day."
"Yeah, sure." Ashley scoffed. "Don't go to that party, alright? I have a bad feeling about it."
"Oh, do you have bad vibes again?" Luke asked teasingly, still making fun of Ashley for what she said about Ashton a couple weeks ago.
"They're a real thing, Luke, just wait. One day I'll warn you about something and you'll do it anyway, only to have it all go wrong." Ashley said, seeming very serious about this.
"That happens all the time." Luke shrugged. "Everything I ever do ends up going wrong."
"Aw, sweetie." Ashley sighed, reaching out and rubbing Luke's back.
"I should probably make up with Ashton soon." Luke sighed, leaning forward until his head was resting against his desk.
"I thought you didn't want to?" Ashley asked, a puzzled expression on her face. Luke could see why she was confused, he was going back and forth about this a lot. He just couldn't make up his mind, one second he wanted to drop his friends completely and the next he wanted things to be how they used to be.
"I don't know, I think I should." Luke shrugged, still a little unsure. He had time to think about this, of course, it wasn't like he needed to call Ashton right that second and apologize.
"Maybe we can just talk about things."
"You just have to tell him how you feel, Luke. That's the only way that you can fix this." Ashley said. Luke let out a small laugh again, grabbing his book and covering his face with it.
"If I never make up with Ashton then I'll never see Charlie again." Luke mumbled. He'd been thinking about that a lot all week, and that was the main reason for him suddenly wanting to make up with Ashton. He wanted to see Charlie, and Luke needed Ashton in order to do that.
"Is that seriously all you're worried about?" Ashley scoffed. "You're not worried at all about the fact that you might be friendless for the rest of your life?"
"Hey, I won't be friendless." Luke pouted. "I have you."
"Alright, that's true." Ashley shrugged. "I just don't think it's very smart of you to only try and make up with Ashton so you can have another opportunity to hit on his girlfriend."
"I don't hit on her." Luke said, shaking his head. He was pretty sure that he'd done everything except hit on Charlie.
"Still." Ashley sighed. "If you don't like the way that Ashton treats you then just drop him. You don't need friends like that in your life and you shouldn't try and make things okay again just for her. Please, Luke, just trust me on this."
"You're such a mom." Luke let out a big groan, which quickly turned into a giggle.
"Yeah, this isn't the first time someone's told me that." Ashley chuckled. "I'm apparently very motherly."
"You're gonna be a good mom." Luke said shyly, his cheeks heating up as he spoke.
"Well, I'm not exactly planning on having kids any time soon." Ashley laughed softly, thankfully not finding Luke's comment awkward. She leaned down and rested her head on her own desk as well, so she was looking right into Luke's eyes.
"I would still be friends with you even if you were a teen mom." Luke blurted out, not thinking much before he spoke. He didn't really mean it like that, Luke was just trying to say that he'd stick with Ashley through whatever. He wouldn't be like his asshole friends and stop paying attention to her if things got tough.
"That's...nice." Ashley said slowly, not sure how to respond.
"That's not exactly what I meant." Luke blushed, covering his face with his hands. "I have this problem where my brain and my mouth can't keep up with each other and I just say stuff before I have time to see if they make sense or not."
"It's okay, I get it." Ashley smiled. "I used to know someone who did stuff like that. He wasn't as adorable about it as you are, though."
"Ex-boyfriend?" Luke questioned, already knowing the answer.
"Yeah." Ashley said, rolling her eyes.
"He seems like a jerk." Luke said, making assumptions even though he'd never even met this guy. He knew that Ashley's ex-boyfriend had done something wrong, though, and obviously he was an idiot if he let a girl like Ashley go.
"He wasn't at first." Ashley shrugged, sitting up again. Luke mimicked her actions and sat up as well, bringing his hands back to his hair and trying to fix it again. "Things just got...difficult."
"Difficult is bad." Luke nodded. He didn't really know how to define difficult, since he'd never been in a relationship, but he could try.
"Difficult is bad." Ashley sighed, agreeing with Luke.
"I won't make things difficult, don't worry." Luke said, giving Ashley a big smile.
