"Hey, I didn't think you were going to be here until later tonight." Michael said, holding the door open for Ashley.

"Well I'm here now." Ashley said harshly, pushing past Michael and into his house.

"Whoa, what happened?" Michael questioned, following Ashley inside.

"I just had sex with Luke and then I panicked and left when he fell asleep, that's what happened!" Ashley turned around to look at Michael, her arms crossed.

"He fell asleep?" Michael asked, stifling a laugh. "Weak!"

"Shut up, it was his first time." Ashley snapped, reaching forward and slapping Michael on the chest.

"So you took his virginity and then left him? That's real nice, Ash." Michael laughed again, rolling his eyes. "You really are so nice to him." He teased.

"I hate you." Ashley glared up at him, kicking off her shoes by the door and the heading towards the basement, where she knew they would be alone.

"Wait, why are you so upset? What really happened?" Michael asked. He followed Ashley down the stairs, shutting the door to the basement behind him.

"I hate you so much." Ashley turned around to face Michael again, her arms folded over her chest. "I can't believe you made me do that to him."

"It was your fault for waiting so long, babe, you could have gotten this over with in one night." Michael shrugged innocently. He sat down on the couch and held his arms out for Ashley, but she just shook her head.

"Yeah, and I would have felt like shit for the rest of my life." Ashley mumbled, looking down at the floor.

"Well you feel like shit now, don't you?" Michael scoffed.

"I hate you." Ashley repeated.

It was meant to be just a quick thing. Ashley was supposed to take Luke upstairs at a party and give him the night of his life, and then when it was over he'd realize that sex wasn't a big deal after all and he didn't have to be so picky about doing it.

But Ashley didn't like that idea, and that's why she turned Luke down the first time, and the time after that, and the time after that, and the time after that... until she really felt good about this too.

She wasn't supposed to get into a real relationship with Luke, they weren't even supposed to become good friends with each other, and Ashley definitely wasn't supposed to fall in love with him. What started out as a dumb little game soon spiraled into something that Ashley could no longer control.

Ashley still felt awful, though, because even though she loved Luke (and she loved him a lot), she knew that she'd played him and ultimately their whole relationship was a lie.

"I honestly don't see why this is such a big deal." Michael sighed, running a hand through his hair. Ashley finally gave in and sat down next to him on the couch, ignoring when Michael tried to pull her closer to him. "You love him and he loves you too, right? So it shouldn't matter if this all started out as a bet."

"If he finds out that I was practically taking orders from you this whole time it'll crush him." Ashley let out another big sigh. The whole way over here she'd been thinking all about this and trying to figure out what to do.

"He won't find out, then." Michael shrugged, as if the whole thing was really just that simple.

"But I can't keep that kind of a secret from him." Ashley shook her head. She grabbed a pillow from the couch and held it to her chest, wanting nothing more than to just curl up in a ball and cry.

"Okay, I know that this didn't start out as a 100% real relationship but that shouldn't even matter now. You both love each other and he also got what he wanted, it's over now. Just carry on, pretend this little game with me never happened." Michael said simply, once again acting like this wasn't even a big deal.

"I can't just pretend it never happened." Ashley snapped. "I'm still so mad at you, I can't believe that you cared so much about your friend losing his virginity that you had to go through with this."

"I can pay you double for it - "

"No, I don't want any of your money!" Ashley said, raising her voice.

"Listen, Ash, he needed to lose his virginity. He's going to go to college soon and meet a lot of hot girls - or guys, you know, whatever he prefers." Michael explained, "One day someone's going to want to have sex with him and he'll be clueless. So we really did him a huge favor."

"But he thinks this is all real!" Ashley groaned.

"It is real, isn't it?" Michael questioned, a cocky smirk on his lips.

"Not exactly!" Ashley argued. It was real, yes, but it didn't start out that way. Ashley didn't realized that she really liked Luke until after a while, and that just made Michael upset because he knew that if Ashley messed around too much she'd get attached. "You set us up so I could be the one to finally have sex with him and didn't give me much of a choice about it!"

"Okay, that's true, but I also tried to set you up with Brandon so you could get your mind off of Luke and you didn't like that. So don't blame me, I tried to help you." Michael shrugged again.

"Brandon smelled weird." Ashley whined.

"That's the smell of being a normal teenager, sweetheart, you should try it sometime." Michael said, rolling his eyes.

"I am a normal teenager." Ashley pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I really do not understand why you can't just keep dating him. He doesn't have to know that this started out as a game or a bet or a dare or whatever, everything's going to be fine." Michael shrugged.

