I'm Sorry • Lashton

Chapter 18

Would ya bail me out if I need it?
Help me down, will you catch me when I fall?
Another night I'm out here wasted,
another night you've gotta take my call
-Bail me out // All Time Low ft Joel Madden

"Calum, please"

"No, Luke."

"Mike-"

"No fucking way"

Luke groaned, flopping onto his friend's couch, and blowing out a puff of air. Sometimes he really hated his 'friends'.

"Why don't you just go by yourself?"

"Because we always go to parties together" The blonde whined, although all three of them knew the reality behind his words: we never go alone.

"Why won't you come?" Luke sighed, although he'd already asked this question about a million times, and he'd already heard the answer more than a million times.

"I'm mourning" Michael said simply, sitting on the floor with his back against the couch "I'm heartbroken and upset and not in the mood to party"

"You look fine to me" Luke mumbled, which earned him a whack on the arm from Calum. "And you?" He asked, turning to face his kiwi friend "What's your excuse?"

"I'm being a good friend" Calum rolled his eyes and gestured towards Michael to prove his point "I'm going to help him eat ice cream and play video games and not think about stupid boys with green hair"

Luke groaned again, closing his eyes and tipping his head back. He had been at Michael's house for about forty minutes, trying to convince at least one of them to tag along to the party that Grace's brother was hosting. Of course, he'd been invited, but in all honesty, he'd never been to a party without Michael or Calum before, and his paranoia of something going wrong without them had started to kick in and fight around his stomach. Just thinking about the party alone, made him feel queasy. But he had to go, because Grace was his girlfriend. Somewhat.

"Look, Luke, if you're just going to sit and groan-"

Luke rolled his eyes, but stood from the coach anyway,

"Okay, okay I'm going. Cal, can you give me a ride home?"

Calum seemed hesitant to leave their so-called 'heartbroken' friend, but left in reluctance after the blonde boy anyway. It was only a five minute drive.

Michael was pretty sure it was Luke when the doorbell rang not even a minute later, probably forgotten his jacket or his phone or his brain because Luke Hemmings was the most forgetful teenage boy to reside in Sydney. What Michael did not expect was spiky green hair, bright eyes and fidgety shoes. Rio.

"No." Michael said, not even letting the boy speak as he began to close the door,

"Mike, no wait-" Rio managed to somehow wedge his foot between the door frame and the door, preventing it from closing, "Please can we talk?"

"I'm not letting you in my house" Michael was adamant, still avoiding the gaze of the taller boy,

"Then we can speak outside."

There was a pause, a sigh, a shuffling of shoes, and a muttered okay,

"You have three minutes." Michael warned. Rio nodded,

"Three minutes."

***

Luke hadn't even bothered asking Ashton about coming to the party after the library incident that had happened prior to that day. He was pretty sure the curly-haired boy hated him, and it definitely was not something he was proud of. Either way, it was his own fault, and this is what he found himself thinking, at midnight, on a school night when the whole house was silent, and he was sneaking down the stairs.