"You already have made things difficult, Luke." Ashley said, letting out another sigh. She reached over and ran her fingers through Luke's hair again, which had become a habit of hers in the past few days.
"Sorry." Luke shrugged.
"It's not a bad kind of difficult, though. You're okay." Ashley laughed, bringing her hand away from Luke's hair and resting it on her lap again. Luke frowned at the loss of contact, but he didn't say anything.
"Oh, okay." Luke nodded. "Good."
"So, are we doing anything after school?" Ashley asked, a wide smile on her face.
"Um, we?" Luke asked, then cleared his throat, pushing all of his nervous feelings aside. "Yes, actually, you're going to come over and I'm going to finger the fuck out of you."
"Finger the fuck out of me?" Ashley gasped, pretending to be surprised.
"Uh huh." Luke nodded. "Get ready."
"Oh, I don't think I can." Ashley said jokingly, shaking her head. She paused for a moment, glancing around the room. "You know, Luke, I think I'm ready right now."
"R-Right now?" Luke stammered, extremely caught off guard. When he made jokes about doing these things Ashley they were, well, jokes. He never expected her to actually go along with it.
"Yeah, come on. I know a place that we can go and not get caught." Ashley said, grabbing Luke's hand and standing up. "Let's go."
"You're joking." Luke said shakily, staying seated. There was no way that Ashley was actually serious about this, she had to be doing this just to make fun of Luke.
"Okay, fine." Ashley huffed, sitting down again. "I thought that you were going to be a lot more excited that this."
"Oh, trust me. I'm excited." Luke blushed, moving his book from his desk to his lap.
"Oh my God." Ashley giggled, covering her face with her hands.
"Anyway!" Luke said loudly, desperately trying to change the subject. That got the attention of a few kids sitting near them, but they just gave Luke dirty looks and turned around again. "You can come over after school if you want."
"I'm not going to let you finger me." Ashley reminded Luke again, like she was afraid that he'd forgotten.
"I'm not going to ask." Luke shrugged. That was a lie, he'd probably ask about 10 more times over the course of the day.
"Alright, sure." Ashley rolled her eyes playfully and patted Luke on the back a few times.
"We went to the store yesterday and got more ice cream and I was going to make tacos tonight, if you want to stay for dinner." Luke said. He was actually very proud of his trip to the store; he drove (with Liz right there in the passenger seat, of course) and he didn't bump into nearly as many curbs as he usually did.
"You're going to make tacos?" Ashley questioned.
"Yeah, I'm a pretty good cook." Luke shrugged. "My mom taught me how to make a lot of basic meals for myself because when I was in grade school she worked in this dumb office and didn't get home until after dinner. Tacos are, like, my specialty."
"I bet I can make better tacos than you." Ashley challenged, raising one eyebrow at Luke.
"Oh, Ashley." Luke chuckled, shaking his head at her. "We'll see about that."
*•*•*
"Oh my God!" Luke yelled as Ashley parked her car in his driveway. He looked over to the curb in front of his house and saw Ashton's car parked there, which meant that Ashton was inside Luke's house.
"What?" Ashley asked, glancing around outside.
Luke jumped out of the car and ran towards Ashton's, just making sure that it was his. And, yeah, it was definitely his car.
"That's Ashton's car!" Luke yelled, pointing to it.
"And?" Ashley questioned, clearly not seeing the big problem here. Luke ran back over to Ashley and grabbed her hand, clutching onto it as he practically dragged her down the driveway, to the back door.
"He's inside my house somewhere! He probably came to kill me because he knows about all of the sexual fantasies I've had about Charlie." Luke said, his voice dropping down to a whisper. He grabbed his key out of the pocket of his backpack and struggled to open the door, his free hand shaking with how nervous he was.
"How would Ashton know anything about your sexual fantasies?" Ashley asked, still not understanding why this was such a big deal. It was a big deal because Luke knew that Ashton could hurt him if he really wanted to. He may be stupid, but Ashton could probably knock Luke out with one punch.
"I told Michael about a couple." Luke shrugged. He finally got the door unlocked and slowly led Ashley inside.
