the spacing might be really weird for this I'm sorry I'll fix it later

-

The day that Ashton and Charlie started publicly fighting with each other was the best day of Luke's life.
He was at Ashton's house, like any other Saturday night, and of course Charlie and the other boys were there too. Everything was going fine until Ashton made another stupid comment to Charlie about her wanting to move away for college, and it all went downhill from there.

Calum and Michael didn't even seem to notice the couple fighting, they sat on the other side of the couch and talked to each other. Michael was complaining about their English teacher and Calum was listening intently, trying to give advice.

Luke just sat silently on the floor and watched them argue, a bottle of vodka in one hand and his phone in the other. He was drunk texting Ashley with updates every few minutes.

"I just don't understand why you think this is such a big deal." Ashton shrugged, continuing his conversation with Charlie.

"Because it is a big deal!" Charlie groaned, turning so she was facing Ashton. "I don't understand why you keep putting this off, we're going to have to talk about it eventually."

"Well we're not going to talk about it right now." Ashton snapped, clearly trying to end this argument before it got any worse.

"I want to talk about it now." Charlie said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"We're not going to, Charlie, for fucks sake! I don't want to have this discussion right now, can't you wait until later?" Ashton yelled, growing more and more frustrated.

"You're being ridiculous! You're only acting this way because you're not getting what you want for once!" Charlie shouted, standing up from her spot on the couch. She glared at Ashton, her hands on her hips.

"No I'm not!" Ashton argued. "I have a right to think this way, Char, I'm just expressing my opinions."

"You don't have a right to be a complete dick about this." Charlie snapped, walking even farther away from him.

"Charlie, baby, I'm not being a dick." Ashton scoffed. He stood up as well and walked over to Charlie, grabbing both of her hands in his.

"Yes you are!" Charlie yelled, stepping away from Ashton. "You're too controlling and it's fucking annoying. I'm going to go to college where I want to go and you can't stop me."

This was the best day of Luke's life because he knew that this was just the beginning. Ashton had mentioned that he and Charlie had been fighting a lot lately and it wouldn't be long before they broke up for good, Luke could feel it. Once Charlie and Ashton were over, Luke could come in and finally make a move on Charlie. He didn't care about the God damn bro code.

luke that gets drunk all the time: theyr still fightingg

luke that gets drunk all the time: im so hsappy

He took another sip from his bottle of vodka because there was no one in the room that cared enough to stop him. Luke continued to watch Ashton and Charlie as the fight went on, his excitement growing with every word they spoke.

"Who said I was trying to stop you? I don't give a shit if you leave or not. I don't care." Ashton huffed, folding his arms across his chest.

"Oh, really?" Charlie said sarcastically. "It seemed like you cared a whole lot when you were in my bedroom crying because you didn't want me to leave you!"

"Charlie!" Ashton hissed. What Charlie said was obviously meant to be kept between them, not shared with all of Ashton's friends. God forbid they found out that he actually had emotions.

ashley from english class: stop drinking

(Ashley was pretty strict about the fact that Luke drank like it was nobody's business. She didn't drink at all, Luke drank at every chance he got. No matter how many times Ashley told him to stop, Luke wasn't going to listen).

luke that gets drunk all the time: drunking makes mr so happy tooooo

"If you want me to leave then I'll do it, Ashton." Charlie continued. "And what we discussed earlier would actually be a lot easier, I won't have to worry about you at all."

"Baby, I don't want you to leave - " Ashton sighed, obviously trying to fix this before it got any worse.

"You know you can always come with me." Charlie said, lowering her voice a little. She looked down at the floor, playing with her fingers.

"It's not that easy." Ashton said quickly. He took another step towards Charlie but she just backed up, nearly tripping over Luke.

"It is. We've talked about this before, Ashton." Charlie looked back up at Ashton, still glaring at him. "You're making this into such a big deal when you really don't have to."

"It is a big deal, Charlie, and I don't know why you can't just understand that." Ashton said sarcastically. "Stop being so fucking whiney about this and just forget it."

Charlie stayed silent for a long time before she finally let out a big sigh, turning away from Ashton. "I'm going upstairs."

"I'll come with - " Ashton began, but Charlie just cut him off again.

