My Best Friend?

Chapter 1

"Hey," I said, smiling at one of my best friends.

"Hey Em," Ashton said. He gave me one of his best smiles before moving on to talk to one of his friends.

"Are you and Ash in a fight or something?" my other best friend asked.

"No."

"Then why didn't you hug him or something? Usually you have this whole good morning routine for a hello."

"He was probably in the middle of a conversation.."

"Or your boyfriend said something to him."

"There's no way; Ash doesn't even go near him."

"So he still doesn't like Alex?"

"Not even a little."

"Well maybe he'd like him more if you hadn't told him about every fight you and Alex have had."

"I'm so sorry, I had to finish telling Calum this thing," Ashton said.

"It's fine. I figured that's what you were doing, so.."

He smiled and held up his hands so we could do our morning hello. "And I'm sorry to do this to you, but I have to go and help Luke with something. I'll see you in first hour, okay?"

"Yeah, sure."

He gave me a hug before yelling at Luke to wait up.

"Sammy, do you think he's being really weird today?" I asked her.

"I'm sorry, what?"

I narrowed my eyes and looked in the direction of where she was previously looking. My eyes widened in understanding, and I smiled. "You so have a thing for Michael."

"What? I don't.. No."

I laughed. "You definitely do, and it's completely okay."

She rolled her eyes. "I do not have a thing for Michael."

"You do."

"Anyway, what were you saying about Ashton?"

"Right. Do you think he's acting weird?"

"He's always acting weird."

"True."

"Hey babe," Alex said, coming up beside me.

"And that's my cue. I'll see you later Emma."

I nodded.

"You sure she doesn't hate me?" he asked.

"Positive. She's probably going so she can talk to Michael."

"Fine," he said while pulling me closer to him by my gray cardigan. "I'll believe you for now, but I have this weird feeling that all of your friends and even your brother are against me."

"They are not against you."

He bit his lip. I could so obviously see the doubt in his eyes, but I didn't know what else to say to him.

"Sit with us at lunch," I more demanded rather than asked.

"Oh I don't know."

"Think about it. It'll help you get to know them better, and they'll get to know you. Plus you'll see that they really don't hate you."

"Okay, they strongly dislike me."

I laughed. "At least think about it, please?"

"I'll think about it."

"Yay! Thank you!" I picked up my bag and put it on. "I'll see you later, but for now I have to go to class."

"Okay."

I smiled and stood up on my toes so I could kiss him. "Bye."

"Bye."

I waved and started walking to my class.

~~~~~~~~~

"You're not still mad at us, are you?" Luke, my brother, asked.

"Of course I'm still mad!"

"We didn't think it'd upset him," Michael said.

"Well it did. Why'd you have to give him such a hard time?"

"Maybe that's what he needed," Sam shrugged while opening up a bottle of water, and a bag of chips. "If he was that upset about us asking questions, then he needs to toughen up."

"She's right," Michael agreed. Of course he would agree with her.

"Questions are fine, but it's the way you ask, what you ask, and the fact that you didn't even let him answer one before you asked another."

"Serves him right for sitting with us," Calum said.

"I asked him to! He was so worried that you guys hate him, and now he's probably more convinced than ever!"

"Well.." Luke started.

"Well, what?"

"I think I speak for all of us in saying that we don't like him. At all."

I took a deep breath and pushed passed everyone to go up to my room. I sat on my bed and pulled out my phone, texting an apology to Alex. It was probably the seventeenth time since lunch that I've said I was sorry.

"Em?"

I sighed. "You can come in Ash."

He opened the door and came over to sit next to me.

"I'm surprised you're up here.. And I'm surprised you didn't say anything down there."

"Well, I wouldn't have exactly said what you wanted to hear, cause you know he's not my favorite guy."

I laughed. "Yeah, I know."

"But, I am sorry for the way we treated him at lunch. I actually feel kind of bad for interrogating him like that. When we were talking to Sam's ex it wasn't even that bad."

"Taylor?"

"No, Taylor wasn't bad, we liked him. But we all hated Justing, remember?"

"Oh yeah.. Justin. Yeah you guys were so much worse today!"

"Sorry," he laughed.

"So why aren't you downstairs?"

"Michael and Calum won't stop flirting with Sam."

"Calum?"

"I think he's just doing it to piss Michael off in hopes that he finally gets it together and tells her he likes her."

I nodded.

"I know you want me to like Alex, but I don't think that's going to happen."

"Why not? Why don't you like him?"

He blushed, and I did my best to ignore it. "Um, I should probably go.. There's this thing that my mom has to do and everything."

I narrowed my eyes and watched as he awkwardly left. That was really, really weird.