"You're an idiot." Ashley mumbled, but she followed closely behind Luke as they walked through the kitchen. (They stopped to grab the tub of ice cream and two spoons). No one was in the kitchen, but Luke knew that Ashton had to be hiding somewhere else. Like, under his bed with a knife.
"Just be quiet, maybe we can lock ourselves in my room before anyone notices that we're here." Luke whispered, quickly glancing over his shoulder.
But before Luke and Ashley could make it back to his room he heard it. He heard the laugh, her laugh, coming from his mom's office down the hall.
"Charlie's here." Luke said, stopping dead in his tracks. Ashley bumped into Luke's back, staggering backwards a little.
"Do you have, like, Charlie-senses? Like spidey-senses?" Ashley asked. Luke handed Ashley the ice cream and pushed passed her, quickly walking in the other direction down the hall.
"I heard her laugh." Luke said, rolling his eyes. He'd know Charlie's laugh anywhere, it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever heard and Luke knew that there was no other possibilities. Charlie was in his house.
"You're crazy." Ashley muttered under her breath, following Luke into the office.
Sure enough, when they entered Liz's office they found Ashton and Charlie in there as well, the three of them crowded around an old photo album.
(Luke hated that photo album. It was full of every single one of his baby pictures and Luke was embarrassed by all of them. He thought that he'd hid the album in the back of his closet, but knowing his mom she probably went and searched for it again).
"Mom!" Luke yelled as they walked in the room, his hands on his hips. "Is this what you do when I'm at school? You invite my friends over and have them look at my baby pictures?"
"Oh, I didn't invite them!" Liz laughed, continuing to flip through the pages of the photo album.
"Yeah, we came all on our own!" Ashton giggled. "Wow, Luke, you were kinda cute as a baby."
"Yeah, I know." Luke scoffed. He folded his arms across his chest, now more frustrated than scared.
"I love this one!" Charlie laughed, "Your hair looks so cute, Luke, come see!"
"Oh, really?" Luke blushed, nervously looking down at his feet and momentarily forgetting that he was mad at Ashton and Charlie.
"Luke." Ashley whispered, nudging him in the side with her elbow and reminding him that he was upset.
"Hey, I'm mad at all of you!" Luke huffed, stomping his foot on the ground. He turned to Ashton, who was still a giggling mess over these pictures. "What are you doing here?"
"We just wanted to come by and check on you, buddy, I thought that something was wrong." Ashton chuckled. He walked over to where Luke was standing and slung and arm over his shoulders, like they were the best of friends.
"Buddy." Luke grumbled, unamused with Ashton's weird attempt to be so friendly.
"So what's up with you, Luke?" Ashton asked. Charlie was still sitting with Liz and looking through all of Luke's embarrassing baby pictures. Ashley was hiding behind Luke, probably hoping to go by unnoticed. Luke just wanted to disappear.
"Nothing's up. You're an asshole so I just haven't talked to you in a while." Luke shrugged.
"Oh, Luke, you're so funny!" Ashton let out a fake laugh and slapped Luke hard on the back. "Can I talk to you out in the hall for a second?"
"Oh no." Luke said, shaking his head. "That's okay, Ashton, I think we can just stay in here."
Ashton laughed again and grabbed Luke by the wrist, dragging him out of the room. Luke tried to reach out for Ashley, hoping that she'd come to his rescue, but she just stood there.
"Tell my mother I love her." Luke whispered, taking one last glance around the room before Ashton took him into the hallway.
As soon as they were far enough away from the office Ashton turned and slammed Luke up against the wall.
"Oh, Ashton, I didn't know you liked me in this way." Luke said, trying to laugh rather than show how scared he actually was. Like he said, Ashton could knock Luke out with one punch.
"Shut up." Ashton scoffed, rolling his eyes.
"I'm confused." Luke said softly, not knowing what else to do. He really thought that Ashton was going to kill him.
"What did you do?" Ashton asked, keeping a tight grip on Luke's shoulders so he couldn't move.
