A Work of Art ＊ Muke AU

Chapter Twelve

Luke waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. It was an endless game of patience for him. He was trying as hard as he could to ignore Ashton's remarks, although it was difficult. Nobody would ever like it when someone says something negative about someone they care about. Luke didn't know why Ashton said what he had said and then carried on with his day like it was nothing, like he didn't care about whether or not Luke's feelings were hurt.

Luke was thinking about all these "what if" questions.

What if the so-called "rumors" were true?

What if Ashton was right?

What if Michael really was a troublemaker?

Luke snapped out of his thoughts when he heard his doorbell ring.

Luke immediately ran downstairs and saw someone standing outside the door.

"It's Michael. I know for a fact that it's Michael. Michael Clifford is standing right outside my door," Luke thought to himself.

With shaky hands, Luke opened the door and saw Michael standing right in front of him.

"Come on in," Luke said, gesturing for Michael to walk inside his house.

The two of them walked upstairs to Luke's room so they could start working on the project.

"I have a question for you, and if you don't want to answer it, I completely understand," Michael said, "Why were you freaking out in the hallway a couple weeks ago?"

He still remembers.

Luke was walking towards his locker to get his lunch when he could've sworn that someone was creeping up behind him.

One person came to mind - James.

Luke tried not to panic about the situation and just continued walking until he got to his locker.

He unlocked his lock and grabbed his lunch, when he heard someone behind him faintly say "hello."

Luke screamed.

"Alright. I guess I'll tell you," Luke said, sighing, "Over the past few years, I was bullied by this guy named James. It wasn't the worst kind of bullying, like I didn't get beat up or come home with a bruise or anything, but him and his friends still teased me and made fun of me a lot of the time and did things to annoy me on purpose. I heard one time that if you're mad at someone, you can draw something that had to do with a situation and has that as a coping mechanism. After that, I guess I started drawing all the time. Music is an escape for some people, others like to write, I like art. That might seem a bit weird to you, I know, but that's how I dealt with it."

"It's not weird, Luke. Don't worry, I'm not going to judge you," Michael told Luke.

"Thanks, Mikey," Luke said.

Luke got embarrassed at the realization that he had just given Michael a nickname.

"I'm sorry, Michael. I didn't mean to call you that," Luke said.

"It's fine, Luke, I like it," Michael replied.

Luke smiled.

"Anyways, so I was walking to my locker to meet you for lunch that one day, and I thought that James was behind me, so I freaked out. I'm shocked I didn't have a panic attack over it, to be honest. I would always get nervous when he was around and think about what he was going to say to me and what I was going to do. I just worried about it too much. During detention, he wanted to apologize for all that he did, even though I could tell he didn't mean it. I just lied and said I accepted his apology, because what else was I supposed to do?" I didn't want to cause more drama," Luke explained.

"So that's who you were talking to during detention," Michael said.

"Yeah," Luke replied, "It was kind of unexpected."

"Look, I know we haven't known each other for that long, but if you ever need anything, I'm here for you," Michael told Luke, putting his arm on his shoulder.

"Thanks, Mikey," Luke said with a smile.

"You're welcome," Michael replied, "So, should we continue working on the project?

"Yes, we should."

Author's Note: Hi! More drama... yay! And that's just the beginning of the drama to come later on in the story. And we learned the truth about James. So what's in Chapter 5 is just some of what happened between James and Luke.

What are your thoughts on Luke opening up to Michael about his past with James?

Luke giving Michael a nickname?

Michael saying he's there for Luke?

I hope you're enjoying this story!

-Megan :-)