"I can't continue this relationship knowing that I lied to him for almost half of it." Ashley said. She loved Luke, she really loved Luke, but she felt so awful for playing him like this she just couldn't keep this going any longer.

"But you love him." Michael emphasized, throwing his hands up in the air.

"But I lied to him." Ashley said and rolled her eyes.

"Technically we both lied to him." Michael shrugged.

"That doesn't matter. He probably expected you to do something horrible like this, he'd never expect me to lie to him." Ashley said, sounding annoyed again. She shoved Michael off to the side, feeling the need to take out her anger on something.

Ashley hated herself so much, and lately she'd felt so guilty about what she'd set up with Michael that she could barely look at Luke without wanting to cry. He really was such a good person, he didn't deserve to be played like this.

"Don't do this to him, Ashley." Michael groaned, leaning back into the couch.

"I thought you wanted me to break up with him. Fuck him and then break his heart, that's what you told me to do." Ashley snapped, still mad at herself for going along with this dumb idea in the first place.

She wasn't supposed to get attached and she wasn't supposed to fall in love with him. Ashley knew that she should have just gone along with what Michael told her to do at that party at Calum's house the weekend before homecoming.

But no, her morals had to get in the way and she had to stop herself from just having sex with Luke in the guest room of Calum's house which is why she was here on Michael's couch, trying to figure out what she was supposed to do about this huge mess.

"He loves you so much, you can't just break up with him." Michael whined. "Please, Ash, don't do this to him."

"Since when do you care?" Ashley asked.

"Okay, look, I set up this little scheme because I wanted Luke to just man up and have sex with someone already. I thought that maybe he'd have a mediocre night with you and realize that sex really was something that he just needed to get out of the way." Michael explained, slinging an arm over Ashley's shoulders. "But over the last few months I've watched you two together and I've seen the way Luke looks at you and I know that he truly believes that you are the greatest thing that's ever happened to him and you can't break his heart like this."

"I have to, Michael." Ashley sighed. She just felt guilty about this, she couldn't keep a secret as big as this from Luke. "I'm leaving in a few months anyway, he's - "

"Have you told him about that yet?" Michael asked, cutting her off.

"We've talked a little about it. I didn't tell him that I was accepted, I just told him that there's a possibility that I might be leaving." Ashley said softly, looking down at her lap.

"But it's not a possibility, you're going." Michael reminded her.

"Yeah, I know." Ashley nodded. She was too scared to tell Luke that she was almost 100% sure that she was going to a college almost halfway across the country.

"Alright, fine." Michael sighed. "So what do you want to do?"

"What do you mean?" Ashley questioned, not knowing exactly what Michael meant.

"Do you want to break up with Luke or should I do it for you?" He asked. Ashley felt her heart sink down to her stomach, remembering again how much of an awful person she was.

"Don't do it for me, he'll just get even more upset." Ashley sighed.

"When are you going to talk to him about this?" Michael asked, letting out a sigh. Ashley knew that Michael didn't think she was making the right choice, he surprisingly wanted Luke and Ashley to stay together.

Ashley knew that it would be best to talk to Luke soon, she wanted to talk to him about this before it was too late.

"I don't know - " Ashley began, but of course she was cut off by her phone ringing.

"Is that him?" Michael questioned, leaning over and watching Ashley as she took her phone out of her pocket. Yes, it was Luke, and Ashley knew exactly what he wanted to talk about.

"Yeah." Ashley nodded.

"Do you want me to talk to him?" Michael asked, holding his hand out for the phone.

Ashley shook her head, she knew that she had to do this on her own and even though it wasn't a good thing to do over the phone Ashley felt that this needed to happen right now, she couldn't keep this from Luke any longer.

"I got it." Ashley said, standing up from the couch. She answered the call, already nervous. "Hello?"

"Hey, Ashley?" Luke said quietly. He sounded like he was crying, and knowing Luke he probably had been.

"Hey, Luke." Ashley said, letting out a big sigh. She began pacing back and forth in the basement, suddenly wishing that she was there alone and Michael wasn't watching her every move.

"Are-Are you okay? Where did you go?" He questioned.

"I'm sorry, Luke, I just had to leave." Ashley said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Oh, that's fine." Luke said softly, sniffing again. "Was something wrong? Did you have to go back home for some reason?"

"Not exactly." Ashley bit down on her bottom lip, glancing quickly at Michael, who was sitting back on the couch and just soaking this whole thing up.

"I'm sorry that I fell asleep." Luke mumbled, and Ashley could definitely tell that he was crying again. Now she felt even worse about what she was about to do.

