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Luke is sitting with his boyfriend, Michael and his best friend, Calum at a small table in the school cafeteria. It’s a typical Wednesday: the school is selling soggy burritos and warm chocolate milk; the kids are laughing and talking loudly; the lights are obnoxiously bright; Luke has a headache. Typical Wednesday.
Suddenly, the chatter of the cafeteria dies down, everyone stopping and whispering to their friends. Luke looks up from his salad he had brought from home to see a new face standing at the doors, eyes wide. His hair is flat-ironed and his fringe slightly covers one of his eyes, which are lined with black. He’s wearing a black knit sweater, and he holds the sleeves in his fists. His jeans are, who would’ve guessed it, black and so impossibly tight, Luke thinks he might’ve painted them on. To put it simply, he’s emo. He’s so emo it hurts to think about. Luke hears Michael nudging Calum and saying, “check out the new kid.”
He also hears Calum reply, “I am.”
Luke’s next class is English with Calum. He sits in the aisle seat, and Calum sits next to him. They watch as the new kid walks in and nervously asks the teacher where he should sit. The teacher looks up, scans the slowly filling classroom, and points to Calum. Luke holds in laughter, of course the new emo kid will sit next to Calum. He rips off the corner from a piece of paper, scribbles, ‘good luck!!’, and hands the paper to Calum.
Calum glares at him and shoves the note in his pocket before the new boy can see it.
The boy silently sits in the desk next to Calum, dropping his bag on the floor and placing his binder on the table. His fingers tap to a beat that only he can hear and Luke tries his best to recognize some of the pins littering the boy’s backpack. He notices a Nirvana pin and nods to himself. Some other bands he recognizes are Panic! At The Disco and My Chemical Romance, but some of them are apparently obscure, underground bands that only the emoest emo’s know about. Once again, Luke holds in a laugh.
Calum taps the new boy’s shoulder lightly, “hey,” he says quietly.
The boy jumps slightly and turns to face Calum, “hi.”
“We have five minutes until class actually starts, so I figure I should introduce myself. I’m Calum,” he points to Luke, “this is my best friend Luke. What’s your name?”
The boy smiles, “I’m Ashton.”
Calum smiles back, “hi, Ashton. I like your sweater.”
“Thank you.”
“Hey, not to be rude,” Luke says, “but how do you get your jeans on? They’re really tight.”
Ashton doesn’t reply and Calum glares at his friend. “Ignore him,” he says, “he’s an unintentional asshole more often than not, but he’s nice when you get to know him.” Ashton doesn’t reply, simply raises an eyebrow. Calum sighs, “nevermind. What school did you go to before this one?”
Ashton rattles off the name of an expensive private school on the other side of town and, when asked why he switched, he says, “the kids didn’t like me very much,” and nothing more.
After school, Luke is at Michael’s house, laying on his bed while Michael plays a video game and shouts at animated soldiers. He’s playing a game on his phone, about to win the level, when the a text from Calum causes him to lose concentration and fail. “Fuck,” he curses, opening the text.
i think i scared away ashton, it reads.
Luke types back, u were asking so many qs i think u scared me 2
shut the fuck up what do i do i want him 2 like me
how am i supposed 2 know idk how emos think
ur no help n i h8 u
ily2 <33
Luke is in Algebra with Michael, when he gets a text from Calum.
911 ash is also in my bio class n he sits w me again
how is that bad pls inform me as i am confused
wait. ash? when did he go from ashton to ash
how am i meant 2 concentrate on bio when there is a pretty person sitting next to me
shut the fuck up he told me 2 call him tht
calum and ashton sitting in a tree k i s s i n g
i will fucking kill u luke hemmings
Ashton sits with them at lunch that day. Michael says, “dude, I like your hair.”
Ashton smiles and says, “thanks, yours is way cooler, though,” motioning to Michael’s flaming red hair.
Michael smiles and says, “thanks man. I think you’ll fit in well with us.”
