"Luke, your hair looks fine just the way it is." Ashley laughed, trying to swat Luke's hand away from his head as he ran his fingers through his hair.

"I figured that maybe if I changed how it looked it would distract people from the big bruise on my nose." Luke shrugged, blushing a little. It was Friday, and even though Luke had gone to school every day that week people were still asking him about his nose and why it looked like that.

It was almost like the streaking all over again (and even that hadn't died down yet) people would approach Luke in the halls and say "good job" and girls would give him their numbers, even though he never wanted to call any of them. It seemed as if people had noticed Michael's black eye, too, and they thought that Luke did it, when really he was too scared to even throw a punch.

"Sweetie, I don't think anyone could be distracted from that bruise on your nose." Ashley laughed. She grabbed Luke's wrist to pull him along as they walked through the crowded hallway.

"Do you think I should dye my hair?" Luke wondered out loud, following Ashley through the hall. They were supposed to be going to their English classroom but it seemed as if Ashley had other plans.

"No. Why would you do that?" Ashley scoffed. They made it to her locker, which was apparently where she was going all along, and dropped Luke's wrist. He leaned up against the locker next to Ashley's and watched her take her books out.

"I just thought that maybe it'd be cool." Luke shrugged. Michael dyed his hair and girls loved him, so maybe that's why girls didn't like Luke. "Girls like guys with cool hair..."

"Your hair is fine just the way it is, you dork." Ashley laughed, turning poking Luke in the stomach. She slammed her locker shut and then turned around, leaning against it next to Luke.

"I mean, maybe my hair is the reason why I can't get laid." Luke suggested, even though he knew that wasn't true either. The main reason why Luke didn't get laid because he had a panic attack every time he came close.

"Your hair is not the reason why you can't get laid, Luke, I promise." Ashley laughed. Luke was wondering why she was still standing there, they had class in two minutes and now they had to walk to the other side of the building.

"Aren't we going to go?" Luke asked, looking over his shoulder in the direction of their classroom. The halls were beginning to empty now and Luke knew that they'd be late to class if they didn't get moving.

"Oh, you can go ahead." Ashley shrugged. "I'm supposed to wait for - "

But before Ashley could even finish her sentence, Luke knew what she was going to say. Brandon. He knew because only a few seconds later a guy wearing a leather jacket with dark brown hair came up behind Ashley and wrapped his arms around her waist while Luke watched in disgust.

"Hi!" Ashley smiled, turning around to face him. She pointed over her shoulder to Luke. "Brandon, this is Luke. Luke, this is Brandon."

"Hey, I've heard a lot about you." Brandon smiled, giving Luke a small wave.

"I've heard quite a lot about you too." Luke chuckled nervously, clutching his books to his chest.

Brandon leaned down and mumbled something in Ashley's ear before kissing her, and Luke couldn't manage to bring himself to look away. He was so, so jealous and instead of running away while Ashley and Brandon made out in the middle of the hallway Luke watched them. Watched.

"Uh, well, I think I should get going, maybe, because class is about to start soon and I - " This time Luke was cut off by the bell ringing, signaling that class had started and he was already late.

Luke still couldn't bring himself to leave, though, not without Ashley. Her and Brandon were sucking each other's faces off right in front of Luke, it was almost as bad as Ashton and Charlie. Luke felt worse about watching this than watching Ashton and Charlie, though, but he chose to ignore that and address that fact later.

"Oh, I have to go." Ashley said after another minute, quickly pulling away from Brandon, who seemed a little confused. "I'll see you in fifth period."

Ashley walked over to Luke and tugged on his wrist, pulling him away from the locker he was up against and down the hall.

"Alright, babe." Brandon nodded, leaning up against one of the lockers. "I'll see you later."

Luke thought that Brandon seemed like kind of a stoner, he was very chill and didn't seem to pick up on much. Also Luke was pretty sure that Brandon was ditching class and that's why he was in no hurry to get anywhere. Needless to say, Luke still didn't approve.

"Babe." Luke scoffed, looking down at his feet as he walked away. "He's known you for only a few weeks and he already calls you babe. He's probably ditching class. He probably does drugs. He makes me sick."

