Luke had promised Ashley that he was going to stop drinking, but he didn't. The next weekend he spent almost all of his time with a bottle in his hand, hiding in the bathroom so his mom didn't question him.

It just felt better when he drank, if Luke was ever upset he could make all of his problems go away with just a little alcohol. He'd always had trouble sharing his feelings with others, but drinking made it easy for Luke to forget all about whatever was wrong.

By Sunday morning he was tired, hungover, sad, and mad at himself, but Luke was still going out to see a movie with Ashley and Ellie, his little cousin.

"Lukey, will you get us some candy please?" Ellie begged, tugging on the sleeve of Luke's jacket while they waited in the concessions line at the movie theater.

"Yeah, what kind do you want?" Luke asked tiredly. Ashley was standing in the other side, and even though she hadn't said anything about it yet he knew that she was pissed at him.

"You pick, I got to pick last time." Ellie smiled, grabbing Luke's hand and holding onto it tightly.

"Okay." Luke nodded and took another step forward. There was still one person in line in front of them and he was getting anxious. He turned and looked at Ashley, who was standing silently with her arms crossed over her chest. "Do you want any popcorn or candy?"

"No thanks, I'm good." Ashley said, still not looking directly at Luke.

"I think I'm going to get a popcorn, you can share it with me if you want." Luke offered. He felt guilty about breaking his promise to Ashley, but it was something that he couldn't control. She shouldn't have gotten so upset about this, all Luke was doing was getting a little drunk. And it's not like he was hurting anyone.

"I don't like popcorn." Ashley answered in a bored tone, looking down at the ground.

"Popcorn is my favorite, Lukey always buys me popcorn and candy." Ellie said and smiled up at Ashley. Ellie had tried all day to get Ashley to talk to her, and Luke felt bad because she was really making an effort, but Ashley was just in a bad mood.

"Yeah." Luke nodded.

"I don't like when the kernels get stuck in my teeth." Ashley finally decided to stop being so hostile and gave Ellie a small smile.

"Oh, yeah. That's not fun." Ellie nodded quickly. She noticed that the person in front of her was done ordering their popcorn and pulled Luke forward to the counter.

He ordered popcorn for himself and then got some candy for Ellie and a root beer for Ashley, because he knew that it was her favorite and she'd just make Luke go back and get her one later if he didn't buy it now.

"Yay!" Ellie cheered as she ran up ahead of Luke and Ashley, already knowing which theater to go into. "Lukey, you got us Skittles and M&Ms!"

"Yeah, I went a little crazy." Luke chuckled. He turned to Ashley to see if she was laughing at all at what he'd said, but she wasn't.

Luke walked over and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer quickly to kiss her on the forehead. Ashley looked up at him and smiled, and that's when Luke knew that things were going to be okay.

"How was your weekend?" Luke asked a they walked into the theater, trying to find where Ellie had run off too. She had already gone all the way up to the back of the theater and was trying hard to get three seats that were exactly in the middle of the row.

"It was good, I guess." Ashley shrugged. Luke hadn't seen her since Friday, after she dropped him off at home from school. He texted her a few times and they spoke over the phone once, but that was it. "I didn't do much."

"Did you read for English?" Luke questioned.

"Not yet, I'll probably do it tonight." Ashley said, taking a big sip of her drink, almost like she was trying and avoid talking to Luke.

"I'm really sorry about the way I've been acting these past few days." Luke said softly, looking down at the ground.

Luke had done more than ignore Ashley and drink until he got sick in the last few days, he'd also started probably 10 arguments and snapped at Ashley for no reason more than a few times. He didn't know why he was so upset, but he did know that it was beginning to get hard to stop himself from lashing out at Ashley when she did nothing wrong.

"It's okay." Ashley shrugged. She'd been extremely nice to Luke every time they spoke, either because she felt bad or because she was scared that if she didn't he would just act even worse.

"No it's not." Luke sighed. "I've been a jerk, and I don't know why. I'm really sorry that I've treated you like shit."

"Luke, it's fine." Ashley insisted, shaking her head.

"I don't know what's been wrong with me, but I'm going to stop acting like this now." Luke assured her, and he really meant it. "No more drinking."