"Don't follow me." She snapped, barely glancing over her shoulder at Ashton as she walked away.

"You're acting insane!" Ashton yelled after her as Charlie ran up the stairs, not wanting anything to do with her boyfriend at the moment.

luke that gets drunk all the time: theyrr figting and she went upstairs iwant to follow her but ashton wiill kill me but shes so preeettty

ashley from english class: if you want to go talk to her then do it omg stop texting me every few minutes you're a big boy sweetie you can do this on your own

Luke groaned and locked his phone, shoving it back in his pocket because Ashley wasn't being any help at all. Even when he was drunk, Luke could tell that she was annoyed with how whiney he was being. He just felt so alone and Ashley was the only person that seemed willing to listen to him.

"You're being so mean to her." Luke pouted and folded his arms over his chest, finally speaking up to Ashton.

"Who, Charlie? I'm not being mean to her at all." Ashton scoffed. He straightened his shirt out again and sat down on the couch, next to where Calum and Michael were.

"Calum, Ashton's being mean to Charlie." Luke crawled over and poked Calum's leg, trying to get his attention.

"Luke, I'm in the middle of a conversation." Calum shushed him.

Luke just shook his head, he knew that Calum hadn't paid any attention to what just happened between Ashton and Charlie, so he didn't understand what Luke was talking about.

"Yeah, Luke, shut up." Michael chuckled and turned back to Calum.

"Besides, Luke, this is none of your business." Ashton added, still bitter about his argument with Charlie. "You shouldn't care."

"Yes I should!" Luke argued, sitting up straight. "It's not nice for you to act like that. You're really controlling, she doesn't like it."

"Alright, but last I checked she's my girlfriend, so I don't really understand why you're so concerned. I told you to knock it off with this pathetic crush, Luke, it's getting old." Ashton snapped, standing up again so he towered over Luke.

"I-I just care about her." Luke mumbled, setting down his bottle of vodka next to him. He stood up as well, and even though Luke was usually a lot taller than Ashton, he still felt small.

"Well, don't." Ashton said harshly.

"Yeah, Luke, she's Ashton's girlfriend. Bro code, dude, bro code." Michael finally added some input, which only made Luke more upset. Michael and Calum both hadn't shown any interest in this conversation until now, and of course they were going to side with Ashton - not Luke.

"Shut up!" Luke whined. He was so tired of hearing about the stupid bro code. The bro code shouldn't count when your "bro" was a total douche bag.

"I agree, actually." Calum said softly. "I mean, I know that you have this little crush on Charlie but I think that it needs to stop."

"It's not like I'm hurting anyone!" Luke yelled, not understanding why this was such a big deal. He liked Charlie, so what? He couldn't do anything about it for now and he wasn't going to. "She'll never like me back, you shouldn't be so upset."

"I don't like the thought of you thinking so much about my girlfriend." Ashton said smugly.

"I'm going upstairs." Luke mumbled, trying to push past Ashton. Obviously he didn't like that and Ashton grabbed Luke by the shoulders, stopping him from going any further.

"Luke, if you think - "

"I'm not gonna talk to your fucking girlfriend! Just leave me alone, you asshole." Luke yelled and shoved Ashton away from him, walking away from his friends and heading upstairs.

On any other day Luke would have just walked out and went home. He would have left, because his friends were jerks and he didn't need to waste his time with people like them. The only problem was that Luke had no way to get home. So instead of storming out of Ashton's house, Luke decided to do the only thing he really knew how to do anymore. He called Ashley.

"Luke, what do you want?" Ashley asked as she answered the phone, sounding more than aggravated with Luke than before.

"My friends are being mean to me." Luke whined, ignoring how annoyed Ashley seemed. He paced back and forth in the living room, nervously chewing at his fingernails.

"They're always mean to you." Ashley sighed.

Luke nodded, understanding what Ashley meant for once. His friends were always mean and never appreciated what Luke did for them. Ashley knew that and was constantly telling Luke to just drop them. He didn't need people like that in his life, but Luke was too blinded by the fact that his friends were so cool.

"Can you come get me?" Luke sighed. He wanted to stay so he didn't look like a loser by leaving so early, but he also didn't want to sit on the floor all alone while his friends hung out, so he decided that the best thing to do would be to just leave.