"He didn't even do anything to you?" Ashley questioned, giving Luke a puzzled look as they quickly walked down the hallway.

Luke didn't even see a point in going back to class, they were already late and when the two of them came in together that late people were going to assume things. And obviously they weren't going to assume that Luke sat for three minutes and watched Ashley make out with Brandon the Stoner, no, they were going to assume something else.

"Do you like leather jackets?" Luke asked, changing the subject.

"What?" Ashley asked, letting out a small laugh.

"You like leather jackets? I was thinking of getting one." Luke said smugly, still staring down at his feet. "I was also thinking of ditching all of my classes to go smoke weed behind the bleachers."

"Luke, knock it off." Ashley groaned.

"I think I might pick up a random girl and take her bowling, too. How does that sound?" Luke went on. He wasn't even talking directly to Ashley, he was more rambling in a jealous rage, which was only making himself more upset.

"Luke, can you please stop?" Ashley begged. "You have to stop getting so jealous about things like this, we've talked about it before."

"And hey, maybe she'll even give me a blowjob - "

"Hey, I never told you about that!" Ashley snapped, cutting Luke off. He stopped dead in his tracks, turning to Ashley and giving her another disgusted look.

Luke didn't think that Ashley had actually given Brandon a blowjob. He was just saying that to make her mad, he didn't think she'd actually done it before. Oh God, Luke wanted to die.

"Ew. Ew, Ew, EW!" Luke blurted out before he had a chance to even think. "You sucked his dick? Seriously?"

"Yeah, why is that such a big deal?" Ashley asked, folding her arms across her chest. She was very annoyed with Luke right now, he could tell, and he knew that he'd just made things a lot worse.

"Because all I've been thinking about for the past five days is you and your lips and now I know that they've been all over that shithead's penis!" Luke yelled, his mind racing. He'd gone from slightly jealous to completely outraged in a matter of seconds and he was still having trouble getting a handle on why.

He didn't like Ashley, she was just his friend and he was protective over her, right? He didn't like her like that, so why was he so upset about finding out something like this?

"And why didn't you tell me?" Luke questioned, still raging. "I'm your best friend, aren't I? I have a right to know these things!"

"Maybe I didn't tell you because I knew that you'd act like this about it." Ashley said, staying calm, and folded her arms across her chest.

"Well I don't think that's very fair." Luke scoffed and crossed his arms over his chest as well, trying to calm himself down.

"I don't think it's very fair that you're acting like this." Ashley said blankly, clearly doing a better job of remaining calm than Luke was.

"Well I don't think that it's very fair that you don't think that the way I'm acting is fair because I think that it's pretty fair, if you ask me."

"What?"

"I - I don't know." Luke said, confused at even himself for what had just come out of his mouth.

"Okay, you're acting ridiculous, end of story." Ashley said, reaching out for Luke's arm so she could drag him back to class, which they were already beyond late for. "Come on, let's get to class."

"No, I'm going to go this way." Luke said, pointing down another hallway. It would take him probably twice as long to get to class if he took that route, but he didn't care. He was stubborn and didn't want to be anywhere near Ashley at the moment.

"Luke, seriously?" Ashley groaned.

"Yes, seriously." Luke nodded. "Maybe I won't even go back to class. I think I'm going to go find your little buddy Brandon and see what he's doing."

"You are so annoying. You're such a fucking drama queen!" Ashley shook her head, seeming to be completely done with Luke now. "Go away, I don't even want to talk to you anymore."

"Good, because I don't want to talk to you either." Luke said, already turning around and walking in the other direction.

"Good!" Ashley yelled back.

And then Luke walked away, feeling a lot worse about this than he should have.

*•*•*

After school Luke decided to go apologize to Ashley. He felt bad for the way he acted earlier that morning and he didn't want them to be fighting with each other anymore. He was just jealous and selfish and he shouldn't have taken it out on her.

So when Luke got out of his last period class he put on his big puffy coat and walked to the spot where Ashley parked her car. He was all prepared to give her some speech about how sorry he was and why he was acting this way. Yeah, Luke was basically going to tell Ashley that he'd developed a little crush on her.

