"Why are you taking so long?!"
"I can't find the toilet paper!!"
"It's right next to the toilet seat!"
"I can't- I cnta catch it!" I yelled laughing hysterically at my state.
Luke and I may or may not have drunk a bit too much than we were meant to and now I was sitting on a toilet seat in the bathroom not being able to wipe myself due to the disability of catching a toilet paper.
I heard Luke start laughing again and I joined, standing up from the toilet.
"Luke I can't-" I was yelling not knowing what to do. I reached for the toilet paper and my balance failed so I kicked my head on the bathroom wall.
Well at least now I was close to the paper.
I unrolled the roll and took a piece of the toilet paper, when I was done I barely dressed myself and stumbled out of the bathroom. When I came to the living room Luke was right where I had left him: on the living room floor, laying on his back and laughing while staring at the ceiling.
"Guess what." I said holding my burning red cheeks. An hour after we had started drinking it became too hot and now I was only in my undershirt as well as Luke.
"Wut." he prolonged the word in a funny way and peeked at me.
"I'm a funny drunk too!" I exclaimed and fell to the floor next to him. "I'm also sick." I moaned in frustration and leaned my head on Luke's stomach.
"It's not funny you dumb butt. It's happy." Luke said, ignoring me resting on him. He did tense up but was probably too drunk to do anything about it.
"Oh." I laughed again covering my face in his undershirt.
"Oh my God." I suddenly said in a serious tone, sensing a sick feeling in my stomach enlarge.
"What is it?" Luke asked popping his head up from the floor and tugging his undershirt downwards covering his belly as I accidentally tugged it up.
"I can't go all the way to the bathroom all over again." I cried not really explaining what I mean. I felt like I had a sign on my forehead saying 'oh no I have to pee every ten minutes, do not drink with me, ever.'
"Hold up." he laughed, picked my head up and stood up, walking in the bathroom. I heard some shuffling and then something falling.
"Luke?" I yelled but his name came out sounding like Luek, which made me laugh despite my sickened state.
"Wait!" I heard him yell.
He then came out with a huge plastic bowl that people used to pour water in and then wipe the floors. He put it in my lap and sat next to me again.
"You're a bad drinker." he said and put his hand on the couch right behind me. "You can puke in this if you're sick."
Okay, apparently he got what I was saying. Good.
"Thanks" I whispered, feeling a tad of shame hovering over me. Due to my dumb pigment my cheeks instantly flushed with dark red and I quickly covered them with my cold palms to cool them off.
"How come you're not in a nearly as bad state as I am?" I asked holding on to the bowl like it's my source of balance.
"Experience." was all he said and then we stayed quiet for a few minutes. He was leaning on the couch behind us and I was leaning forwards with the bowl being right under my head in case of an emergency. I felt him observing my face from where he was sitting and I tried to ignore him, focusing on the DVD menu of the movie that had finished a very long time ago.
"It was helping me some time ago-" Luke suddenly started and made me turn back to look at him. He noticed my confused expression and continued. "The smoking. It was helping me to get my mind off of things, but now I'm just addicted."
I stared at him for a couple of seconds, trying to put the pieces together. Concidering my state, this was probably not the best time for me to be having this kind of conversation with someone.
"It's a good step for an addict to admit they're addicted. If you didn't want to admit you probably wouldn't even have a chance to stop." I rambled, saying irrelevant stuff. Luke looked at me with an unreadable expression and I was just waiting for him to start laughing again, but he didn't.
"Anyway. What was it getting your my off of?" I changed the subject quickly, turning myself to him. I sat with my both legs crossed, the bowl still in my lap.
Luke opened his mouth to talk, but before he could, a really bad feeling appeared inside of me and the next thing I know is grabbing that bowl like my life is depending on it.
-
After puking, drinking milk and puking again, eating some chips and drinking a lot of water, I finally felt better. It was now half past three in the morning and Luke and I have never been more awake.
"So" I started, looking at our feet that were spread on the carpet in front of us. I noticed Luke had really long legs and huge feet. It was surprising because even though he was really tall, he wasn't clumsy at all. Or maybe I just didn't know him well enough to tell. "You were saying?" I finally continued after the flow of my thoughts has ended.
He turned his head right and looked at me, tilting his head back to rest it on the couch. That made his Adam's apple pop out and I couldn't help but stare a bit before looking him in the eyes.
"It was helping me get my mind off of someone." he finally said. His voice was low and whispery and I wondered what feeling it was that I recognized in it.
I didn't say anything and hoped he would continue on his own.
"She left." he simply said and looked at the ceiling.
"She left you?" it was me who was whispering now too, looking at him. The sight of Luke so vulnerable, laying on the floor with a slight hangover, looking at the ceiling, his face so relaxed and young looking, so peaceful made me look at him completely differently. I wished he would shoot me his famous jerky smirk, but he didn't. He stayed in the exact same position with the exact same face expression.
"Mhm." he mumbled.
I didn't know what to say so I nodded and leaned against the couch again, copying his position. We laid in silence for a couple of minutes, neither of us saying anything.
"I'm sorry." I finally said. Luke stayed quiet and I assumed that's his way to say 'thank you' or something.
Did Luke just share a personal thing with me? And it so being very personal? I'd feel bad if I didn't say anything back.
"My grandpa died from cancer five years ago." I whispered looking down at my hands. Luke looked at me with surprise in his eyes, like he wasn't expecting me to tell him that.
"Oh." he said in a quiet tone. "I'm sorry."
"He was very important to me because I spent most of my childhood with him. Even more than with my father." I explained and his surprise lowered a bit.
