POISONOUS//lashton au

Six

Luke woke up in the dark. He was confused and tired. Nothing made sense.

What time was it? Where was he? How did he get there? Wherever there was.

He sat up in the bed and looked around the dark room. He couldn't find his phone or a clock so he crawled out of the bed and felt around the room in attempt to find a door. It was lighter outside of the room. There was a dimmed light on in the hall. Disoriented and tired, nothing made sense to him. He still had no idea where he was. But it was not his place. Luke lifted a hand up to his messy hair and ran a hand through it. He jumped when he heard a door open from behind him.

"Luke?"

Luke turned around to see Calum. Calum. He was at Calum's.

"What time is it?" Luke asked.

"It's 12:30. You slept for 12 hours."

"Oh."

They stood in silence. Luke was still confused but he remembered passing out in Michaels car. He felt like he needed to say something. Too many thoughts were running through his head and he began to feel dizzy again. Calum noticed this and stepped closer to Luke.

"Hey let's go sit down okay?" Calum led Luke into the living room and sat him down on the couch.

Luke's knee shook as he sat on the couch. Calum sat beside him, still giving him the space he obviously needed. Nothing made sense to Luke and he wanted to go back to sleep.

After a long silence and a lot of thinking from Luke, Calum spoke.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Did he? Yes. But what could he say? Calum already knew how bad he hurt. He knew Ashton broke Luke's heart. Luke sighed. Too many things he could say but none of them he knew how. So instead he said what was a hard thing to admit. Even to himself.

"I still love him."

"What?" It was something Calum obviously wasn't expecting to hear.

"Ashton." Luke still flinched. It pained him to say his name. "I still love him."

Calum's face softened and he patted Luke's knee. "Of course you do Luke. It'd be hard not to."

"Even after what he did to me? You believe that?"

"Yeah I do. He was the first person you ever loved. You don't just fall out of love like that. Especially after the first time."

"Even after three years?"

"Even after three years. Luke I know that these past three years have been tough for you and I'm not going to tell you to get over him. That was a really shitty thing for him to do and I kind of really hate him a lot. Neither Michael or I are annoyed or angry with you still loving him. You can't help it."

Luke stared down at his pale hands then up at Calum's caring face. Then Luke smiled. It was a small smile but a genuine one.

"Thank you."

Calum smiled. "You're my best friend Luke. I'd be a pretty shitty friend if I didn't help you out. Even if it's not something you enjoy."

Luke looked back down at his hands, still smiling. "Like taking me to a mall and making me stand by a rack of clothes for 30 minutes?"

"That's just the kind of things friends do." Calum nodded.

There was another silence between them but this one comforted Luke.

"Alright," Calum stood up, "it's almost 1 and you have class tomorrow. You should get to sleep."

"Yeah okay." Luke stood up too and pulled Calum in for a hug. Smiling once more before heading off to the a spare room at Calum's place.

-

When Luke woke up for the second time that day, the sun was shining through the blinds. In the light, Luke realised his phone had been sitting on the dresser all night. He stood up from the bed and grabbed his phone. It was 9:15 which meant he had 1 hour and 45 minutes to get to his bio class. He walked into the kitchen where Calum was, along with Michael. They both had coffee and we're chatting quietly when Michael noticed Luke.

"Hey Luke. How are you doing?"

In the past three years, Luke had been answering that question with the same four letter answer. Fine. He was fine. Everything was fine. Although every time he answered it with fine, he wasn't fine.

On that particular morning, Luke answered honestly. "I'm doing okay." And he had a small smile on his face.
Michael looked at Calum with slightly widened eyes then smiled back at Luke. "That's great. You need a ride back to your place before bio?"

"That'd be great. Thanks for letting me crash here last night Calum."

"Yeah no problem." Calum nodded. "Oh hey, we got you a coffee. From that place you like." Calum held up a cup of coffee and handed it to Luke who graciously took it.

"Thank you."

"You ready to go?" Michael asked.

"Yup let's go." Luke walked to the door and said bye to Calum. Michael informed him he'd be out in a moment and as Luke closed the door behind him he heard Michael speaking to Calum.

"What did you say to him last night?"

Luke didn't catch the answer but he already knew the answer.

And for the first time in three years, the day went by fast.

~

Hello how is life I hope it's good

Mine is pretty good. I wrote this piece for my creative writing class and it was good.

All my classes are going well. I love my psychology class. I understand my pre Calc stuff. Physical science sucks but my teacher is funny. My history teacher is pretty good. I am in love with my creative writing class. And yeah. That's what's happening in my life.

Also drama is starting soon and that takes up a lot of time but I'll try to make sure I update every day.

-ash