Ashley stopped walking and turned around, looking up at Luke with a sad expression on her face, which just made Luke find her even more adorable.

"No more drinking?" She questioned, her eyes wide.

"No more drinking." Luke nodded, cracking a small smile as he leaned down and kissed her quickly on the lips.

"No kissing!" Ellie yelled from the spot she'd found in the back of the theater.

Since it was a Sunday afternoon there was pretty much no one at the movie theater, and they were the only people seeing that screening of the movie. They had the whole place to themselves.

"Sorry, Ellie-Bean." Luke laughed, pulling away from Ashley and running the rest of the way up the stairs to reach Ellie.

"Lukey, come sit by me." Ellie said, holding out her arms for Luke.

"Okay, okay." Luke sighed, sitting down in one of the seats next to Ellie, taking Ashley's hand and pulling her down into the seat on the other side of him.

"Are you excited?" Ellie asked, sitting up on her knees so she was almost as tall as Luke.

"For what? The movie?" Luke questioned. He really didn't want to come to the movie theater today but his aunt called him that morning and said that Ellie was practically begging to spend time with Luke and he just had to take her somewhere.

"Yes! You're excited, right Lukey?" Ellie said excitedly.

"Sure, Ellie-Bean." Luke nodded. He reached over and took Ashley's hand in his, lacing their fingers together.

"Are you excited Ashley?" Ellie asked, leaning over so she could see Ashley.

"Uh, yeah, I guess." Ashley shrugged. She'd only come along today because Luke called her that morning and begged her go out with him and his cousin that day because he felt bad for being such an asshole all week. And because Luke and Ellie needed a ride to the movie theater.

"I'm so excited." Ellie giggled to herself, hugging her knees to her chest. "I'm sooo excited."

"Good, Ellie-Bean, I'm glad you're so excited." Luke said. He couldn't help but laugh at her excitement, Ellie was always happy, and that's another thing that Luke liked about hanging out with her.

"I love movies! I love movies! I love movies! I love movies! I love - " Ellie bounced up and down in her chair until Luke reached over and covered her mouth, silencing her.

"Hey Ellie, maybe if you're quiet the movie will start faster." Luke said, trying to calm Ellie down.

"Oh, okay." Ellie whispered, obviously making an effort to stay quiet. "I'll just eat my Skittles."

"Good girl." Luke let out a relieved sigh, patting Ellie on the top of the head. She ripped open the bag of Skittles that Luke had bought for her and shoved a big handful in her mouth, which would make it hard for her to speak even if she wanted to.

While Luke was talking to Ellie, Ashley had reached over and grabbed the popcorn that Luke bought and set it on her own lap, and had eaten a significant amount of it.

"I knew that you were just going to end up taking all of my popcorn." Luke pouted.

"I won't take all of it." Ashley assured him, her mouth full.

"Yes you will." Luke whined, folding his arms across his chest. He slouched down in his chair, stealing Ashley's root beer from her and taking a sip.

"Hey, that's mine!" Ashley whined, trying to steal her drink back from Luke.

"The popcorn was mine too." Luke said stubbornly. "You said you didn't even like popcorn."

"I guess I lied." Ashley shrugged, laughing softly to herself. She turned to Luke and watched him pout for another second before leaning over and kissing him on the lips. "We can share the popcorn, Luke."

"That's not the same." Luke continued to pout, hoping that Ashley wouldn't notice how red his cheeks were now.

"There's free refills, anyway." Ashley said. She leaned over and rested her head on Luke's shoulder.

"Then you shouldn't mind me drinking your root beer." Luke laughed. He was going to take some more of her drink but then decided not to, and he kissed Ashley on the top of her head instead.

"The movie is starting!" Ellie said very loudly, slapping Luke on the arm a few times and tearing his attention away from Ashley.

"Okay El, now be quiet." Luke said, letting Ellie crawl over the arm rest and sit on his lap. Luke should have known that she wasn't going to stay in her seat for the whole movie.

"I ate all of my Skittles already." Ellie whispered, covering her mouth to hold back some giggles.

