That weekend Luke was planning on staying in bed the entire time, but Ashton had some other ideas.

He barged into Luke's room why he was still asleep and jumped on the bed, picking up a pillow and hitting Luke in the head with it. It took Luke a few seconds to wake up and realize what was going on, and he was beyond pissed off when he realized that someone was whacking him with a pillow.

"What are you doing?" Luke whined, rolling over and trying to cover his face with his blankets. He didn't even know who was on the bed hitting him with a pillow, he just knew that at the moment he wanted them dead.

"Get up." Ashton ordered, hitting Luke again.

"Why?" Luke groaned. He rubbed his eyes and sat up a little, finally getting a good look at Ashton.

"I need you to come with us somewhere." Ashton said, crawling off of Luke's bed and standing at the edge of it.

"Us?" Luke questioned, already knowing who us was.

"Yeah, me and Charlie." Ashton shrugged. "We're going out and I need you to come with. She's waiting in the car, come on."

"But why?" Luke asked, slowly sitting up. He didn't even know what time it was, but it felt like it was way too early for him to be awake.

"I'll explain it later, just get up." Ashton groaned, rolling his eyes. He grabbed the pillow again, like he was threatening Luke with it.

"No, I'm sleeping." Luke said, shaking his head, and fell back into his pile of blankets, burying his face in them.

"Luke, please." Ashton begged, smacking Luke with the pillow a few more times. "I already called Michael and Calum and they're both busy, I need you to come with us."

"Why do you need one of us to chaperone your date?" Luke mumbled into the blankets, hoping that Ashton would understand him.

"It's complicated." Ashton sighed. "Please, Luke, I'll pay for you and everything."

"Where are we even going?" Luke asked, his face still in the pile of blankets. Part of him just wanted to stay home and sleep but the other part really wanted to get up so he could see Charlie, and Luke had a feeling that he was going to end up doing that.

"Just out to lunch." Ashton shrugged.

"I still don't understand why I have to come with." Luke sighed, finally throwing the covers off of himself and rolling out of bed. He glanced at the alarm clock on his bedside table and saw that it was already past noon, but that was still early for Luke.

"I just need you to be there with us, I'm scared to be alone with Charlie right now." Ashton said softly, looking down at the floor.

"What the hell, why?" Luke questioned. He searched around for a shirt to wear, tripping over piles of clothes as he walked around his messy room. It looked like a tornado had gone through there. "She's your girlfriend, how can you be afraid to be alone with her?"

"We've just been fighting a lot lately, it would be better if you were there with us." Ashton shrugged again, like what he said was no big deal.

"You seemed fine the other day." Luke said, still not understanding. He finally found a shirt to wear (maybe it was clean, maybe it wasn't) and put it on before moving to look for some pants.

"Yeah, it's complicated." Ashton repeated.

"Whatever." Luke sighed, shaking his head.

"Charlie likes you, she asked if you could come with us." Ashton added quietly, almost like he didn't want Luke to hear what he was saying.

Luke stood up a little straighter, his cheeks immediately heating up at the mention of Charlie wanting him to come. "She likes me?"

"She thinks you'r funny, I don't know." Ashton shrugged.

"Wow." Luke whispered, trying to bite back a smile.

"She's still my girlfriend, so don't try and hit on her or anything." Ashton scoffed.

"Oh, I would never." Luke said quickly, shaking his head. The last thing he needed was Ashton beating him up for hitting on his girlfriend, and Luke wasn't stupid enough to do something like that.

Luke finished getting dressed and then took a couple minutes to brush his teeth and put a beanie on over his messy hair. Once he finally looked presentable enough he went and said goodbye to his mom, who'd let Ashton in the house in the first place, and followed his friend outside.

Luke got in the car and slammed the door shut, immediately leaning against the window again because he still felt too tired to even be functioning properly at the moment.

"Hi, Streaker." Charlie said from the front seat, not bothering to turn around and smile at Luke like she normally did.

"Hi." Luke said, quickly sitting up and accidentally bumping his head on the roof of the car.

"Whoa, Luke, calm down." Ashton chuckled as he hopped into the drivers seat, getting in the car just in time to notice Luke hitting his head.

