LUKE USHERS ME TO his car a few blocks away and helps me inside, turning the heating system on once he climbs in beside me, though he doesn't begin driving.
"What happened?" He asks, voice all soft and gentle again, as if I'll break if he speaks too loudly.
"He just..." I run through the events of the night in my mind, contemplating what exactly I should and shouldn't tell Luke. Why was I even telling him anything? Luke was supposed to be my enemy. But would enemies pick you up in the middle of the night? Would they hug you when you're upset? "He was so different."
"How so?" Luke asks, and for some reason that I could not find I felt compelled to tell him.
"The way he acted, mainly," I explain. "His friends were... awful. And I went upstairs to have a break from it all and he followed me up, and..."
"And what?"
I look up at him, at those blue eyes that I suddenly felt more trusting about than I ever had, and it's like the words tumble from my lips. "We were kissing and he started to try and take my dress off... and I tried to stop him, and he wouldn't... and..."
"Rory," Luke's expression quickly shifts from empathetic to concerned and even angry as I speak.
"Nothing happened," I assure him, pushing my hair back from my damp face. "I told him to stop and he called me a prude and got mad when I called him out on it. So I left."
Luke watches me in silence for a moment, his jaw tight and his expression hard. "Fucking asshole," he finally says, shaking his head in apparent anger.
All of a sudden I feel as though I've overreacted to the situation at hand. Nothing actually happened between us, and it wasn't particularly clear that I was trying to stop him from undressing me -- perhaps Ashton misread the situation. That kind of thing happens a lot, right? There was no need for any fuss to be made about the night. It was something I simply wanted to forget about and move on from.
"I think he was just really drunk," I blurt out, wiping up my tears and fixing my hair for the umpteenth time.
"Rory," Luke casts me a concerned glare, shaking his head very slowly at me. "It doesn't matter if he's stumbling drunk or completely sober. That kind of behaviour is not acceptable."
"I mean, I've never seen him act like that before," I continue, doing my best to offer Ashton the benefit of the doubt. After all, he had always treated me with the utmost respect.
"Just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean it's never happened," Luke says, and as much as I didn't want to admit it I knew that he had never been so right about anything before.
I nod silently, unable and unwilling to say anymore about the night. All I wanted now was to go home to my own bed and sleep. I sit back against the passenger seat, letting my hands untangle themselves from one another and allowing my body to relax.
"Why do you care so much?" I blurt the words out before I can manage to think them over or control them.
Luke's hand drops from where it was about to start the ignition and he turns slightly to face me. His expression appears somewhat nervous, and I know almost instantly that I've caught him off guard -- in fact, I even managed to catch myself off guard.
"I don't," is his immediate answer, though I shake my head to instantly deny the proposal.
"That's not true," I tell him. His blue eyes flick up to me, warning and wary. "You wouldn't have come all the way here in the middle of the night if you didn't."
"Even I wouldn't leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere," Luke quips, a dramatic scoff escaping his lips in an attempt to dismiss the claims.
"Are you kidding?" I argue with a light chuckle. "That is a classic Luke Hemmings move."
"I don't care about you, Rory," Luke snaps, his tone and demeanour now defensive. "I care about Calum. And if something happened to you and I could've helped prevent it... well, Calum would never forgive me. I couldn't care less."
I watch Luke for a moment as he starts the car, his jaw tight and his eyes hard and angry. I don't quite know whether or not to believe what he says. On one hand, the way he acted when he arrived tonight was nothing but gentle and caring. However, he was right in saying that Calum would never forgive him if something happened to me that he could have stopped.
Part of me wants to continue arguing with him -- to rile him up to the point where he simply blurts out whatever the truth may be -- though I know that it's been a long night, and whatever the reason was that he came all this way to help me, I was simply just glad that he did.
xxx
Not a word is spoken between us for the entire half hour ride until Luke pulls into our driveway.
"Luke," I utter his name and he turns to face me instantly. "Thank you."
"It's nothing," he shakes his head nonchalantly, flicking off the ignition.
I reach over and lay my hand on his arm gently. Luke's gaze snaps down to where our touches meet in apparent horror, then up to meet my eyes, his own seemingly confused and surprised. I swallow nervously and ignore his expression.
"It's not nothing," I tell him, offering a small smile of gratitude. "You really helped me out tonight."
Luke swallows visibly and slowly pulls his arm from my relaxed hold. "Yeah well, just don't go spreading it around campus, will you?"
"Why not?" I ask, confused. Luke Hemmings was exactly the type of person that would love bragging to the world about being a knight in shining armour.
"I can't have anyone thinking that we might actually be friends now, can I?" He whispers, a mischievous smirk tugging at the corners of his lips.
I let out a small chuckle, though inside I feel my heart drop slightly at his words. It was in moments like these, where Luke was funny and caring, that I almost longed for a friendship with him. I wasn't completely blindsided by my hatred for him -- I knew that if my brother saw something in him that there must be something there worth cherishing, but every time Luke revealed what appeared to be his true self to me, it was gone within a heartbeat and replaced by the ugly, nasty person that I had always known and hated.
"Of course not," I respond in almost a whisper.