"Whoa, that was a lot of candy." Luke whispered back, kind of surprised. He was also a little scared, because he knew that his aunt was going to be really upset with him when Luke brought Ellie back home all hyped up on sugar.

"It made me stay quiet." Ellie said, giggling again.

"I know, I know." Luke nodded. "Now be quiet and watch the movie."

"Okay." Ellie nodded quickly, then settled into a comfortable spot on Luke's lap and turned her attention to the movie screen.

The movie really wasn't very exciting. It was some kids thing that Ellie wanted to go see and of course Luke had agreed, because he knew that he couldn't take a five year old into an R rated movie. He fell asleep twice, and both times Ashley had to wake him up before Ellie noticed.

There was one of those claw machine games set up on their way out of the movie theater, the kind where you would press the button and try to get the claw to grab a little stuffed animal at the bottom.

"Lukey, Lukey please can I play?" Ellie begged, tugging on the sleeve of Luke's jacket again. "Please, Lukey, please!"

"Yeah, sure." Luke nodded. He pulled a 5 dollar bill out from his wallet and handed it to Ellie, hoping that it would be enough for Ellie to get whatever toy she wanted. Luke knew from personal experience that those claw machines were impossible.

Luke turned to face Ashley, who was busy typing on her phone and not paying much attention to Ellie, who'd run off towards the claw machine.

"Who are you texting?" Luke asked out of pure curiosity, gently bumping his shoulder against Ashley's.

"Helen." Ashley answered, finishing up typing the text and then locking her phone, sliding it back into her pocket. "She said she won't be home until after dinner."

"Oh? And?" Luke questioned, even though he knew what Ashley was implying.

"My dad is going to be out too." Ashley smiled, walking forward and wrapping her arms around Luke's waist, resting her head on Luke's chest. "So if you come over we'll have the whole house to ourselves."

"Can we have a Taylor Swift dance party?" Luke asked, resting his chin on the top of Ashley's head.

He was working very hard on trying not to act like all he wanted from Ashley was sex. He really didn't, he wanted them to be in an actual relationship, Luke was still just learning how actual relationships worked. He thought that suggesting a Taylor Swift dance party was a good first step.

"I'd rather have a One Direction dance party." Ashley mumbled into Luke's shirt, letting out a sigh.

"We can do that too." Luke suggested, figuring that they could make an easy compromise. He didn't mind One Direction. "After Taylor Swift, of course."

"Fine." Ashley sighed again, pulling away from Luke's chest and looking up at him. Her lips were in a small pout as she stared up at him, her eyes blinking rapidly.

"You're so cute." Luke laughed lightly. Now that he wasn't always so focused on trying to get Ashley to fuck him, he'd taken a much greater notice in just how insanely adorable Ashley was, and Luke felt the need to let her know.

"Stop it." Ashley whined, hiding her face in Luke's chest again. "I really don't want us to turn into one of those gross couples."

"They're not gross, they're cute." Luke said pouting back at her.

"No, they're pretty gross." Ashley shrugged, taking a couple steps back from Luke.

"Fine, would you rather that I just called you ugly all the time?" Luke scoffed. He was just trying to be nice, but of course Ashley had to shut him down.

"Yes, actually, I think that'd be a nice way to switch things up." Ashley nodded. Luke wasn't sure if she was kidding or not, but until she yelled at him for it he would just do what she said.

"Fine, then you're ugly." Luke shrugged, folding his arms across his chest.

"Good." Ashley smiled, looking satisfied with what Luke had just said.

They both stayed silently for another moment before Luke whined to himself and spoke again. "I hate calling you ugly, I feel so mean."

"Well you don't actually mean it, do you?" Ashley asked, raising her eyebrows.

"No, no, of course I don't." Luke said quickly. "I just feel mean. Like, what if someone walking by overheard me saying that you're ugly? I'd feel like the shittiest boyfriend in the world."

"You are the shittiest boyfriend in the world." Ashley shrugged. Once again, Luke couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not.

"Am I really?" Luke asked softly.

"No, Luke, calm down." Ashley sighed and then came forward and hugged Luke again, as if that was going to assure him that he was a good boyfriend.