"Sorry." Luke whispered, staring down at his hands while he twisted and untwisted his fingers together.

He stayed pretty quiet for the rest of the car ride, only speaking up when he had something interesting to add to Ashton and Charlie's conversation or when one of them asked him a question.

After a while they arrived at the restaurant (it was a little nicer than the greasy place that they went to before) and Luke went to go find a place for the to sit down while Ashton and Charlie stood up at the front to order.

Usually Luke would have been pretty upset about having to tag along with Ashton and Charlie, but for some reason he really didn't mind having to do it today. He really, really liked Charlie and he knew that there was no way that they could ever hang out on their own, so this was pretty much Luke's only shot at getting to know her. He was fine with hanging out with them for a couple hours, and Luke was glad that Michael and Calum had both been too busy to come.

While Luke waited for Ashton and Charlie to get back he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and he rolled his eyes, assuming that it was his mom trying to check up on him. He pulled out his phone, but was surprised to see that it actually wasn't his mom texting him at all.

ashley from english class: dude, I think I see you

luke that gets drunk all the time: dude, i'm third wheeling on a date leave me alone

In the past week Luke and Ashley had become pretty good friends. Now that they were past their awkward stage of only talking to each other when one of them needed answers on the English homework they'd actually gotten to know each other a bit more, and Luke somehow managed to ask Ashley for her number. She thought Luke was funny, even though he kept asking if he could finger her.

ashley from english class: but you're sitting all alone

luke that gets drunk all the time: i swear i'm third wheeling my friends are just getting food

Luke's phone vibrated again with a new message from Ashley but before he had time to look at it Ashton and Charlie came back with the food and Luke practically slammed his phone down on the table, not wanting to seem like he was bored.

"Here's your weird people food." Ashton said, shoving Luke's sandwich towards him. It wasn't even weird, but when Luke had told Ashton and Charlie his order they both expressed that it "sounded disgusting" and they would never order it for themselves.

"It's just a sandwich..." Luke said softly, grabbing his drink from Charlie.

"Yeah, but the bread is weird." Ashton said, scrunching his nose up.

"It took Ashton almost two minutes to pronounce ciabatta." Charlie giggled, sooting closer to Ashton so he could wrap his arm around her shoulders.

Luke's phone vibrated again and he got annoyed, so he finally looked down at it.

ashley from english class: can I come over and bother you when your friends get back

ashley from english class: hey is that the girl you always talk about

Luke glanced around the restaurant, trying to figure out where Ashley was and how she could see him but he couldn't see her. He finally spotted her at a booth in the corner with a few other girls who must have been her friends.

luke that gets drunk all the time: leave me alone you weirdo i'm trying to eat my ciabatta

ashley from english class: what the hell is a ciabatta

"Luke, who are you staring at?" Ashton asked, kicking Luke from under the table.

"What? No one." Luke said quickly, setting his phone down on the table and locking it, praying that Ashley would just stop texting him. He took a big sip of his Coke, trying to stop himself from looking back over at where Ashley was sitting.

"Okay, sure." Ashton rolled his eyes.

The three of them looked awkwardly at each other for a second before they all looked down at the food, pretending to be more interested in it than they actually were. Luke wondered what was going on between Ashton and Charlie, because they hadn't made out at all today and he figured that something must be up if they weren't even in the mood for that.

"What is that?" Luke asked just to break the silence between them, pointing to what was on Charlie's plate.

"A salad." She answered slowly, like the answer was completely obvious. It kind of was, and Luke wasn't sure why he'd decided to ask her that. Now he just looked like he was too stupid to know what a salad was.

"Does it have apples on it or something?" Luke questioned.

"Yeah." Charlie nodded.

"Whoa, cool." Luke nodded, seeming way too fascinated in the salad.