"I'm not really sure." Luke mumbled. "Can you tell me?"
"Why does Charlie keep asking about you? What did you say to her?" Ashton interrogated. Luke could swear that his heart skipped a beat when he heard that Charlie had asked about him. She actually cared enough to ask about where Luke had been.
"I-I don't remember saying anything specific to her..." Luke stammered. He really didn't remember what he talked about with Charlie last weekend at Ashton's house, he was took drunk to even know what he was saying.
"Well she thinks you're funny and nice and cute and I don't like that at all." Ashton snapped. "So you better knock it off, Luke, or we're going to have a problem."
"She thinks I'm cute?" Luke whispered, unable to hide the smile creeping its way onto his face.
"Yeah, apparently she does." Ashton said, glaring at Luke. He finally took a step back and folded his arms over his chest, giving Luke some room to breathe.
"I'm not going to try and steal your girlfriend, dude, I swear." Luke said shakily. He wasn't sure if he was telling the truth or not, since he did have plans to get together with Charlie eventually, but for now Luke was just going to keep quiet.
"You better not. We're going to have a big problem if you do, Luke, so you better watch out." Ashton said sternly, and that was the last thing he said before turning away from Luke and heading back towards the office.
Luke slowly followed Ashton down the hall, not saying anything else. He didn't know how he was supposed to make this better, Ashton was obviously upset about this and wasn't going to listen to anything that Luke had to say.
When they entered the office again Luke was surprised to see Ashley standing where Ashton had been just a few minutes before. Her and Charlie were laughing together over Luke's baby pictures, and he felt like his whole world was crumbling down around him. Now he had two hot girls looking at embarrassing photos of him.
"Ashley!" Luke yelled from the doorway, trying to get her attention again.
"Luke, you were the cutest kid ever!" Ashley giggled, pointing to another picture.
"Look at him with his little blanket!" Charlie laughed, flipping some hair over her shoulder as Liz turned the page of the photo album.
"Yeah, I know. I'm adorable." Luke rolled his eyes again. "Ashley, come on."
"Oh, okay." Ashley nodded, getting up and walking over to Luke. She turned back to Charlie and waved. "It was nice seeing you again!
Luke pulled Ashley down the hall and into his bedroom, slamming the door shut behind him. He grabbed the ice cream from Ashley and opened it up, taking a spoon as well.
"You really were super cute as a baby." Ashley said, reaching up and pinching one of Luke's cheeks.
"Yeah." Luke shrugged. He turned away from Ashley and made his way to the edge of his bed, taking a seat and setting the tub of ice cream on his lap.
"What happened with you and Ashton?" Ashley asked, finally realizing why Luke was acting like this.
"He just - I just - I don't know why - Ugh." Luke struggled to find the words to say so he just stopped talking all together and shoved more ice cream into his mouth.
"Aw, Luke." Ashley sighed, taking a seat next to him. "Tell me what he said."
"Well, Charlie thinks I'm funny and nice and cute." Luke mumbled. That was really the only thing that he could think about, Ashton's words kept replaying over and over in his head.
"Luke, that's great!" Ashley said enthusiastically, using the other spoon to take some ice cream from Luke.
"No it's not." He pouted. "She thinks I'm cute but I can't do anything about it because Ashton's gonna kill me if I make a move."
"He won't kill you." Ashley chuckled through a mouth full of ice cream.
"He'll find a way to." Luke shrugged. Ashton was probably going to come after Luke and murder him and no one would even care, not even Liz. She'd thank Ashton for finally murdering her pathetic excuse for a son.
"I'm sorry, sweetie." Ashley sighed, rubbing Luke's back. "Ashton's a jerk."
"I know!" Luke whined. "He's an asshole and no one realizes because he has a pretty face! He gets whatever he wants and I'm really sick of it."
"I know, I know, it sucks." Ashley nodded, letting Luke lean over and rest his head on her shoulder.
"I wanna go make tacos but I'm afraid to leave my room again." Luke groaned, grabbing some more ice cream for himself. "It's not fair."
"It's okay, Luke, we'll make them when they leave." Ashley assured him.
