» à deux // luke hemmings « [editing]

19

belle of the boulevard - dashboard confessional

[Luke]

"You lied to her."

Before I had the chance to turn around to see who entered the empty dressing room, he kicked my lower back. I went flying to the ground, a foot away from where I originally stood. It took a lot of effort to lift myself up, and I came face to face with no other than Ashton.

It has been two weeks since Ivey and I last spoke; after I told her the Post-it story, she grabbed the pack of sticky notes and walked out of the room without a word. No one mentioned anything that had to do with Jack or the accident, but there was thick tension whenever Ivey and I were in the same room.

"What are you talking about?" I groaned and rubbed my back as if it would ease the pain. It didn't.

"You motherfucking bastard, Luke Hemmings." Ashton spat. "How could you tell Ivey that she was suicidal before and tried to kill herself but ended up killing Jack instead?"

I blinked. "Because that's what happened?"

Ashton laughed with a trace of sarcasm. "Who are you trying to be, Pinocchio?" I snorted, and he glared. "We all know that Jack and Ivey were in the same car that day."

"They were not!" I frowned, trying to remember everything that happened the day of the accident. "I was with Jack."

"No, he was recklessly driving with Ivey and she was drunk." Ashton corrected me, impatience evident in his tone.

"She was not drunk-"

"Just shut up!" he hissed and sent a punch across my face. I felt my cheek start to throb and I could taste blood coming from my mouth. "You're not always right, you know, Luke."

"What are you"-I successfully dodged another hit from him with much shock from the both of us-"doing?"

Ashton's face showed an expression between anger and confusion. He shrugged with a frown. "The cockroaches are back, Hemmings." Lame.

I knew that laughing would cause even more damage to my face-and to the rest of my body-but I risked it... and I regretted it.

--

Ivey and Michael dyed their hair together in the bathroom of the arena. After a few hours, they entered the greenroom with Michael's hair a bright blue and Ivey's a blinding pink with a hint of green coming from the roots. They, together, looked like cotton candy. Alone, Michael looked like his Frozen addiction was getting seriously out of hand, while Ivey looked like a strawberry.

Also, Ivey was the only one who didn't react to my swollen face. By the time the pair entered the greenroom, Jackie and Mandy were already fixing up my appearance with their makeup. Ashton sat across me with a permanent scowl and kissed Ivey with his eyes open.

"Your lip looks horrible." Jackie whispered looking rather disgusted.

Mandy frowned. "I don't think we can fix that."

"Just say you hit the microphone during sound check." Sam suggested from beside me. She shook her leg the entire time. It reminded me of Ivey, so I pressed my hand on her leg for her to stop. She did.

Jackie scoffed. "He couldn't have hit his lip that hard! It looks like someone attempted to slaughter him."

"Someone did." I corrected through gritted teeth as I watched Ashton play with Ivey's hair while she talked.

When both Jackie and Mandy decided that they've done all that they could to make my face look normal, they went to join Michael and Alice's conversation at the other side of the room. Sam scooted over.