7-Eleven [Lashton AU]

Chapter 38

AN: I apologize if anything in here is incorrect. I'm talking about in terms of how something works. Just let it be, please. Thank you.

Cover made by DannyPF1314

Also, I'd like to thank lukeslyrics once again for helping me with this chapter. You're amazing like always. I hope this was good enough.

*Third Person's POV*

Every day for the past week, Michael and Calum came to visit Ashton. The hospital patient was left with Luke's phone and he would read the letter over and over again, despite how much it was hurting him inside.

He wasn't okay, not after finding out that Luke was dead. Ashton didn't know what he'd do after getting out of the hospital. He couldn't just simply go back to the life he had prior to meeting the eighteen-year-old.

That boy held a special place in his life, the one that Luke gave up his own for.

Luke was right about one thing: His act was selfish. He left the painful emotional feeling with Ashton, and now the the poor guy had to deal with this for the rest of his life.

Calum was still upset with Luke being gone forever, but he was no longer mad at Ashton. It wasn't entirely his fault anyway. He didn't force Luke to do anything; the blond giving his heart to Ashton was his decision.

For some reason, Luke's phone was blasting with phone calls from three people named Ben, Jack, and Mom. Were they not aware that Luke didn't have his phone anymore? Ashton thought. He thought they'd give up calling, but the calls kept coming every day.

It came to the point where Ashton was fed up and turned off the cellular device, never wanting to turn it on again. (Also meaning he's going to be unable to read the last words Luke wrote to Ashton.)

After a week of staying at the hospital, Ashton was finally being released. He changed out of the hospital clothes and into new ones that Michael had brought him. He was given a plastic bag to put in his clothes he wore last week. The shirt had a bullet hole through the left side and it was bloody, but Ashton didn't mind. It wasn't like it was his favorite shirt anyway.

His friend was signing him out and Ashton was now used to Luke's heart inside of him. The only time he'd feel pain now was when he'd remembered that it was Luke's heart.

Ashton was sitting in the backseat of Michael's car, the green-haired boy and Calum sitting in the driver and passenger seats. His forehead was pressed against the window and it was pouring outside. In the middle of August, it was raining.

Even the sky was crying with Ashton.

"Ash, do you want anything?" Michael asked.

Ashton whispered, "I want Luke back."

"We all want him back," Calum said with a heavy sigh, "but he's not coming back. You'll just have to accept things as they are."

But Ashton didn't want to. He wanted to believe that Luke was really alive and that he was living some kind of horrible dream.

That thought wasn't going to bring Luke back though.

Since it was around three in the afternoon, Michael had to drop Calum off at 7-Eleven. Ashton didn't even look at the convenience store, because it reminded him too much of Luke, and he felt like he was only going to cry harder.

He brought a hand up to his chest, placing it over the heart that Luke gave him. It was beating, and it was only beating for Ashton.

Ashton curled up into a ball on the seat he was sitting on, burying his face in his knees as he felt his heart break. He felt as if he was better off dead, but he couldn't do anything to end his life. Luke wanted him to live life, but Ashton was impatiently waiting for something to suddenly happen that would kill him already.