"At your friend Ashton's house?" Ashley questioned. "I don't know, Luke."

"Please." Luke begged. He just wanted to go home and cuddle up in bed for the rest of his life.

"You really want to leave?" Ashley asked. "Your friends act like this all the time, Luke, it'll probably blow over and you'll all be back to normal in no time."

Luke paused for a moment to think. He finally came to the conclusion that he didn't want to stay here if he was just going to be miserable the whole time. Luke didn't care about Charlie being there anymore, he knew that she wasn't never going to pay attention to him no matter how hard he tried.

"Yeah, I'd rather just go home. Everyone's being an asshole to me so I might as well just leave." Luke said softly, walking through the living room and into the kitchen. He found Charlie sitting down at the table, a bowl of ice cream in front of her.

"Are you okay?" Ashley questioned. "How much have you had to drink?"

"Too much. I need a ride home. Will you please come pick me up?" Luke asked. Charlie looked up at him as he crept into the kitchen, a small smile on her face. Luke was almost afraid to walk over to her, he was scared that Ashton would suddenly come upstairs and beat him up.

"I'm literally laying in bed right now." Ashley said and let out a small groan. Luke knew that she was going to give in, though, because Ashley always gave in to Luke.

"Are you naked?" Luke asked, giggling a little. He'd momentarily forgotten that Charlie was sitting right there in front of him, and Luke was suddenly lost in semi-dirty thoughts of Ashley in bed.

"I'm wearing bright green footie pajamas." Ashley chuckled sarcastically. Luke was glad to hear her laughing like that, because he knew that it meant she was feeling better. Ashley got so annoyed so easily and Luke honestly hated it because he was always annoying and always annoyed Ashley.

"Wow, that's hot." Luke laughed.

"Yeah, I know." Ashley giggled. After a few more seconds of them quietly laughing with each other, Ashley changed the subject. She sounded concerned as she spoke, her voice a much softer tone. "Are you alright, Luke?"

"I'd be more alright if you came and picked me up." Luke sighed, running his fingers through his hair.

"Luke, I really don't know." Ashley sighed. "It's past midnight, it seems pointless for me to come get you now."

"Please?" Luke asked again. He finally made a move and walked through the kitchen until he got to the table, taking a seat across from where Charlie was. He watched her as she gave him a quick nod, stabbing at her chunk of ice cream with her spoon. She was so pretty.

"I don't even know where Ashton lives." Ashley said suddenly, scaring Luke out of his little trance.

"I can text you his address." Luke said, rubbing his eyes. He was suddenly regretting leaving the bottle of vodka downstairs, he wanted more to drink.

"It's really late." Ashley said after a few long seconds of silence. Luke was struggling to even pay attention to what Ashley was saying, he was concentrating too much on Charlie sitting in front of him.

He smiled at Charlie and she smiled back, but Luke could tell that she was upset. Her makeup was smudged a little and Luke knew that just a few minutes earlier she was crying, obviously over her fight with Ashton. Luke felt awful, all he wanted to do was comfort her in someway but he knew that if he tried anything Ashton would get upset.

"You can walk home." Ashley said, once again startling Luke.

"I'm drunk! You really want me to walk down the streets like this when it's so late and I'm drunk?" Luke gasped and Charlie let out a small giggle from across the table.

"No, Luke, I don't want you walking home like this." Ashley sighed, once again annoyed with Luke and how needy he was.

"I'm so sorry, Ashley, I just don't want to be here any longer." Luke mumbled, unintentionally covering his mouth with his hand.

"Alright, fine. Text me the address." Ashley said bitterly, and Luke could even imagine her rolling her eyes like she always did.

"Oh, Ashley, you're so nice to me." Luke laughed, relieved that Ashley finally agreed and was going to come get him.

"I know." Ashley said, not sounding as amused as Luke was.

"You're so, so nice to me." Luke mumbled again, losing track of what he was actually supposed to be doing.

"Text me Ashton's address, Luke. I'll be there soon." Ashley said and hung up without letting Luke say goodbye. Luke set his phone back down on the table after quickly texting Ashley the address (he only made one spelling mistake this time) and looked up at Charlie.

