Uneasy ➢ smash au

xvi. Morning Voices & Crowded Canteens

The morning sunrays wake him up, the bright light shining in his eyes. He finds himself on only half the side of his bed, which is odd for him because he always sleeps in the middle of the bed. He looks at his left, his eyes going wide once he realizes all that's happened. To his left is Emery, whom is still asleep in his bed. Seconds after he realizes, his door swings open, worry taking over Ashton's current expression.

"Hey, have you seen my Ramones -"

"Is mum still here?" Ashton cuts his brother off, which catches Luke off guard,  his brother speaking to him surprising him.

"She just left -"

"Okay, good. Thank you." Ashton spoke once more. Luke doesn't realize what's going on until he looks beyond Ashton, his reaction the same as his brother's.

"What the hell? Why is your girlfriend here?"

"You don't get it," Ashton started, but Luke interrupted shortly.

"Oh, so it's perfectly fine if you can have a girl over, but when I have one over, it's just shocking." Luke rants.

"Luke, I didn't know she was coming over. She wanted to talk to me, she wanted to explain a couple of things to me. She didn't go home because things at her house are quite tense, so I had her stay the night." Ashton explained. "Honest,"

Luke sighs in defeat, no purpose for him to retaliate. "Yeah, fine, I believe you."

"So are we cool?"

"I guess," Luke replied, shrugging. "I had the weekend to cool off a bit." he remain quiet for a minute before speaking again. "So, what are we going to do about Em?"

"I'll just wake her up and tell her that school starts in a bit. We can quickly swing by her house so she can get herself ready and such. Then we'll wait for her, and we'll head to school."

"Well you better hurry, school starts in forty-five minutes." Luke informed him right before heading towards the door.

"Oh, and Luke?" Luke look back at his brother, his eyebrows raised. "Your Ramones shirt is on my desk chair, mum mixed our clothes again." Luke walks over to his desk, picking up the shirt before heading out of the room. Ashton then turns to Emery, small snores from her easily heard. "Em, wake up." he shakes her lightly, hoping it'll wake her.

"I don't want to get up," she mutters, pushing him aside.

"I know you don't want to, but you have to." he says to her, praying it will change her mind. A sigh leaves her lips, her eyes opening. "Morning."

"Good morning," she responds. "nice voice." she adds. She hops out of the bed and slips on her shoes prior to making her way to the door.

"It's my morning voice," he tells her. He gets out of bed as well, prior to rummaging through his closet for a clean shirt and jeans.

"I like it, it's cute." she comments, already out the door.

"Help yourself to breakfast, we'll take you back home so you can get ready." he adds. She shouts an 'okay' before her footsteps trail off, allowing Ashton to change and do his morning routine. "We'll take you to your house."

♡

Second period dreads on for Ashton, his teacher boring the class to death. The sound of the wall clock ticking interests Ashton, doing anything he could to get his teacher's voice out of his head.

"Class dismissed." Ashton snaps back into focus, the class exiting the class prior to heading to lunch. Ashton grabs his belongings and gets up from his seat and exits the class before heading to his locker.

He stuffs some of his unneeded books into his locker, his backpack becoming lighter. He quickly grabs his lunch bag before scurrying off to the lunch room. Once he arrives to the canteen, the room seems even more crowded than usual, all the tables already crowded. He manages to find Luke and the others, the figures squished between a couple of other students.

"You're lucky we saved you a seat," Calum informs Ashton as he takes a seat next to him.

"Yeah," Michael adds in. "Some kid in our year tried buying off your seat for a couple dollars."

"Michael was about to say 'yes' to the offer." Aspen includes. Michael glares at Aspen who just laughs at him, prior to continue eating.

"Why is the canteen so crowded anyway? It's never this packed." Ashton asks, some shrugging. Ashton tries to ask Luke, but he choses not to when he notices his brother's current state. Ashton tries to look in the same direction Luke is, which confuses Ashton. Luke's looking across the room at Valerie, whom is caught up in a conversation with a guy Luke nor Ashton has ever seen. "Luke?"

"Yeah," he mutters, his eyes still fixed on Valerie and - her friend?

"Never mind," Ashton regrets. The whole lunch he decides to let Luke be, his mood in a not-so-happy state. For the rest of lunch, a conversation goes on around the group, small inputs from Luke included. Shortly, the bell goes off, everyone heading to their next class of the day.

♡

Later on that day, Ashton receives an unexpected text message from Emery, curiosity filling his head. He drops everything once he reads the text message, dropping the phone on the ground and heading to his closet for a jacket. He picks his phone back up prior to running out of the house, informing Luke right before heading out the door. He piles into the car, taking one good look at the message before driving off.

"Help."