But when Luke got to Ashley's car he was surprised (well, not really) to see her leaning against the side of it with Brandon, both of them sucking each other's faces off like they were doing earlier.

"I hate my life." Luke muttered under his breath and then walked around to the passenger side of the car.

Neither Ashley or Brandon even saw Luke as he approached the car so they didn't notice when he hopped into the passenger seat either. He buckled up his seatbelt and waited patiently for Ashley and Brandon to finish, even though at this rate he didn't think that the time would ever come.

Luke felt a huge knot in his stomach form as he watched them, feeling absolutely sick about all of this. He didn't know why it was just hitting him now that he felt this way about Ashley, but it was hitting him hard and Luke didn't like it at all. He couldn't stand seeing her with another guy, with someone that wasn't him. It was just like how he felt when he watched Ashton and Charlie, only a thousand times worse.

Finally Luke got tired of waiting and he reached across the car to the steering wheel, punching it once and making the car horn go off. It startled both Ashley and Brandon and made them pull away from each other. Ashley looked through the car window at Luke, who just gave her an innocent smile and a shrug.

Ashley and Brandon exchanged a few more words before Brandon finally walked away, causing Luke to let out a big sigh of relief.

"What the fuck, Luke?" Ashley yelled as she got in the car, starting it right away so she could turn on the heat.

"Sorry, did I interrupt something?" Luke questioned, cocking his head to the side. He turned on the radio, which automatically started blasting the Taylor Swift mix that Luke made.

"I was, actually." Ashley scoffed.

"You know I came here to apologize to you but I don't think I'm going to now." Luke said, folding his arms across his chest.

"Why? Because I was kissing him again? You really need to get over this, Luke." Ashley sighed. "I know that you think that this is going to change things between us but I promise you it's not - "

"You can't promise something like that." Luke cut her off.

"Luke, listen to me." Ashley said, turning in her seat so she was facing him. "I know that we've only know each other for a few months but you're seriously one of the best friends I've ever had and if you think that me having a boyfriend is going to make things different then you're wrong."

"So he's your boyfriend?" Luke asked, seeming to ignore the main point of what Ashley was saying.

"No." Ashley said quickly. Luke wasn't sure if he should believe her or not. "And that's not even the point."

Just hearing the word boyfriend coming out of Ashley's mouth made Luke upset. He couldn't believe that he had actually been going to tell Ashley how he felt about her. It was pointless, she was never going to like Luke in that way, and even if she had at some point he was too late now.

"I don't want to talk about this anymore." Luke said, swallowing hard. "Can you take me to Ashton's house?"

"Luke, come on." Ashley groaned. "Can't we just talk about this? I don't want you to be upset with me, can we please - "

"I would really rather not talk about this right now. I want to go get drunk so I don't have to think about this anymore so can you please, please drive me to Ashton's house." Luke begged. It was too hard for him to be around Ashley at the moment and Luke just needed some space to think without her there with him.

"What has gotten in to you?" Ashley asked. She didn't seem very happy with Luke but she started driving anyway and he hoped that she would actually take him to Ashton's house.

"Nothing." Luke sighed. "I'm sorry, Ash, I really am, but I just want to be alone right now."

"Then why am I taking you to Ashton's house? Why don't you want to go home, so you can be by yourself?" Ashley questioned.

Luke was getting really tired of all of her questions. He was confused and upset and he really just wanted to go to Ashton's house so he could get drunk and rant about his feelings.

"I just want to talk to Ashton." Luke mumbled, looking down at his lap.

"Alright, fine. I tried." Ashley scoffed. "I honestly don't know why I even bother with you half the time, Luke, you always do this and I don't think I can deal with it anymore - "

"Just drive me to Ashton's house. Please." Luke said harshly, wishing that Ashley would just shut up and do what he asked.

"What do you think I'm doing?" Ashley snapped, her eyes focused on the road ahead of her.

"Don't yell at me." Luke snapped back.

"I'm not yelling!" Ashley said, raising her voice.

