Barely Breathing- Lashton AU

Barely Breathing-5sos-Bullying Awareness

Chapter One-

I walked to my next class, trudged is more like it, pushing past cheerleaders and jocks. Don't get me wrong I'm not the most popular person but I'm not picked on either, just average. It was fine by me, keeping my close friends and just going through school easy. I was only a Junior, only one more year to go. I finally reached math and settled into a seat, a kid sat next to me tapping his pen. I shrugged it off, but as the class our went on I realized he was doing it out of frustration. I peeked over seeing he was stuck on question 4 while I was almost done.

"Need help there?", I asked. He looked up and I realized it was a senior, his name was Ashton I think.

"S-sure, I just hate this stuff", he muttered the past part under his breathe. I chuckled, scooting my desk a little closer to his, glancing up a few times to make sure the teacher didn't see.

"It's okay, if my mom wasn't a math teacher I'm sure I'd suck at this!" I whispered, a smile on my lips. He gladly accepted my help which I was thankful for, it always irritated me a bit when people denied help in small stuff like this. We divided a few things, I helped him figure out how to find the variables and in no time he was at the same number I was.

"Thanks Luke", he said quietly but with a smile. "I would've never gotten this far without help." I simply nodded and scooted my desk back, finishing my own work. Not even thinking twice about him when the bell rang.

Lunch came quickly, I noted that Ashton was at a table with only one other boy, the one guy I didn't like, Michael. Calum was okay friends with him but I preferred to not socialize with him much. I simply looked around, seeing that most of the tables were already packed, I grabbed my friend Calum's arm and dragged him to Ashton's table with me. He didn't protest, really the same as me when it came to groups, we found that forming cliques were useless. The two seniors look surprised when we sat down.

"Hey", I said before taking a bite out of my roll. Ashton's face lit up in a smile, revealing dimples that I had only seen once before.

"Hey Luke, Calum", he continued smiling as he went back to his conversation with Michael. Calum threw a fry at me, I dodged it, making it hit a boy at the table behind us. I shot Calum a warning glance when the blonde stood up, twisting around to see who threw the food at him.

He saw Calum and I, he sighed, "I'll let this go this time guys". Daniel was only a year above us and knew we didn't mean anything by it, he was about to leave when his friend came up behind him. He looked from us to Ashton and Michael who were now looking back.

"Hey it's little Ashton" his friend yelled, making his way over to the curly haired boy. He picked up his bag, digging through it before pulling out his homework that he and I had worked on in class earlier. "Thanks Ashie!" He left the table, dropping Ashton's bag upside down in the center of it. Daniel gave us an apologetic look, not doing anything about the situation before leaving. I just glanced at Ashton who was shoving the spilled contents back into his bag. I felt horrible but what could I have done, that kid was a lot bigger than me and even with Calum's help it may have been hard to fight him if it came to that.

"Hey Ashton, I'm sorry", Michael spoke up, giving his friend a sorry look. Ashton muttered something inaudible before looking up and putting on what I could tell was a fake smile.

"See you guys later maybe", he left with that, his smile faltering a tad as he turned.

**

Home. I was happy to finally be home and relaxed when the thought popped in my head; "I wonder if Ashton is okay?"

It took me by surprise, I mean I wasn't friends per say with the boy but he was pretty fun to be with. I could never understand why anyone would pick on him. I continued thinking for a while but was forced to pause my thoughts when I heard the front door slam, Calum yelling my name. I almost ignored him but a sense of urgency covered his tone. "In the living room!"