Ashley wasn't in English class on Monday or Tuesday and Luke was beginning to get a little worried. It was like she'd disappeared without even telling Luke where she was going. He didn't text her to find out where she was, though, because he was afraid that he'd be annoying.

She finally came back on Wednesday, - looking extremely exhausted - but overall nothing seemed to be wrong with her. Luke was actually pretty glad, because he'd learned to like Ashley a lot and would hate for anything to happen to her.

"Hi." She said slowly as she sat down in her seat in English, noticing the way that Luke was staring at her.

"Where have you been?" Luke asked. He was acting as if he was Ashley's mother and usually they both would have laughed about it but today Luke was serious. He'd just become friends with Ashley and he felt like she was ditching him already, he didn't want to lose her.

"Home. I was sick." Ashley laughed at the way Luke is so worried about this.

"How'd you get sick? Did you kiss some hot boys? Was it mono?" Luke questioned, leaning in closer to Ashley just so he could annoy her more.

"I didn't kiss anyone, I spent half of my weekend with you, you dork." Ashley scoffed, shoving Luke away from her.

"I wouldn't even know if we kissed or not, I spent half of my weekend drunk." Luke giggled, running his hands through his hair again. He was trying to get it to stick up more than usual - Calum said it would look cool.

"Luke, sweetie, don't do that to your hair." Ashley laughed, grabbing Luke's hands and bringing them back down again. "And we didn't kiss, just so you know. I'm pretty sure you'd remember it anyway."

"So you were sick, huh?" Luke asked, trying to hide how embarrassed he was at the fact that Ashley was telling him not to do that with his hair. It looked cool, what did she know?

"Yes, Mom." Ashley groaned, rolling her eyes. "I wasn't feeling well so I went home during second period on Monday and I stayed home all day on Tuesday."

"Are you feeling better now?" Luke finally sighed, seeing that he needed to show some compassion.

"Yeah, I guess." Ashley shrugged.

"Why didn't you text me and tell me what was going on?" Luke asked. "I was worried, you know. I thought you, like, died."

"I didn't die." Ashley shook her head. "Why did you leave again on Sunday morning without saying anything?"

"Oh, you're upset about that?" Luke asked. "I just thought..."

"I was just annoyed, I don't know, maybe it's just because I'm just a moody teenage girl." Ashley chuckled. "For some reason I just expected you to be there when I woke up."

"I just didn't want your parents to find us together and get mad." Luke said quietly, suddenly feeling a bit guilty for just leaving Ashley like that.

"My parents wouldn't have cared, honestly." Ashley sighed. "They're too busy fighting to ever notice anything I do."

"I'm sorry." Luke said, looking back up at Ashley again. "Next time I'll stay."

"So there's going to be a next time?" Ashley questioned, biting down on her bottom lip.

"Of course. I get drunk a lot." Luke nodded.

"Yeah, I know." Ashley scoffed, rolling her eyes.

They stayed there in silence for a few minutes, ignoring their classmates as they moved around and got into partners again. Ashley and Luke never did their classwork anymore, they were always too busy talking about more important things.

"Your hair looks pretty today." Luke said out of nowhere, clearly taking Ashley by surprise.

"Thanks." Ashley laughed, playfully flipping her hair over her shoulder.

"Your makeup looks really great, too." Luke continued, a big, cheesy smile on his face. "Your eyebrow game is, like, hella strong."

"Luke." Ashley giggled, trying to get him to stop. He'd done something like this before, and they both knew where he was headed with all of these compliments.

"And oh my God, your boobs look fantastic." Luke said, having to stifle back a laugh of his own.

"Luke, you know I'm not going to let you finger me, no matter how many nice things you say." Ashley sighed, gently kicking Luke's shin under the desk again.

"Finger you?" Luke gasped jokingly. "Ashley, why do you suggest that I want to finger you?"

"Oh, I don't know, you only ask me once or twice every day..." Ashley smirked.

"No, no, no." Luke laughed sarcastically, "You're my friend and you also happen to be pretty hot, Ashley, and I am simply telling you how great you look."

"Gee, thanks." Ashley said, also acting a little sarcastic about the whole thing. They'd been through this before, so it wasn't awkward for them to have conversations like this anymore. Luke really enjoyed the banter between him and Ashley, he didn't do anything like this with his other friends.

