|Damage||cth| -au- DISCONTINUED

|Twenty-Eight|

Ashton:

As I was putting things away in my locker, Luke passed me in the hallway for the third time, obviously looking for Aria. I avoided eye contact, closed my locker, and continued on my way to Lunch. I sat at the usual table and waited for Calum and Michael. I nervously checked my phone and I still didn't have a response from Aria.
It was only going to be a matter of time before Luke came asking me, Michael, or Calum where she was.

Luke was restless.

Why couldn't he just accept that Aria was sick? He was going through great lengths to find her. I doubted that he knew anything about her being pregnant. I thought I knew Luke but now he's unpredictable. I wasn't exactly sure where Michael and I stood with Luke but we knew that he didn't hate us.

Shortly after, Michael sat down across from me which I found strange because we always sat next to each other. I guess that meant Calum wasn't coming today.

"He stayed home. I tried to get him out of the house but he refused," Michael says.

"Hey, I'm sorry about yesterday," I say.

"You were right. I was way out of line so don't worry about it."

Luke suddenly sat down next to Michael and sighed, practically begging us to ask what's up. We all knew what the problem was.

"Feels like old times, minus one," Michael laughs. "What's so urgent that you had to sit with us?"

"Aria's not here and she's not answering my texts.

"There's this wild possibility that she could be...ya know–sick," I say in a sarcastic tone.

"It's just not like her, ya know? I saw her yesterday and she seemed fine."

"Not a big deal, mate. Just go see her after school," Michael suggests. "Stop whining. Its nice to be the three of us again."

"I feel really shitty sometimes about it...you know, about Calum and I. I don't regret what I did but I feel bad for holding a grudge. He was at my house one weekend and he looked really upset. I was just being a dick," Luke sighed.

"He came over?" I questioned.

"Yeah, Calum came over to my house at like 7 am and I couldn't have him over because I had a girl over so I called Luke," Michael tells me. "I knew he would go to Luke's house eventually."

"Why couldn't he just come over to mine if he was so upset?" I asked.

"Ashton, have you met your mum?" Luke asked. "She's terrifying."

"Good point," I laughed. "She really likes you guys. I promise."

"Do you think I should just forget everything and give him a chance?" Luke stared at his sandwich before taking a bite.

"He raped your girlfriend," I spoke louder than I should've.

"Hey, keep it down," Luke snaps.

"Sorry, Ashton but I'm with Luke. Bros before hoes! Am I right?" Michael eagerly smiles with his hand in the air, waiting for someone to give him a high five. Embarrassed, I shook my head and looked down at my food. "Or not?"

Disappointed, Michael put his hand back in his lap and Luke clearly felt secondhand embarrassment for him.

"This is why you don't have a girlfriend," I sigh while poking at my salad.