"Yes you are!" Luke yelled, turning and watching Ashley as she drove. She had this little scowl on her face as she watched the cars around her. It would have been really cute if she wasn't so angry with Luke.

"Well I wouldn't be yelling if you weren't so fucking confusing!" Ashley said, honking her horn at a guy that was crossing the street in front of them.

"Well I wouldn't be so fucking confusing if it wasn't for you!" Luke accused, pointing a finger at her.

"Me? This is my fault?" Ashley questioned, rolling her eyes.

"Yes, it's your fault because you're doing things and making me feel things that I don't want to feel and it's driving me fucking crazy!" Luke yelled, getting a little too worked up and slamming his hands on the dashboard.

"Don't hit my car!" Ashley snapped, reaching over and slapping Luke on the shoulder. "And I haven't done anything! I don't know what you don't understand, Luke, nothing has changed!"

"Things have changed! You have a stupid boyfriend now and I - I - I don't like it!" Luke stammered, not sure how to say what he really wanted to.

"Well then I won't go out with him anymore, if it's that important to you!" Ashley said, and that shocked Luke for a second. She was really willing to break up with Brandon because of how upset Luke was about this. He didn't know if that was a good or bad thing.

"You don't have to break up with him because of me!" Luke spoke after a moment of silence, finally thinking of something to say.

"Yes I do! That's the only way to get you to stop being so mad about this." Ashley yelled at him, slamming on the breaks to avoid running a red light. "You're really important to me so I'm willing to end things with him for your sake!"

"You don't have to do that because of me!" Luke screamed.

"Yes I do!" Ashley screamed back. The light changed to green again and Ashley started driving, focusing again on not getting into a car crash while they fought.

"Stop yelling while you're driving! It's really scaring me!" Luke whined, suddenly realizing how dangerous this was.

"Maybe if you would stop yelling at me I wouldn't have to yell!" Ashley snapped.

"If we're going to fight like this then we might as well pull over!" Luke yelled, getting a little freaked out now. "It's dangerous to have strong emotions while driving, I learned that in Drivers Ed!"

"I can't pull over now, Luke, this is the busiest God damn street in town! There's nowhere to pull over!" Ashley yelled and then the car went silent for a few minutes. Ashley focused on driving and Luke focused on trying to calm himself down.

"You know if I wasn't so pissed off right now this would be kind of funny." Luke said, covering his mouth to try and stop himself from laughing.

"It's actually really funny." Ashley let out a small laugh, shaking her head.

"Taylor Swift really sets the mood." Luke said, nodding towards the radio that was still blasting Luke's favorite song.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you." Ashley said after another moment of silence, letting out a big sigh.

"I'm sorry for being an asshole." Luke finally apologized for the way he'd been acting, and he did feel a little better about himself after that. Not a lot better, but a little.

"I'm sorry for calling you a drama queen earlier." Ashley said, chuckling again. She finally pulled off of the busy street and onto Ashton's street.

"I'm sorry for being an asshole." Luke repeated. He didn't know what else to say, he had no other excuse for the way he's acted all day. He was just jealous, there was nothing more to it.

"We're here." Ashley said, pulling into Ashton's driveway. She parked and turned towards Luke as he got out of the car. "Call me later tonight, okay? I want to talk more about this."

"Okay, thanks." Luke nodded. He got out of the car and bent down so he could still see Ashley. "I'm sorry again."

"It's fine." Ashley smiled and gave Luke a small shrug. That was one thing that Luke felt uneasy about with Ashley, she always forgave him. "Bye."

"Ashley, I have to tell you - " Luke began, but he quickly stopped himself. He couldn't do it, he couldn't tell her.

"Yeah?" Ashley asked, looking interested in what Luke had to say.

"Nevermind, it can wait. I'll call you later tonight, okay? Bye." Luke said, shaking his head. He slammed the car door shut, walking away from Ashley and towards Ashton's house.

Luke walked right through the front door, it was unlocked like it always was, and made his way down into the basement. He knew that Ashton would be there, with or without Charlie, and Luke only had one thing on his mind.