"I'm not even kidding about your boobs, though." Luke said after a short pause. "You're having a really good boob day."

"I didn't even think those existed." Ashley mumbled under her breath, not at all phased by Luke and his comments that would probably be seen as inappropriate by anyone other than Ashley.

"So, like, can I finger you?" Luke asked, chewing at his bottom lip.

"No." Ashley answered quickly, shaking her head.

"Do you want to come over after school?" Luke asked, giving up for now. Ashley would come around eventually, he was convinced.

"Luke, I literally just said no." Ashley groaned.

"No, just to hang out." Luke giggled again, his cheeks getting red. "I have Netflix and cookies."

"Oh." Ashley nodded. "Then yeah, sure."

"Wow, okay." Luke said quietly, not really knowing what else he was supposed to say. This had never really happened before. "You're the first girl that I've ever invited over to my house."

"Oh, really?" Ashley asked. Her whole face lit up, as if this was something very exciting for her.

"Well... I've invited girls over before but they always say no." Luke said shyly, looking down at his feet.

"Aw, Luke." Ashley giggled. "That's so cute."

"It's not cute, it's embarrassing." Luke mumbled. He suddenly wished that he hadn't told Ashley that, it might have been better for Luke to just keep quiet and pretend that he had girls over all the time.

"No, really. You can be so adorable sometimes, Luke, you don't get it." Ashley laughed. Luke honestly hated the way that she could say things like this to him and not even get nervous. Luke could barely say hello to a girl in the halls without staring to hyperventilate.

"Are you coming over or not?" Luke asked, letting out a small groan as he tried to change the subject.

"I already said yes!" Ashley chuckled.

"I was just making sure you didn't change your mind!" Luke defended himself. He was used to people making plans with him and then canceling them right at the last minute.

"I mean, usually I go home right after school and sleep for, like, four hours but I guess I can make an exception today." Ashley rolled her eyes again.

"We can sleep together!" Luke exclaimed, getting a little too excited. He usually went home and took long naps too and thought that it was cool that Ashley did the same thing.

"Luke." Ashley sighed. "I'm not sleeping with you."

"Not like that." Luke whined.

"Yeah, sure." Ashley smirked.

"You know, sometimes I can't help but think that you really want to have sex with me." Luke said boldly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Why would you ever think that?" Ashley gasped, sitting up straight.

"You're always making a huge point about not wanting to fuck me, but I think that deep down you really do." Luke said, trying to hold back a laugh.

"Luke, I do not want to have sex with you." Ashley said very seriously, putting a hand on Luke's shoulder.

"Not even a little?" Luke cocking, tilting his head to the side.

"Well..."

"It has to be a little, Ashley." Luke giggled. "You almost fucked me that one time."

"I wasn't actually going to fuck you." Ashley said, shaking her head.

"Uh, you totally were." Luke scowled back at her.

"No, I was always planning on stopping." Ashley assured him. Luke really didn't believe her, he thought that Ashley was just saying this to try and play off the whole thing.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure you were." Luke said, giving Ashley a glare. "That's why you were moaning my name so loud."

"Oh please, if anything you were moaning my name." Ashley scoffed.

"I mean... I guess that's true too." Luke said softly, looking down at his lap.

"So, yeah." Ashley nodded. "I still don't want to have sex with you. Sorry."

"You'll come around eventually." Luke laughed.

"No I won't." Ashley frowned.

"Yes you will." Luke insisted, shaking his head.

"No, I definitely won't." Ashley snapped. Luke could tell that she was getting annoyed, which was exactly what he wanted. Annoying Ashley was his favorite pastime.

"Yes, you totally will." Luke said, giving Ashley another goofy smile. "I'm irresistible."

*•*•*

Luckily Ashley had her own car, so they didn't need to walk back to Luke's house after school like he normally did.

Luke slammed the passenger door of Ashley's car closed, laughing about something that they were talking about while they were driving home.

"You have the worst taste in music!" Ashley laughed loudly as she got out of the car.

"No I don't!" Luke argued, gasping for air in between his laughs. "My music is great, you don't know what you're talking about!"

"I bet your iTunes library is identical to my 11 year old cousin's." Ashley said, shoving Luke away from her.

"Taylor Swift isn't just for 11 year olds!" Luke protested. "Michael loves Taylor Swift too!"

