Luke ended up having to stay in the hospital for two more nights, just because the rest of the nurses disagreed with the doctor and said that Luke should be looked over a little more.

Luke was fine with that, because he knew that the sooner he got home the sooner he would get yelled at by his mom, and he wanted to stall that for as long as he could.

When Luke finally did get to go home, his mom was very upset with him, just as Luke had suspected. It wasn't that she was mad, she was just concerned. Liz had no idea that Luke had been drinking so much and she was more scared than anything when she got the call from Michael saying that Luke was being taken to the hospital with alcohol poisoning.

They had a very long talk about pretty much everything, and then Luke and his mom agreed that Luke should go to some counseling/therapy sessions/whatever to try and work through this. She didn't yell at Luke that much, which was good, and when they were done talking Luke walked away with only a two week grounding instead of two years like he'd planned.

Luke went back to school for the rest of the week after coming home from the hospital. Now instead of people talking to him in the halls about his famous streaking incident at the Homecoming game they asked him about how he almost died in Ashley Miller's front lawn on Saturday night. Luke still didn't his sudden "fame" around the school.

It was late Saturday afternoon when Luke's phone started ringing, probably for the first time since what happened last weekend. His friends had basically stopped talking to him outside of school, Luke didn't really know why, and they hadn't called or texted him in days.

"Hello?" Luke groaned, rolling over on his bed. All he really did now was sleep, because his mom had taken his laptop away for the two weeks and Luke had nothing to do. No porn, no Netflix, no online shopping for puppy-related things that he could put all around his room, nothing.

"Hi, Luke?" It was Ashton, and he spoke to Luke like they hadn't talked in years.

"Yeah, that's me." Luke scoffed. He rubbed his eyes, having just woken up from a long nap.

"Uh, well, hey." Ashton laughed nervously. Luke could hear people talking in the background, and he knew that Ashton probably had everyone over and didn't invite Luke. Again.

"Hi." Luke said blankly, wondering what Ashton could possibly want.

"So, um, Calum and Michael and, uh, a couple other people are over right now, and I was wondering if you wanted to come?" Ashton questioned, still sounding too nervous to even be talking to Luke.

"I'm grounded." Luke said slowly. He didn't even know if his mom was home right now, and if she wasn't then Luke could very well just sneak out of the house and return before she got back, but Luke wasn't that type of person.

"Oh, are you sure? Can't you just talk to your mom and ask her if you can come over for about an hour?" Ashton sighed. Luke didn't even know why Ashton wanted him to come over so badly, Luke already knew that this wasn't going to end well.

"I'll see." Luke shrugged to himself. "I also am not allowed to drink anymore, so if you're planning on getting me drunk and watching me cry like you usually do that's not gonna happen." He added.

"No, Luke, we all just want to talk to you." Ashton promised.

"I'll see." Luke repeated and finally rolled out of bed, tripping over various pairs of dirty jeans and shirts that were scattered all over the floor. "Hang on a minute."

Luke walked out of his room and down the hallway, into the office where his mother probably would be if she was home. She was in there, actually, sitting at her desk with her laptop opened in front of her.

"Mommy?" Luke asked sweetly, trying to get on Liz's good side before he even attempted to ask for what he wanted.

"Oh, hi, honey. What's up?" Liz asked, barely looking up from her laptop.

"Um, can I go over to Ashton's house for a little while? Please?" He asked, having a bad feeling that his mom was just going to flat out tell him no.

"Why?" Liz questioned.

"I don't know." Luke shrugged. "My other friends are there too, they just wanted to know if I could come over for a couple hours."

"I don't know, Luke..." Liz trailed off. Luke knew that she was going to crack and let him go over there even though he was grounded, that's what always ended up happening.

"Please, Mom?" Luke begged. "I won't drink anything, it'll be okay, I promise."

"I guess, but only for a couple hours. I don't want you out all night, have Ashton drive you home before it gets too dark." Liz finally sighed, giving Luke a small smile.

"Okay." Luke nodded quickly and ran out of the room, just excited that he'd finally be able to get out of the house for once.

He realized that he was forgetting something and turned around, running back down the hall. Luke peeked his head around the corner of the doorframe, looking at Liz again. "I love you, Mom."

"I love you too, Luke. Have fun tonight." Liz looked up at him and smiled for a moment before going back to the work in front of her.

Luke ran back to his room and grabbed his phone again, which he'd set down on his dresser.

"Ashton?" Luke asked, wondering if his friend was even there still.

"Yeah?" Ashton said. Thankfully he hadn't hung up, Luke was scared that Ashton was going to get tired of him waiting to be done talking to his mom and would just say fuck it and hang up.

"Hi, my mom said that it's okay if I come over for a few hours." Luke said nervously, grabbing his shoes and quickly putting them on.

