I'm Sorry • Lashton

Chapter 17

Is this more than you bargained for yet?
Oh don't mind me, I'm watching you two from the closet,
wishing to be the friction in your jeans,
Isn't it messed up how I'm just dying to be him?
-Sugar, We're Going Down // Fall Out Boy

Ashton wasn't exactly ardent to return to the Hemmings household, mainly because at Rio's, everything was so calm and collected. But Luke practically pleading for him to come back hadn't really increased his reluctance (and okay maybe his mum had demanded that he return to his family, but nobody had to know that.)

And when he had returned, he realised that living with them couldn't be that bad, when Jack had already moved all Ashton's stuff into his own room, and set up the bed, and given him half his wardrobe as well as told Ashton that if there was anything else he could do for him then to let him know. Ashton felt extremely pampered.

So, after feeling pleasantly pleased with his own life, it really wasn't a wonder that he couldn't see the sadness in other people's. More specifically, drained-looking teenage girls, whose eyes stayed glued to the floor, obviously not avoiding everyone but someone.

"Lisa!" Ashton called when he saw her, completely dismissing the slight look of irritancy that passed as he made his way over "Hey" He grinned.

"Oh, hi Ashton" She managed to deliver a small smile.

It wasn't really unusual for Ashton to talk to Lisa, because they'd been friends for a long time. Not the kind of friends who you'd call over every Saturday night, but more of the kind of friends who were always on your birthday party invite list, or the types of friends who if you bumped into at the coffee shop, it wasn't weird to join them without being asked to sit down. That kind of friendship. Ashton was suddenly conscious that he seemed to have a lot of those kinds of friends.

But Ashton was also conscious of the way Lisa was nervously looking over his shoulder,

"What's that look for?" He asked, confused, which soon put a confused look on her face too,

"You don't know?" She said,

"Know what?"

Lisa sighed, giving him an exasperated sort of look, before returning her gaze to the floor. Ashton started to feel a little weird, because Lisa was usually bubbly and fun, and full of life.

In the end, she simply shrugged,

"Just ask your disgusting best friend" Lisa threw him a dirty look, before stalking off.

Okay...

Ashton wasn't really all that keen on getting to his first lesson on time, so he decided a skip would probably go unnoticed. He never skipped anyway; the teacher might just think he was absent.

It wasn't hard for Ashton to find Rio, because well, there weren't many creative hiding spots in the school. The least creative, of course; the library. Except, of course, doing something as simple as going to the library wasn't really easy, because well, Luke Hemmings was now a priority in Ashton's life. Or so he thought he was.

"What do you want, Hemmings? Shouldn't you be in class?"

"Shouldn't you?" Luke shot back, and Ashton had to try hard not to look incredibly defeated, "Can we talk?" He asked, after a smug silence.

"Later" The shorter boy turned towards the door of the library,

"Please, it will take a second-"

"No, Luke" Ashton snapped, "Whatever it is, it can wait. I didn't skip my first class to chit chat with a-" He cut himself off, realising he'd said enough already,