“You’re just saying that cause he was nice to you,” Luke comments.
Michael hits his shoulder, “he’s nicer than you’re being!” He turns to Ashton and says, “I don’t know why I decided to date this asshole.”
Ashton’s eyes widen and he whispers, “you guys are dating?”
And Calum can’t take it. He simply can’t handle the boys look of utter shock and confusion, and he throws his head back in laughter. He’s wiping tears off his cheeks while he says, “oh yeah, they’re dating. The whole school knows, man, their story is the best. You look like you’ve never seen a couple in real life!”
Ashton huffs, “of course I have, but at my old school they were all straight people!”
And everyone freezes.
“Is that…was that a good thing?” Luke asks quietly.
“What do you mean?”
Luke doesn’t know how to answer without screaming, ‘please PLEASE tell me I did not just befriend a homophobe!!!’
Michael says, “um. I think Luke was trying to ask if. Like. If it was good that it was only straight people at your old school.” Luke nods.
“Are you trying to ask if I’m homophobic?” Ashton asks.
“In so many words.”
“Well, I’m not,” he smiles, “It’s totally okay. Please continue to be as gay as you wish in front of me.”
The bell rings, signalling the end of lunch, and Luke thinks he hasn’t felt that uncomfortable in his whole life.
Luke texts Calum when he’s doing his homework, hey do u have the answers for #7
leave me alone im w ash
ooo steamy date??? ;)
fuck off
use protection!!!
He doesn’t get a reply back.
He’s in music class, the only class he has with both Michael and Calum, when they discover that Ashton can drum. He can drum really, really well.
They walk into the classroom early, as usual, so they can get the best guitars, when they hear a sound. They look at each other, no words exchanged, all wondering who beat them to the music room. That never happens.
When they walk in and see Ashton on the drumset, playing a beat that they all recognize easily, they head to the guitars and pray Ashton didn’t hear them come in. They sit in their seats, Ashton still unaware of their presence, and all at once begin to play the complimentary guitar and bass parts of the song. Ashton looks to where they are seated and smiles, not once missing a beat, as they all play the song together. When the song’s finished, the classroom is full, and the teacher is giving them a round of applause.
“Good job, boys!” He shouts, “spectacular! Amazing! Wonderful! Incredible!” Luke can feel his cheeks turning rosy, and assumes the other boys are having the same reaction.
At lunch, Ashton sits with them again, and says excitedly, “I didn’t know you guys played guitar!”
Calum crosses his arms across his chest, “I play bass,” he pouts.
“It’s basically the same, shut up,” Michael says, laughing.
Then and there, Luke realises that Ashton has officially joined their (admittedly small) friend group. He’s friends with the school emo. Cool.
Calum texts him after school, i have a problem but u suck so im asking michael
And then he says, ha! hows that feel? maybe next time ull suck less
Luke, being the smart ass he is, replies, i think michael enjoys how much i suck, so im not gonna take ur advice to heart, soz
ur disgusting i h8 u i didnt need 2 know that wtf
;))
Michael, who is sitting right next to him, says, “what did you say to Calum? He just told me he hates you.”
Luke fakes offence, “I said nothing!” He holds his hand up to his heart, “I can’t see why he would say that to me, I guess he’s just a Luke hater.”
“Shut up, Luke,” Michael says with a smile and a kiss to Luke’s cheek.
Luke says, “make me,” with a challenge in his eyes, and Michael’s phone is quickly ignored.
Calum asks Michael the next morning, “why did you ignore my very important texts last night, you asshole?”
Michael fidgets and says, “I got, uh. Distracted,” and Luke laughs.
Luke is in Algebra class with Michael, and the teacher is going on and on and on about something Luke already knows, so he writes a note to Michael.
‘what did calum text u abt last night’, it reads.
Michael quickly scribbles out, ‘he likes ashton n wanted advice’, and Luke bites his lip to hold in a rather feminine scream.