He walked down the hall and into the bathroom, stopping and checking the mirror to see how his hair looked. Once he decided that it was fine he walked into the living room, where he was pretty sure he'd left his jacket.

"Oh, cool." Ashton chuckled. "We're just hanging out, it's nothing special or anything."

"Yeah, that's fine." Luke shrugged. He walked to the back door and then stepped outside, shutting it behind him.

He didn't want to admit it out loud, but he was pretty excited about this. Luke hoped that things were finally going to be okay between him and his friends again, and they'd all return back to their normal selves.

"Alright, cool..." Ashton said, trailing off. "So I'll see you in a little bit?"

"Uh huh, I'm walking over right now." Luke nodded quickly, biting down on his bottom lip to try and stop himself from laughing at how happy he was.

"Nice." Ashton said, and Luke could hear Michael talking loudly in the background again. "See you soon."

"Yeah." Luke said, nodding again, and then Ashton hung up.

Luke walked the rest of the way to Ashton's house pretty quickly. He had his headphones in and was playing Taylor Swift, of course, and for the first time in a very long time Luke actually felt good.

When Luke got to Ashton's house he rang the doorbell, nervously rocking back and forth on his feet as he waited for someone to answer it.

A few seconds later the door opened and Ashton let Luke inside, a big smile on his face.

"Hey, what's up?" Ashton asked, patting Luke on the back.

"Uh, nothing really." Luke shrugged as he took his shoes off and left them by the front door. He couldn't help but have some flashbacks of the last time he was at Ashton's house, and this time Luke knew that he wouldn't let things end up that way.

"How's being grounded?" Ashton asked. He walked into the kitchen and Luke followed him, not wanting to go down to the basement on his own.

He felt that Ashton could protect him, even though Ashton really should hate Luke right now. If Michael and Calum were mad at Luke he knew that Ashton would still save the day and stop them from beating him up.

"It's not that bad, really." Luke said slowly. "I just can't have my laptop and I'm technically not supposed to leave the house, but I think my mom felt bad and that's why she let me go out tonight."

"Oh, you can't have your laptop?" Ashton giggled as he opened the refrigerator door, knowing a lot about Luke's habits. "That must be hard."

"Yeah, it is." Luke sighed and leaned up against the counter, waiting for Ashton to be done getting whatever he needed.

"Do you want something to drink?" Ashton asked, holding up a couple cans of soda and a beer in his hands.

"Do you have a water bottle or something?" Luke asked and Ashton nodded going back into the fridge and coming out a second later, tossing an unopened water bottle to Luke.

"Thanks." Luke said and stared at the bottle for a moment, unable to remember the last time he actually asked for water instead of beer or vodka.

"Hey, so, everyone's downstairs, but - "

"Who exactly is everyone?" Luke questioned, cutting Ashton off. He remembered Ashton saying something about Michael and Calum and a couple other people being over, but he'd never even bothered to ask.

"Well there's Michael, and Calum, and, uh, Charlie, and... Ashley." Ashton said nervously, looking down at the floor.

"Oh, Ashley's here?" Luke asked. He shouldn't have been surprised, Michael and Ashley had practically been attached to each other in the last few weeks and it made sense for Michael to bring her along. Luke just hoped they were happy.

"Yeah, that's what I wanted to talk to you about." Ashton said softly. "Look, I know that what she did was really shitty, but I hope that you guys can forgive each other and at least be friends again."

"I accepted her apology." Luke shrugged. He figured that was enough, he wasn't ready to forgive Ashley completely yet and Luke hoped that she would understand.

"Yes, but I think that if you two just forgive each other and try to move past this it'll be so much easier on all of us." Ashton sighed. "You guys were best friends, can't you just go back to being that?"

Luke paused for a long time, messing around with the cap of his water bottle. "Maybe." He finally shrugged and made his way out of the kitchen and down the basement stairs, Ashton following closely behind him.

When he got downstairs everyone was already absorbed in their own conversations. Michael was sitting on the couch and playing video games like he always was, and right next to him was Ashley, who looked like she would rather be anywhere but here. On the other side of the couch was Charlie, and Calum was sitting in the chair next to her and talking about something that she probably didn't care about.

Luke felt out of place.

No one really noticed him when he walked in the room, awkwardly holding his water bottle. He walked over to the other empty chair on the opposite side of the couch and took a seat, not bothering to greet anyone.

Ashton went and sat down by Charlie, wrapping his arms around her waist and then pulling her onto his lap. Luke wasn't sure what was going on between them, but he assumed by the way that Ashton was leaving short kisses all along Charlie's neck that they were back together.

"Hi Luke!" Michael said after a few minutes and paused his video game, giving Luke a small wave.

"Hi." Luke said and smiled at him, happy to finally be noticed.

"How are you doing? Are you feeling better?" Michael questioned, seeming very interested in Luke and his well-being.