"I don't want to be a shitty boyfriend." Luke mumbled, kissing Ashley on the neck a few times as he hugged her back.

"You're not, Luke, I promise." Ashley chuckled, looking up at him again.

Luke kissed the tip of Ashley's nose. "You're cute. And adorable. And pretty. And - "

"Luke, stop it." Ashley whined again, burying her face in his chest.

"- And you're so beautiful. Gorgeous. And you have really pretty hair. But you're also hot enough to make me wanna come in my-"

Luke was going to say more, but he quickly stopped himself when he noticed Ellie walking towards them, a hopeless look on her face.

"Lukey." Ellie sniffed and tugged on Luke's sleeve once again, looking like she was close to being in tears. "I can't get the bear that I want."

"Well, why don't try again?" Luke shrugged. He didn't think that Ellie was going to have such a hard time getting her stuffed animal, it never took Luke more than 5 times to get something from the machine. Maybe that was because he'd had a lot of practice.

"I spent all of the money." Ellie pouted.

"You spent all of the 5 dollars?" Luke questioned, pulling himself away from Ashley so it was easier for him to talk to Ellie. "Isn't each turn only 50 cents?"

"Yes." Ellie nodded. And now she really looked like she was going to cry, so Luke sighed and reached down to pick up Ellie, even though she was getting to be too big for him to carry her anymore.

"We're going to get you your bear, Ellie-Bean, it doesn't matter how many tries it takes us." Luke assured her, setting Ellie down next to him. "Which one did you want?"

"That one." Ellie said quietly, pointing to a big pink bear shoved in the corner, hidden under a few other toys.

Luke nodded, feeling pretty confident in himself, and pulled some more money out of his wallet, putting it into the machine.

"Just watch, El, this'll be easy." Luke said, still very sure of himself.

It was not easy.

It took Luke an hour and a half and 20 dollars to get the bear for Ellie. About halfway through, Ellie and Ashley went off and started playing some other games that they had set up around the lobby of the movie theater while Luke groaned and whined and kicked the machine every time he didn't win the toy he wanted.

If it was for anyone else Luke would have just said fuck it and given up, but since this was for Ellie he kept trying until he had pretty much no money left. And then finally, Luke got the bear.

He was kind of pissed off about having to spend an extra hour and a half at the movie theater and using up all of his money, but the look on Ellie's face when Luke handed her the bear was priceless, so that made it all worth it.

"Thank you, Lukey! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Ellie screamed, jumping up and down and hugging the bear close to her chest. "Thank you! Thank you!"

"You're welcome, Ellie-Bean, now let's get you home." Luke sighed, trying to stop Ellie from jumping around so much. "You have school tomorrow, your mommy is going to yell at me if I bring you home too late."

"You're the best cousin ever, Lukey, I love you so much!" Ellie giggled, hugging Luke's leg along with her new bear.

"I love you too, El." Luke said, reaching out for Ashley and hoping that she'd be able to get Ellie to agree with Luke and get going.

"Do you have a name for your bear, Ellie?" Ashley asked, and Ellie immediately pulled away from Luke and looked up at her.

"Um..." Ellie trailed off, taking a long look at her big, pink bear. "Robert."

"That's a weird name for a bear." Luke mumbled, grabbing Ellie's other hand and beginning to pull her towards the door.

"He's a fancy businessman, he needs a fancy name." Ellie explained. She'd clearly had a lot of time to think about her bear and its profession, considering that it took them almost two hours all together to get the thing.

"Alright, that's fair enough." Luke shrugged.

"Lukey, will you carry me?" Ellie begged, stopping and turning around in front of him. She rubbed her eyes, which was always Ellie's number one sign of being tired.

"Sure." Luke sighed, reaching down again and picking up Ellie.

"You're my favorite cousin, Lukey." Ellie mumbled sleepily, resting her head on Luke's shoulder.

"You're my favorite cousin too." Luke said, reaching out again with his free hand to make sure that Ashley was still behind him. "I love you, Ellie-Bean."

"I love you." Ellie said softly. "A lot."

