Some Day We Might (Muke)

Chapter Fifteen

"Ow!" Luke says at least five times before I take the hot pizza box off his lap. "Thank you. God, that was really hot."

"You're weak." I shake my head at him, and hold the pizza. It's pretty hot, but I can handle it. I'm pretty pain tolerant. 

We picked up the pizza moments after we left the hotel. We're ignoring the fact that Ashton almost cut again because we don't need anymore drama today. We're just trying to settle things down and have a good time again. 

"I think there's a really cool park around here somewhere." Ashton says. "We should eat our pizza there. There's a blanket in the back that we can sit on."

Calum looks over at one of the signs on the road. "Right here--it says the park is off the next exit." He drives a mile more until he pulls off the ramp and drives out to the empty park. There's literally no one there. It's quite surprising since the weather's nice and it's 3pm.

The grass is really fluffy and green and it surrounds a small lake with a bridge over it. It's nicely shaded by trees and it's pretty big as well. The few clouds covering the sun make it look really cool out--I don't know, I just really like cloudy days. I actually kind of hate the sun--I'm not a vampire, okay? The sun just sucks. It's hot and gross and all up in your face.

I carry the pizza box out of the car and Luke gets the large quilt from the back seat. We decide it would be cool to sit on the bridge. It's really big and there's enough room for our huge quilt. 

Luke shakes out the blanket, setting it out on the ground. He crouches down onto it and sits near the corner, patting the ground next to him for me to sit. I put the pizza in the middle of the blanket and sit criss-crossed next to Luke.

Calum digs into the pizza, and gets Ashton a slice as well. Luke's had about two slices now, and is going in for a third. I've had two as well, but I'm so stuffed that I don't think I could eat another.

"Ashton?" Luke says through eating his pizza.

"Yeah?"

"You know we all really care about you, right?"

"I know..." He mumbles, nodding his head.

"Like a lot. And..." Luke sighs. You can tell he's trying not to cry or anything. "It really hurts us to know that you're not doing well. Especially since there isn't much we can do."

"I'm sor--"

"No don't--please don't apologise. It's not your fault. I'm just letting you know that we don't hate you--never will--and I think that's all that matters. Your friends, your family, they all really love you a lot."

Luke is really good at making people feel better. He's so nice and he honestly cares. Sure, he's awkward sometimes when he's trying to help, but he has good intentions. For him being seventeen, he sure knows a hell of a lot more than most kids. He gets things, even if they're hard for him to handle, he still understands. Sometimes I think about telling him that I'm feeling like shit again, how I'm totally falling into darkness again--but then I actually gain my senses and realise how stupid that would be, and how it would fuck everything up. 

"Thanks. Just don't expect me to get better with the snap of my fingers, okay?" Ashton says. "I don't want to let you all down--I think I've done enough of that."

"Why do we always get all mushy and emotional when things like this happen? We did this like a week ago." Calum laughs and I shove him.

"Don't ruin the moment!" I say. "Yeah, we do this emotional shit a lot, but I think we kind of need to." We only really do it if Ashton's had a bad day, to be honest.