"Honestly that doesn't surprise me at all." Ashley scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Sometimes Michael plays his music really loud in his bedroom and I can hear it from my house."

"It's good music, right?" Luke asked.

"Wrong." Ashley responded quickly.

"Wow, you're hilarious." Luke said sarcastically, taking a few steps closer to Ashley and grabbing her wrist, leading her down the driveway and to the back door.

"Yeah, I know." Ashley nodded.

"Hey, Luke!" Someone yelled and Luke turned around to see Hadley Anderson walking out of the back door of her house. "What are you doing?"

"Uh, nothing?" Luke said slowly. He stopped walking, forcing Ashley to stop with him.

"Who's that?" Hadley asked, biting down on her lip. She pointed to Ashley, who just let out an annoyed groan.

"O-Oh, this is Ashley." Luke stammered, trying not to make a fool of himself. "Ashley, this is Hadley Anderson. She's my neighbor."

"Yeah, we have math together." Ashley said, sounding bored with herself and everyone around her.

"We do?" Hadley asked dumbly, twisting a piece of her hair around her finger.

"Yeah." Ashley nodded.

"Oh, okay." Hadley giggled. She turned back to Luke, because he was obviously the reason why she came outside in the first place. "So, Lukey, what is she doing here?"

"We're gonna - we're - um." Luke stopped himself, not knowing what he was supposed to say. He wanted to tell Hadley to just fuck off, that he didn't like her, but he was too nervous. She was still really hot, and Luke had a hard time handling himself around hot girls.

"You should come over later tonight." Hadley gave Luke a big smile, continuing to play with her hair. Luke really was a sucker for a girl with nice hair.

"Well, maybe." Luke chuckled nervously. He looked down at the ground, shuffling his feet back and forth.

"My parents are going to this fancy dinner at their county club tonight, they won't be home for hours." Hadley said innocently, taking a few more steps towards Luke.

"Wow, I - "

"Luke and I are actually going to go inside and have sex, so maybe you guys can do this another time." Ashley spoke before Luke even had a chance to. She grabbed his hand and began to drag Luke away from Hadley.

"But - " Hadley called after them, sounding confused.

"See you in math class!" Ashley yelled. They reached the back door and Luke scrambled to get his key out of his pocket, quickly unlocking it.

"So, where are we gonna do this?" Luke asked smugly as they walked into his house, dropping their bags down by the door.

"We're not doing anything!" Ashley laughed. "I only said that to get Hadley to leave you alone."

"But - " Luke whined.

"Luke." Ashley sighed, grabbing both of his shoulders and pulling him down so he was eye level with her. "I really don't want to say this again, but I guess I have to. We are not going to have sex, okay? Ever."

"Ever?" Luke gasped.

"We're just friends!" Ashley groaned, pushing Luke away from her again.

"Fine." Luke grumbled, grabbing Ashley's hand again and pulling her into the kitchen. His eyes got wide when he saw a plate of cookies laying out on the counter, and Luke quickly let go of Ashley and grabbed some. "My mom makes the best cookies."

"Yeah, you've told me." Ashley laughed. Luke smiled and held a cookie out for Ashley, who hesitantly took it from him.

"Moooom!" Luke yelled, practically running out of the kitchen and down the hall, into Liz's office. (Technically it was a guest room, but they'd made it into an office because there was no other use for it). "Mom, I have a friend over."

"Oh, really?" Liz asked, looking up at Luke as he entered the room, Ashley following slowly behind him. "Who?"

"Ashley!" Luke said excitedly, grabbing Ashley and pulling her forward.

"Oh!" Liz said, suddenly standing up. "A girl?"

"Mom!" Luke groaned. "Yes, a girl."

"Well, sorry. I didn't know." Liz chuckled, walking over to where Luke and Ashley were standing.

"Ashley and I are going to hang out in my room." Luke said, almost sounding proud of the fact that he'd actually brought a girl home.

"Oh, alright." Liz nodded slowly. "Ashley, are you staying for dinner?"

"Uh, I guess." Ashley shrugged, quickly glancing at Luke. He nodded a few times, wanting to make sure that Ashley knew that he wanted her to stay.

"We'll be in my room!" Luke said excitedly, pulling Ashley out of the office again.