Luke's phone buzzed again and since it was resting on the table it made a louder sound than normal, so he felt like it'd be too awkward for him not to look at it. Ashton and Charlie had already noticed it and were watching Luke, waiting to see if he was going to answer the new texts.

ashley from english class: you're such a dork

ashley from english class: I feel like everyone in this restaurant can tell that you're a third wheel on their date ok like it's pretty obvious even my friends are talking about you being an awkward little shit dID YOU JUST ASK HER ABOUT HER SALAD and fix your hair you look ridiculous oh my god luke but anyway she's cute you should try to hit it

luke that gets drunk all the time: aSHEYY LEAVE ME ALONE F UCK ILL TEXT YOU LATER ASFKDKA

"Who are you texting?" Ashton asked, probably noticing how frustrated Luke seemed at his phone.

"My mom." Luke answered quickly, obviously lying.

"That whole table of girls is staring at us." Charlie said, turning around in her seat and looking over to where Luke was glaring at Ashley.

"Do you know them?" Ashton asked.

"Uh, I don't know." Luke shrugged, and it was obvious again that he was lying.

"Okay..." Ashton said slowly, clearly not believing Luke.

Luke nodded again and then quickly shoved his sandwich in his mouth, trying to stop himself from saying anything else that could potentially ruin this for him. He turned his phone off and put it in his pocket, too, so Ashley couldn't bother him anymore.

"Luke, did you have any other plans today?" Ashton asked after a few more minutes.

Luke's mouth was still full, but he answered anyway. "I might go over to Michael's house later tonight or something."

"Is Michael the one with cool hair?" Charlie asked softly, turning to Ashton. Luke internally whined a little at the fact that she was so short compared to Ashton, she'd probably look so cute standing next to Luke.

"Uh huh." Ashton nodded, smirking as he looked back at Luke. He pointed teasingly to Charlie. "She's bad with names."

"I am not!" Charlie groaned, slapping Ashton's arm away from her.

"I'm sorry." Ashton laughed, leaning in and kissing Charlie on the top of her head.

"Michael dyes his hair a lot." Luke blurted out, stating the obvious. He took another big bite of his sandwich, secretly hoping that Charlie and Ashton were too distracted with each other to notice that Luke had said something.

"Really? How many times has he done it?" Charlie asked, actually seeming interested in what Luke had said.

"Uh, I've lost count." Luke chuckled, swallowing his food quickly so he could respond.

"Like, what colors has he dyed it?" Charlie continued to question, and Luke was surprised that she actually cared enough about this.

"Well..." Luke trailed off, trying to remember. "Blue, pink, red, green, purple - "

"Oh my God, I've always wanted to dye my hair purple!" Charlie squealed, cutting Luke off.

"No, don't do it." Ashton whined. He grabbed a strand of Charlie's hair between his fingers and started playing with it. "I love your hair, baby."

"I-I think your hair would look really nice if you dyed it purple. Maybe not your whole head, it'd look cool if you just did the tips." Luke spoke up, afraid that Ashton was going to beat him up for saying something like that. Ashton didn't say anything, he just gave Luke a funny look.

"I don't think I'll do it for a while, maybe next year when I go off to college." Charlie shrugged. She started to play with the ends of her own hair, as if she was imagining what it would look like if it was a different color.

"Oh, what colleges are you looking at?" Luke asked, getting a little excited about the fact that he finally had something in common with Charlie to talk about. It was getting to be that time of the year where kids in Luke's grade started to apply for schools and he hadn't really looked into anything yet, not matter how many times his mom had reminded him to.

"I don't really know yet, but hopefully I'll go somewhere far away - " Charlie began and Ashton cleared his throat, stopping her from saying anything more. Charlie pouted and looked up at Ashton, who just shook his head. "I'm still looking."

"Oh, cool." Luke nodded, surprising himself with how confident he suddenly was. "I guess I'm still looking, too. Do you have any idea what you want to major in?"

"Uh, I kind of want to be a math teacher, but I don't really know about that either." Charlie said shyly, biting down on her bottom lip. "Like, I'm good at math and good at teaching, I guess."

"What? Really?" Luke chuckled, raising his eyebrows at her.

"Why? What's wrong with that?" Charlie questioned.

"N-Nothing, I just can't picture you as a teacher at all." Luke stammered. He felt like he'd offended Charlie even though he didn't intend to at all, and Luke felt kind of bad about it.

"That's what Ashton always says!" Charlie laughed, smiling up at her boyfriend.