*•*•*

Once they got back to Ashley's house Luke was pretty exhausted, he hadn't realized how hard to carry around a sleeping five year old until he actually had to do it.

Luke flopped down on Ashley's couch, wanting nothing more than to just take a nap for the next few days. He hadn't gotten much sleep at all that weekend and Luke was already regretting it, especially when he thought about how they had school the next day.

Ashley came and sat down next to Luke, leaning over so she could rest her head on his shoulder.

"Can we still have our Taylor Swift dance party?" Luke asked tiredly, shifting his position and wrapping an arm around Ashley's waist.

"You seem really tired." Ashley laughed softly, running her hand over Luke's chest. That only calmed Luke down more and made him even sleepier.

"Yeah..." Luke trailed off. He had his eyes closed and was sure that he would fall asleep any second if Ashley didn't do something to wake him up. "We can still do it..."

"Do you want me to turn on the music, then?" Ashley laughed again. She probably thought that this was stupid, Luke was seconds away from falling asleep and he was requesting that Ashley turned on Taylor Swift.

"Yes, please." Luke nodded. He began to reach into his pocket to grab his phone, because he knew that Ashley wasn't going to have an Taylor Swift on hers to plug into the speakers.

"I got it." Ashley said, stopping Luke from getting his phone.

"You have Taylor Swift on your phone?" Luke asked quietly, kind of surprised. Okay, really surprised. He looked up at her with a very confused expression on his face.

"Yeah, I took the CD you made for my car and put it on my phone." Ashley nodded, noticing the look on Luke's face. "What? She's not that bad."

"She's great." Luke said, sitting up straight and watching Ashley as she walked over to the plug-in speaker and hooked up her phone.

"Okay, fine, she's great." Ashley sighed, rolling her eyes. She walked back over to Luke and took a seat next to him. "Now what?"

"Well I was going to say that we should have a Taylor Swift dance party but now I don't really want to get up." Luke chuckled.

"So what do you want to do?" Ashley asked. She pushed Luke back until he was leaning up against the couch and then climbed onto his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Well it seems like you know what you want to do." Luke laughed, bringing his hands to Ashley's waist. He had been tired a second ago, but Luke was definitely awake now.

"I mean, I have some ideas." Ashley shrugged, biting down on her bottom lip.

"How long did you say we'd have the house to ourselves for?" Luke asked, leaning in more so their noses were brushing.

"Until later tonight, probably." Ashley said, pressing her lips to Luke's for a moment. "A few hours, at least."

"Alright, cool." Luke giggled nervously. He didn't know that this was going to be what Ashley was in the mood to do, so Luke was slightly surprised. Ashley usually didn't act like this.

"Are you still tired?" Ashley whispered, her lips moving down Luke's jaw and neck.

"Only a little." Luke said quietly, trying to hold back a moan.

He was trying not to act too eager, like sex was the only thing on his mind, but it was. Luke was getting mixed signals from Ashley. She hated when Luke acted desperate but then she went and did things like this, which made it impossible for him to not act desperate.

"Good." Ashley smiled, continuing to kiss down Luke's neck and torture him even more.

"You know, this is every guys dream." Luke mumbled, resting his hands on Ashley's hips and pulling her even closer to him. "Making out with Taylor Swift playing in the background."

"Oh, I'm sure it is." Ashley laughed. She pulled away from Luke for a second and lifted her shirt up over her head, tossing it onto the floor behind them.

"Oh my God." Luke said under his breath, still surprised that Ashley was doing this. He didn't understand why she was acting this way but it seemed like she wanted this just as bad as Luke, so he went along with it.

"What? You've seen me shirtless before." Ashley laughed at Luke's reaction. She ran her fingers through his hair, earning another small moan from Luke.

"Yeah, when we were drunk that one time or when you change in front of me, but this is different." Luke said, doing his best to ignore the growing bulge in his pants.

"It's not that much different." Ashley shrugged.

"Oh, just shut up." Luke rolled his eyes and brought his lips to Ashley's again, feeling her smile into the kiss.

Ashley tugged on the ends of Luke's hair again, their lips moving quickly and their hands feeling all over each other's bodies. Luke tried to hold back from saying anything stupid that would make Ashley want to stop. As long as she was alright with this, Luke would keep going.