"Luke, hold on a minute." Liz called him back. Luke let out a big groan and turned around again, heading back to the office.

"My room is at the end of the hall, I'll be there in a minute." Luke said over his shoulder to Ashley, who still looked pretty stunned. Luke turned to his mom again. "What do you want?"

"I just want to talk to you!" Liz laughed. "I've never heard about this girl before, who is she?"

"Just a girl, Mom, it's no big deal." Luke said, nervously playing with the end of his shirt.

"Do you like her?" Liz questioned.

"We're friends." Luke groaned, wishing that Liz would just leave him alone.

"Is she your girlfriend?" Liz smirked, leaning in more as if that would stop Ashley from overhearing.

"Mom, no!" Luke whined, stomping his feet on the ground. "She's just my friend!"

"Wait, is this Ashton's girlfriend?" Liz asked quietly. "The one that you have a little crush on?"

"No, Mom." Luke sighed. "That's Charlie. Ashley's just my friend, nothing more."

"Oh, alright." Liz chuckled, pushing Luke away from her and down the hall. "Go. I'll call you when dinner's ready."

"Okay, okay." Luke nodded, hurriedly making his way down the hall again. "I love you, Mom."

Luke entered his room and found Ashley sitting at the edge of his bed, scrolling through her phone. "Hey." She said, looking up at Luke as he walked over to her.

"Hi." Luke smiled, crawling across his bed and getting under the covers. He grabbed his laptop and opened up Netflix, still following his normal routine even though Ashley was there with him.

"Does your mom work from home?" Ashley asked, finally tearing her eyes away from her phone and crawling over to where Luke was.

"Yeah." Luke nodded. He shrugged while he searched through Netflix for something that they could watch. "I don't really know what she actually does, it's just always been like this."

"What about your dad? What does he do?" Ashley questioned. She got under the covers just like Luke had and leaned over so she could see what he was doing.

Luke stayed silent for a moment, not sure how to respond. He pretended to be very concerned with what he was doing on his laptop so he didn't have to answer. Finally he decided to speak. "I have no idea what my dad does."

"Will he be here for dinner?" Ashley asked, completely oblivious to the way Luke was now acting.

"No." Luke shrugged. "Probably not."

Eventually, after some arguing, Luke and Ashley finally chose a movie to watch on Netflix and they cuddled up (completely friendly cuddling) next to each other under the covers, balancing the laptop between them.

"Are you sleepy?" Luke asked, already knowing the answer, obnoxiously poking Ashley in the cheek because he knew that she'd drifted off.

"Get away from me." Ashley mumbled, swatting Luke's hand away from her.

"You're in my bed." Luke groaned. He was also pretty tired, but he was too nervous to fall asleep with Ashley right there with him.

"Shut up, Luke." Ashley groaned, rolling over so her head was resting on Luke's chest.

Luke laughed silently to himself and decided to stop talking and finish watching the movie on his own, ignoring Ashley as she slept on top of him. The silence didn't last for long, though, because after only a few minutes Luke's phone started to ring in his pocket and it was too loud to ignore.

"Hello?" Luke asked quietly, trying not to disturb Ashley. It was too late, she was already rolling over and groaning at the fact that she'd been woken up.

"Hey, Luke!" Ashton yelled. Luke rolled his eyes, resisting the urge to hang up the phone.

"Hi, Ashton." Luke sighed. Ashley grabbed a pillow and tried to put it over her head, accidentally hitting Luke in the face with it.

"You're not busy tonight, are you?" Ashton asked. Of course he assumed that Luke wasn't doing anything; Ashton always made it seem like Luke never had any plans.

"Actually, I'm - "

"Cool, can you come to dinner with me and Charlie?" Ashton interrupted. Luke groaned, still not understanding why he always had to come with on Ashton and Charlie's dates.

"No, I can't." Luke said softly.

"Great I'll - wait, did you say you can't?" Ashton scoffed, like he didn't believe Luke at all. "What do you mean you can't?"

"Well, I, um." Luke paused, thinking of how to phrase this.

"Luke, please shut up." Ashley mumbled.

"You shut up." Luke snapped. "Go back to sleep."

"Who are you talking to?" Ashton asked, suddenly sounding confused.

"No one." Luke answered quickly. "I can't come with you and Charlie tonight."