"Well if Luke and I think the same thing then it's probably true." Ashton sighed, rolling his eyes.

"It doesn't matter, Ashton. There are lots of people that don't look like teachers and they still are." Charlie huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. She scooted away from Ashton a little, obviously upset with him.

"You'd be a good teacher, Charlie." Luke assured her, feeling the need to try and boost her confidence a little. Luke didn't like the way that Ashton was obviously putting down what Charlie wanted to do just because he couldn't picture it.

"Thanks." Charlie gave Luke a small smile, still seeming upset.

Charlie and Luke spent the next few minutes talking about possible college options and future careers while Ashton sat there and looked upset (he had decided not to go to college; his parents had enough money for him to not need to) at the fact that his friend and girlfriend were getting along so well.

Luke thought that everything was going great, but of course something had to come and ruin it. That something was Ashley.

"Luke, why aren't you answering my texts?" Ashley said, running over and sitting down in the booth next to Luke, making him yelp.

She wasn't seriously mad about Luke not answering her, he could tell by the big smirk on her face. She was just doing this to be annoying.

"You're being annoying, go away." Luke snapped, trying to push Ashley away from him. Her three friends were standing there giggling as they waited for Ashley to finish talking to Luke. Luke recognized the girls, they were part of the new group of people that suddenly wanted to be Luke's best friend.

"Who's this?" Ashton asked, nodding towards Ashley.

"This is Ashley, she's in my English class." Luke said, rolling his eyes. He felt his face getting red, and he wanted to just crawl under the table and disappear.

"Oh, Hot Ashley?" Ashton asked, probably having heard Michael talk about her before.

"Yeah." Luke nodded, letting out a small groan.

"I don't know why I'm known as Hot Ashley, I'm literally the only Ashley." Ashley wondered out loud, shaking her head.

"Well why don't you leave and go figure that out." Luke said, trying to push Ashley out of the booth again.

"I can't leave yet, you haven't introduced me to your friends." Ashley whispered, leaning in closer to Luke.

"This is Ashton, this is Charlie." Luke said too quickly for anyone to really understand the words coming out of his mouth. "Bye."

"Oh." Ashley nodded. She turned back to Luke. "So that's the girl?"

"Ashley!" Luke hissed, shoving her once more. Ashley just shoved him right back. "Leave."

"Sorry, am I interrupting something?" Ashley asked sarcastically. She looked across the table at Ashton and Charlie, then back to Luke. "Are you on a job interview?"

"Get out." Luke snapped. He pushed Ashley one final time and she finally got up from the booth, still laughing to herself.

"Damn, you're pretty cranky today." Ashley pouting jokingly, crossing her arms over her chest. "Did you run out of double chocolate ice cream?"

"Don't even joke about that." Luke scoffed. "Go away."

"Okay, okay." Ashley said and her friends giggled again, all of them turning and whispering to each other. "I'll just see you later, Luke. Have fun with your ciabatta."

"I already finished it, dumbass." Luke groaned. "Get away from me."

"Later." Ashley waved to Luke, grabbing her friends and dragging them after her as she left the restaurant.

"I'm sorry, I'm not sure what that was all about. I don't even know her that well." Luke lied, trying to fix the damage that Ashley had just done. "She's in my English class, she's probably insane or something. Ha."

Ashton looked between Luke and Charlie for a moment, a smirk making it's way onto his face. "Isn't she the one that you hooked up with?"

Luke's cheeks heated up again and he glared at Ashton, angry that his friend had brought that up. He thought that Ashton was going to be too stupid to make the connection that Hot Ashley from Michael and Luke's English class was the same Ashley that Luke had tried to lose his virginity to at Calum's party.

"We only hooked up a little." Luke whined, falling over so he was now laying on the booth.

He heard Charlie giggle and whisper something to Ashton, and Luke realized that he hadn't made any progress at all. No matter what Ashton did, Charlie was always going to come crawling back to him.

*•*•*

Luke was right, he did end up going over to Michael's house later that day. And since he'd already known what he was going to be doing at Michael's house (getting drunk, obviously), Luke had told his mom that he'd be spending the night.

