SONGS FOR THIS CHAPTER:
Jar of Hearts - Christina Perri (?)
Love me or Leave me - Little Mix
Invisible - 5SOS
---
ashlings p.o.v.
As if Michael had read my mind, he arrives back at the table. I let out a large breath of relief as he takes his seat.
"Luke are you okay?" Michael asked.
Luke had been blushing ever since he told me I was beautiful. I feel like it should of been me who was red. "Y-Yeah I'm good t-thanks" he says looking directly at me.
----
*THE NEXT DAY*
Michael doesn't show up to school. Which means, no leaning against my locker, no teasing me about being tired or late and no asking me what class is next because he forgot his timetable.
But it does mean I might be able to approach Luke on my own, and maybe have an actual conversation.
As I walk up to my locker I see, not Michael, but Luke, twisting a sunflower between his pointer finger and his thumb. I start to think about what he said at lunch yesterday, "has anyone ever told you you're beautiful?", I smile to myself as I finally reach my locker.
"Oh, hey Luke. How're you going today?"
"Good thank you, but I was wondering if you would like this sunflower darling?" he asks. Right now I'm probably smiling like an idiot, but I'm happy. My heart is literally over the moon, and once again beating at an abnormal pace. "Thank you Luke, and I would love that sunflower."
He holds it out and I place it in my locker. "Do you like it?" Luke asks nervously. "I didn't know what your favourite flower was, so i asked my mum what girls like, and she told me they love sunflowers so I found the prettiest sunflower there was and i-" "Luke, I love it, and sunflowers are my favourites." Luke lets out a sigh of relief and then gets his books out of his locker which is a couple lockers down from mine and Michaels.
"See you at recess" I wave him off.
---
The first two periods fly by and finally it's recess. As I go to my locker, I see Luke with another sunflower.
Where does he even find these?
He slides it in the space where my lock is, since I wasn't there yet. When I arrive I see the flower and my heart flutters once again. Luke sees me then pretends he hasn't noticed that it's there.
"Thank you Luke" I say, walking over to his locker. "For what?" he lies, pretending he doesn't know about the flower.
"The flower silly" I giggle. "The sunflower, the one you put in my locker?" I remind him. Luke looks up, as if he's thinking.
"The sunflower, Luke? Does that ring a bell?" I question him once again. I pull out the flower he gave me yesterday and hold both the beautiful flowers in my hands. "Right. That second sunflower, I don't recall." He tells me. "You sure? Because you are the only person, other than Michael, who knows that sunflowers are my favourite flower. So if it wasn't you or Michael, I don't know who it could be." I finish.
He is rocking on his feet, back and forth, a habit I found he does whenever he's nervous.
"Yeah, uh, I-I put it there."
---
The bell rings, commencing third period is starting. I unlock my locker, and check my timetable. "We have sport" Michael tells me. How did I not realise he was here?
"When did you arrive here?"
"During second period, I was looking for you but you weren't in class"
"We had maths in room 4, I was there"
"We had Science, in room 12"
"Maths" "Science" "Maths" "Science"
I pull my timetable off the inside of my locker.
"Look" I say pointing to my timetable. "We had Maths." He opens his locker wide open and points to his timetable. "Science. Right here. In ink. If you believe we had maths, then you can believe that. Oh and what are those flowers in your locker?" "I got them from Luke thank you, at least he doesn't argue with me!"
"Argue? Really Ash, really?"
"He's given me two flowers, and even though it may not look like a lot, it means a lot to me. The last time you did something nice for me feels like ages ago. What happened to the nice, funny, caring, Michael I knew and became best friends with? Right now I don't know where he's gone. What's come over you lately?"
"Well I don't know if you know this, but ever since Luke has come to school, all your attention has been on him. You never even bother to look for me anymore. And the past two days, you've been talking to him a whole lot more. In the classes we have together, you always ask me if I've seen Luke. It's all about Luke. Luke, Luke, Luke. Don't even bother talking to me anymore. Go find Luke and ask him what class you have. Because this friendship doesn't exist anymore." He slams his locker shut, not even bothering to lock it.
"Fine."
---
Last period is finally over, so I go to my locker and pack my bag. Michael ignores me when I ask him if he's walking home with me, but goes ahead and tells me to walk home with my new best friend. And from what he said yesterday, we aren't best friends anymore. So he can go find a new best friend, because if he expects me to be here with open arms and just let him into my life again as a best friend, that's not happening.
---
*A WEEK LATER*
Michael hasn't shown up to school for a week. I'm quite scared that our argument was the reason he hasn't been here. I decide to find Calum since he usually knows where Michael is.
"Yo Calum"
"Yo Ash, what's up?"
"Have you happened to see Michael lately? He hasn't been at school for a week and we kind of had an argument when I saw him last."
"He dropped by my house last night, and he did kind of look like he'd been crying."
Oh god. What have I done.
"He told me something about a kid called Luke. I've never heard of him before though."
"Oh yeah, he's my friend."
"Yeah and he said you weren't spending time with him and he was feeling really lonely and stuff and you weren't answering his pho-"
"His phone calls? He hasn't texted me, let alone called me. I'm the one sending texts. I'm the one calling him. I've been trying to make some kind of contact with him for a week now. And all he does is blame it on me. Bye Cal. I gotta go find Luke. He'll talk to me."
Calum waves me good bye as I storm off to find Luke. On the way I see Eliza and tell her I want to talk to her.
"So what's going on." she asks me.
"Michael is an asshole."
"I thought he was your best friend."
"Well not anymore, according to him."
Eliza looks at me and I pull her in for a hug and cry on her shoulder. "I'm so thankful I've got you. You are the most amazing person in the world."
I tell her I'm gonna find Luke and she tells me I'm very strong and lightly punches me on the shoulder. "You go girl" she smiles and struts away.
---
a/n
hello friends !!
I'll probably be writing a lot more now even though I'm going back to school I'll be in hospital 💞💞
thamk you for reading this far
ilyasm
- ella 🦄