‘I KNEW IT I KNEW HE LIKES ASH HELL YA’, he writes and hands the page back to Michael, who laughs and crumples up the paper.
He pulls out his phone and types a text to Calum, hows bio w the future bae
how do u know that
how do u think
did michael tell u
duh
i hate him 2 i need new friends
just tell him man if he doesnt like u its not 2 bad we just met him
u give awful advice im not gonna tell him i JUST met him
whatever smh
At lunch that day, Luke watches how Calum and Ashton interact. Calum is good, he doesn’t act like he has an obvious crush, but if you look close enough, Calum is laughing a little too hard, and watching a little too closely, and every time he looks at Ashton for more than a minute, his eyes are full of fond fond fond, and Luke thinks it’s honestly adorable.
And, lucky for Calum, Ashton’s eyes never stray away from the Kiwi boy for more than 2 minutes (well, actually, Luke timed it, and the longest Ashton looked away was for 2 minutes and 27 seconds), and they are always full of the same gleam of fond.
i think ashton likes u 2
no
what
he doesnt like me back
how would u know
hes got his tongue down some guys throat
…oh
r u ok
hello
call me
hey
im calling u
“What do you want?” Calum asks when he answers the phone.
“Are you okay?” Luke asks worriedly.
“Why wouldn’t I be okay?”
“I think that’s pretty obvious. Are you still with him?”
“No, I left him to hang out with that guy in the park.”
“What about your crush.”
“It was just a crush. I’ll get over it. I should’ve assumed he was with someone,” Calum says, voice drifting to silence slowly.
“I mean, no. You shouldn’t have. Cause I am 99% sure he likes you back, boytoy or not.”
“Why?”
“He doesn’t really try to hide it. I mean. He does. But not as much as you.”
“How do you know you’re not just seeing what you want to see?”
“I don’t do that. I dunno. Just trust me, ask about that boy tomorrow. Wait. Tomorrow is Saturday. Ask to hang out with him or something.”
“Why don’t you?”
“...That might work better. You’re right, I’ll do that. I’ll tell you what he says, bye,” Luke says before hanging up and texting Ashton to ask to hang out on Saturday.
Luke and Ashton meet at the mall on Saturday at 2 p.m, as they had agreed the night before. Luke says, “how are you liking the new school?”
Ashton says, “it’s just. School, y’know? But my friends are cool,” and then he giggles.
Luke laughs, “I mean, you’re not wrong.” He’s silent for a moment before saying, “do you miss anything about your old school? Friends? Teachers? Anything?”
“Nah, the people there were all shit and the work was tough.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah,” Ashton says, walking into a store.
“So,” Luke begins awkwardly, “do you have. Like. A girlfriend? Or something?”
“Nah, I’m single. Why are you asking? I thought you were with Michael.”
“I am. Just small talk, getting to know you better.”
ashton is single
oh
He and Michael hang out Saturday night, laying around and watching old shitty horror movies. Luke’s phone buzzes and he pulls it out of his pocket, smiling when he reads, ash is bi!!!
wow we’re basically related
i hate u. celebrate with me!!!
i kinda already figured. like. what emo kid isnt bi
im not bi
bi and pan r almost the same
u rnt even emo
i am offended by that
tell him, Luke sends to Calum on Monday.
no im not crazy
im not either but i know he likes u 2 just tell him
i will not
The same thing continues for nearly 2 full weeks, until Luke gets a text on Saturday night that says, ash just kissed me.
what!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i know i cant believe it either
why did he
i said ‘hey i maybe kinda like u a bit is that ok’ and then he did it
r u guys dating now
i think so
ask
we r
im planning a party right now as we speak this is party worthy but just the 4 of us
it will be a big gay party
okay
why am i more excited abt this than u
At school on Monday, Calum and Ashton walk in together, holding hands, and Luke thinks they’re really fucking gay and really fucking cute.