So there they were, sitting on the couch in Michael's basement/bedroom with a bottle of some type of alcohol that Luke couldn't remember the name of anymore. Michael wasn't nearly as drunk as Luke was, he had his guitar out and was messing around with it while Luke whined about his latest problem.

"I like her so much." Luke sniffed, taking another sip from the bottle.

"You can't." Michael said and just shook his head. Luke didn't think that Michael'd even been paying attention during his huge rant, so it was surprising that he was even answering.

"She wasn't to dye her hair purple." Luke wiped under his eyes with the back of his hand, trying to get rid of all of the dried tears staining his cheeks.

"That'd be so hot." Michael laughed, leaning back into the couch.

"I know." Luke whined. "I love her."

"No you don't." Michael said quickly, shaking his head. He set his guitar down, resting it against the side of the couch, and crawled closer to Luke.

"Yeah I do." Luke argued. "I love her I love her I love her." He pulled his phone out from his pocket. "I'm gonna text Ashton and tell him."

"No, Luke." Michael giggled, scooting even closer and resting his head on Luke's shoulder. He watched as Luke opened up his messages, scrolling through and clicking on what he thought was Ashton's name. "What are you going to say?"

"That I love his girlfriend." Luke laughed, not understanding why Michael didn't already know the answer to his own question. He grabbed the bottle and took another big sip.

luke that gets drunk all the time: hiiiii i love you r girlfriend

"He's going to kill you." Michael shrugged, sitting up straight again.

They waited in silence for Luke's phone to vibrate again, both of them hoping that Ashton would answer the text right away. He usually stayed up pretty late, he was probably still awake.

ashley from english class: stop drunk texting me and go to sleep

luke that gets drunk all the time: but

luke that gets drunk all the time: i lovew yourgirlfriend

ashley from english class: you're not even texting the right person you goof

luke that gets drunk all the time: yeh i am

ashley from english class: luke honey just go to sleep

"You're not texting Ashton." Michael finally said after a minute of staring at Luke's phone screen.

"Yes I am." Luke insisted, shaking his head.

"Ashton wouldn't call you honey." Michael said, shaking his head. He tried to grab the phone out of Luke's hands, but Luke just yelled and held the phone close to his chest.

"Maybe." Luke shrugged. He stood up from the couch and began pacing back and forth, tripping over his own feet more than once.

luke that gets drunk all the time: aashton

ashley from english class: luke where are you

"He's asking where I am." Luke whined, turning back to Michael with a panicked look on his face. "What if he wants to fight me?"

"He doesn't." Michael assured him, shaking his head. "It's not Ashton."

"Who else would it be?" Luke yelled loudly and Michael flinched, looking up at the ceiling. His parents were upstairs sleeping and specifically told the boys that they'd get in trouble if they made too much noise throughout the night.

"Her." Michael rolled his eyes, pointing in the direction of Ashley's house.

"No." Luke said, shaking his head, and went back to staring at his phone screen.

luke that gets drunk all the time: michadls houseee

ashley from english class: come outside

"He wants me to come outside!" Luke screamed.

"It's not Ashton!" Michael screamed back, standing up from the couch and walking over to Luke. He grabbed the phone out of his hands, scrolling through the rest of Luke's text messages. Michael found Ashton's name and showed the phone to Luke.

(In all fairness, Ashton had a long contact name in Luke's phone, just like Ashley's. It was "ashton with the hot girlfriend", and Luke had set it as that long before he even met Charlie).

"Uh oh." Luke said, finally realizing that he wasn't texting Ashton at all and that he was actually texting Ashley.

"Yeah." Michael nodded.

"I have to go outside." Luke sighed and grabbed his phone back from Michael, shoving it in his pocket again.

"No you don't." Michael shook his head. He grabbed Luke's hand, trying to pull him back.

"Yeah." Luke nodded. "I have to tell her about stuff."

"Stuff?" Michael questioned, tilting his head to the side.

"Uh huh." Luke nodded, giving Michael a big smile before turning and running up the stairs. "I'll be back soon, or maybe not at all."

Luke opened the front door and ran outside, slamming the door shut way too hard and probably making a lot of noise from inside the house. He tripped on the front step of Michael's house and almost fell over before he finally heard the front door of Ashley's house slam shut, and she started to walk over to him.

