Lethe

New Greatness

Summary: Luke's invited to Ashton's welcome home dinner, and he regrets it, because everyone's pitying him now.
Note: I don't even need a note for this, so, I just kind of shrugged to my computer...
***
"You're welcome to the dinner, sweetie," Ann said. She had called Luke, to invite him to the dinner, a dinner for welcoming Ashton home from the hospital. Luke didn't want to go, but he could feel the begging through the phone alone. "He doesn't remember you, but I want him to. Because, well, you were ultimately, his other half." Ann was whispering, and Luke assumed it was because Ashton was in the room, or something.

"Uh," Luke stammered, "I'll try." That's the last thing Luke said before he hung up. He wasn't trying to be mean by hanging up, but he didn't want to hear Ann object to his hesitation.

Later that night, Luke was standing in front of a familiar door, Ashton's mum's house. He went there, more than once, because Ashton always loved having Luke over at his mum's, when he would visit her - because his siblings took a liking to Luke.

As he knocked, Luke felt butterflies, as he prayed for it not to be Ashton to open the door. And obviously praying didn't work, because he saw the familiar person he saw for nearly four years. He was smiling, probably happy from being out of the hospital. His cast was decorated, mainly writing from friends and family. His hair was messy, making it ten times curlier than usual.

"Hey Luke," Ashton greeted, and Luke wanted to sigh. He was used to Lukey, or anything else really, because Luke didn't feel right coming from Ashton's mouth.

"Hey," Luke replied, his voice masked with the same amount of awkward as his body language showed. His feet were shuffling, his fingers were moving quickly, and he ultimately had licked his lips merely ten times since he spoke.

"Mum said you, Mikey and Calum are coming." Ashton said happily, getting much happier as he mentioned his other two friends, but mainly Michael.

"Cool," Luke was sticking to this one-worded-sentences thing he was doing, because he wasn't making a total fool of himself, and blurting I love you, or something irrelevant to Ashton - now.

"Anyway, mum made spaghetti, since we all like it." Ashton said, finally inviting Luke inside, instead of standing outside the house. "She said you'd like it." Ashton shrugged, almost as if he didn't understand it. Of course he didn't understand it, because he doesn't remember, Luke.

Luke nodded, following behind Ashton, kicking his shoes off, and hanging up his sweater, and taking his beanie off.

"Hey Luke," Ann greeted, and for some reason, that felt familiar, and it made Luke feel ten times better than when he first arrived there.

"Hey Mrs. Irwin," Luke replied, smiling softly at Ann. "I mean, Ann." Luke corrected, when he saw Ann try to form a response.

"Dinner will be ready soon, hope you're hungry." Ann said.

"I'm al- I mean, yes I am." Luke said, pausing his own sentence, as he noticed Ashton didn't know he's been here before, and that he's had dinner here before too. "It smells nice." Luke added.

"Oh yeah," Ann smiled, "It's Ashton's favourite." Ann added. As if, he did not know.

"I know, he's told me before." Luke replied, ignoring the pitiful look that followed soon after he spoke.

At the dinner table, Luke sat between Lauren and Harry, trying to ignore how Michael and Ashton were joking, like they always did, and how Calum just nodded along, pretending he was actually listening to the bullshit Michael was telling. Luke slumped in his chair, slowly eating the food, and he could feel the grim look on his face.

"Hey Lukey," Calum said, finally straying from the conversation between Michaela and Ashton, "How are you?" Calum asked, pretending he didn't notice how grim Luke looked at the moment.

"Fine," Luke responded. It was simple, and Calum knew that Luke was hurting in too many ways to be fine.

"Okay," Calum said, despite his thoughts, "We should go to a movie, the four of us." Calum said, nudging Michael's shoulder.

"Oh yeah," Michael replied, "That sounds good... There's this movie I've been dying to see..." Michael trailed off into what movie he wanted to see, and Calum ignored the rest of what he was saying, turning back to Luke.

"What do you say?" Calum asked.

"Hmm," Luke hummed, "sounds good." Luke added. He could feel the pity coming from the two, mostly Calum though. And when he turned to Lauren and Harry, he felt more pity, because their smiles were the definition of pity.

"Uh," Luke mumbled, noticing his spaghetti was done now, "I should get going, uh, my mum's in town..." Luke lied, his mum wasn't in town, she was visiting his brother. "That was lovely Ann, I hope to see you around." Luke added, walking to the front, to grab his sweater, shoes and beanie. "See you guys, just text me or something." Luke added, walking out of the door.