"Why not?" Ashton questioned. Luke let out a sigh, almost feeling a little guilty for not going.

"My mom won't let me." Luke lied. "Next time I'll definitely be able to come."

"Fine." Ashton sighed.

"Why do I always need to come with you guys, anyway?" Luke asked. Ashton had told him last time that he'd explain what was going on with him and Charlie but he hadn't yet.

"I'll have to tell you later, not over the phone." Ashton chuckled.

"Alright, fine." Luke said, letting out a deep sigh. He wished that Ashton would just tell him already. Luke had a feeling that Ashton and Charlie were having problems, and as much as he would hate to see his friend unhappy, Luke hoped that Ashton and Charlie would break up soon.

"Hang up the phone." Ashley groaned again, picking up the pillow she had on her head and hitting Luke with it.

"Shh." Luke grabbed the pillow from Ashley's hands and threw it down on the floor.

"Okay, I'm just going to call Michael and see if he can come with us." Ashton mumbled, mostly to himself. "I'll just see you - What?"

"What?" Luke asked, not knowing what Ashton was talking about.

"Charlie wants to talk to you." Ashton grumbled. "I'm going to put the phone on speaker, so don't try anything."

"O-Okay." Luke said nervously, surprised that Charlie actually wanted to talk to him. "Hi Charlie."

"Hi Streaker." Charlie laughed on the other side of the phone.

"What's up?" Luke asked and Ashley groaned again. She sat up, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I just had a question about this one college." Charlie said and Luke felt his heartbeat start to speed up. "I just thought you'd have an answer for me, since we talked about this stuff a lot the other day."

"Oh, al-alright." Luke nodded. "Go ahead."

And for the next 20 minutes Luke and Charlie sat on the phone with each other, discussing more colleges and career options; because that was apparently the only thing that they actually had in common with each other. Luke loved every second of his conversation with Charlie, and he was even able to crack a few jokes and make her laugh.

"Well, thanks for your help, Streaker." Charlie said after what felt like forever. Ashton had been bothering her for the past few minutes to get off of the phone, because he wanted to get going. "I'll see you later, alright?"

"Alright." Luke smiled, his cheeks hearing up even though Charlie wasn't anywhere near him. "It was nice talking to you, bye."

Luke hung up the phone and turned back to Ashley, who was still sitting next to him and looking through her phone again.

"I can't believe you just sat there for 20 minutes and talked about college." Ashley laughed, not bothering to look up at Luke.

"I can't believe you just sat there and listened to me." Luke retorted. He grabbed his laptop again and un-paused the movie, nudging Ashley in the side to make her pay attention again.

"I didn't have much of a choice." Ashley chuckled.

"Charlie's so cool." Luke sighed, leaning back on the bed and pulling Ashley down with him.

"Yeah, you told even her a couple of times." Ashley said, which only make Luke blush even more.

"I like her a lot, Ashley." Luke said. He paused their movie again because it was clear that neither of them were watching it.

"I know you do." Ashley sighed. "I just don't know why you're doing this to yourself."

"Doing what?" Luke asked.

"You know that nothing's going to be able to work out between you and Charlie. Even if her and Ashton break up it would still be wrong to date her." Ashley explained.

"Why do you even care?" Luke scoffed, staring down at his lap. Deep down he knew that Ashley was right, but of course Luke didn't want to admit to any of that.

"I don't know, we're friends." Ashley shrugged. She finally scooted closer to Luke again and rested her head on his shoulder. "I don't want to see you get hurt."

"Eh, it's not even a big deal." Luke shrugged, his voice dropping down to a whisper. "I'm used to getting my feelings hurt by girls - and everyone else. That's just how things are."

"I know." Ashley nodded, also whispering.

Luke sighed and pressed play on the movie again, feeling that their conversation was over. They say in silence and watched the movie play across the laptop screen, neither of them speaking to each other. Luke still felt a little awkward, like always, and felt the need to do something about that.

"Hey, Ashley." Luke spoke, breaking the silence. "Your eyebrow game is still hella strong."

"I'm still not going to let you finger me." Ashley laughed again, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Damn."

-

THIS WAS A REALLY SHITTY FILLER IM SORRY

it was just character development and stuff and it gave just a tiny tiny background on both luke and ashley's family life it was cool right

WHATS GONNA HAPPEN NEXT

idk