Luke just stands there for a moment, rocking on his heels with his hands in his pockets.
"You can sit down you know." I say after a bit of silence. He then nods.
"Yeah, sorry." He sits beside me on the bench and plays with his fingers. He sighs deeply before looking at me.
"I wanted to talk to you."
"Did you? You've been ignoring me for almost three weeks." It bothered me so much, and it bothered me even more that he wanted me to come talk to him after so much time of ignoring me. What have I done?
"I'm really sorry about that, Allie. I know you don't believe that I am but I am. It isn't my fault that I ignored you, I had to." I almost laugh. How did any of what he just said make sense to him?
"What?"
"It was Sierra," He sighs. "She wouldn't let me speak to you, she made me ignore you. She's too insecure about herself and thinks I'll leave her for you again and honestly I can't blame her." I frown at him. It was understandable, of course she made him ignore me. I think I would too if this happened to me.
"That makes sense." He nods.
"I never wanted to ignore you. Ignoring you hurt me too, trust me. I had no choice." He says and I begin to wonder if Sierra knows he's here now.
"Does she know you came to see me?"
"No," He rubs his hands on his thighs. "I couldn't tell her. She'd never let me. But what I do know is I can't just not talk to you. We've been friends for too long." I nod. That was true without a doubt. I'm so glad he decided to come talk to me, otherwise I'd be more hurt.
"I missed you though." He speaks again after a while of silence. "I missed hanging out with you and watching your lame horror movies." He laughs.
"Hey, the evil dead is not lame." He rolls his eyes playfully.
"It's so obviously cliche for a horror movie. A group of friends spend the weekend in a haunted cabin, someone gets possessed and kills all their friends. It's predictable and mediocre at best." He laughs and I punch his arm. "Hey!"
"Don't you dare disrespect my favorite horror movie." He groans.
"Chucky is a better movie than that, and that's saying something."
"I can't believe you'd even disrespect... wow." I speak dramatically and look at him. He laughs. I missed his laugh so much.
"You know-" I cut him off with a tight strong hug, catching him off guard. "I was gonna say I really did miss you. I hope you know that I'm not just saying that." He chuckles and wraps his arms around me too. I nod.
"I missed you too, Luke." He sighs deeply, a happy sigh I'll assume and it's a minute before he pulls away. Suddenly, his phone goes off.
"Hold on." He speaks up and answers his phone. "Hello?" I watch him. He smiles a little. "Okay, babe. Yeah, I'll be over soon I promise, in a bit. Bye." He hangs up. I frown a little. I'm glad they made up,
for his sake, but I couldn't help but still feel a little jealous.
"Sierra?" He nods.
"Yeah, she made me some dinner with her mum and she wants me to get over before it's done," He smiles. He seemed excited, happy. I wasn't sure how I felt about it. "I missed you, Allie and I'm so glad we could talk about this." He moves and hugs me again and I gladly hug back.
"Yeah, I'm glad too." He smiles at me.
"You want a ride home?" I stare at him for a moment and shake my head.
"No I'm good, Luke," I smile. "I need some air I think anyways." He nods, his smile faltering a bit.
"You alright?" I nod, still keeping a smile fixed.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Glad you and Sierra worked things out." He nods at me.
"Thank you, Allie. Please be safe while you walk." I nod to him and he finally begins to walk to his car. Once he's out of sight, I take out my box of cigarettes and pull one out, lighting it instantly.
Then my phone lights up.
Ashton: Wanna hang out?
. . .
As predicted I went to Ashton's house. Luckily his house wasn't far from the park so I had just walked. By the time I got there he had just finished rolling his joint.
And of course I smoked it with him.
We both lay on his bed on our backs, watching a movie side by side.
"So what's up then?" Ashton speaks up. "What's the problem? He likes you and didn't him and Sierra break up?" I spoke to him about Luke and the entire situation, it all kind of spilled out after a few puffs.
"They got back together." He nods, taking another hit of the joint.
"That's shit then," He exhales, and I watch as the smoke leaves his lips. He looked so cool. "How are you feeling though? After him talking to you?
"I felt... I don't know, sad? I know that right when he left I pulled out a cig," I laugh to myself. "I'd be lying if I said it didn't bother me." He nods, passing it to me and letting me hit it.
"I don't blame you, Alice. I think I'd feel the same way after all that."
"Yeah, it just sucks knowing I'm too late. It's my fault, I know that." He frowns at me.
"It's not your fault. You didn't want to be a burden, you didn't think he could handle your depression, Alice. You were scared and it's okay to be scared." He stares at me and I can't help but stare back. Ashton was right and it was nice to have someone to talk to about this. I could talk to Calum but I was on my way to Ashton's anyway.
I make a note to talk to Calum later.
"Thank you, Ash."
"Ash?" He raises an eyebrow and I smile.
"Yeah."
"That's new."
"I mean I could just call you Ashton."
"Nah, that's boring. I like Ash." He chuckles and finishes the joint, putting it out in his ashtray.
"Then Ash it is." He smiles at me and lays on his side.
"I'm sorry about dropping you like that. You didn't deserve that."
"It's fine now, Ash. I'm over it honestly. I forgive you, I told you that when I got here." He shrugs and rests his head on his hand, looking at me.
"I know you say that but it was fucked up. After all that we shared with each other I can't fucking believe I did that to you." I sigh, taking his face in my hands. He stares back at me, taken by surprise at my actions.
"Ashton. It is fine. You are fine. I forgive you." I shake his head slightly as I speak. He just stares at me for a moment. "Okay?" Ashton nods.
"Yeah. Okay." I let go of his face and lay back on his bed, looking at the tv. I rest my head on my hand to get a better look.
"Hey, Alice?"
"Yeah?"
"Is it bad that I wanna kiss you right now?"
