It's Ashton Not Ashley

9.

My alarm went off at six, indicating that it was Monday morning and it was a school day. I groaned loudly as my feet touched my carpeted floor and I tapped on Luke's shoulder to wake him up.

"Hm?" He rolled over, his back now facing me. "It's time to go to school," I said, "you need to take that biochemistry test that we've been studying for."

"Oh, right." He rolled back over on his stomach and fell back to sleep. "Wake me up when I'm smart enough to pass it." "Luke, come on." I climbed up on the bed, now half dressed and I sat on his back, "you're very smart and I'm sure that you'll do great!"

Luke groaned in pain as I started bouncing on his back. "Ashton, get off of me." He sat up, causing me to fall off the bed, hitting my head against the floor. "Ouch," I giggled and rubbed my head.

"Morning," he said. I looked at him. His blue eyes were adjusting to the light and his blond hair was sticking up in every direction possible. It made him look very cute and small. "Mind if I shower?"

I nodded and watched as he headed to the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.

As he showered, I got ready for school and listened quietly to him singing in the bathroom.

----

"Okay, let's go," Luke said, coming out of the bathroom, fixing his hair into a quiff. I blushed at the dorky smile he gave me as he led me outside to his car and opened the door for me. "Thanks," I said as I got in. He nodded, shutting the door and got in on his side. "Want to stop for breakfast on the way?"

"Sure, I want bagels," I said as I plugged my phone into the aux cord. "Any requests?" I looked at Luke.

"Do you like Blink-182?" Luke asked.
"I've never heard of them," I said quietly, "are they any good?"
"Are they any good?" Luke mocked me with a playful tone, hitting my leg. "Of course! I love Blink!"

----

For the entire ride to get bagels, we rocked out to Blink- 182. They weren't bad and I knew a lot more songs than I thought I did.

Luke smiled at me as All The Small Things came on. "I know this one!" I wailed my arms excitedly as he handed me my bagel and orange juice. I took my food from him and continued to jam out the whole way to school while eating my bagel.

----

Luke parked at the school and got out. He opened my door for me and went to take my hand, but quickly pulled away and put his hand at his side. I frowned to myself, but let it go, thinking that it wasn't a big deal. "Want me to walk you to class?" Luke asked.

I quickly shook my head and ran off to homeroom. I could tell he was confused, maybe even hurt just by the way he sighed and placed is hands into his jacket pockets.

----

I walked home with Calum after school, his hand in mine. "Ashley-sorry, Ashton. It'll take me a while to adjust. Anyways, I wanted to know if you've talked to Michael." I frowned, knowing that Calum can't see me as Ashton yet.

I shook my head, "I haven't, why?"
"I don't know. I guess I was wondering why he hasn't been talking to me lately."

"Give it time. You just met him Saturday and it's Monday. If he doesn't say anything at school, then go up to him and talk to him yourself."

"Me? Talk to Michael?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"But what would I even say?"

"Get him by himself first," I started, "then just flat out say what you need to." I smiled at Calum and placed myself down on my bed. I could tell Calum was scanning my arms, something he always did when he suspected I cut.

"Give me my laptop, will you?" I asked, immediately changing the subject. Calum handed me my laptop and frowned. He knew I changed the subject because he knows I cut. He found out last summer when we were wrestling each other and ever since then, he wouldn't leave me alone about it.

"I need to go anyways," Calum said as he got up. "See you tomorrow at school?"
I nodded and watched Calum shut my door on his way out. He was really hurt that I shut down the conversation, but I didn't really want to talk about it.

I signed into my laptop and went on Google, searching ways to bind without a binder.

"Using the sports bra method isn't the safest, but definitely better than an ace bandage," I said, scrolling through the results that came up on the screen.

"Ashton!"
I screamed, gripping onto my laptop that was in my lap. I looked up and saw Luke plopped down in the middle of my bed. "Hi," he said.

"Stop scaring me you asshole!" I shouted.

Luke was chuckling to himself. "I'm sorry that you're so easy to scare," he said with tears in his eyes from laughing so hard.

"I hate you," I mumbled as I continued to scroll through the results, reading them off quietly and taking notes in my head to what's safe and what isn't.

"I passed my test!" Luke said, changing the subject. "I got a B+!"

I smiled at him, "that's great! I told you studying would pay off!" He nodded and looked at the laptop screen.

"What are we looking at?" Luke asked. "No!" I screamed a bit too loudly and I quickly closed my laptop. "Porn?"

"Oh my God, Luke. No!" I shouted. "Why would it be porn? That's the thing with you guys! You always assume that we watch porn. Like someone like me will admit to that," I said.

"What? Someone like you?"

I stopped, thinking about what I just said. "I mean, even if it was, I wouldn't tell you."

"Right," he nodded.

I opened my laptop, moving it away from Luke. "I'm just doing research for my friend," I replied as I looked up binders. I sighed at the price of each one. The cheapest one was at least fifty five and I couldn't take that much off my dad's card without him suspecting anything.

"Damn, they're so expensive," I said, quietly, frowning to myself.

"Chest binders? What do you need them for?"

"Luke, you weren't supposed to see!" I slammed my laptop shut. "Who are they for?" Luke asked with quite a curious tone.

"I told you, for a friend," I said shortly. "My friend wants one and asked me to get him one, but it's expensive."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Do you have a problem with it?" I asked quietly. If Luke had a problem with it, I was actually going to kill myself. It's not fair to have a dad who doesn't accept you, let alone, a friend who doesn't.

Luke quickly shook his head, "a girl can be a guy if she wants to. I don't judge."

"Well, what if your friend was actually a girl, but wants to be a boy and they lied to you about who they are."

Luke shrugged. "Guess it depends on the friend and how much the lie hurt me."

"Oh," I said quietly and I left it at that. If I said anything else, he would figure it out. I already gave too much away.

And that's the and of chapter 9! I'm sorry that it took me a while to write, I have so much to deal with at school.
I hope you all really enjoyed this chapter!

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Word count: 1,295