This gif is what Calum looks like when he smiles but tries not to later in the chapter.
Lashton is my otp and no one can ever change my mind about that. Idc how many stories and videos there are of Muke, and Cake, and Cashton and Mashton, Lashton is the best. And then Malum is the second best because come on, Malum is fucking adorable.
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Luke takes in a sharp breath, and I try to ignore where my hand is.
"Fine!" Calum says. "I'll talk!"
I instantly jerk my hand away from Luke and walk over to Calum, grabbing him by his shirt again and dragging him to Luke's section of the warehouse.
Once I let go of Calum, he runs a hand through his hair and sighs. "He's Luke," he says, looking at the ground. "He's the baby of our group, and I'm just trying to protect him. The only way I know how to do that is to try to push you away from him." He smiles sadly. "I'm going about this just like my dad would." He glances at me for a second, then looks at the ground again. "I just... I feel like I need to protect him, even though he's seventeen and can protect himself. Maybe it's because he has a summer birthday, so he's younger than a lot of people in his grade, and he just transferred schools, so people might bully him. He's not in his last year yet, so last year people and second to last year kids could best him up."
I've heard that some people get out of school when they're seventeen or eighteen, but here we get out when we're eighteen or nineteen.
"But he's pretty strong, so-"
"Stop rambling," I say.
"Oh, sorry. Sometimes I don't realize when I'm just talking and talking."
"Do you honestly think that I'm going to hurt Luke?"
He shrugs. "Maybe. You guys have only known each other for a few days, and you're already palming him."
"I only did that because I wanted you to talk."
"But, you liked it. Don't even try to deny it."
I huff in annoyance. "Maybe I did. But that doesn't mean I'll do it again."
"He liked it." He looks up and smirks at the shocked look on my face. Then he starts laughing, causing me to smile.
"I didn't know you could smile," I say. His smile immediately drops. "Aw, come on! Smile!"
"No," he says, scowling.
"Please?" I pout, trying to coax him to smile. When he shakes his head, I reach out and try to turn the corners of his mouth up with my fingers.
"Stop!" he says, giggling.
"Your face is really squishy."
"Xyla!" he's laughing again, and he pushes my hands away from his face. "I hate smiling." He's calmed down a bit, but he's still smiling.
"Why?"
"People already think I'm Asian, but I not, and when I smile I just look more Asian."
"I like your smile. It looks better than the scowl you alway have around me. And yeah, you do look Asian."
He groans. "We should probably go bak to the others before they think we've killed each other."
"Yeah. So, are we cool now?"
"Yeah."
I smile at him, then we walk back to the other boys. Luke looks relieved to see me, and he pulls me into a hug.
"Are you okay?" he asks, his eyes scanning over my body.
"I'm fine," I say."Don't act like he was going to slit my throat."
"Yeah, I've really been feeling the love from you lately," Calum says sarcastically.
"Hey, I love you," Michael says. "You don't need Luke's love since you have mine."
Calum chuckles and shakes his head.
"Wait, are you smiling?" Luke asks.
"Fuck off," Calum says, going back to his usual scowl.
"Xyla, did you get him to smile?"
I shrug. "It wasn't that hard."
"We should all go do something to celebrate."
"Luke, stop making a big deal out of this," Calum says. "I smile all the time."
"Stop lying, Cal. We all know you rarely smile."
"He smiles around me," Michael says.
"Hey, let's go to the lake," Ashton says. "We can swim, and eat food and stuff."
"That sounds fun," Luke says, looking at me expectantly.
"Yeah," I say.
Calum shrugs and says, "Whatever."
"Sounds fun," Michael says.
"I'll shove some food and drinks in my backpack," Ashton says, unzipping a backpack that's beside him on the couch. He takes a few binders out of it, then walks to the fridge.
"Should we all ride in the car, or should I bring my motorcycle?" Luke asks.
"Being your motorcycle, in case someone wants to leave," Calum says.
"Food!" Ashton exclaims, holding his backpack up.
"Let's get this over with." Calum, Michael, and Ashton head outside, and I follow them to a black Mustang behind the warehouse.
"Do you want to ride with them or me?" Luke asks from behind me.
"It doesn't matter to me," I say.
"Okay, then you're riding with me. We need to talk about what happened."
"With Calum?"
"With you palming me."
"The wind might be too loud for us to talk." And I don't really want to talk about the palming thing with him.
"We'll have to stop at red lights."
"What if they're all green?"
"Then we'll just have to talk at the lake."
"Great." I put his helmet on and we both get on his motorcycle. I slide my hands around his waist, and the bike roars to life before zooming down the road.
We stop at a red light after a few minutes of driving, and I groan internally. I don't even know what he wants me to say about what happened.
"Red light," Luke says. "Now, talk."
"Wait. You asked me if I would have sex with you, but would you want to have sex with me?"
"That had nothing to do with you palming me."
"Both things are sexual."
"If you tell me why you palmed me, then I'll tell you if I would have sex with you."
"I already told you why I palmed you. I wanted Calum to talk, and that made him talk." The light turns green, but within a minute, we're at another red light. "Would you have sex with me?"
The light turns green, and I frown. Like drives for another ten minutes, and all the lights we pass are green. After another minute of no red lights, we arrive at a lake, and there are a few people in the water.
Luke parks his motorcycle in a small parking lot near the lake, and stops the bike, then gets off it. I take his helmet off and lay it on the seat, then get off of his bike.
"Yes," he says before turning and walking towards the lake.
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I'm so sorry for this terrible chapter. The next chapter will be better.