"Hey!" Luke yelled as he walked downstairs, finding Ashton and Charlie sitting on the couch.

He expected them to be making out or having sex or at least touching each other in some way, but they weren't. They were sitting on opposite sides of the couch and barely even speaking. Something was wrong, but Luke really didn't give a shit at the moment.

"Oh hey, Luke. I didn't know you were coming over." Ashton said, quickly standing up from the couch. Charlie looked between Ashton and Luke with a puzzled look on her face, also confused at the fact that Luke was here.

"Well, here I am." Luke said, nervously laughing at himself. "Do you have anything to drink?"

"Alcohol?" Ashton asked, as if it was even a question.

"Yes sir." Luke nodded. Ashton nodded too but he stayed standing there, not making any moves to go get Luke what he asked for.

"So what's up, Luke?" Ashton asked.

There was a moment of silence before Luke finally spoke.

"I want to lose my virginity right now. One of you fuck me." Luke blurted out. He was done waiting, he just wanted to get this whole thing over with. He knew that Ashley wasn't going to give into him to he figured that one of them would. "Come on, it'll only take a couple minutes."

"One of us?" Charlie questioned. Of course she expected Luke to ask to fuck her, not either one of them. But honestly at this point Luke wasn't very picky with who took his virginity.

"Yeah, either one of you. I'm desperate at this point, I'll take anything." Luke said, waiting for someone to give in to his offer.

"Alright, you've clearly got a lot going on." Ashton laughed, beginning to walk past Luke and up the stairs. "Hang on a minute, I'll go get you something to drink and then we can talk."

Luke nodded and walked over to the couch, taking a seat next to Charlie. He could tell that she was upset about something and he didn't want to get too close and make her feel even worse, so Luke kept his distance.

Luke still liked Charlie. She was pretty and nice and sweet and she seemed to care for Luke when no one else wanted to, but she wasn't what Luke wanted anymore. She already had a boyfriend, a boyfriend that loved her a lot, and Luke couldn't carry on with his dumb, made-up plan to break them up. They didn't deserve that.

Besides, Luke didn't want Charlie anymore. Luke was never in love with Charlie, he was in love with the fact that she was a hot girl that he couldn't have. He'd spent the last few months wasting his time on Charlie and he hadn't realized that what he actually needed was right in front of him until now.

He had no idea why this was all coming to him now, why it took him so long to figure out. If he had only realized this months ago things might be different. Ashley probably wouldn't be going out with that dick Brandon and Luke probably wouldn't be a virgin. But Luke was an idiot and now he was realizing his feelings too late.

"Hi Charlie." Luke said softly, giving me a small smile.

"Hey, how are you?" Charlie said, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. She brought her knees up to her chest, hugging them to her.

"Oh, I'm just peachy." Luke scoffed, because he was far from peachy at the moment. "How are you?"

"Not too good, actually." Charlie said quietly. Luke felt really bad, he knew that something was wrong with Charlie and Ashton, too, and he was making this all about him.

"Fuck, why? What's wrong?" Luke asked, suddenly concerned.

"We were kind of just in the process of breaking up." Ashton came up behind Luke again and handed him a beer, one for himself and Charlie in his other hand.

"Oh shit, I totally interrupted, didn't I?" Luke jumped up from the couch. He felt really bad now.

"No, no, it's fine." Ashton assured him, but Luke didn't really believe it. Something really serious must have happened to make Ashton and Charlie break up, Luke thought that the day would never come, and he'd gotten right in the middle of it.

"Are you sure? I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come over. Jesus Christ, I'm sorry." Luke said, beginning to pace around the room.

"Luke, it's fine." Charlie laughed a little, grabbing Luke's hand as he walled past her and forcing him to sit down on the couch again. Ashton sat on the other side of him, and Luke was trapped between them.

"I can't believe I just walked in on your break-up." Luke mumbled to himself, opening the beer bottle and taking a big sip. "I feel awful, I'm sorry guys."

"It's alright, Luke." Charlie said, laughing again. "We were just talking, it's honestly not a big deal."

"Yeah, we were just having a conversation." Ashton nodded.