"I bet that if I was hot I'd get whatever I want." Luke sighed, his mind lost in thoughts of just how great life would be if he was cool and popular like Ashton. "Charlie would like me if I was hot."
"You are hot." Ashley said slowly, almost like she wasn't are if she should say it or not.
"You don't have to lie - "
"No, Luke, I mean it. I know that you don't think this because you're so insecure, but a lot of girls think you're really cute." Ashley explained. Luke still thought that she was just saying this to make him feel better, and she wasn't actually telling the truth.
"Yeah, right." Luke said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. He didn't believe Ashley at all, he was practically invisible to girls.
"There's this girl in my World History class that was asking about you the other day, and all of my friends are super jealous that I get to cuddle and watch Netflix with you all the time." Ashley continued, trying again to lift Luke's spirits a little more.
"You tell your friends about us?" Luke blushed.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" Ashley asked.
"They all think you're really cool, Luke, and you'd probably be a total player if you didn't approach girls so awkwardly."
"I don't approach girls awkwardly..." Luke trailed off, knowing that he was lying.
"Yeah, honey, you do." Ashley sighed. "When you came up to me at Calum's party a few weeks ago the first thing you said was that the girl standing next to me was hot."
"I did not!" Luke protested.
"Yeah, you did." Ashley said, running her fingers through Luke's hair again. "But it's okay, I thought it was cute."
"Yeah, and then you rejected me when I tried to have sex with you." Luke pouted.
"For a good reason!" Ashley exclaimed. Luke hoped that he hadn't started another argument, because he knew that when Ashley got started on these things it was hard for her to stop. "I'm sorry about that, by the way. I kind of freaked out."
"Kind of?" Luke scoffed. He sighed, not wanting to continue this. "It's alright, I guess."
"Uh huh." Ashley nodded again, and then the two of them fell into a comfortable silence.
Luke closed his eyes and let Ashley play with his hair while he laid his head across her lap, completely peaceful for once. He'd almost forgotten that Ashton was in his house.
"Can I finger you while we wait for Ashton to leave?" Luke broke the silence, looking up hopefully at Ashley.
"No, Luke," Ashley laughed loudly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "You can't, I'm sorry."
"That's okay." Luke nodded. He sat up all the way again and ate some more ice cream, both of them sitting in silence for another few minutes.
"Can we watch a movie or something?" Ashley asked after a long silence, reaching across the bed for Luke's laptop.
"Yeah, but don't open that just yet." Luke said tiredly, shaking his head. "I haven't cleared my internet history in a while."
"Oh, alright." Ashley nodded slowly, letting out a nervous laugh. She handed Luke his laptop and let him start it up on his own.
"I'll choose the movie this time because you got to pick last time." Luke mumbled as he opened up Netflix.
"I only picked because all of your suggestions were stupid." Ashley scoffed. She moved backwards on the bed, getting into a more comfortable position.
"I thought it would be funny to watch that Justin Bieber movie!" Luke defended himself, not seeing anything wrong with wanting to watch the Justin Bieber concert movie. Luke moved back towards Ashley and cuddled up next to her, grabbing some extra blankets for himself.
"No, Luke." Ashley rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "Just... No."
"I wonder if Taylor Swift has a movie..." Luke trailed off, his eyes focused on the computer screen.
"She probably does." Ashley shrugged. "If Justin Bieber can have a movie then I'm sure Taylor Swift can too."
"Taylor Swift is awesome, of course she'd have a movie." Luke said, rolling his eyes again. He sighed and passed the laptop over to Ashley, letting her pick the movie.
"You just think she's hot." Ashley laughed, scrolling through a list of movies in search of the perfect one.
"No, her music is great too!" Luke insisted. "Her new album is awesome, have you listened to it yet?"
"Yes, Luke, I listen to it every time we're in the car together." Ashley groaned. She finally selected a movie and positioned the laptop on both of their laps, so it was in the middle of them.
"You love it, just admit it." Luke teased, poking Ashley's cheek again. She hated when Luke did that so he purposely tried to annoy her.