"Luke, stop crying." Ashley said, just a little annoyed. She hated when Luke got upset, but sometimes he cried for reasons that really weren't worth crying about. He complained about being treated like a baby and then he acted like one.

Michael let out a loud laugh when he heard that Luke was crying but then quickly covered his mouth, realizing that Luke was able to hear him.

"Are you with someone?" Luke asked.

"Yeah, I am." Ashley nodded. She didn't want to lie to Luke any more than she already had, and she felt that the only thing she could do at this point was be honest with him.

"Oh." Luke coughed awkwardly. Ashley really hoped that he wasn't going to start crying again.

"Luke, there's something I have to talk to you about." Ashley said again, hoping that this time Luke would actually let her say what she needed to.

"You promised that you weren't going to hate me forever if I messed up." Luke said quickly, speaking up.

"I know, and I don't hate you." Ashley whispered into the phone. "I just have to talk to you about something."

"Right now? Do you want to come over? Can I come over?" Luke asked, the tone in his voice telling Ashley that he was obviously very nervous.

"I think it'd be better if we just talked right now." Ashley said, swallowing hard.

"Okay, then go ahead." Luke said. He sounded calm, and probably wasn't expecting this conversation to end the way Ashley knew it was going to.

"I, um, I haven't been completely honest with you." Ashley started out slowly, still trying to find the right way to word all of this.

Ashley didn't want to hurt Luke but she knew that it would only hurt him more in the end if she kept this a secret from him any longer. She hated doing this over the phone, but Ashley knew that if she was Luke was actually there in front of her she would never be able to tell him.

"What do you mean?" Luke questioned, clearly confused.

"Well, basically Michael asked me to have sex with you so you could just get losing your virginity out of the way." Ashley said and closed her eyes tightly, thinking that maybe when she opened them again she'd wake up next to Luke and realize that this had all been one big nightmare and everything was still okay.

"He-He what?" Luke stammered. "You didn't do that, right? You didn't have sex with me just because that's what Michael wanted, did you?"

"No, I didn't." Ashley said quickly, shaking her head. "Well, not exactly."

"I-I asked you, Ashley, I asked you if Michael was making you do this, if he was making you be so nice to me and-and you told me that he wasn't. You promised." Luke's voice faded. He sounded like he was about to cry again, but Ashley could tell that he was doing his best not to.

"He wasn't! He didn't make me do anything!" Ashley tried to explain.

"Yes he did, you just told me that he did!" Luke said, raising his voice a little.

"No, Michael just wanted me to have sex with you on the night of Calum's party. He wanted me to prove to you that sex wasn't something that you needed to get yourself all worked up about." Ashley tried to defend herself, even though there was no use. She was a horrible person and there was no changing that. "I was supposed to have sex with you and never talk to you again, but I changed my mind."

"Oh yeah, and I bet you're so glad you did that." Luke scoffed.

"I am, because then I decided to get to know you better and I really did fall in love with you, Luke, and Michael had nothing to do with that." Ashley said softly. She knew that there was a slim chance of Luke forgiving her, but the least she could do was try to be nice to him so he'd realize how real of a relationship this really was.

"So you're trying to tell me that after that night at Calum's house Michael had nothing to do with this whatsoever? He didn't try to push you to have sex with me just so I didn't have to be a virgin anymore?" Luke questioned harshly. He seemed more mad than sad now, and Ashley didn't blame him.

"Well, he pushed me a little..." Ashley said softly. "He was just making sure that you got what he thought you wanted."

"This was all a game to you, wasn't it?" Luke accused her.

Ashley gulped again, realizing that this wasn't going as smoothly as she had hoped it would. "It-it kind of started out like that, but then we started talking more and I realized how much I liked you - "

"That's why you randomly decided to have sex with me tonight, wasn't it? Because Michael wanted you to!" Luke continued, and Ashley stayed silent, not wanting to admit that what Luke had just said was true.

"Ashley?"

"I'm sorry, Luke." Ashley whispered. "I don't feel any differently about you, I still love you, I just needed you to know what really happened. I don't want you to be upset."

"You lied to me and you expect me not to be upset?" Luke asked, the knot in Ashley's stomach growing even bigger.

"I know, and I'm so sorry, Luke, I feel awful about this." Ashley apologized again. She didn't think that he was going to forgive her, and part of her actually hoped that he wouldn't, because Luke didn't deserve this.

"Good. You should feel awful." Luke snapped and then sniffed again, which let Ashley know that he was about to cry. She understood why he was upset, though, anyone would be upset if they found out that their girlfriend had been lying to them for the last few months.