"Yeah, I'm alright." Luke nodded, his eyes traveling over to where Ashley was and making eye contact with her for a brief second before she looked down at her lap.

Michael set down his video game controller and wrapped an arm around Ashley's shoulders. "That's good, man, I'm glad that you're okay now. That whole thing was really scary."

"Yeah, it was." Luke nodded, swallowing sown the lump in his throat.

He knew that it was so stupid of him to feel this way, but Luke really did love Ashley. He didn't want to, and he wasn't exactly planning on doing anything about it, but he loved her. Every time Luke laid eyes on Ashley all he could think about was how much he wished things had worked out.

Calum got up from his seat and made his way across the room, sitting down on the arm of the chair Luke was in.

"Hey." Calum said softly.

"Hi." Luke mumbled and looked up at him, remembering that the last time he'd spoken to Calum he was yelled at.

"I just wanted to say that I'm really sorry for the way I acted at the hospital." Calum said quietly, nervously playing around with hands.

"It's fine." Luke mumbled again, still kind of upset with Calum. He understood that his friend was just scared for Luke, but the way that Calum yelled at him really did hurt his feelings. Luke knew that there must have been some way for Calum to say what he wanted to without being so rude.

"I was just so scared, Luke." Calum sniffed. Luke really hoped that Calum wasn't going to start crying, because that would just bring a lot of unwanted attention to them. "I thought you were dead, we all did."

"Well unfortunately I'm not dead." Luke scoffed.

"Don't say that!" Calum scolded him, slapping Luke on the back of the head. "I don't want you to die, Luke, none of us do. You're my best friend, I don't want you to die because of something stupid like alcohol poisoning."

"So should I die because of something more exciting?" Luke questioned.

"No, don't die at all!" Calum groaned. "You're too important to die, too many people here love you and will miss you if you die!"

By this time everyone else in the room had stopped talking and was now staring at Luke and Calum.

"I-I didn't think anyone would care." Luke stammered. His fingers nervously played with the water bottle, but there was a big knot in his stomach and he didn't want to drink water or anything else at the moment.

Luke had felt so bad about himself in the last few weeks and he thought that maybe no one would even care if he just disappeared completely.

Calum was always busy with his girlfriend and rarely ever paid attention to Luke. Ashton and Charlie were with each other and Luke knew that they didn't spend their time thinking about whether or not he was okay. Ashley clearly didn't want anything to do with Luke, and Michael was only around when he felt like he needed to be.

"Of course we would care!" Michael said, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion.

"Luke, we ran over to Ashley's house at 2 in the morning because we care so much about you." Ashton added. "I thought you were dead and I honestly felt like the whole world was crumbling down around me."

"Really?" Luke choked out. He just didn't know that they actually cared about him. He always thought that he was just someone who was there, Luke was the friend that no one really wanted to come over. Luke had no idea that he was actually wanted.

"Yes, Ashton cried." Michael nodded, chucking to himself.

"Shut up, you cried too!" Ashton whined, reaching around Charlie and slapping Michael on the shoulder. Michael groaned and slapped him back.

"But it's true, Luke, I did cry." Michael finally sighed, even though Luke already knew that from Ellie telling him. "I probably cried more than anyone else because I thought I lost you. I had no idea how I was going to live with myself if you were really dead."

"Well, now you're all going to make me cry." Luke sniffed again, wiping under his eyes. Crying wasn't something unusually or out of the ordinary for Luke, but he never cried for this reason. He never cried because he was happy.

"It's okay." Calum said quietly, patting Luke on the back.

"We all love you and we all care about you, Luke, we're just shitty people and we're not very good at showing it." Ashton said and wrapped his arm tighter around Charlie, who still hadn't said anything to him.

Luke didn't expect her to. Things between them were awkward now and probably always would be, but Luke didn't care. He'd thought that Charlie was his dream girl but it turned out that she was really someone else's, and Luke knew now that it was best to just not get in the way of that. He was happy without her.

Maybe Luke was happy without Ashley, too. He'd fallen in love with her and she'd fallen in love with him as well but in the end things just didn't work out, and that was alright. He didn't physically need Ashley and she didn't physically need him, they were going to be just fine.

And maybe Luke would be okay on his own.

"Thanks, guys." Luke finally spoke again, wiping his eyes again to stop the few tears that were beginning to fall.

"You matter to more people than you think, Luke, just remember that." Calum reminded him, and everyone else (including Ashley and Charlie) nodded.

The rest of the night went by quickly. They all talked and played some video games and told stories, it was just like how things used to be. Luke really did have a good time, and he was honestly surprised with how well everyone got along. Luke only stayed for a couple hours because he'd promised his mom that he wouldn't be at Ashton's house all night.

"So, uh, I actually should get going now." Luke said as he stood up from the chair he was in, setting his now empty water bottle down on the coffee table in front of him.