"Stop it." Ashley said, slapping Luke's hand away from her.
"You stop it." Luke snapped and slapped Ashley's hand back, and within seconds the two of them were slapping each other's hands back and forth.
"Knock knock." A voice suddenly interrupted them and Luke's bedroom door opened slowly. Charlie poked her head out from around it and gave them a big smile, shyly stepping into the room. "Hi, sorry if I'm interrupting something."
"Oh, hey." Luke said quickly, sitting up straight and knocking the laptop over. "You're not interrupting anything."
"Oh, good." Charlie laughed nervously. "I just - I just wanted to come in and say that I'm sorry for coming over uninvited and hanging out with your mom for a while. It was Ashton's idea."
"It's really not a big deal at all." Luke giggled. He could already feel his face getting red and he was afraid to look over at Ashley because he knew that she'd be laughing at him.
"Good, good. I was worried that you were going to freak out. Ashton says you do that a lot..." Charlie said, twisting the ends of her hair between her fingers.
"Yeah, I do." Luke nodded, glancing quickly at Ashley. "I freak out a lot, don't I?"
"Yeah." Ashley said blankly.
"Where's Ashton?" Luke asked, trying to keep up the conversation with Charlie. He didn't want her to leave just yet.
"He's in the bathroom." Charlie said, looking over her shoulder to see if he was coming. "We're getting ready to leave soon, so we won't bother you any more."
"It's fine, really, you weren't a bother." Luke lied. He fixed his hair again, using the reflection of his laptop screen as a mirror. "Are you and Ashton doing anything tonight?"
"We're going out for dinner. Ashton said he was going to take me somewhere nice." Charlie said, a big smile returning to her face. Luke was sad again because he knew that Charlie really liked Ashton, and she'd probably never look like that when she talked about Luke. "We haven't done anything like that in a while, so I'm pretty excited."
"That sounds like fun." Ashley said, finally speaking up. "Are you and Ashton okay now? Things seemed a little tense when I came over to pick up Luke last weekend."
"Oh yeah, we're great." Charlie nodded, a smile still plastered on her face. Luke couldn't tell if she was faking this or not. "We fight like that all the time but we always make up right after, it's no big deal."
"You guys have been fighting a lot lately." Luke added. Ashley reached over and smacked him on the back of the head, silently telling him to shut up.
"Yeah, I know. Things have been kind of rough lately, but we're alright." Charlie sighed, giving a small shrug. "Ashton's just been kind of...different, you know? He's going through some family stuff right now and sometimes he just takes it out on me."
Luke nodded, he knew what Charlie meant. He'd known Ashton for a few years and could definitely tell that something had recently changed. Ashton had always been pretty dumb and kind of an asshole, but never to this extent. Luke knew that something was up, but he never bothered to ask.
Ashley opened her mouth to say something else but before she could speak Ashton walked in the room, seeming a lot more calm since the last time Luke had seen him.
"Hey." He smiled, wrapping his arms around Charlie's waist from behind. Ashton left a quick kiss on her cheek before resting his head on Charlie's shoulder, looking towards Luke.
"Are you ready?" Charlie asked, looking up at Ashton. Luke could just tell by the way that she looked at him that Charlie and Ashton were totally in love. It sucked.
"Yep." Ashton nodded, pulling away from Charlie and taking her hand in his. "We're going out to eat, do you guys want to come with?"
Charlie turned towards Ashton and gave him a puzzled look, obviously confused because he'd told her that they'd go out alone tonight.
"Oh, yeah, I guess." Luke said, already beginning to get out of bed. He never really did no to an opportunity to hang out with Charlie a little more, and Luke was glad that Ashton had asked.
Ashley let out a groan and grabbed Luke by the collar of his shirt, pulling him back into bed.
"We're fine, actually." She said, looking straight at Charlie and smiling. "Thanks for inviting us, though."
"Yeah, I guess we have plans." Luke said quickly, not wanting to upset Ashley any more.
"Alright. See you guys later." Ashton smiled, leading Charlie out of the room and down the hall.
