Pieces - Lashton/Malum AU

Chapter Eight

"How long have you two been together?"

Ashton had no clue how to respond to that. He didn't even know what to think when he heard that.

Surely he was hearing that wrong and thinking about a situation that couldn't have been real.

Surely Luke didn't tell his mother that him and Ashton were together.

"Ashton?"

Ashton blinked and noticed Luke's mom was somewhat staring at him, waiting for an answer to the question she kept repeating, an answer Ashton couldn't think of.

"Um..."

Thankfully, Luke stepped in.

"Not quite sure. Since Friday, maybe?"

Luke may have stopped the moment from becoming more awkward than it already was, but he had a lot of explaining to do.

"I hate to interrupt, but we really have a lot of work to do. Luke's got missing work and we're a bit behind on the project still," Ashton nervously said.

It was a lie, but Ashton needed an explanation from Luke as to what was going on.

Ashton stood up and put his plate in the kitchen while Luke nervously stood up and followed him until the two went back upstairs to Luke's room.

"Alright then," Liz said, sighing and leaving the two boys alone.

The second they walked up to his room, Ashton slammed the door in anger.

"What was that all about?"

Luke didn't say a word.

"Don't act like you don't know. Your mom thinks we're together. Why is that?"

Luke sighed.

"I didn't mean for you to find out like this."

"Find out what, exactly?" Ashton asked, raising an eyebrow.

"As you probably may have guessed, I like guys. My parents know about it and are completely fine with it. I like you. I genuinely do. I wanted to talk to you more but you and I didn't talk all that much, so I never told you I liked you up until obviously now. I had told my friends and my mom about having a crush and when they asked what his name was, I panicked and I said yours, as Ashton was the first name that came to my mind. Whenever I like someone, my mom wants to get to know the person a lot to make sure they don't treat me badly. That's why she started asking a bunch of questions," Luke explained, "I'm sorry for lying, and I'm sorry about not telling you about this beforehand."

Ashton sighed.

"I'm sorry for getting mad at you."

"Hopefully this doesn't make things awkward between us or anything. I don't know if you even at least consider me a friend, but I hope you feel the same. I like being around you and talking to you and I don't want to lose that, even though I was the one who messed up," Luke told him, not knowing how he even felt.

"I like spending time with you, too," Ashton said with a smile, "Maybe we could get to know each other more. We'll be spending a lot more time together because of this project."

"I'd like that."

"So, tell me about yourself," Ashton said.

"I play guitar. My birthday's in July. Aside from what my friends and my mom think, I'm currently single," Luke explained, laughing.

"I play drums. My birthday's in July as well. Aside from what your mom and friends think, I'm single too," Ashton said.

"What day in July?"

"7th."

"16th."

"I guess we had more in common than I thought," Ashton said.

"Wait, I thought you were taken. I kept seeing you texting with a girl all week," Luke told him.

"Not anymore," Ashton explained.

"Why'd you break up?" Luke asked, both concerned and curious as to what went wrong.

"Things were just... complicated, I guess," Ashton answered, sighing, "Maybe she really did cheat on me."

Luke remembered what Ashton had told him the other day in Chemistry.

"I see her talking and hanging out with this guy a lot of the time," Ashton said.

Luke remembered seeing Hailey with Calum and thinking maybe they were together. He had suspicions about what was going on.

"This guy has black hair, I think his name starts with a C, but I'm not entirely sure. I see her looking at him and smiling the way she used to when she was with me," Ashton explained.

Luke knew his suspicions were right.

Hailey was his girlfriend, and she cheated on him with Calum.

"Luke?"

Luke realized he had spaced out while thinking about the situation.

"You okay?" Ashton asked concerningly.

"Yeah, I'm good," Luke told him with a smile, "Let's just get to work."