"You call your dad father?" Luke asked and brought his head up from the couch.
"Yeah, I don't really know him like a child should know their father." I tried to explain again and Luke nodded, telling me he got it.
"He had a hard time finding out how to be a dad?" he asked and explained what I was trying to say in just one sentence.
I nodded. I wanted to say something again but then I looked at him and heard a slight snore escaping his mouth. I smiled and rolled my eyes.
"Well you are bad at hangover, Lucas." I said to myself and kept staring at the ceiling.
I was surprised how talkative Luke was. It was the first time we actually had a normal conversation without one of us getting angry or storming outside. It was also the longest time I've seen him not smoking. Maybe he's not so far up his ass like I thought he was. He has problems just like I do and that's what defined his personality.
Sometimes you can't leave the past in the past. Sometimes that past defines your future.
Before I knew it, sun has come up and the whole living room was lit up. I tried to get up from the floor and realized my neck was killing me. Stupid floor and stupid couch, why hadn't I gone to my bedroom to sleep?!
I looked at the wall clock, it was 8am.
I sat on the couch with Luke's head on my left side, his mouth slightly opened and small snores coming out. Suddenly I felt the urge to touch his fluffy, messy hair that was sticking out in all directions, the straight blonde locks catching my eye, but just as I moved my hand closer to his head, his eyes shot open and he stood up faster than I've ever seen anyone stand up.
"SHIT" he yelled grabbing his hair. "What time is it?!"
"It's 8" I said confusedly looking at him.
"Why the fuck didn't you wake me up?!" he yelled. The fright and stress were clear in his eyes.
What the hell did he sleep through?
"What- I-" I stuttered not knowing what to say to him.
"For fuck's sake" he cursed angrily and quickly put on his shoes and a snapback just to disappear outside our flat a few seconds later.
I was looking behind him a few seconds after he's angrily stormed out and I tried to put the pieces together. When no good reasons to why he got so upset and stormed out came up, I gave up and decided to find my phone and call Ashton.
"Heeey!" I heard his chirpy voice greeting me from the other side.
"Hey Ash, I was just wondering if you got any better?" I asked, thankful that I didn't wake him up.
"Yeah um... I kind of quit the job." he ignored my question and I assumed he knew I was going to ask him about work.
"Oh..." I trailed off, confused. "Why?" I asked and now really slapped myself on the forehead. Why did I even pry in Ashton's business, it's not like we're best friends, we're just coworkers. Well, not even that anymore.
"Um... Just cause..." he stuttered and then laughed which made me smile as well. Ashton's laugh has always made me smile, it happened when I first met him and it still happens now.
"You're not working there either though, so that dick of the boss is kind of fucked now." he laughed again.
"Oh, have you called him?" I asked, smiling.
"No, I just didn't come to work a few days in a row when I was supposed to and I got his voicemail saying I'm fired... Which doesn't make sense since I thought I made it pretty clear I quit haha." he rambled quickly, not even taking breaks for breathing.
"So how did you know I don't work there anymore?" I wondered out loud.
"I- What?" I heard him talk to someone who was probably with him. "Hey Layla I have to go, nice hearing from you!" he quickly said.
"Oh, that's okay. Bye." I said and hung up. After that I decided I should go take a walk outside, hoping I'd run into a familiar face and actually find something to do for the day.
I didn't bother changing my clothes so I walked out wearing the same thing I wore to the movies with Calum yesterday. It was a pretty nice day, it was sunny but still a bit cold.
I concluded I should go grocery shopping since we literally didn't have anything healthy to eat, but then again it was way too early for me to think about what I'm going to cook.
Besides, I didn't know what Luke likes since all he apparently eats is fast food so I wasn't going to throw it away.
Instead, I went to a small restaurant/cafe and ordered some soup and meat with salad. When I was done eating I payed the check, went out and started walking along the street to get some fresh air.
I saw a familiar head in the distance and instantly recognized the curls that were his hair.
"Ashton!" I yelled waving at him. His head turned in my direction and he waved back. That's when I noticed he wasn't alone, he was with that red haired guy I bumped into in the mall, the one with the cut lip.
Ashton said something to the guy and then started walking towards me. As he came closer I started getting a clearer view of his face, it revealing his blue eye.
"Oh my God are you okay?" I instantly asked, concerned.
"You should've seen me a week ago." he laughed and shuffled his hair with his fingers.
"Wait-" that's when it got to me. "You weren't sick? You were so beat up you couldn't come to work?" I asked opening my eyes widely.
"Yeah..." he said awkwardly. "Well anyway-" he changed the subject again. "I hear you moved to San Francisco? That's great!" he said giving me his high pitched excited voice.
"Yeah I did... How- Who told you?" I asked suddenly feeling suspicious even though I was sure I was exaggerating.
"Calum." Ashton instantly snapped and scratched the back of his head and then turned back to look at the guy waiting for him.
"Okay um... Well see you later I guess?" I asked awkwardly, noticing Ashton was already uncomfortable turning me down so I cut him the slag.
"Yeah, maybe." he gave me an awkward smile that honestly seemed forced but I ignored it. I said bye and quickly waved to the guy with the red hair so I don't seem rude.
I then turned around and couldn't help but try remembering when did Calum and Ashton actually meet.
__
Q: what do you think Ashton has to do with Calum? And what 'troubles' was Luke talking about?
A/N: sorry this chapter is so boring but I needed to make one where Layla and Luke get kinda closer and Layla actually starts tollerating Luke. From now on the real story is starting and you'll get to see Luke's real side yas!!