mali's brother; cashton

two

"Luke, get up," Ashton said, opening his stepbrother's door. He flicked the lights on, which caused Luke to hiss and bury deeper into his blanket.

"Luke, up," Ashton said, walking over to Luke and peeling the blanket off him. Luke grumbled, which caused Ashton to sigh and pat his brother's back.

"I know, bud." he watched Luke slowly rise out of bed and rub his eyes. Ashton grabbed the blonde's glasses off the nightstand and handed it to him. Luke mumbled out a thank you and put them on.

"Does Mike need me to drive him to school today?" Ashton asked, just as he does every morning. Michael, Luke's boyfriend's parents, aren't the best people and don't usually drive him to school, leaving him to walk. That was up until Ashton found out. He started giving the redhead a drive to school whenever he needed, even though he's never had the chance to get to know the boy fully.

Luke shrugged as he reached to his nightstand and grabbed his phone. He flipped it over, the bright screen illuminating his soft features. He looked back up at Ashton, a soft expression on his face.

"Yeah," he said, his voice hoarse due to the fact he hadn't spoken all morning. "He had a rough night with them last night," Luke muttered, his fingers typing away on his phone's keyboard, presumably texting Michael that Ashton was okay with driving him. Ashton nodded.

"Tell him to pack a bag with clothes and stuff; he can stay with us tonight," he said, his heart filled with sorrow for the poor teen. Luke looked up at his older brother, a soft smile on his face.

"Thank you, Ashton." Ashton smiled back and patted Luke's knee.

"Of course, but you need to get up," Ashton said, leaving the boy's room. He purposely left the door open, which made Luke shout, "Hey!"

Ashton just snickered to himself and walked downstairs into the kitchen. He grabbed the open box of cherry pop tarts that sat on the counter and grabbed three packs. He popped two packs into the toaster, leaving Mike's untoasted since that's how he likes it.

After about ten minutes, Luke's elephant feet slapped against the stairs. He jumped off the bottom step, which made a loud bang and caused some of the decor on the wall to shake. Ashton rolled his eyes and slid the plate of cherry pop tarts towards his brother.

"Got everything?" Ashton asked, walking into the dining room and grabbing his backpack and soccer bag. He returned to the kitchen to find Luke eating his second pop tart.

Luke looked up from his plate and nodded, jelly and crust smeared around his face. He nodded, some crumbs falling off his face from the movement. Ashton fondly shook his head at his brother and grabbed his plate of pop tarts, placing Mike's still-wrapped ones on top of the plate as well.

The brothers walked outside and made their way into Ashton's car. Luke sat in the passenger seat and threw his backpack into the backseat. Ashton opened the backseat and put his bags back there as well. He walked around the car and hopped into the driver's seat, placing the key in and hearing the car rumble to life.

"I heard some rumors about you and Mali from yesterday's game," Luke said as Ashton pulled out of the driveway. The blonde kicked his feet up onto the dashboard and continued to snack on his pop-tart, an amused expression making its way onto his face when he saw Ashton's reaction to his words. The brunette was annoyed. His jaw was clenched, and his hands were tight around the steering wheels, knuckles gone white.

"Oh, really?" He mumbled. He took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself for the new rumor that was about to fly out of the younger mouth.

"Yeah, apparently, you guys are dating again." He said. Ashton stayed silent, his eyes focused on the road.

"You know, if you're trying to debunk the whole dating rumors, then maybe don't go about twirling her around," Luke said, looking out the window.

Luke's words made Ashton want to go ballistic. He fought the urge to scream at the boy, wanting to kick him out of the car and make him walk to school himself. But he knew he couldn't do that to his brother. As much as that statement had pissed him off, he couldn't bare the thought of the young boy's scared eyes as his big brother yelled at him. So all Ashton did was sigh and run a hand down his face.

"That was rude, Luke. Don't say that," he muttered. Luke just shrugged and muttered, "But it's true," under his breath.

The brothers sat in silence until they pulled up to Michael's house. Luke hopped out of the front seat and walked up to the front door, shooting his boyfriend a quick text to let him know he was there.

While Luke was away, Ashton pulled out his phone to see a new message from Mali. It read, "Hey boyfriend," with a winky face at the end. She clearly heard the rumors from last night, this not being the first time they've joked like this about a rumor.

He shot back a quick "Hey baby" text. He turned his phone off and put it back in the cupholder when he heard a door close and two male voices. He looked up to see Luke and Mike walking down to the car hand in hand. Luke hopped back into the front seat while Mike jumped in the back. He threw his AOT backpack, along with a duffle bag, into the pile of other bags.

"Hey, Mike" Ashton said, looking at the boy from the rearview mirror. Mike smiled and waved.

"Thank you for letting me stay, Ash," he said, buckling his seatbelt. A soft smile made its way onto Ashton's face, and he turned around to face Michael.

"Of course, man, you're welcome over any time," he said. Michael blushed at this. No matter how often Ashton says those words to him, it will always catch him off guard.

Luke reached into the cupholder and grabbed the wrapped pop tarts. He turned around in his seat, holding them out for Michael.

"Here you go, sweetheart." Michael smiled and gratefully took the pop tarts, mumbling a small "thank you."

Luke turned back in his seat as Ashton drove out of Michael's street.

"I heard you guys won last night," he muttered, watching his boyfriend nibble on the pop tarts from the rearview mirror.

Ashton nodded, tapping his fingers against the steering wheel.

"Yeah, 15-13. It was a close match. The other team was really good."

"Foxborough, right?" Mike asked. Ashton nodded.

"Yeah, they were scary as fuck" Ashton said, which caused the car to erupt in giggles.

After ten minutes of chatting about last night's game, the three pulled into the school parking lot. Ashton stopped the younger two before they could get out of the car. He reached into his pocket and grabbed his wallet, pulling out two twenties. He handed one of them to each of the boys.

"You know the routine by now. You guys go out and do stuff while I'm at practice, and I'll text you when I'm done. We'll meet by the flagpole, okay?" Both boys nodded and mumbled a quick thank you to Ashton before grabbing their things and running off into the school building hand in hand.

Ashton sat in the driver's seat, his head resting on the steering wheel. He could already feel everybody's eyes on him, and his car being one of his signature items didn't help either. His car didn't blend in with the others. It was a shiny white BMW. When you saw it drive by, you knew it was Ashton driving it, so he couldn't pretend he was another student and hide away in his car until the first bell rang. He can practically hear the hushed whispers going around about him and Mali.

He was snapped out of his anxious thoughts when he heard a tapping on his window. He saw a smiling Mali with an angry Calum standing behind her. Ashton could already tell by the way Calum presented himself that he heard about the rumors and was pissed off over them. He stood tall with his arms crossed. He wore a wife beater that showed off his muscles, which Ashton thinks Calum wore to intimidate him, but in reality it made the brunette want to do unspeakable things to him. There was a gauze wrapped around his hand with fresh blood seeping into the white material. Ashton's best bet is that the blonde got so pissed off that he punched something—or someone—and made his hand bleed.

"Well fuck" Ashton mumbled to himself.