"Ashley." Luke said, already out of breath. They'd been kissing for about 15 minutes now and Luke was getting really anxious. "Can we - can we, um..."

"Can we what?" Ashley asked, pulling slightly away from Luke. He didn't want to come right out and say what exactly he wanted, because he thought that Ashley was going to get mad, but it wasn't easy for Luke to just sit here and ignore this.

"Can we, uh, do something about this?" Luke asked, looking down at his lap.

"Oh." Ashley said, her eyes widening as she realized what Luke was talking about. "Like what?"

"I don't know, um, anything." Luke shrugged, not really minding what they did. He also didn't want to push it, so he'd leave this up to Ashley. "Please."

"Okay." Ashley nodded quickly, reaching down and unbuttoning Luke's jeans and pulling down the zipper as well.

With Taylor Swift playing loudly in the background and Luke and Ashley both in their own little world, it was almost impossible for them to hear the front door opening and someone walking into the living room. He probably wouldn't have noticed anyone standing there at all if they hadn't cleared their throat and startled him.

"Oh my God, Helen!" Ashley groaned loudly, quickly getting off of Luke's lap and picking up her shirt from the floor.

Luke zipped up his pants again and grabbed a pillow from the couch, using it to cover his lap and his very obvious boner.

"I'm-I'm sorry, Ashley, I didn't know you would be - " Helen stammered, clearly surprised at the sight before her.

"You told me that you wouldn't be home until after dinner!" Ashley yelled, walking over to where she had her phone plugged in and turned off the music. "You knew I was going to be here with Luke!"

"I didn't know that you were going to be doing this with him!" Helen defended herself. "I didn't even know you two were dating!"

"Yeah, I didn't tell you for a reason!" Ashley groaned, stomping her foot on the ground. Luke understood that Ashley didn't really like her stepmom, but he thought that she was kind of overreacting right now. Sure, Ashley had the right to be upset about this, but she didn't need to yell at Helen for walking in on something that she couldn't control.

"Well I don't see why! It's great that you and Luke are dating, why didn't you just tell me?" Helen asked.

"I didn't think I needed to. I don't need you to be involved in every aspect of my life!" Ashley shouted, walking back over to Luke and grabbing his hand, pulling him up from the couch.

He continued to hold the pillow in front of himself, still embarrassed that Helen had caught him and Ashley at a time like this.

"Ashley, I'm not trying to get involved." Helen said innocently. "I was just wondering why you kept this a secret from me and your father."

"Well I don't think my father really gives a shit about me, I decided not to tell him either." Ashley shrugged, rolling her eyes.

"Ashley - " Helen sighed.

"We're going upstairs." Ashley informed Helen, dragging Luke behind her.

"It was nice seeing you again, Mrs. Miller." Luke gave her a small smile as he walked past her, trying to make things not as awkward as they actually were.

Luke followed Ashley up the stairs and into her room, where she slammed the door shut behind her.

"I told her that I was going to be here with you." Ashley let out a frustrated groan, pacing back and forth. "You'd think that she'd understand what that means. She's only, like, 10 years older than me, I would think that she'd understand!"

"Hey, it's okay." Luke said softly, stepping towards Ashley. "She caught us, so what? We'll just make sure that doesn't happen again."

"That's not why I'm upset." Ashley whined. She looked down at the pillow that Luke had in front of him and ripped it out of his hands, throwing it across the room. "Why did you bring that up here?"

"I didn't want Helen to see my - "

"You only made it more obvious!" Ashley groaned, gently slapping Luke on the chest.

"Well, I'm sorry!" Luke huffed. "Can I use the bathroom or something? I'll take care of this..."

Ashley paused for a second, like she was thinking about something. "Yeah, let's go to the bathroom."

"Uh, both of us?" Luke gulped. Ashley grabbed his hand and pulled Luke out of her room and down the hall, into the nearest bathroom.

"Yes." Ashley nodded. She shut and pushed Luke up against the door, locking it behind them.

-

now that I have this story all planned out I can't stop writing it so OOPS SORRY