Pushing Time [5SOS AU]//ON HOLD

Chapter 1

Luke's POV

I connect my lips to hers, the feeling too familiar. Ashton's eyes go wide and his jaw drops. She pulls away and sighs, and I feel guilt pang in my chest, but only slightly. She looks up at me and narrows her eyes. Then she says something, and it's like she's spitting the words out at me. "Why?"

"Why? Why what?" I reply. My eyebrows crease and I remove my hands from her hips. She shakes her head nonchalantly.

"Why did you kiss me? You're happy and married, and anything but kiss me, and I'm sure your daisy dum dum wants to know the same thing, so why?" Daisy dum dum? I glance at Ashton, making sure that nobody notices. He bites his lip to keep from saying something about the name.

"Because, Sam. All those years that I said I loved you, I'd do anything for you, do you think I was lying? I would wait on you, hand and foot, as long as I was with you. You were the love of my life, the mother of my son. Now go ahead and wave the gun around some more, you're both going to be mad at me. I just, I don't understand. Everything went wrong in that boy's life. You were supposed to be dead. What..." I left myself trail off.

"It was for my own protection, you don't need to know." She sets the gun down on the coffee table and runs her fingers through her hair. She slowly steps towards me again and grips my hips. She connects her lips to mine again, but this time, I push her away.

"No." I say, ripping her hands from my body. "Out." A tear falls from Ashton's eyes. Sam shakes her head, making me slightly infuriated. "Out." My voice is stern. She shakes her head again. "Out!" I scream.

"Oh, Luke, you don't get it! You just don't get it!" She stomps her foot in frustration.

"Don't get what?" I ask, nonchalantly infuriated and bewildered. "What? Samantha, what don't I get?"

"Any of it, Luke, you don't get any of it. You don't get me." She answers. She walks to the door and glances back at me. I wasn't paying enough attention to realize that she didn't have the gun with her. "I'm leaving. You will see me again, and not just in your dreams, okay? I will be back, I promise you that." She opens the door and glances at the gun. She smirks. I'm am certainly confused, that is an understatement.

When she exits, I should feel relief. I should feel another weight removed from my chest, ones less burden. Instead, I am shocked, confused, and scared. But why? It beats me.

Silence fills the room for what feels like centuries. I keep glancing at the clock. Twenty minutes pass, and everything is still, silent. Another fifteen minutes pass with the same output. Ashton is still crying, and I am numb, robotic, I have no emotions, I feel no pain. Ash looks up at me and clears his throat. His eyes are red and swollen, his cheeks are stained with tears. Yet, he still looks amazing.

"Why?" It's a simple question, really. But with just the word, there is no true answer. With just the word, there is no true question.

"Why? Why what?" I ask. I take slow steps towards him, not sure if it's a good idea.

"Why did you kiss her? Luke, I'm already broken, and now? You just freaking shattered me." His words are like a red hot volcano. They spew and erupt and scorch. They leave pain, sadness, and suffering. "Is it true? You still love her, not me? She's still your all? Your everything?"

"Ash, that ... What I said in there? It is as far from true as it could be. I-"

"Then why did you say it? Why did you kiss her!"

"I said it because it gave her her goal. It made her leave." He's crying and yelling, but I am calm, soft. "And I kissed her because if I hadn't, she would have done something to you, Ash. Not just a simple kiss. I'm sorry, I truly am, but I refuse to know that I could've stopped someone, or even tried to, from hurting the people I love."

"G-Gabi, hide and seek over. You won." He calls the words out, and she comes running.

"Daddy Ashy, I didn't win, I was in our special place." Gabi giggles.