"Hey." Luke nodded, trying to regain his balance.

"What the hell are you doing?" Ashley sighed.

"I'm outside. You told me to come outside." Luke shrugged. He didn't think that he did anything wrong, the text that he got said to come outside so Luke did just that.

"That's not what I meant." Ashley groaned, running her hands through her hair.

"Well what do you mean?" Luke asked, taking another step towards Ashley.

"Why are you sitting in Michael's basement getting drunk over a girl who you know you have no chance with?" Ashley asked softly.

"Why do you care?" Luke countered, a smirk finding it's way onto his lips. He was still kind of mad at Ashley for what she did earlier when Luke was trying to talk to Charlie, so he was purposely aiming to get on Ashley's nerves right now.

"I mean, I don't know about you - "

"But I'm feeling 22?" Luke asked, cutting Ashley off. He cocked his head to the side, seriously wondering if that was what she was going to say originally. "Taylor Swift is great."

"No... I don't know about you," Ashley continued, trying to hold back a laugh, "but I don't want you to turn into an alcoholic at age 17."

"Oh." Luke nodded. He understood what Ashley meant; alcoholism was a pretty big deal to Luke for some reasons that he didn't like sharing with anyone, and even when he was drunk he knew that. "I won't become an alcoholic."

"Yeah, that's what you say now." Ashley shrugged. "Also, I think that it's stupid of you to be so hung up on this girl."

"Who? Charlie?" Luke questioned.

"Yeah, who else?" Ashley scoffed. "Luke, you know that you have no chance with her. You can't just text her boyfriend and say that you love his girlfriend."

"I didn't text her boyfriend, I texted you." Luke giggled.

"Yeah, you're lucky." Ashley laughed. She reached forward and grabbed Luke's hand, pulling him closer to her and then leading him towards her house.

"Am I going to sleep here again?" Luke asked, shuffling along behind Ashley. He kicked off his shoes as they walked into the house and continued to follow Ashley.

"If you want." Ashley whispered, glancing over her shoulder at Luke. "I just figured that if we were going to talk we should go inside. It's cold."

"Right." Luke nodded.

"Come on, let's go in the basement. My parents might get mad if they hear us talking this late." Ashley whispered after noticing that Luke wasn't trying very hard to stay quiet. It was late, but of course Luke was too drunk to care.

"Everyone has a cool basement except me. Why don't I have a cool basement? My basement is gross and floods whenever it rains." Luke pouted, allowing Ashley to lead him downstairs.

"I don't know, Luke." Ashley sighed. Luke tried to jump down the stairs one by one, despite the fact that Ashley was holding his hand and trying to stop him. "Can you be careful, please?"

"Ashton has a nice basement." Luke mumbled. He let go of Ashley's hand and quickly walked over to the couch, grabbing a blanket laying on it and wrapping it around himself. "I bet Charlie likes Ashton because he has a nice basement."

"People don't like people for their basements." Ashley laughed. She gave Luke a little shove so he fell back on the couch, still wrapped in his blanket burrito.

"If you saw Ashton's basement you'd probably start liking him." Luke giggled.

"No I wouldn't." Ashley shook her head. She took a seat next to Luke, not seeming to mind that he was hogging the whole blanket.

"Charlie's so pretty." Luke sighed. "She has the prettiest hair."

"Yeah, it's nice." Ashley agreed, nodding along with Luke.

"She's the hottest girl I've ever seen, Ashley, I swear to God." Luke said, giggling again. "I'm gonna fuck her one day, okay?"

"Okay, Luke. You do that." Ashley chuckled, patting Luke on the back a few times.

"I just don't know why she's dating Ashton." Luke pouted, folding his arms across his chest. "It's not fair."

"Well, I mean - "

"Ugh, Ashton's so cool." Luke groaned, interrupting Ashley. "Of course he has a pretty girlfriend, he's awesome."

"Luke." Ashley just laughed, tucking some hair behind her ear.

"He doesn't seem like he's that cool." Ashley said, scrunching up her nose. "He gave me a weird vibe."

"Ooh." Luke smirked. "What kind of vibe?"