"Hi." Luke smiled at her again, resting his chin in both of his hands.

"Hi." Charlie said softly, looking up from her ice cream for just a second.

"Are you okay?" Luke asked, not bothering to try and sugarcoat any of this. "You were crying, so obviously you aren't. Your boyfriend's a real dick, I kinda hate him."

"Yeah, I'm not really okay." Charlie cracked a smile and wiped the corners of her eyes again. "It's not all because of Ashton, though."

"You're lying. I can sense it." Luke said, playfully raising an eyebrow at Charlie. There wasn't anything else for her to be upset about, Charlie had no reason to be crying other than the fact that Ashton was an asshole.

"No I'm not." Charlie insisted, shaking her head. "Ashton and I have this fight all the time, I'm pretty much over it by now."

"Then why are you crying and emotionally shoving ice cream in your face?" Luke questioned.

"I have some other stuff going on in my life right now." Charlie shrugged. "

"Sometimes it gets to be too much and I just have to cry it out over a bowl of ice cream."

"Sometimes I need to do that too." Luke said, letting out a small laugh. He liked the way that his mood was getting better because of just a small conversation with Charlie.

"It's nice." Charlie nodded, using her spoon to play around with the leftover ice cream in the bowl. "My favorite is double chocolate but I was over here two nights ago and ate all of it. Now all Ashton has is rocky road."

"My favorite is double chocolate!" Luke said excitedly, glad to have found another thing that he had in common with Charlie.

"It's the best." Charlie smiled, also seeming to be in much better mood.

"I feel like it's a flavor that a lot of girls like. It's my friend Ashley's favorite too, she was just texting me last night about how she ran out and had to go to the store at, like, 11 o'clock because she really wanted some more." Luke rambled on, giggling to himself without a care in the world.

"Is that who you were talking to on the phone?" Charlie asked. She laughed at the expression on Luke's face, which was a mixture of surprise and confusion. "I was kind of eavesdropping, sorry."

"It's okay." Luke blushed. "And yeah, I was talking to Ashley. She's so nice to me, she's coming to pick me up."

"Are you guys dating?" Charlie asked, a small smile on her face.

"What? No, that's crazy!" Luke laughed obnoxiously loud. He got up from the table and walked over to the fridge, searching for some alcohol.

"I was just wondering." Charlie chuckled. "It seems like you two like each other a lot."

"I don't like her at all!" Luke said a little too loudly again, slamming the fridge door shut. "She's just my weird friend from my English class. We cuddle and watch Netflix together."

"Oh, really?" Charlie smirked, raising an eyebrow. "And you don't like her at all?"

"No, no, no." Luke shook his head, sitting down once more. He clasped his hands together and smiled sweetly at Charlie, trying to do whatever he could to change the subject. "She's nice to me. Not a lot of people are nice to me."

"Why is that?" Charlie asked.

"Ashton says it's because I'm a loser." Luke shrugged, not really realizing what words were coming out of his mouth.

"Why does he say that?" Charlie gasped. Clearly she didn't know how much of an asshole her boyfriend was.

"Because I am a loser, I guess." Luke said, shrugging again. "But it's alright, I'm used to it by now."

"I don't think you're a loser." Charlie laughed. She finished her ice cream and pushed the bowl away from her, all of her attention now on Luke.

"Thanks." Luke said, a huge smile on his face. Really, it was huge. His cheeks hurt from how big he was smiling.

Charlie opened her mouth to say something more but before she could get any words out the sound of footsteps running up the basement stairs stopped her. Luke didn't have much time to process what was going on before he saw Ashton, Calum, and Michael entering the kitchen.

"- There was totally a frozen pizza in the freezer earlier, I think you're lying to me!" Calum yelled and ran across the kitchen, over to the fridge.

"Hey, Luke, you forgot this downstairs." Michael said, taking a seat next to Luke at the table and setting the bottle of vodka down in front of him.

"Sweet, thanks." Luke said, smiling widely at Michael as he grabbed the bottle and took a big sip.

"There is a pizza! Ashton, you're such a liar!" Calum yelled, pulling a frozen pizza out of the freezer and walking with it over to the oven.

