alleviate || l.h

0.2

Chapter 2 :-) Guys just remember this is a Luke fanfic so please don't mess up my ships and ship Haley and Ashton. They're just best friends, I swear.

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        Ashton and I got to the mall at around 3pm. It's the biggest mall around so basically everybody in our town and a couple towns near us goes to it.
        We walk through the large mall and enter Urban Outfitters. Unfortunately, everything in here is ridiculously expensive, so usually Ashton and I just scavenge the sales racks for anything we can actually afford.
        I was just minding my own business, browsing past a book on how to cook meth, when I suddenly hear a voice coming from a couple aisles over
        "Excuse me Miss, do you know if you have any black jeans tighter than these?" The curious voice asks. Oh no. I've heard that voice before. It was the same one I'd heard when I was being scared out of my mind in some random person's woods. Luckily, there's a tall shelf in between where I was hidden and Luke.
        "Sir, you are aware those are women's skinny jeans, right?" I heard a female voice, assuming it's a worker, reply.
        "You don't know me," Luke defends and I heard them begin a heated argument about Luke's feminine pants.
        Oh god, what if he starts talking to me again? Maybe, I can get Ashton's attention and we can leave. I skim my eyes over the entire store and finally spot Ashton trying on circular sunglasses and doing peace signs into the mirror, like a hippie. Well, there goes that plan.
        Okay, maybe, if I'm quick I can sneak across where Luke is without him recognizing me. I mean, he's only seen me once and it was dark. He probably doesn't even remember me.
        I began to grow confidence in the idea of Luke not remembering me and quickly stepped out from the shelf and began walking.
        I did an awkward walk-run that probably looked like a gallop to any body just passing by, but I promise it's not. I'm almost out of his sight, thank goodness. He really doesn't remember me -
        "Hey Haley! Over here! It's me, Luke, from the party!" Luke loudly shouts over to me. People around the store began to turn their heads and look at me. Frick. I slowly turn around and see him, waving frantically with one hand, and the other hand clad with atleast 5 pairs of jeans.
        Luke turned to the sales lady, rubbing her temples, obviously frustrated with Luke's loud outburst, "Thank you for your assistance, but I have other matters to attend to," Luke politely said and came over to me, but not before tripping over a pair of jeans that had fallen from his hands and knocking 20 books off a shelf with his hands to prevent himself from falling.
        He straightens himself back up and turns to the worker, pointing at the books on the ground, "Those books fell," he states.
        "Just go on, I'll clean it up," the worker replies, trying to restrain from blowing up at him. Luke shrugs and came all the way over to me as if nothing had just happened.
        "So how's the world treating you?" Luke asks, leaning his arm onto the top of the clothing rack. I immediately lift his arm off of it as that was just looking like a recipe for disaster. He readjusts himself to be standing up straight.
        "Oh it's good, I guess, except this morning when I went to go get the mail a stray cat came over to me," I told him, avoiding his intent stare.
        "Wait, is there something wrong with that?" Luke asks, not understanding where this story is going.
        "Well after I gave it a small piece of my muffin I was eating, it went into the road and got run over by a semi," I casually shrug, walking past him to look at some tank tops.
        That really did happen this morning. Poor cat, but I mean, the cat population is rising rapidly. It was probably what was best.
        "Oh," he replies, trying not to sound too surprised.
        "Yeah but I mean, it's okay. Who knows, maybe it had some painful disease that was eating it from the inside slowly? Really, that semi could've been putting that cat out of it's misery. Did you know that -" I was interrupted from my rambling again, but this time Luke was not the culprit.
        "Hey Haley, what's going on over here?" Ashton asks, coming up behind my shoulder, looking Luke up and down very skeptically.
        "Oh, nothing. Just looking at some clothes, being harassed, the usual," I turn my head and smile sweetly at him, praying we can just get out of here. Unfortunately, Luke has other ideas.
        "I'm Luke," Luke ecstatically says, putting his hand out. Of course. Buttering Ashon up.
        "Ashton," Ashton replies, shaking Luke's hand, obviously done with his mental investigation on Luke, thinking he's okay.
        "Well, it's nice to see you Luke, but Ashton and I have to go," I disclose, turning around and turn Ashton around with me.
        "Yeah, we have to go to the music store. They have some new drums and I gotta try them out," Ashton exclaims, like a little kid.
        "Wait!" Luke yells to us before we can get far, "You play the drums?" Shoot. So close.
        "Yeah! Playing for years, why?" Ashton questions, turning around to face Luke again. Where is this going? I feel like we're going downhill straight into Disasterville.
        "Well, you see, me and a couple friends actually have a band and we've been needing a drummer," Luke begins to explain. Frick. Frick frick frick.
