The Boy Next Door

0.3

I was home, waiting for Ashton to come over when my phone lit up with a twitter notification. Hayden tweeted something. I unlocked my phone and looked over the tweet.

'So @nicolemoss , I've discovered that Grace really is a freak after she started talking to that weirdo Ashton.' Hayden had just tweeted the most popular girl at our school and told her I actually was weird. I threw my phone across the room as the doorbell rang. Shit, that was probably Ashton and now I had tears running down my face and they were from anger and disappointment at myself. I opened the door a crack.

"Not n-n-now Ashton. Tomorrow w-works better," I say in between sniffles.

"Oka--wait. Are you crying?" I shook my head, another lie. He pushed open the door.

"Hey, what's wrong?" His soft voice asks. I say nothing, just go grab my phone and show him the tweet. He holds up one finger, as if to say hold on a minute then throws my phone across the room. I've been holding myself together for this long in front of him, but I can't do it anymore. I slide down the wall until I'm in a ball on the floor and cry. Sobs shake my body and I hope Ashton doesn't rethink his decision to try and become friends with me. He walks over to the door, but instead of walking out, he closes it and bends down next to me. The next thing I know, I feel a warm arm wrapped around me, rubbing my arm softly. I lean against him and try to calm down. Ashton calms me down eventually.

"He wasn't worth being your friend if he did this to you," Ashton says while brushing a strand of hair behind my ear. I notice something red on his wrist. I wrap my fingers around his wrist and pull it where I can see it.

"Ash. Why?" I ask. There are faint red lines all over his wrist, crisscrossing and making a mess.

"The bullying got to me. Same as you I guess. But I'm 6 months clean and it's okay now." he says. His phone goes off, playing a guitar chord. He checks it quickly and sighs.

"I have band practice. Do you wanna come?" He asks. I nod slightly, because while half of me wants to go, the other half does not.

We walk over to someone's house. I think his name was Mitch. It was something with an m. We walked into his garage and I immediately slunk behind Ashton.

"Hey guys. This is Grace. She's nice. Don't scare her off," Ash says. Someone with brown hair--Calum-- comes over and introduces himself. And the other person here already come over.

"I'm Michael. Nice hair,by the way," Michael says. I smile and go walk over the the couch.

"Hey guys, Luke isn't here yet," Calum says. Fuck. I forgot Luke was gonna be here. He saw me sitting on the top of my roof once. Getting ready to jump or do whatever. I heard a car door slam and someone walk in.

"Hey guys I'm here.........Who's that?" a deep, raspy, voice says. It's Luke.

"Hey, don't you live across the street from me?" he asks. I nod and tuck my knees in to my chest.

"Nice record collection," Luke says and turns to talk to the boys. I blush a little and brush a piece of hair behind my ear. The band starts warming up and then they start playing a song they call 'Gotta Get Out'. They're not that bad.

"And this song goes out to Grace. It's called Unpredictable," Ash yells before playing their last song. I smile.

They ordered pizza and we are all eating when the questions begin.

"So you live across the street from Luke?" I nod.

"What does he do when he's home alone?" Calum asks, "And give us the juicy details." I giggle.

"Sometimes he dances around his room in his boxers. Not such a tough guy then," I say. All the boys start laughing, but Luke's face turns pink. He's not really a bad boy.

"Hey! I'm gonna get you for that!" he yells. He flings himself up and over on top of me. His fingers start to tickle me and I can't help it--I'm ticklish--so I knee him in the balls. My reflexes reacted and Luke curls up.

"Oopsie," I mumble as the boys start rolling on the floor and laughing. Luke just gives me a glare and crawls back to his seat.

After we finish the pizza, Calum takes my phone out of my hand and puts his, Michael's, Luke's, and Ashton's number in it. He then gives it back and says,

"Come next time. We're getting better food."

"But there's nothing better than pizza!" Michael protests. I giggle. Luke's phone buzzes.

"I gotta get home. Grace do you want me to drive you?" Luke says.

"Sure."

As he pulls out of the driveway, I turn to look at him. After today, my entire perspective of him changed. I didn't think he even knew who I was, let alone considered talking to me.

I hopped out of the car as we stopped in front of my house, mumbling a soft thanks. He nods at me, and pulls away. I try to keep the smile off of my face, but it won't go away no matter how hard I try.

My dad has no difficulty ruining my day once I get inside. Almost immediately the questions and insults start flying.

"Where the hell do you think you've been?"

A friend's house.

"You don't have friends. Stop lying."

Dad, please. It's not like you even noticed I was missing until I walked through the door.

"You're right. I didn't. You wanna know why? Because you're a piece of trash stuck to the bottom of my shoe that I can't get rid of an-"

I couldn't take it anymore. I ran to my room, slamming the door. I quickly called Luke, mumbling some nonsense words, but hoping he would understand the state I was in and hurry over.

"Just hold on," was the last thing I heard before breaking down completely.

Hi! More feedback please? So I know it really isn't a Luke fanfic yet but wait okay? I have stuff in mind. Keep your eyes peeled. I might just put a snippet of a Lace (Grace and Luke) moment of what's gonna happen in the future at the end of a chapter! Thanks for reading.