Ashton wasn't paying much attention to Calum, who was screaming over a pizza. He had sat down in a chair next to Charlie and was pulling her in close to him, whispering something in her ear that Luke was too far away to understand.

"My friend is coming to pick me up." Luke said, speaking mostly to Michael because he was the only one paying attention to him.

"What friend?" Ashton scoffed, like he didn't believe Luke.

"Ashley." Luke said quietly, folding his arms over his chest.

"Oh, that weird girl that you were talking to at the restaurant last week?" Ashton asked.

"Hey, she's not weird!" Luke pouted. "Only I can call her weird."

"Whatever." Ashton mumbled, rolling his eyes as he turned back to Charlie. He cupped her face in his hands and made her face him, resting his forehead against hers. Ashton continued to whisper things to her, and it was even harder for Luke to hear them now.

"So, Luke, you've been talking to Ashley a lot lately?" Michael wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, nudging Luke in the side with his elbow.

Luke just flinched, he wasn't feeling very good right now due to all of the alcohol he'd had and Michael doing that really didn't make it any better.

"Yeah, I guess." Luke shrugged. "She's so nice to me."

"Have you fucked her yet?" Michael chuckled, glancing quickly at Calum, who was listening in on the conversation.

"No, I don't think I want to." Luke said, shrugging again. "I make jokes about wanting to have sex with her a lot, but I'm not sure that I want to."

"Why wouldn't you want to?" Michael scoffed. "She's hot, even I think so. You should totally bang her."

"But-but I don't love her. She doesn't love me." Luke mumbled, once again not aware of what he was actually saying.

"Oh, are you serious?" Calum yelled. Luke turned towards his friend, thinking that what Calum said was direction to him, but really he was just yelling at the oven again.

"So suddenly you think it's important to love someone before you have sex with them?" Michael asked hesitantly, as if he didn't even want to hear Luke's answer.

"Uh huh." Luke nodded.

"Well, that's pretty stupid." Michael laughed, rolling his eyes. He leaned back in his chair and turned away from Luke, no longer interested in anything that he had to say.

That was fine with Luke, because now he could pay more attention to what Ashton and Charlie were talking about. They didn't seem mad at each other anymore, but Luke was never quite sure with them. They seemed to fight and make up so often and it was hard to keep track.

"You know I love you a lot, right?" Ashton asked softly, grabbing Charlie's hand and intertwining their fingers.

"I know." Charlie nodded, biting down on her bottom lip. "I love you."

Luke's heart hurt. He didn't like watching Charlie, the girl of his dreams, telling her boyfriend how much she loved him. It hurt because Luke was head over heels for her and he knew that he had absolutely no chance. He wanted to be the one that she was saying she loved. He wanted to be the one holding her like that.

"The pizza should be ready in a few minutes." Calum said after a long silence between everyone except Ashton and Charlie. He sat down in the last open seat at the table, totally oblivious to what was happening. "So, what's going on?"

"Luke is getting picked up by Hot Ashley." Michael laughed, grabbing Luke's almost-empty bottle of vodka and taking a sip.

"Please don't call her that." Luke mumbled, staring down at his lap again. He really wished that Ashley would hurry up, he just wanted to get out of there as fast as he could. Luke didn't think that he could take hanging out with these people for much longer.

"Oh, that's nice." Calum said, ignoring Luke. "You've been talking to her a lot lately, haven't you?"

"Yes." Luke nodded. "She's nice to me, unlike you people."

"What? We're nice to you!" Calum argued, shaking his head.

It was clear to Luke that Calum was oblivious to half of the things that went on when Luke was there. He must have not noticed all of the times that Ashton had called Luke a dork or a loser for no reason at all, or how Michael would purposely get Luke drunk just so they could laugh at him.

"I think Ashley will be here soon, I should go get my stuff..." Luke said slowly and clumsily got up out of his chair, walking through the kitchen and back into the living room, where he thought that he'd left his shoes and jacket.

Luke was right, and as soon as he got up to go look for his things there was a knock at the front door. He quickly walked over to it and opened it up, slightly disappointed to see that Ashley wasn't wearing the green footie pajamas.

"Hi." Luke smiled when he saw Ashley, grabbing her hand and pulling her inside of the house. "I'll be there in a minute. I just need my shoes."

