[DISCONTINUED] In The Crowd (Muke)

1.3 - Sex

Luke woke up with a pain in his back and dark circles around his eyes. He was surprised that he had fallen asleep, because he didn't expect himself to. The last time he looked at the clock it read 5:33 in the morning and the sun was already rising, a faded blue shining through his window. Now it is 10:07 and the sun was blinding Luke. He held his hand up to shield his eyes and went under his blanket, grabbing his phone under his pillow and unlocking it to check Twitter. He hadn't told anyone about almost meeting Michael, not even Ashton. Luke was too embarrassed.

Luke thought back to the day before, shuddering at the memory of him thinking that he doesn't love Michael. Of course Luke loved Michael. He loved every single ounce of him with every single fibre in his being. He loved his hair, eyes, toes, and everything in between, he loved his laugh, his voice, his personality, and everything about him. There was not one thing Luke hated about him, it was simply impossible to hate him. What kind of sane person would hate Michael Clifford? It was okay for Luke to use him as his stability in life, to keep him grounded and okay, because that's what love is about. Being able to feel stable and safe and okay just by knowing a person exists, just by knowing that person is happy.

So Luke spent the next week and a half of him being sick doing his usual every day routine. He went back to school Monday - it took him ten minutes to convince his mother - then he came back home and went on his phone for a while, just scrolling through Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram. Then he would walk to Ashton's or Ashton would walk over to Luke's and they'd visit for a while, have a "sleep over" if it were a weekend, and that's exactly what was happening right now. Although Ashton had to stay in Luke's room from 7 until Luke finished work, he didn't mind since he was pretty close to his family anyway.

Ashton and Luke were in their plain black t-shirts and plaid pajama pants that they'd gotten for Christmas, thinking matching pajamas would be cute, but realised that it wasn't as cute as they had thought when they wore them that Christmas night.

"Hey Ash?" Luke turned to look at his best friend, Ashton hummed in response. "Should I do another cover for my next video or a Q and A? Two different people suggested them last Friday and I'm still trying to choose because Friday was... very busy." Luke didn't go into detail, still afraid of telling Ashton about it. But what was there to be afraid of, really?

"Q and A. So people can get to know you." Ashton told him, then started talking again. "Hey, where's Marisela? I haven't seen her for almost two weeks?" His eyebrows were furrowed in confusion.

"Well, rememeber when I went to the hospital? And you know, found out about... my illness?" Ashton nodded. "Well she lied to come with me to the hospital. She said we were engaged. I don't know, it's awkward. I'm too awkward to talk to her. And she didn't bother to speak to me on the bus or in class." Luke shrugged, continuing to tap around on his phone acting as if he wasn't as awkward as he said, even though he mentioned being awkward twice. Sometimes Luke's mind never worked very well.

"Oh." Ashton replied, unsure of what to say.

"Yep." Luke mumbled, popping the 'p', and suddenly perked up, an idea coming to mind. "Let's record my video now, since I'm not very sick anymore."

"It's eleven p.m Luke."

"So?" Luke shook his head looking at Ashton with a why-does-it-matter face, and Ashton sighed.

"Ok."

They set up the laptop and Luke tweeted: Ask me questions for my next video with #askluke.
Since his first video, he gained a couple more Twitter followers so hopefully the hashtag wouldn't seem very pathetic.

After they waited half an hour, Luke deleted the tweet so he wouldn't get any more questions while recording, and then let out a breath of relief when he had a decent amount of questions. They pressed record and Luke and Ashton were sat on Luke's bed, Ashton with Luke's phone in hand.