"Are you guys doing anything later?" Michael asked. We were on our way to school, and Michael was finally walking with us again after giving up on trying for Ashton's attention any longer. I felt bad for him, but I think we all saw it coming. Ashton was only using Michael to get closer to me.

"Um, yeah. I'm busy." Luke said quickly, looking down at the ground as he walked.

"I have a ton of homework to do." I added. I wasn't sure what Luke was doing later, but I wasn't sure I needed to know. Luke may have been feeling better last weekend, but now he was back to his regular sad self.

"Hey Luke, are you alright?" Michael asked.

"I'm fine." Luke mumbled. He grabbed my hand and intertwined our fingers, pulling me closer to him as we walked down the street.

"Are you sure? You've been - " I started to speak, but Luke cut me off.

"I've been acting weird lately, haven't I?" Luke snapped. Michael and I both stopped walking and turned to face Luke.

"She was just asking!" Michael said, throwing his hands up in the air. "You know, you drive Stella crazy when you act like this."

I sent a glare to Michael before looking back at Luke, who's face was twisted into a mix of anger and confusion.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"She hates seeing you upset like this. You get in these moods where no one knows what's going on and treat Stella like shit just because that's how you feel. It may not bother you but it really bothers me." Michael explained.

Luke sighed, and looked back at me apologetically. "I have a lot going on right now."

It was true that Luke had a lot going on in his life, but everything that Michael said made sense as well. Lately Luke had been acting so distant and rude that I didn't even want to talk to him anymore. I wanted to help him, but he wasn't letting me.

"Well that doesn't mean you need to act like such an asshole. Stella wants to help you and you hardly let her in." Michael continued. He crossed his arms over his chest, a slight scowl set on his face.

"I'm not acting like an asshole!" Luke shouted. "Stel understands what I'm going through, she gets it."

"And I get it too, Luke. But you've been acting like a real dick lately and you won't open up to anyone about it. We're just trying to help." Michael said, and all I could do was nod in response.

"I don't want anyone's fucking help!" Luke flinched. He dropped my hand and stepped back from both of us, holding his hands up like he was surrendering.

"Luke.." I reached out for him again, but he only backed father away from me.

"You obviously need some." Michael scoffed.

"You don't know anything about me, Michael. Just stop talking before you get yourself into even more shit." Luke spat, and with that he stormed off, leaving Michael and I standing in a very confused state on the side of the street.

-

"Hey, where's Luke?" A voice came from behind me. I looked up, seeing Ashton staring down at me. He pulled up a chair to our lunch table and sat beside me.

"What are you doing here?" Michael asked, glaring at Ashton. He was in a bad mood today, ever since his argument with Luke on the way to school.

"I just wanted to say hi, see what's up with you guys." Ashton shrugged. He leaned forward and stole a fry off of Michael's lunch tray. I expected him to take them back from Ashton, but he let him have it.

"Nothing's up." Michael snapped, slouching back in his chair with his arms crossed.

"Luke's having a few issues right now." I answered Ashton's first question, finally speaking to him. We hadn't talked since the day we broke up.

"Oh, right. Those issues." Ashton's eyebrows raised and he let out a small laugh.

"What?" Michael leaned forward once more, questioning exactly what Ashton meant.

Ashton scratched the back of his neck and sighed. "I know a lot more about Luke than you all think." He shrugged.

"What do you mean?" I asked this time. I didn't see how Ashton could possibly know anything about Luke, I was the only person that was supposed to know things about him. That was what was so special about Luke and I, the fact that he told me things he couldn't tell anyone else.

"I know all about his mom beating him, and how's he's super bipolar," Ashton paused. "And how suicidal he is."

"He's what?" Michael gasped, falling back into his chair.

"H-how do you know that?" I stammered, getting seriously scared about all of this. Ashton and Luke hardly knew each other, there was no way he could know this.

"I'm dating his ex-girlfriend." Ashton shrugged once more.

I knew I should have been surprised, or even mad, that Ashton already had a new girlfriend when we only broke up a few weeks ago, but I was more startled than anything. Startled that Luke told all of this to Heather, startled that Ashton was even dating her anyway. I was startled that Luke's ex-girlfriend would even have the nerve to tell Ashton something that personal about Luke.