Ashley rolled her eyes, "You're so annoying. Go to sleep or something."

"But I'm not tired." Luke whined, even though he could already feel his eyelids grossing heavier. He scooted closer to Ashley and put his head on her shoulder, accidentally putting all of his weight on her so she fell over and ended up laying on her side.

"Get off of me." Ashley groaned, trying to shove Luke onto the other side of the couch. He just laughed and cuddled up against Ashley, purposely trying to annoy her again.

"You're so nice to me." Luke sighed. "Why are you so nice to me?"

"I don't know, we're friends, I guess." Ashley shrugged after another minute of her struggling to get Luke off of her. "All of my other friends are kind of stupid, but you're alright."

"Hey, my friends are stupid too." Luke chuckled, wrapping the blanket tighter around himself. "I think you're cool. You're so nice to me."

"I'm not that nice." Ashley scoffed. Even Luke could tell that she was just trying to cover up the fact that what Luke said had made her blush.

"I tried to fuck you 'cuz of a bet and you still talk to me. I told you that I was only interested in you 'cuz you're hot and even though I keep asking if I can finger you we're still friends, 'cuz you still think I'm funny." Luke said softly, rolling over so he was facing Ashley. She shifted into a more comfortable position, then, so her and Luke were laying side by side on the couch. It was a little uncomfortable, but it would work for now. "You always give me really good advice about girls and you let me sleep over at your house when I'm too drunk to go home."

"I'm just being a good friend." Ashley whispered.

"Yeah, you're a really good friend." Luke laughed. "None of my friends are as nice as you."

"Well, thanks." Ashley said, biting her lip.

"I feel like I can tell you anything and you'd keep it a secret." Luke yawned, unable to hide the fact that he was extremely tired.

"If you asked me to, yeah." Ashley nodded. "I'd keep a secret for you."

"Wow, cool." Luke whispered.

He'd never had a relationship like this with someone before; Luke had never felt comfortable enough with someone to tell them secrets. Luke really didn't have many secrets in the first place, but it was good to have friends that you knew you could trust. Luke knew that Ashley was one of those friends.

"I don't have a secret right now, but I'll think of one and tell you later." Luke mumbled, his eyes traveling to the other end of the couch, where he was considering moving to.

"Alright, Luke." Ashley laughed.

Then everything was silent for the next few minutes, and Luke couldn't decide if he wanted to get up and go back to Michael's house or stay here with Ashley. He knew that if he went back to Michael's house he'd just get yelled at for either making too much noise or just being an idiot in general. If Luke stayed with Ashley they'd probably just sleep.

"You have nice hair." Luke blurted out, his eyes focusing back on Ashley for a moment. He wasn't sure if that was meant to be a secret or not. "Goodnight."

*•*•*

The next morning Luke woke up earlier than Ashley again. He was surprised to see that she'd somehow wormed her way into Luke's blanket burrito, and he had both arms wrapped around her.

Luke sat there for a moment, just admiring the way that Ashley was laying against his chest and how their legs were still tangled together. She looked peaceful, even though she was drooling just a little bit and her hair was going in way too many different directions.

Finally, Luke slowly got up from the couch, careful not to wake Ashley up. This was almost exactly what he did when he slept over here last time, so he'd figured out how to sneak around her house. Luke gave Ashley one last look before covering her with the blanket and quickly making his way out of the basement.

He tip toed up the stairs, and when he got to the top Luke slid in his socks across the wood floors, just in case they decided to creak and make even more noise. He grabbed his shoes by the front door and then left again without saying goodbye.

Luke ran across Michael's front yard and through the front door, using the key that the Clifford's keep under their doormat. He quietly made his way through Michael's house and ended up in the basement again, where Michael was still sound asleep on the couch.

Luke sighed and walked over to where Michael was and laid down on top of him, hoping that his friend had gotten too drunk last night to even remember that Luke had left in the first place.

-

I PROMISE I KNOW WHAT IM DOING

also do you guys picture charlie/ashley as any specific person because at the moment I really don't and I was just wondering how you guys felt

anyway yeah I hope you liked this cuz I wrote it very very late at night so I was tired