"Wow, I'm sorry." Luke repeated. He didn't ask why they were breaking up just yet, because he didn't want to be rude. He was really, really interested, though.

"Don't apologize, Luke, it's okay, really." Ashton sat, patting Luke on the back and taking a sip of his own beer.

"Wait, why are you guys breaking up?" Luke gave up on being polite and just asked, unable to hold back anymore.

"It's kind of a long story - " Ashton began, nervously rubbing the back of his neck.

"Just tell him." Charlie said, letting out a groan.

"It's not even a big deal - "

"Tell him." Charlie ordered.

"Charlie and I have been fighting a lot lately and things just aren't the same anymore. We decided that maybe if we just broke up and spent some time away from each other things might get better - "

"That's not what happened." Charlie cut Ashton off again, glaring at him.

"When you look at the big picture, Char, yes, that is what happened." Ashton groaned, rolling his eyes.

"No, that's not what happened at all!" Charlie yelled.

"See, this is why we're breaking up!" Ashton leaned over to get a better look at Charlie. "You have to start a fight about everything!"

"Because you make a big deal about everything!" Charlie said, leaning over Luke and slapping Ashton on the knee.

"I do not!"

"You do too!"

"Hey!" Luke shouted, silencing both of them. "I have a problem."

"What's your problem, Luke?" Ashton sighed, finally sitting back.

"Well, no offense, but I really don't like you as much as I thought I did." Luke said, turning to Charlie.

"None taken." Charlie shrugged.

"I think I like Ashley." Luke sighed, finally admitting it out loud.

"Ashley? I thought you guys were just friends?" Ashton questioned, drinking some more of his beer.

"I thought we were just friends too!" Luke groaned. "But then she started seeing this guy and when I thought about them together it just made me so upset and then I actually saw them together and they were kissing and - and I realized that I want to be the one kissing her, not that asshole."

"Well, you do have a problem." Ashton chuckled.

"I know." Luke whined. "She's just so nice to me and she's so pretty and she's such a great person and I just want to hug her and kiss her and maybe have sex with her but not until we're ready, of course... Fuck, I don't know why I didn't realize this before!"

"You've got it bad." Ashton laughed even harder, bumping Luke's shoulder with his own.

"Why don't you talk about me like that?" Charlie asked, glaring at Ashton again.

"How do you know that I don't talk about you like that when you're not around?" Ashton scoffed, rolling his eyes at Charlie again.

"Because I'm not an idiot." Charlie snapped.

"Can we please focus me for just two minutes?" Luke requested. He finished his beer and then grabbed Charlie's from her, realizing that she hadn't even taken a drink from it yet.

"Yes, Luke, continue." Ashton sighed.

"Anyway, I was paying so much attention to Charlie that I didn't realize what was right in front of me! I fell for Ashley and I fell fucking hard, dude." Luke shook his head in disbelief, really wishing that he'd realized all of this sooner. He took another sip of his beer. "Now I don't know what to do."

"Well, I already told you that you have to fight for her. You can't just sit there and do nothing. Who gives a shit if she's dating some guy? Do something about it!" Ashton yelled, standing up from the couch and throwing his hands up in the air.

"What am I supposed to do?" Luke asked.

Ashton stayed silent for a moment and folded his arms across his chest, as if he was thinking very hard about this.

"I have an idea." He finally said, pulling his phone out of his pocket. He began to scroll through his contacts and finally stopped on one.

"Who are you calling?" Luke asked, leaning over to see what Ashton was going.

"Ashley." Ashton shrugged.

"How do you have her number?" Luke questioned. Ashley and Ashton didn't even know each other, why would they have each other's phone numbers?

"You don't need to know." Ashton said quickly. He clicked on Ashley's number and put it on speaker.

"What are you - "

"Shut up. Don't say a word otherwise this won't work." Ashton snapped, reaching over and hitting Luke on the back of the head.

"Ashton, what are you - "

"Charlie." Ashton scowled at her. "Don't say anything either."

"Hello?" Ashley's voice rang out through the other end of the phone and Luke almost yelped.