        I push into Ashton trying to get out of here before something really bad happens, "Oh, my asthma is acting up, let's get out of here, Ashton, oh god," I say, dramatically coughing, hoping to get out of here.
        "Haley, first of all, you don't have asthma. Second of all, what's this band like?" Ashton says, not bothering to even take a glance at me.
        "Well we're called 5 Seconds of Summer. Sick name, I know. Its me and two other guys, Calum and Michael. We've done a couple covers on YouTube. They've gotten a couple thousand views, no big deal. We're kinda punk rock, don't listen to what the other boys say. We've just been missing a drummer and would you look at that. You might even say its fate," Luke finishes. Wow, and I thought I rambled. I grab onto Ashton's hand and yank him away but he stays put.
        "That actually sounds so cool!" Ashton says, smiling, "I better get going, this one is kinda a drama queen," he continues, putting his hand over his mouth and pointing to me, not subtlety.
"Okay, I'm glad to hear you say that and I know, she's a feisty one. Our next band practice is tomorrow at my house. I can give you my number and text you the address?" Luke asked as more of a question than a statement.
        "Yeah, sure," Ashton said, taking out his phone and letting Luke type in his number. They're exchanging numbers, what kind of romance is blooming here?
        I was reaching for one of the books to slam it against Ashton's head to knock him out, then drag him out of the store when I heard them exchange their goodbyes and Luke called my name.
        "Oh, and Haley? Your hair still looks nice," Luke calls out, reminding me of the previous night when he said the exact same compliment about my hair. I don't even bother shifting my head to look back at him, and continue pulling on Ashton's hand.
        Ashton finally stopped with his hard stance on the ground at the exact moment I gave an extra hard yank on him arm, sending us both into a display of shorts, knocking them off onto the ground.
        The sales lady from before, who was now sitting behind the counter, watched the scene play out in front of her, slammed her head down on the counter, and pointed to the entrance.
        We both ran out quickly and sat on the wooden bench placed against the balcony that overlooks the two stories below this one.
        A sea of people were displayed out in front of me as I turned and looked over my shoulder at everyone. Some of these people old, some young, all looking for different destinations with a different story. Maybe their story is sad, maybe its happy.
        Sometimes, when I'm bored I look out at all the random people and guess what some of their stories could be. I started in 4th grade when my psychologist told me it would help because it teaches me that I could easily not be the only one with the difficult past in the area. She said it teaches me that no matter what, I'm not alone in this.
        "Haley? Hello?" Ashton waved his huge hand in front of my face.
        "Oh sorry, I just zoned out for a second," I reply, shaking my head and turning to face him.
        "Anyways, isn't this cool? I could be part of a band!" He gushes with the biggest smile on his face. His entire face is literally lit up and I can't help but smile back.
        "Yeah Ash, it's great," I say, genuinely happy for him. Finally, his talent was going to use. After all this years of trying to make me form a band with him, despite my lack of all musical talent, he finally was going to be part of one.
        After going to the music store for Ashton's sake and literally dragging him into Forever 21 with me, we finally came to the conclusion that we need to eat or my stomach will shrivel up from the inside.
We got some food from Taco Bell and sat down at a table in the middle of the food court. I rambled on and on and Ashton just ate his food, not interrupting. He is one of the few people that is used to my rambling and has just leaned to deal with it, even if that means zoning out. Then again, nobody ever actually intently listens to what I'm saying, they just kinda act like they are.
        After finishing my food, I stand up and walk over to the trashcan, filled almost to the top with trash so now I'm standing here looking like an idiot, trying to stuff my empty food containers into a full trash can.
        I'm mid-stuff when I hear a voice behind me, masculine sounding.
        "Hey, babe, you need help there?" I turn around and see two boys standing there. Let's just call them Skip and Chip to avoid confusion.
        They're probably around my age. Great. They definitely don't go to my school and they seem like more of the jock type. Both wearing some sports team shirt with basketball ball shorts and without even looking I could already guess they were both wearing Nike socks with Nike sandals. Yeah, this is just what I needed. Hurray.
        "No, I got it," I reply, trying to sound as nice as possible.
        "Are you sure? Because we'd be glad to - " Skip began but stops when Chip whispered something to him. Skip's eyes widen like a kid opening up presents on Christmas and he smirks at me. Oh god.
        "You're Haley," Skip knowingly says, smirk still present. Wait what? How does he know who I am. I'm about 2 seconds away from calling 911 and running for it.
        "How do you know my name?" I interrogate, really questioning how he knew me.
        "Well you see, Haley," Skip begins, emphasizing my name, "we know a friend of yours. His name is Jake." Oh my god. No, no, no. This isn't happening.
