8 Seconds // Mashton [DISCONTINUED]

Learn My Lesson

Luke's P.O.V

"So tell me again where we're going." I shove my hands in my pockets as I follow Chloe through the packed subway station, Michael following close behind me. "and why we couldn't go there when it's warmer."

"We're going to see my best friend." she says, stepping on the tube and taking a seat. I sit down next to her and Michael remains standing, too busy doing something on his phone to pay any attention to his surroundings. I'm actually surprised Chloe convinced him to leave the house, ever since he got his kitten three weeks ago he's spent more time than ever in his room.

"wouldn't it have been easier to take her to our place?" I ask. Chloe freezes for a moment and I wonder if I've said something wrong, but then she shakes her head.

"You'll understand soon enough."

~

half an hour later we're walking up towards a big house just outside of central London, where the houses are far enough from each other to make room for yards. I'm finally starting to understand what's going on and judging by the look on Michael's face he understands as well. Chloe doesn't say anything about it, even though I'm sure she notices, and we soon walk through the main doors.

"Hi Chloe wha-who are they?" Lucy, the lady working in the reception, stops smiling when she notices me and Michael standing behind Chloe. "does Kat know you're coming?"

"Oh she insisted." Chloe says, taking my hand and walking past her over to the stairs. "Come on Mikey, we have people to see." Michael follows us as we walk up the stairs to the third floor, walking down the hallway to a closed door. Chloe wastes no time she opens it and walks inside, still holding my hand. "Kat, we're here now!" I look around in the small room, my eyes immediately landing on the girl sitting on the bed. She's got dark purple hair and eyes that seems green, even though I can't say for sure, but I barely notices that. Even though I try not to I can't help but stare at her arms. Scars, there's scars everywhere. New ones, old ones, big ones and small ones.

"Hi, you're Luke." she says and I quickly look away from her arms, my eyes meeting hers. I nod and she smiles. Even though she must have noticed me staring she doesn't seem upset about it. "and that makes you Michael."

"yeah, hi." Michael says from somewhere behind me. Chloe lets go of my hand and sits down on the bed next to Katia and me and Michael both sit down on the floor.

~

"So Michael." Katia says, drawing my attention from the posters on her wall. "Chloe told me about what happened, I hope you don't mind?"

"No it's fine." he mumbles. "but maybe...not now?" he glances over at me and Katia nods, elbowing Chloe.

"Oh, right." she puts her phone down and stands up. "come on Luke, let's take a walk." I nod and gets up from the floor, taking her hand and leaving the room. It does bother me though, that all three of them seem to know something I don't, but I know that if I ask Chloe will feel bad for not telling me and I don't want that, so I just let her lead me down the stairs and out the door. We walk around the house, none of us saying much, and when we get to the back she leads me to a small pond.

"Have you been here a lot?" I ask, leaning against a tree and watching her walking over to the pond. "like...you seem to know your way around here."

"yeah." she mumbles. "yeah, Katia's been living here for almost eight months now and I've been spending a lot of time with her so yeah." I nod, unsure of whether I should ask more or not. "I guess you understand why she's here."

"I think so yeah." I don't want to jump to conclusions but her arms made it pretty easy to guess.

"I didn't know at first, how sad she was." Chloe says, walking back to me. She turns around and leans against me, her back pressed against my chest. "I didn't find out until her dad called...telling me she was in the hospital. She had tried to end everything and if they hadn't found her when they did she wouldn't have made it." I don't know what to say so I just wrap my arms around her, resting my chin on the top of her head. "after that, when she realised I wouldn't leave her, that I didn't hate her for how she felt, she told me. I've been trying to help her since but sometimes I'm just not enough."

"You're only human Chloe, don't blame yourself." I say. "there are things we can't predict, things we can't stop from happening, and if we blame ourselves for those things we'll tear ourselves apart, try not to do that." she nods and turns around, hiding her face in my jacket.

"I just want them to be okay, I want her to be okay and I want Michael to be okay."

"Are you ever going to tell me what's going on with him?" I carefully ask, not knowing if that was a good thing to ask at all.

"No, it's not my thing to tell." she mumbles. "he'll talk about it when he's ready." and I decide to leave it at that, so in an attempt to make her feel better I carefully turn her face upwards and kiss her.

~

Michael's P.O.V

"Zelda, come here." I can't help but laugh as I watch the small kitten run around around my feet, chasing the cord to my headphones. "no silly, those are not meant to be eaten." I grab her when she runs out from under the desk and puts her inside my hoodie instead, immediately feeling her calm down and get comfortable next to my bellybutton. It's amazing what an effect she's had on me. Ever since I got her I've felt a lot calmer, probably because she's given me a reason to stay home and not go out and risk seeing Nick.

"CRAP! God dammit!" I chuckle when I hear Chloe swear over in my bathroom. She's decided to stay the night and since I'm the only one using the downstairs bathroom, and since she knows I'm not interested in her at all, she decided to use mine rather than the one upstairs. "Michael! Can you please come help me." I take Zelda out from my hoodie again, putting her on the bed before I walk over to the bathroom door.

"Please tell me you're not naked!" I shout before opening the door. She's not, luckily for me. She's sitting on the toilet, wrapped in a towel, and is pressing a piece of paper to her leg.

"I cut myself while shaving, can you get me something to put on it?" she asks and I nod, kneeling down and opening the cabinet under the sink. "I always do this! Like I don't even know how it happens it just does." I nod, taking a band aid out from a box and moving over to her. She moves the paper and I carefully put the band aid on the cut, trying to cover all of it. It's not big, no bigger than the small cuts I would get on my upper lip when I first started shaving, but it's bleeding a lot.

"Michael WHAT THE FUCK!" I jump back when I hear the voice behind me, falling backwards onto the hard floor. Luke is standing in the doorway, clearly pissed, and I can hear the others come running down the stairs. "Are you fucking serious? You know I love Chloe and you pull something like this?!"

"Luke no, no no no this is not something like this." Chloe says, holding the towel closer to her body as Ashton and Calum appears in the doorway.

"I can't believe you would do this!" Luke says and I'm not sure if he's talking to me or Chloe. "You're my best friend!" okay, he's still talking to me.

"I wasn't okay! I wasn't!" I get on my feet, ignoring the slight pain in my leg. "I swear!"

"I should have known, all this time you two spend together." Luke's still pissed, but I can see the pain in his eyes too and I realise that if I don't do something their relationship might be over.

"He was only helping me! I cut myself in the shower and I needed someone to help me stop it from bleeding." Chloe tries.

"And you couldn't call for me? I was upstairs!" Luke's almost screaming now. "No, instead you go for my best friends, how am I supposed to believe that nothing else happened?"

"Because I'm gay okay!" I finally say, clearly shocking all of them. "I'm gay. I'm gay and for the past months I've been letting some guy use me as his own personal toy to pay him back for the drugs he got me. I'm gay and I didn't tell anyone because I knew you wouldn't understand, but now you know so stop fucking yelling at your girlfriend because she didn't do anything wrong!" the room falls silent and I suddenly realise what I just said. "I have to get out of here." I push past Luke and the others, grabbing my wallet and phone from my desk before leaving the room, running up the stairs and grabbing my jacket. I don't know where to go or what to do, since it's already late, but I can't stay here now, so I leave.