Verboten [lashton]

Chapter 5

So last night my mum told me that we were going into town (hour away from where I'm staying) today and I immediately started trying to piece a chapter together as quickly as possible so that I could update, seeing as there's free wifi here.

Consequently, since I rushed it, it's complete shit. The start's abrupt, the end's abrupt and it's just generally pretty bad. But hey, it's something. Sorry if you're bored to death while reading this.

Don't know if we'll be coming back here any time soon or if I'll be able to update at all until I get home.

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"Boys, what do you all want for dinner?" Calum's mum called out, before poking her head in Calum's room to see the trio engaged in a video game on the Playstation.

"Um," Calum said, completely focused on the game and not paying much attention to what his mum had asked. "What do you guys want?"

"Anything," Michael said. "Fu-lipping hell," he shouted straight after, changing his swear word half way through because Calum's mum was present and he really wanted to stay on her good side.

"Luke?" she asked, wanting his opinion.

"I don't mind, seriously," he said, watching as Calum and Michael versed each other in FIFA. He was watching animatedly, just as engaged as they were. It was intense, with a score of two all, and they were down to the last five minutes.

"Fish and chips okay?"

"Yeah," they chorused, causing her to roll her eyes and exit the room, making sure she closed the door properly so that Calum didn't yell at her. She was used to his two best friends coming over and playing video games, and was tired of trying to get them to go outside.

"God fucking damn it Calum. Stop. Playing. So. Fucking. Well," Michael hissed, leaning forward, trying to get back into possession of the ball.

They played for another couple minutes before Calum inevitably won, putting Michael into a full blown rage where he turned off the Playstation and demanded that they did something else.

"That's right, we don't need video games. We're social, interactive boys that can find our own fucking entertainment without the help of technology," he insisted, jumping onto Calum's bed and sulking.

"That's not what you'd be saying if you won," Luke pointed out, giving him a look with raised eyebrows.

"Whatever," Michael scoffed, rolling his eyes and tugging a pillow to his chest. "Calum; anything interesting happened in your life lately?"

"Oh, are we doing the girl thing?" Calum asked, turning to face Michael.

"Eh, not really. Let's just talk about shit for a bit," he said, shrugging. Luke joined their little powwow, crossing his legs and leaning both elbows on his knees, sitting his face on top of his open hands and listened in curiously.

"How about the fact that I went to my sister's netball game on the weekend?" Calum said.

"What about it?" Luke asked, not knowing how or why that was interesting in any way. He'd been to plenty of Jack's footy games and never mentioned it, because literally nothing happened except the sport and it wouldn't last long as a topic in terms of conversation.

Michael looked at Luke like he was stupid. "Um, Luke? Duh? It's a team full of girls in short skirts? Their asses are on full display and it's fantastic," he said, as though it were obvious. Luke fidgeted uncomfortably, because somehow, he couldn't really find the appeal.

"But, like, a lot of them are tall and intimidating in the higher levels. It just makes me feel small and inadequate," Luke argued, trying to push the fact that he had a limited attraction to most females in general out of his mind. He had always flirted with girls and kissed them and held them and checked them out at parties but none of it ever felt just quite right. He felt like he had spent his entire life pretending, so much so that he had already convinced himself. And, fuck, there was Ashton again, creeping into Luke's thoughts, trying to win his subconscious over. Repeating, this isn't you, this isn't you, this isn't you.