"Bye, it was nice talking to you Charlie!" Luke gave her a small wave and smiled, making a point not to say anything directly to Ashton.
"Bye, see you later!" Ashley called after them, and as soon and they were gone she turned to Luke and glared at him. She slapped him hard on the shoulder. "You're such an idiot."
"I didn't even do anything." Luke pouted, folding his arm across his chest.
"She obviously wanted to spend time with Ashton tonight and you almost ruined it all!" Ashley huffed, grabbing the laptop again and positioning it on their laps once more. "Boys are so stupid, I swear to God."
"Ashton invited us to come! I wasn't going to just flat out say no!" Luke protested. "Besides, I want to spend time with Charlie too."
"Charlie just got done telling us how excited she was to go out alone with Ashton and you were willing to ruin that just so you could sit and stare at her from across a table for a few hours." Ashley said, clarifying for herself. She gave Luke a disgusted look and then turned back to the computer.
"I-I just like her a lot." Luke said softly.
"And I don't know why!" Ashley groaned. She paused the movie again and pushed the laptop off of her, like she no longer wanted to watch it. "You know that she has a boyfriend and you know that you'll never have a chance with her, so someone's I just wonder why you even bother!"
"I can't control who I like and don't like." Luke shook his head, wishing that Ashley would just stop yelling at him. He made a mistake, so what, she didn't need to be so mean.
"I really don't get it, Luke, you barely even know her." Ashley grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I barely know you." Luke said. He gave up on trying to argue with Ashley and decided to just crawl under the blankets and cover his head, hiding himself away from her.
"Luke." Ashley groaned, crawling under the covers after him. "That's totally different."
"No it's not." Luke said, trying to ignore the fact that Ashley was really close to him. "We're in bed together."
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean anything." Ashley shrugged.
"We're fighting like a married couple." Luke added, feeling the need to prove his point more.
"Married couples don't fight about things like this." Ashley argued.
"Ugh, I'm going to sleep." Luke groaned, covering his face with his hands. "Wake me up when I'm not such a loser."
"Luke, you're not a loser." Ashley groaned again, poking Luke's stomach to try and get his attention.
"Yes I am. Let's not argue about this anymore." Luke mumbled, his mouth still covered with his hands. "Let's just sleep."
"I'm not tired. It's only, like, 4 o'clock." Ashley giggled, poking Luke again.
"Then just cuddle me and make it all better. Maybe give me a blowjob or something. I don't know, just make me feel better." Luke mumbled, reaching out and pulling Ashley closer to him.
"Alright." Ashley sighed, snuggling up next to Luke and getting into a more comfortable position.
"I'm so tired all of a sudden." Luke whined. This wasn't the first time that this had happened to him, sometimes he'd get home from school and be perfectly fine and then out of nowhere he's grow tired and fall asleep for a few hours.
"You can take a nap, it's alright." Ashley said. "It's still early, you can sleep and then we'll make dinner and finish our movie when you wake up."
"Yeah, I will. You're so nice." Luke whispered, running his hand up and down Ashley's back. "You shouldn't be this nice to me."
"Yeah, I know." Ashley said jokingly.
"I can't breathe." Luke mumbled and threw the covers off of them, but didn't change the position he was in with Ashley. He let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes, suddenly exhausted. "We can watch our movie later, okay?"
"Okay." Ashley nodded, her head resting against Luke's chest. "Your heart is beating so fast."
"Yeah, I know." Luke whispered. "It does that."
"Are you alright?" Ashley asked, but she sounded too tired to really be concerned.
"I will be." Luke nodded. He played with the ends of Ashley's hair again, twisting his fingers around the long strands. "Someday."
"Good." Ashley said, nodding as well.
"You're so nice to me." Luke mumbled, barely even able to keep his eyes open now.
"Not really." Ashley said softly, probably just not wanting to admit that she really was the nicest friend that Luke had.
"You're so...nice." Luke sighed, finally letting himself drift off to sleep.
-
SOMETHING WILL ACTUALLY HAPPEN IN THE NEXT CHAPTER OMG IM SO SORRY FOR ALL OF THESE BORING FILLERS