        "Um, I don't know what you're talking about. My name isn't even Haley. I don't even live her. I'm not native to the area. I'm foreign, I swear," I stutter, my stomach dropping like I was on a rollercoaster of death.
        "He's told us all about you, Haley. He's told us stories about how you used to - "
        "Stop," I say covering my ears and turning around to get away from them. I can't listen to this.
        I could still faintly hear them yell, "Goodbye, Haley," as I speed walk away, weaving through the other people in my way, and back to Ashton.
        "Ashton, we have to go, now," I pleaded, picking up my shopping bags.
        "Woah Haley," he places his hand onto my arm, "what's wrong?"
        "Jake," I say one word and Ashton's posture completely changes. His fists and jaw clench immediately.
        "Here? I'll beat him to a pulp, lemme at him" He fiercely replies, already searching over the entire area with his eyes.
        "Ashton, you have the upper body strength of a 12 year old girl," I mumble, already walking away from the table, "and he's not here, but he might as well be."
        Ashton grabs his bags too and we walk out of the mall and to the entrance we came in.
        We drove home in complete silence. This is how you can tell if something is really wrong. I don't ramble like usual, I just sit there and think. Ashton kept glancing over at me, concern evident in his eyes.
        "You aren't that kind of person, Haley," Ashton reminds me.
        "Yeah, but I was," I sigh, staring out the window at the clear blue sky.
        We all have a past. Some of us less proud of them than others. They're called pasts because that's where they should be left, in the past. Unfortunately, sometimes these things come back and haunt us. The worst thing is, we can never change the events that happened or the way we acted. We're stuck to just dwell on it in sheer regret.
        I look at the clock to see its 6:15 in the afternoon. I'm supposed to be home by 7pm to bring Peyton to a friend's house because my mom is working late tonight. I mean I could just make her walk there, it's not like she's going to get jumped or something. We live in a nice neighborhood, not some neighborhood victimized by gangs and drugs. Luckily, I'm a good sister and am willing to take time out of my day to bring her to another adolescent's house.
        After some traffic and Ashton throwing his baja blast at the car behind us after they nearly rear-ended us, which resulted in him missing the car by 5 feet, we finally turned into Ashton's driveway and jumped out of the car. I walked inside, closing the door behind me.
        "Peyton, let's go! I have places to be!" I yell to wherever she is in the house.
        "No you don't. You don't have friends," Peyton says, coming up behind me, looking down at her phone.
        Peyton is going through a difficult time in her life, called puberty. She's had 4 quote unquote "boyfriends" in the past 6 months. She quote unquote "dates "them for a month, then claims that she just doesn't think that boy is quote unquote "the one" and breaks up with them.
        Peyton struts past me, opens the door, walks over to the car, shoots a boy riding a skateboard past our house a wink, and gets in the car.
        How are we even related? Frick what Mom says, Peyton's adopted.
        I follow behind her, closing the door behind me, and get into the driver's seat of my car and drop her off.
        After arriving home and going in my room, I go into my room and sit on my bed. I grab my laptop off the opposite of my bed and turn it on. I scroll through tumblr for a bit. Then I put some music on and laid down in my bed, losing myself in my thoughts.
        After what I assume is a couple hours, my phone vibrates with a text.
        "ASHTON: get outside before i start a riot i have news"
        I look at the time on my phone to see its 10:00pm and is indeed dark out.
        I went out the front door of my house and saw Ashton there, leaning against on his front door.
        "Luke texted me and said he talked to Calum and Michael and they all agreed that I'd be a great addition to the band. I just have to go to their band practice tomorrow so they can see what I can all do and if they think I'm good, I'm in," he says, not letting his smile escape his face.
        "This is such a big deal, Ashton. I'm so happy for you. Hopefully the band isn't a flop or something," I honestly say.
        I just don't want him to get all excited only to have the rest of the boys in the band have no idea what they're doing. I just really hope the other boys are as serious about this as Ashton is.
        "Yeah, me too. Like, what if we became famous or something? What if we had a couple fan accounts made for us?" Ashton asks, his excitement not even wavering.
        "And you'll have fanfics made about you!" I yell excitedly back at him.
        "Woah, let's not get our hopes up too much," Ashton says.
        "Yeah, well, have fun at your band practice tomorrow. Tell me everything that happens," I say, turning around and opening the door as he copies my action.
        "Oh, Haley, there is one more thing Luke I had to do to get in the band," Ashton says mysteriously.
        "Oh god, what?" I ask.
        "He said I have to bring you to every band practice," Ashton says smirking and walks into his house, closing the door behind him without saying another word.