"Oh, right, it is getting kind of late." Ashton nodded. "Do you want me to drive you home?"

"I can drive you home." Ashley volunteered, speaking directly to Luke for the first time all night.

"Really?" Michael questioned and raised an eyebrow, looking between Ashley and Luke.

"Yeah. I was going to get going soon anyway." Ashley nodded. "Do you want a ride, Luke?"

"Well, yeah, if that's alright with you." Luke shrugged. He didn't want things between them to be awkward, he wanted to be friends with Ashley again and Luke could tell that they were both trying very hard to make that happen.

"Yeah, let's go." Ashley said, nodding again. She stood up from the couch and walked up the stairs. Luke stayed back for a second and said goodbye to everyone else before going upstairs to find Ashley.

They silently put their shoes and jackets back on and walked out to Ashley's car. They were still silent as they got in the car and started it, the radio immediately turning on and blasting the Taylor Swift CD.

"Okay this is going to sound really pathetic," Ashley said, turning down the volume just a little so she could actually be heard. "But I listen to this dumb Taylor Swift mix you made me pretty much every time I drive."

Luke stayed quiet, not sure if he was supposed to be upset with Ashley still or if they were just going to move past this whole thing. Finally he decided to speak.

"Is that a bad thing?" He asked, his lips turning up at the sides into a small smile.

"Yes, because it's Taylor Swift." Ashley rolled her eyes.

"Would you be happier if I made you a One Direction mix instead?" Luke questioned, giggling a little to himself. He knew that things weren't going to go back to being 100% normal with him and Ashley, but this was a start, and Luke was happy.

"Yes." Ashley nodded.

"Just admit it, Ashley, you secretly love Taylor Swift." Luke teased her. "You're a closet Swiftie."

"A closet what?" Ashley gasped, having never heard the term before.

"A Swiftie. You know, Taylor Swift's fanbase?" Luke asked. He was pretty sure he'd been over this with Ashley before, they did watch Taylor Swift's documentary together once.

"Oh." Ashley said, then paused. She shrugged. "Yeah, I guess I am one then."

"See, I knew it." Luke laughed, turning the volume up a little louder. He started singing out loud, just to annoy Ashley. "SO IT'S GONNA BE FOREVER, OR IT'S GONNA GO DOWN IN FLAMES - "

"Stop." Ashley said, trying to cut Luke off.

" - YOU CAN TELL ME WHEN IT'S OVER, IF THE HIGH WAS WORTH THE PAIN." Luke continued. "GOT A LONG LIST OF EX-LOVERS, THEY'LL TELL YOU I'M INSANE."

"You are insane." Ashley mumbled, but Luke could see that she was smiling.

"CUZ YOU KNOW I LOVE THE PLAYERS, AND YOU LOVE THE GAME - "

"Stop or I'll kick you out of my car." Ashley warned him, even though Luke wasn't planning on stopping anytime soon.

"CUZ WE'RE YOUNG AND WE'RE RECKLESS, WE'LL TAKE THIS WAY TOO FAR - "

"Okay, that's enough." Ashley laughed and turned off the radio.

"IT'LL LEAVE YOU BREATHLESS - Hey." Luke whined, realizing that Ashley had turned off the music.

"We're pretty much at your house anyway." Ashley said, and Luke looked around, realizing that they were already on his street.

"Oh, I guess we are." Luke nodded. A few seconds later Ashley pulled her car into Luke's driveway and he let out a small sigh, almost not wanting to leave.

"I can give you a ride to school on Monday, if you want." Ashley offered.

"That'd be really great, actually. I'm kind of sick of walking." Luke nodded and nervously took his lipring between his teeth, unbuckling his seatbelt.

"Cool." Ashley nodded. Luke reached over and turned the radio on again, and even though Ashley rolled her eyes again she didn't try to turn it off. "I'll text you?"

"Yeah." Luke said and smiled, because things seemed like they were finally beginning to fall into place again.

"Okay, see you later." Ashley said, smiling back at Luke as he got out of the car.

"Yeah, see you later." Luke said awkwardly. He kind of didn't want to leave, Luke wanted to stay there and keep talking to Ashley, but he also didn't want to push it.

"Bye." Ashley said, giving him a small wave.

"CUZ DARLING I'M A NIGHTMARE DRESSED LIKE A DAYDREAM." Luke sang along with the music again, still trying to annoy Ashley, before slamming the car door shut and laughing hysterically to himself.

He walked up the driveway to the backdoor, thinking about everything that had happened tonight. He was actually happy for the first time in what felt like a very long time, and that was probably the best part. He was finally happy.

Yeah, Luke was going to be just fine.

-

WOW IM SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG FOR ME TO WRITE AND MAYBE ITS A LITTLE SHORT I DONG KNOW AND I DONT CARE

it's almost over :((

I hope you all liked this thought okay byyyyye