"Are you okay? Do you need help?" Ashley asked, obviously noticing the way that Luke was stumbling around.

"Uh huh." Luke said and continued to hold Ashley's hand, pulling her with him into the kitchen. Everyone else was still in there; Ashton and Charlie were talking softly with each other and Calum and Michael were messing around with the oven.

"Hi Ashley!" Michael yelled obnoxiously as they entered the kitchen, turning around and leaning against the counter. Calum continued to play with the nobs on the oven, mumbling about not knowing how to set the timer.

"Hi." Ashley said shyly, looking down at the floor.

"This is Ashley." Luke pointed to Ashley, a goofy smile on his face as he introduced her to his friends.

"We know, buddy, we've all met her before." Calum chuckled, finally looking away from the stupid oven long enough to hear what Luke was saying.

"I'm looking for my shoes." Luke said, sliding around on his socks around the kitchen. "Has anyone seen my shoes?"

"I think you left them over there." Charlie spoke up, pointing towards the sliding back door that led to Ashton's backyard. Ashton sent a glare to Charlie again, even though she was only trying to be friendly. Luke didn't like how controlling Ashton was when it came to Charlie.

Luke nodded and walked over to the back door, finding his shoes there in a pile with everyone else's.

"I found them!" Luke said excitedly, sitting down on the ground and putting his shoes back on. He stood up again and brushed his jeans off. Ashley was standing next to him still, her arms folded across her chest. She looked annoyed, Luke felt bad.

"Hey Ashley, you look a little upset." Michael teased as they walked passed him. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I'm tired." Ashley shrugged.

"I'm sorry." Luke mumbled, knowing that it was his fault that Ashley was acting like this. It was late at night and he had forced her to come pick him up from the house of someone that she didn't even know. He could see why she'd be pissed off.

"Shut up." Ashley muttered to Luke, shaking her head.

"You were the only person I could call." Luke whispered, trying to make things better. He didn't want Ashley to hate him just because he'd asked for a little favor.

Ashton and Charlie's conversation started to fade away, and pretty soon their eyes were on Luke and Ashley. Calum and Michael still mumbled incoherent things to each other, probably cracking jokes about what was happening right in front of them.

"You could have called your mom or something." Ashley shrugged. She did seem like she was a lot more tired than usual, and Luke hoped that her being exhausted was the reason for her acting like this rather than her bring him.

"It's late, my mom is probably asleep and I don't wanna wake her." Luke said, slowly looking back down at Ashley.

"You could have called your - " Ashley began, but Luke already knew what she was going to suggest so he cut her off.

"He can't." Luke snapped, causing everyone in the room to go silent. He looked around for a second, his voice cracking as he spoke. "My dad's-he's...he's...he can't come get me."

Luke felt tears start to form in the corners of his eyes as he spoke, this sensitive subject only getting worse due to Luke being so drunk. He wiped his under eyes and his friends obviously noticed, because Calum finally spoke up.

"Luke, I'll drive you home if you want. I was planning on leaving soon anyway." He sighed, pushing himself away from the counter and walking over to Luke.

Luke shook his head. He didn't want to go home with Calum, he wanted to go home with Ashley. And he knew that Calum was only acting like this because he felt sorry for Luke. In any other circumstance Calum would have must let Luke walk home on his own.

"No, it's fine. Come on, Luke." Ashley said, holding out her hand for Luke to take. He nodded slowly and took her hand, letting Ashley lead him to the living room, where they found his jacket, and out the front door.

Luke quickly said goodbye to everyone else, not caring that he didn't get to say much to Charlie. He felt really sick now and all he wanted was to go home, he didn't care about who he made conversation with at the moment.

Once they got in the car Ashley helped buckle Luke up and he slumped down in his seat, feeling sick. Luke rarely ever felt sick because he drank too much (sometimes he'd throw up without even knowing what was happening, but that was also rare), but he knew that because of the events of tonight he'd made himself extra drunk, therefore he was extra nauseous.

"I'm gonna puke." Luke groaned, sitting up a little too fast and opening the car door. Ashley didn't have time to say anything before Luke leaned out and threw up all over Ashton's driveway.