I don't wait for Luke to respond before I unbuckle my seat belt and climb out of the car, heading straight for the front door. I hear his car door close behind me, followed by an array of footsteps, but before he can catch up I am inside the house and speeding up the stairs in a desperate attempt to avoid him, left only with confusion as to why, all of a sudden, I cared so much about what Luke says.
xxx
I wake up the following morning feeling like my mind is clouded by fog.
The memories of what happened last night trickle back in slowly at first, and then all at once as I remember Ashton's horrific behaviour. I let out a long sigh and force myself out from underneath the comfort of my duvet, not bothering to check my appearance before I make my way downstairs.
To my delight, it appears as though neither of the boys have woken from their slumber as of yet, meaning that I have the peace and quiet of the kitchen for breakfast. I pull two slices of bread from a plastic packet and drop them into the toaster, pressing the lever down and turning back to the pantry in search of condiments while it cooks.
When it's done, I carefully whip the toast out and drop it onto a plate, lathering both slices in Nutella and taking a seat at the kitchen bench. In the quiet, I am once again drawn back to the events of last night. I still can't quite believe just how different the Ashton I dealt with last night was from the one that I was beginning to become incredibly fond of. What had caused such a jarring change in behaviour? Was it the alcohol? Was it his odd friends? Perhaps a combination of both?
Whatever it was, I didn't like it, and I was not looking at all forward to seeing him at any point in the near future. Just as I begin taking a bite of my second slice of toast, I hear my brother's voice and a chorus of loud thumps as he and Luke descend the stairs and waltz into the kitchen.
That was the other issue of the previous night -- I had just about no idea what to make of Luke coming to my rescue in the middle of the night. Even more confusing was his gentle and kind demeanour throughout -- hell, he even held me as I cried. Regardless, he managed to completely soil the experience by assuring me rather avidly that he didn't care for me in the slightest.
"Morning, Rory!" Calum chirps happily, pressing a light kiss to my cheek as he skips past me on his journey to the fridge. "How was the party?"
I eye Luke for a moment, silently thanking him for not repeating any of last night's events to Calum. "Uneventful," I say, shoving my mouth full of toast before I decide to blurt anything out by accident.
"Does that mean good, bad, mediocre?" Calum presses me further. He whips out a carton of milk and drops it on the counter beside me. "Give me something to work with here."
"Good," I lie, shoving the last section of toast in my mouth and jumping up from the counter so as to avoid any more questions.
To my surprise, Calum seems easily satisfied with my response and begins pouring two bowls of cereal, presumably for himself and Luke. "Speaking of last night," he begins, looking up at Luke. "Where did you sneak off to in the middle of the night?"
I drop my plate in the sink in surprise, the porcelain making a large crash sound against the metal. I turn to face the two boys, trying my best to keep a somewhat straight face. "Sorry," I squeak.
They both ignore me, eyes on a quizzical-looking Luke.
"What do you mean?" He asks, though it is blatantly evident in his face that he knows precisely what Calum means.
"I heard you leave in my car," he insists.
"I was..." Luke trails off, his blue eyes wide and panicked and wandering to meet my own. I simply stare back at him, shaking my head ever so slightly in an attempt to tell him to keep my secret. "Um..."
A gasp suddenly escapes Calum's lips and he smacks his hands loudly down on the marble bench, rising up from the seat in utter shock. I stare back at Luke in fright -- this is it. He's connected the dots. He knows what happened.
"You sly dog," Calum says, shaking his head across at a terrified Luke. "You were with Cara Waters, weren't you?!"
"I--" Luke begins, almost appearing as though he is about to deny it, but before he can say anything Calum lets out a loud cackle.
"Dude, that's awesome, man," Calum congratulates him with a friendly clap on the back.
"Thanks," Luke laughs awkwardly, and I can feel the pressure evaporating from my chest as he does so. That was far too close a call for my liking.
I look up at Luke, mouthing a 'thank-you' for covering for me, and he gives a subtle nod in response as Calum rambles on and on about Cara Waters. I slip past the boys and begin making my way up the stairs, ready to jump back into bed to watch Netflix for the rest of the day when Calum calls up to me.
"Rory, we're leaving in half an hour for practice!" He yells up at me, still leaning across the bench with his head cradled in his palm.
I stop in my tracks and turn back, gnawing nervously at my lip before saying, "Um, I don't think I'll come today."
"What?" Calum stands up straight now, frowning up at me. Luke turns around and does the same, though his more sympathetic expression reveals that he is understanding of why I don't want to show up. "You have to come."
"I'm not even a part of the band," I remind him.
"But we need someone to watch and give feedback!" Calum steps around Luke and strides to the bottom of the stairs, his expression confused and somewhat hurt.
"You guys never even listen to my feedback!" I retort. I knew that Calum only wanted me there as a comfort, but I couldn't bring myself to face Ashton again so soon after last night's events.
"We do!" Calum assures me, whipping around to Luke for reassurance. "We always take what she says into account, right?"
Luke shifts uncomfortably, avoiding my eye as he nods slightly. "Yeah, we do."
"See! Even Luke says so!" Calum exclaims, his arms flailing about as he turns back to face me. I send Luke a hard glare, but he avoids my eye. "Please come, Rory."
I let out a long sigh. I really don't want to face Ashton again, but I know that my brother is far more important than whatever stupid feud I had with him. Besides, I would have to see Ashton eventually -- most likely at school on Monday. So, after a moment of contemplation, I nod my head.
"Fine. I'll come."