"Hi, Ashley? This is Ashton." Ashton spoke into the phone, holding a finger up to his lips to tell Luke and Charlie to be quite. Luke rolled his eyes and drank more of his beer, figuring that the least he could do in this situation was get drunk.

"Oh, hi?" Ashley said, sounding confused. "What's up?"

"I was wondering if you would mind doing me a favor." Ashton said, a small smirk on his lips. Luke had no idea what Ashton was planning, and he was a little worried.

"It depends on what the favor is." Ashley laughed.

"Well, Luke and Charlie are going ice skating tomorrow at that indoor place downtown and they invited me to come with, but, I don't know, I feel kind of weird about it." Ashton said, biting back a laugh. "I don't want to be a third wheel or anything..."

"Third wheel? Aren't you and Charlie dating?" Ashley questioned.

"Nope, not anymore." Ashton looked over his shoulder and glared at Charlie again, who was sitting silently on the couch with her arms folded across her chest. "We broke up and Luke came right in and made his move. I'm kind of proud of him, actually, I didn't think the kid had it in him."

"When did this all happen?" Ashley asked. "I was with Luke, like, an hour ago!"

"It just happened, really." Ashton let out a said sigh. He was really good at this, Luke thought that Ashton was actually going to be able to pull this off. "They're both upstairs now, who knows what they're doing."

"Wow." Ashley said, letting out a big sigh. "So, what? You want me to come with you on their little date tomorrow?"

"Oh, would you?" Ashton asked excitedly. "It wouldn't mean anything, of course, I just figured that you'd be the easiest person to call. You're so nice, I didn't think that you'd mind doing this for me just this once."

"I don't know, Ashton..." Ashley said softly, sounding unsure of herself.

"Oh man, you have a boyfriend, don't you? Luke said once that you were seeing this guy but he didn't think it was very serious." Ashton said, shaking his head. He looked at Luke and smiled, even though Luke was still confused. "I'm sorry, Ashley, I shouldn't have asked you to come with. I'll find someone else to go - "

"It's not serious. He's not even my boyfriend, it's not serious at all." Ashley said quickly, like she was suddenly changing her mind. "I'll go with you tomorrow."

"Really? Wow, thanks!" Ashton said and let out a small giggle, making himself seem a lot more excited than he probably was.

"It's no problem, really, Ashton." Ashley said, laughing as well. "Just text me all of the details, okay? I'll see you tomorrow."

"Alright, thanks again. I'll see you tomorrow!" Ashton said before hanging up the phone. He turned around and faced Luke and Charlie, a very proud look on his face.

"You're so manipulative." Charlie was the first out of the three of them to speak. She glared at Ashton, not seeming very amused by what Ashton just did.

"I'm just trying to help out my friend!" Ashton defended himself. Luke just shook his head took another sip of his beer.

"So what's going to happen tomorrow?" Charlie questioned, standing up from the couch. Ashton walked over to her and crossed his arms over his chest. "We're all going to go ice skating? What's the point of that?"

"Well the point is that you're going to be with Luke and I'm going to be with Ashley and she'll get jealous and realize how perfect her and Luke are for each other." Ashton explained.

"How do you know that's going to work?" Luke asked, standing up and walking over to where Ashton and Charlie were standing. He drank the last of his beer, reminding himself to go get more when they were done talking about this.

"It'll work, trust me." Ashton assured them.

"This isn't going to work." Charlie said, shaking her head. "It's not going to work, Ashton, one of us is going to mess it up -

"You don't have to do anything. You don't have to speak to anyone. Leave it all to me." Ashton said harshly

"I'm obviously going to talk to Luke, he's my date." Charlie said, furrowing her eyebrows up at Ashton.

"Not really." Luke quickly corrected her. "It's fake."

"Yeah, I know." Charlie glanced over her shoulder and glared at Luke.

"So it's all settled! I'll pick you guys up at 5 tomorrow." Ashton smiled, clapping his hands together. "Who wants more beer?"

-

I'm sorry this was a really shitty filler im sick so this took me forever to write

the next chapter is going to be really good!!!