When he was done, Luke shut the car door again and slumped back down in the seat, practically ignoring that Ashley was even there in the car with him.

"Are you alright?" Ashley asked softly, reaching out and placing her hand on the top of Luke's thigh.

"Yeah." Luke choked out, more tears falling from his eyes now. He couldn't really control it and he couldn't really figure out why exactly he was crying, but he didn't do anything to stop himself.

"Do you want me to take you home now?" Ashley asked soothingly. "We can wait here for a little bit if you need to."

"No." Luke wiped his nose with the sleeve of his jacket. He couldn't stop crying. "Just take me home, please."

"We can go to my house if you want, my dad won't be - "

"Take me home." Luke sobbed, cutting Ashley off. His breathing got heavier and he struggled to even get any words out. "Oh my God, please take me back home."

"Luke, are you okay?" Ashley seemed worried now and she unbuckled her seatbelt, trying to get closer to Luke. "Luke?"

"I just feel sick." Luke said, shaking his head. "I'm okay, though."

Luke must have spoken too soon, because just a few seconds later he was opening the car door and leaning out, throwing up again.

"Luke..." Ashley trailed off, rubbing Luke's back as he sat up straight again. "Do you want to go back inside?"

"No, I don't. I'm okay, really, I'm okay." Luke said as he tried to calm himself down. He didn't know what had come over him, he suddenly decided to let out all of the emotions that he'd bottled up all night and now Luke wasn't sure how to make this stop. "Please just take me home."

"You're obviously not okay." Ashley said softly, grabbing Luke's hand in hers and gently rubbing circles in the top of his hand with her thumb. "Does this happen a lot? Do you want me to go back inside and get one of your friends? Do you want to talk to them?"

"No, I don't want to talk to any of my friends!" Luke snapped. He ran his fingers through his hair, his breathing still heavier than normal and unsteady.

"I'm just trying to help, don't yell at me!" Ashley said, obviously not knowing how to handle Luke in a situation like this. He didn't blame her for it, she'd only known Luke for a short period of time and had never seen him like this. Hell, Luke had rarely seen himself act like this.

"I'm just really tired, I'm fine." Luke insisted. He didn't want Ashley to make a big deal about this because it honestly wasn't something that needed to have a big deal made of it. Luke had simply had a bad day and he was letting his frustrations out, nothing more.

"Are you sure?" Ashley asked in a whisper, her eyes wide.

"This has happened before." Luke lied, more tears slipping from his eyes. "I'm okay, just take me back home."

"You're positive?" Ashley asked again, just to make sure. Luke appreciated how concerned she suddenly was, but he knew that he would feel a lot better once he got into his own bed and he wanted to do that as soon as possible, not sit in Ashton's driveway and wait until he was feeling 100 percent better.

"I just drank too much." Luke mumbled, wiping his eyes with his free hand.

"I know, I know." Ashley nodded, giving Luke's hand a small squeeze. "You started to breathe all weird, though, it scared me."

"Sometimes I hyperventilate." Luke shrugged, trying to crack a small smile. He just ended up crying a little more, the lump in his through returning.

"Yeah, you've told me." Ashley chuckled. "I didn't think you were serious about it."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I made you come pick me up so late at night and I'm sorry that I just freaked out like that." Luke rambled, not even knowing what words to put together to apologize for this. He felt so awful and he knew that he shouldn't, because this wasn't his fault.

"Luke, it's okay." Ashley assured him.

"I'm sorry that I was acting like such s bitch about this. After being in there for only a few minutes I can see why you wanted to leave so badly."

"They're such jerks." Luke mumbled.

"Are you sure that you're okay?" Ashley questioned, reaching up and cupping Luke's cheek in her hand. She ran her thumb under his eye, getting rid of some of the tears.

"Yeah, I'm sure." Luke nodded. He wiped under his eyes one more time and buckled his seatbelt again. (Ashley had to help him). Ashley buckled her seatbelt as well and started the car, both of them sitting silently as Ashley drove them back to Luke's house.

When they arrived back at Luke's house it was almost one in the morning, but Luke didn't care. He knew that he'd be sleeping until at least noon the next day, so it didn't matter how late he got home. He still felt bad for Ashley, though, because he dragged her out of bed so late at night just so she could drive him home.