"Please don't hate me." Ashley said quietly. Michael looked up at her from the couch and laughed again, then quickly covered his mouth to stop Luke from hearing him.

"I don't hate you." Luke mumbled, even though it was pretty obvious that he was crying really hard now. "I could never hate you, Ashley, I love you so fucking much and that's why I'm so upset right now."

"I just needed to tell you, I couldn't keep this from you any longer." Ashley whispered. If Michael wasn't right there staring at her Ashley probably would have started crying as well, but she held back from doing so. The last thing she needed tonight was for Michael to see her cry.

"Yeah, thanks for telling me." Luke said sarcastically, still crying. "I'm really mad at you right now, Ashley, I don't know what I'm supposed to think about all of this."

"I know, you have every right to be upset with me." Ashley sighed.

"I just - I tried so hard to trust you, I have such a hard time putting my trust into people and I trusted you, only to find out that you were part of something like this." Luke sniffed, his words slightly muffled.

"I'm really sorry, Luke." Ashley repeated, although she knew that no matter how many times she said she was sorry this was never going to be the same again.

"I know, I know." Luke let out a deep sigh. "I just don't know what to do, I think - "

"I think we should take a break, Luke." Ashley blurted out, even though she really didn't want to.

"A break?" Luke asked. "No, no, Ashley, we can't take a break. Couples that take breaks never get back together."

"Yeah, maybe they don't get back together for a reason." Ashley shrugged. She still loved Luke so much but she knew that it would probably be best for both of them if they just spent some time away from each other.

"I don't want to break up." Luke cried, and Ashley could barely take the sound of him being so sad.

"We-We don't have to officially break up, we can just take some time away from each other to really think and-and- " Ashley stopped herself, because she really didn't know what she wanted to say.

"You promised that you weren't going to break up with me, Ashley, you promised that you were going to leave." Luke began crying more, his words becoming harder and harder to understand. "Everyone leaves me... Why does everyone leave me?"

"I'm sorry, Luke." Ashley choked out. She was beginning to tear up herself now, and Ashley knew that if she didn't get off the phone soon she'd be sobbing just like Luke.

"I love you so much, why are you doing this?" Luke sobbed. "I-I know that what you did was wrong but we-we can still work this out, can't we? We don't need to b-break up, do we?"

"I think it would just be better if we did, Luke, at least for a little while." Ashley said quietly, once again wishing that Michael wasn't in the room with her.

"You know what? Fine. Fine, I don't need you anyway." Luke snapped. He still sounded like he was crying but he was also angry now, and that worried Ashley. "Fuck you, Ashley, I don't need you anyway."

"Luke, come on, don't do this - " Ashley let out a big sigh. She hadn't expected Luke's mood to just change so quickly like that, and now Ashley was even more worried about him than before. She didn't want him to go off and do something stupid.

"I really hate you." Luke cried again, "I hate you so much right now, you have no idea."

"Luke - " Ashley attempted one last time to talk to him but by this point Luke had hung up, and this was all over.

But this was what Ashley wanted, she wanted to break up with Luke because she'd been lying to him for the last few months and it was all going to be so much more comforting now that Luke knew the truth. She just felt so sad, and she almost immediately wanted Luke back.

"I still hate you." Ashley said slowly and turned towards Michael, who was still casually sitting on the couch and watching Ashley.

He stood up and walked over to Ashley, taking the phone from her hand and tossing it down on the couch next to them.

Ashley stood there for a moment and stared up at Michael, wondering if she was supposed to hug him and let him comfort her or push him away and leave his house all together.

Michael bit his lip and stared down at Ashley, looking as if the same questions were running through his mind. He held out his hand, like he was about to reach out and touch Ashley, but then quickly pulled back.

"Are you okay?" He said softly.

"I'm obviously not." Ashley scoffed, rolling her eyes. She was trying to do anything to keep herself from crying right now, and it was really hard.

"Do you want me to get you anything?" Michael asked, awkwardly grabbing Ashley's arm and beginning to lead her up the stairs again and out of the basement.

"Yeah, can I have something to drink?" Ashley asked.

"Sure." Michael nodded. "We have water and this juice and some weird iced tea thing that my mom likes - "

"No, Michael, I want something to drink." Ashley sighed, seeing that Michael didn't understand what she was asking for. She just wanted to get drunk and forget about everything that had happened in the last few hours.

"Like, alcohol?" Michael questioned.

"Yeah." Ashley nodded.

"But-But you don't drink?" Michael cocked his head again, very confused at Ashley's request.

"Exactly."

-

this is comfusing

I'm tired

bye