"What? Ashton, he probably told her that trusting that she wouldn't say anything." Michael sighed, rubbing his hands over his face.

"Trust me, I really had to force it out of Heather. It was tough to crack her." Ashton chuckled.

"That's really personal, Ash, you can't just go around telling people that you know this stuff." Michael groaned, and Ashton nodded.

"How do you even know Heather?" I questioned, after we all stayed silent for a long time.

"Oh, we go way back. We actually, um, dated, for a while before." Ashton cough.

"'Um, dated'?" I asked. My heart started pounding hard in my chest, and suddenly everything was making sense.

My mind was racing, going back and forth from thought to thought as I quickly tried to piece all of this together. Heather cheated on Luke, Luke hated Ashton. Ashton knows Heather from long ago. Luke and Ashton got into a ton of fights, Ashton always had to do "family things" on weekends. Ashton was surprisingly fine with our breaking up, and Luke was always trying to tell me something about Ashton. Not only did Heather cheat on Luke with Ashton, but Ashton cheated on me with Heather.

"You cheated on me, didn't you?" I stood up, trying to get as far away from Ashton as possible.

"I thought Luke would have told you by now." Ashton said, glancing between Michael and I.

"Luke knew?" I felt my eyes grow wide as my breathing got even heavier.

"He was the only other person that knew."

-

"Stel, let me explain." Luke said, trying to sound as calm as possible. We were back at my apartment now, I had waited until we were home to finally confront Luke about all of this.

"I don't really want to hear it." I sighed, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Stel, please." Luke begged me. He stepped forward and grabbed my hands, pulling me into him.

"Don't call me that anymore." I turned my face away from Luke and struggled to get out of his grasp.

I didn't care that I was being harsh, I was angry. Luke knew how much I liked Ashton and he kept the fact that he was cheating from me. He even knew how indecisive I felt about my whole relationship with Ashton, and he didn't care to mention this big secret that he was keeping from me.

"Stel-" Luke whined.

"I said don't, Luke!" I shouted, finally freeing myself from him.

"I didn't want to hurt you." Luke sighed, "I knew how much you liked Ashton."

"It hurts more knowing that you kept something like this from me." I snapped. Luke stepped away from me. He stared at the ground, hiding his hands in the sleeves of his sweater.

"I was trying to protect you." He whispered.

"It doesn't matter, Luke. You would have done a better job protecting me if you had mentioned something in the first place." I ran my fingers through my hair, having trouble placing all of my thoughts right now.

I wanted to not be upset with Luke more than anything, but I couldn't help it. I couldn't control these feelings, these voices in my head telling me that Luke wasn't what he said he was after all.

"Stella, please." Luke sniffed. I winced at the sound of him calling me Stella, after going so long without hearing it.

"I think you should go." I said calmly, grabbing Luke by the sleeve of his shirt and walking him over to the door. Suddenly I didn't want to be around anyone else anymore. I needed time to think all of this through, before I decided to forgive Luke or not.

"I'm so sorry." Luke turned around to face me, his eyes filling with tears. "I couldn't stand seeing you hurt, I didn't want you to end up hurt."

"Well, I am." I said, swallowing back the huge lump forming in my throat.

"I'm sorry, Stella, I really am." Tears started to fall down Luke's cheeks, and that's when I knew I couldn't let him stay there any longer. I wouldn't be able to stay upset with him if he started to cry.

"You need to go." I sighed, pushing him father out the door.

Luke stared at me for a few seconds before he actually processed what I had said. "Okay, okay, I'll go. I'll go home, okay? I'm so sorry, I'll talk to you later." He muttered to himself and to me at the same time.

Then Luke shut the door quickly behind him and rushed down the hall, and I knew I had made a huge mistake by letting him leave.

this chapter was so bad I'm sorry omg I promise I'll try to update again within the next couple days I just needed a bit of a filler. I'm sorry for keeping you all waiting so long, I promise things will get better soon!