Ashley didn't trust Luke enough to walk to the back door on his own so she came with him, helping him walk like she always ended up doing. Luke really appreciated Ashley, he'd have to remember to tell her someday.

"Can you come in for a few minutes?" Luke asked softly, getting his key out from his pocket and handing it to Ashley, who unlocked the door for them.

"Yeah." Ashley nodded.

"Shh! We need to be quiet." Luke said as they walked in the back door and through the kitchen. They both kicked off their shoes and Luke dropped his jacket on the floor, only to have Ashley pick it up and carry it with her to Luke's room.

"I am being quiet." Ashley laughed and followed Luke down the hall, keeping a tight grip on his hand.

"Shh." Luke repeated, shutting the door behind them once they entered his bedroom. He sat down on the edge of his bed, barely even able to keep his eyes open anymore. "I'm so tired."

"I know, Luke." Ashley sighed. "Why don't you change your clothes and then go to sleep?"

"I'm so sleepy." Luke whined, standing up again and taking his shirt off, throwing it across the room. His pants came off next and he kicked those away from him too, not conscious of the fact that Ashley was right there watching him. He was too drunk and tired to care.

"I'll be back." Luke said softly, walking passed Ashley and heading into the bathroom. He brushed his teeth quickly, wanting to get the taste of all the alcohol and puke out of his mouth, before going back to his room again.

He was a little surprised to see that Ashley was still there waiting for him, leaning against Luke's dresser and looking around the room. Luke walked by her and crawled into bed, pulling the covers up around his neck so only his head was peeking out.

"Alright, good- " Ashley began to walk out of the room, and Luke was about to let her leave, but he stopped himself from letting that happen.

"Ashley, can you stay?" Luke asked quietly, moving the covers away from his mouth for just a split second so she could understand him.

"I don't know if I should..." Ashley trailed off, looking down the hall, towards Liz's room.

"Please?" Luke begged. He did want to just go asleep and forget about everything that had happened tonight, but he didn't want to do it alone.

"I'll just stay for a few minutes." Ashley whispered, reaching out and shutting Luke's bedroom door. She took her own jacket off and dropped it onto the floor, walking over to Luke's bed and crawling under the covers with him.

Luke quickly took this chance to move closer to Ashley and wrap his arms around her waist, cuddling into her side and resting his head on her stomach.

"Aw, you're like a little koala." Ashley laughed at the way that Luke had latched himself onto her side.

"Can you play with my hair?" Luke whispered. "My mom used to do that to me when I'd have nightmares and come into her room in the middle of the night. I used to get nightmares a lot..."

"So did I." Ashley nodded. She brought her hands up and ran her fingers through Luke's hair, his eyes drooping as she lazily played around with it.

"That's a secret." Luke whispered.

"What?" Ashley asked, not knowing what he was talking about. She scooted down and they shifted into a more comfortable position, still cuddled together in the middle of Luke's bed.

"No one except my mom knows that I used to get nightmares." Luke mumbled, slowly drifting off to sleep. "It's a secret."

"Oh." Ashley nodded. "Luke, I have a question for you."

"Uh huh?" Luke asked. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to answer this question very well since he was half asleep, but he was going to try anyway.

"Do you really love Charlie?" Ashley asked, catching Luke off guard a little. He hadn't expected her to ask a question like that, and he wasn't sure if he'd be able to answer it now.

Of course he loved Charlie. That was kind of a silly question. It was pretty obvious too, because pretty much everyone knew how Luke felt about Ashton's girlfriend. He didn't understand why Ashley was asking or why she cared so much about this whole thing.

"Yes." Luke said slowly, finally closing his eyes all the way. "Why?"

"Oh, I was just thinking." Ashley sighed.

"Mhm." Luke nodded after a minute, his response a little delayed. "Thinking about what?"

"It's nothing, really." Ashley said, continuing to play with Luke's hair. "I just think that maybe you're only in love with the idea of loving her, that's all."

-

THIS IS BORING I KNOW IM SORRY BUT ITS MORE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND THATS IMPORTANT

also idk what I want to happen next in this story so if it takes me forever to update again I'm sorry