Scale

Chapter 3

It was Monday again, oh how Luke hated Mondays. He had and early class on Monday. He was studying English because he always remembers his mother telling him that he was a wonderful writer. He doesn’t hate the class, just the people inside of it. It was his first year in University, Ashton was in his first year as well, but he had taken a Gap year, to as he said 'get his shit together' so he was two years older than Luke. Luke wishes he had taken a year to prepare himself for this. Moving away from home was a big step, especially since he was leaving to go to London. He was shocked at the rush to find a place to live when his mum suggested a roommate. He wasn’t too keen on the idea but balancing a job and Uni would be difficult so when he met Ashton he was sort of happy. He found someone who shared his Australian background and was reasonably nice. They bumped into each other when they were looking at the apartment and Ashton was the one who brought it up. That was one of the happier times of Luke’s life, meeting Ashton. He had just gotten out of high school and he realized that he had survived four years of constant bullying. He and Ashton spent the summer together and it was great. But then school started and the stress slammed into Luke like a brick wall. The two boys have now known each other for nine months now. Ashton knew right from the start that he would develop feelings for Luke. He discovered his sexuality when he was fifteen and didn’t tell anyone until his last day as a high school student. Over the nine months he had spent with Luke he started to fall in love. He noticed the change in Luke’s behaviour, he just figured that it was the stress of school.

**Luke**

“LUKE! IT’S ALMOST EIGHT AM!” Ashton screams and Luke scrambles out of bed falling on the floor. He quickly pulls on a long sleeved shirt and some skinny jeans before rushing out the door giving Ashton a quick wave. He makes it to class a few minutes early and he sighs taking a seat near the front knowing the professor won’t tolerate any disruptions. The captain of the footie team walks in and Luke tenses in his seat.

“Hey fag.” He says pushing all of Luke’s books to the floor. Luke quickly scrambles out of his seat picking up his books. He nearly screams out in pain as a foot slams into his stomach causing him to fall. A few more kicks slam into his stomach and he groans. He tries to reach his books but the person kicking him slams their foot into his face causing his nose to start gushing blood. He scrambles for his books feeling the foot slam onto his fingers. He cries out but manages to pick himself up rushing from the class. He stumbles outside into the cold air sitting down on a bench trying to stop his bleeding nose. His head is spinning and he feels tears falling down his face and mixing with the blood.

“Luke?” He hears the familiar voice ask and he looks up to see Ashton.

“Whoa, what happened?” He asks kneeling down in front of Luke.

“T-The f-footie t-team h-happened.” I say and he looks at my bruised fingers frowning.

 “Let’s get you home.” Ashton says and I don’t protest.