daunt

twenty five

luke arrived at the river bank an extra ten minutes early. to say he was on edge would be an understatement. he had been worrying about the whole thing all day, and wanted to shout at ashton for trying to help and involve himself in any way he could, but he knew he wouldn't. at least ashton helping was making this whole thing blow over quickly.

a car pulled up in the car park next to the inn that towered over the river, and luke's head snapped around, pleased when he saw that it was ashton's car.

three people got out of the red suv, and luke squinted in the darkness to try and make out the faces, but it was no use. even as they all came closer, he didn't recognise who either of the two people with ashton were.

"you did actually come then." ashton called to luke as they all came closer and the street light beside the river turned on again because of sensing movement in the area. "this is calum hood, and mali-koa hood." ashton said, and luke's eyes flickered back to the two people.

they looked very similar, and both of them were insanely beautiful. the girl, mali, had dyed blond hair in a messy bun on her head, she had long eyelashes and a small smile on her face. she was wearing a plain outfit, but somehow still managed to rock it. the boy beside her was just as handsome, if not more so. he had plump lips and short dark hair, and wore sunglasses even though it was night time. luke briefly wondered if he could see anything at all with those on.

"i'm sunflower." mali-koa said, coming closer to luke and sitting beside him.

"me and ashton are going to leave you guys to talk for a while." calum called, already walking away, his lighter and a packet of cigarettes out. luke almost pouted at the fact ashton was going to smoke with somebody else instead of him, breaking tradition in a way.

"a'ight." luke brushed it off like it was cool and turned back to the girl. "so, what did ashton tell you to tempt you into doing the job?" he nervously asked.

she laughed and shook her head. "its not like that." she grinned. "i've been friends with ashton for a while and he mentioned it yesterday, call me weird but i felt compelled to help in a way. i'm happy to say anything you want, and i'm a people person, i like to socialise and make new friends so this is fine for me too. i'm not awkward around parents either so that's probably a plus." she told him.

luke nodded, making a mental note of all of that.

"my number is here," she pushed her hand into her dark green joggers and pulled out her phone, tapping on the screen to pull up her contact and showing it to luke, giving him time to pull his own phone out and add her to his contacts. "save me as whatever you like. add emojis if you want to make it more believable for your parents."

luke did exactly that.

"everything okay?"

the two turned around to see ashton and calum stood behind them again, both smoking and blowing the smoke in the air surrounding them.

"yeah. i've got the job." mali-koa joked, and luke couldn't help but laugh at that.

"i have to get home, so if you want a lift we should probably be off now." calum said softly, nudging mali with his boot.

"fine." she rolled her eyes and stood up, grabbing her things with her. calum started to walk back off toward the car. "i'll text you, yeah? we can plan everything." she said to luke.

the blond nodded and watched as she went after her brother to ashton's car, leaving him and said man alone.

"how comes you wanted to help me?" luke asked, raising an eyebrow at ashton. his motto had always been 'don't help someone unless there's something in it for you', and luke found it hard to believe he'd done this out of genuinely being nice to him.

ashton shrugged, dropping the cigarette and crushing it with his own boot. "i have to take them home." he said quietly.

"yeah."

and silence came upon them again.

"i'll text you." ashton said sincerely, and turned back around, going to join the other two.

luke didn't know if he was happy with where this whole idea was going or not, but he hoped it all worked.