Labels [lashton/malum]

Chapter 5: Drums

Edited May 2021

Luke watched with furrowed eyebrows as Todd McClain stood in front of Ashton Irwin, smiling with fake innocence and talking too low for Luke to hear. Ashton was wearing a pair of green pants and a loose grey tee shirt, carrying himself differently than he had been last week.

Luke isn't entirely sure how Ashton's mind worked and he's always afraid of getting it wrong, but he's 90% comfortable with saying that Ashton was going by 'he/him' pronouns today. Ashton's gender expression fluctuates regularly, but sometimes Ashton will be in skirts for a whole month then abruptly switch to loose jeans and plain tee shirts.

Luke could clearly see the word 'slut' rolling comfortably off of Todd's tongue. Ashton frowned, shoved Todd away from him, and walked away, storming out of the cafeteria.

Luke could remember the first time Ashton was publicly called a slut. It wasn't even technically his fault. Ashton had been dating Peter King since the eighth grade and they became sexually active– if the rumors were correct– sometime in freshman year. In sophomore year, Peter convinced Ashton to go down on him in one of the custodial closets.

And he filmed it.

It was a dare from one of his buddies and he played along happily. It circled all over Instagram, Twitter, and tumblr for four months. It didn't help that most of Ashton's Instagram photos were of him in short skirts and crop tops. It's no excuse to label him as a slut, it just made him an easy target, it gave them too much ammunition to work with.

Luke looked down at his lunch tray and thought about the other day at the bus stop, how easy it was for those guys to ridicule Ashton right there in broad daylight. He thought about his own baggage. His mothers reputation was like a dunce cap on top of his head. People looked at him, pointed, and laughed. "Look it's the town whores son!" It doesn't bother him as much as it used to, but today it was unbearable. His mothers choices were less than savory, but Luke's innocent. Why should he carry the brunt of her ridicule? Why should Ashton be punished because his boyfriend was a scumbag?

Luke pushed himself up from the cafeteria table, grabbed his backpack, and walked out.

-

Luke sang along quietly to the music playing in his headphones as his fingers skimmed the spines of the books lined on the shelves. He was searching for The Outcasts in the place the librarian said it should be. Skipping 5th period with the excuse of research was one of life's few delicacies. Luke could ask for nothing more than an empty library and music playing in his ears.

'Tap tap tit tat tap tit tat tap." Luke looked up and pulled his headphones out when he heard the tapping. It stopped for a few seconds, but then it came back just as rhythmically and experienced as before. Luke crept slowly between the bookshelves, keeping his steps silent.

In the middle of two bookshelves, hidden away, was Ashton. She was sitting on a chair that she must have pulled from one of the tables. Her legs– covered in fishnet tights that ran up to a black skater skirt– were propped up on one of the bookshelves. Her checkered vans tapped on the wood as she drummed two pencils against a book and the arm of her chair, creating a rhythmic, smooth beat. Luke watched for a few minutes as Ashton changed the beats, keeping it smooth and effortless.

A thought popped into Luke's head.

It felt like a trailer to a coming of age movie was playing in his brain and he sort of loved it.

"Do you drum?" Luke asked. Ashton gasped, almost falling back in her chair.

"Jesus Christ! Don't sneak up on me you creeper!" She scolded, pressing her hand to her chest.

"Sorry, but do you?" Luke repeated.

"Do I what?" She asked, her tone clipped.

"Drum. I heard you, do you drum?" Luke sounded a bit delirious and he knew that.

"Yeah I do. Now go away," Ashton turned back to her book, tapping her pencils again.

"You're not a slut," Luke blurted out. Ashton turned back to him with a crease in her forehead and a frown on her glossy lips.

"Excuse me?" Her teeth were slightly clenched. Luke took a cautious step forward.

"I've been thinking about it for a while and I realized how much people in this school label each other and I had a crazy thought just now of something really cool that we could do to stop all the labeling. I play the guitar, you drum, if we could find someone to sing and maybe play bass or something, we could make such a cool statement about labels!"

"You want to create a band just to show people that labels suck? Are you a fifteen-year-old girl in a Disney movie?" Ashton asked, her perfectly plucked eyebrows raised.

"Mentally, sometimes, but I'm serious! The end of the semester assembly is in four months and Mr. Evanston is always open to suggestions from students for the act. We could pitch my idea for labels, I'm sure he'll love it!"

"We'd be a fucking laughingstock," Ashton rolled her eyes, snapped her book shut, and went to stand up.

"Think about it! If we can get enough students to relate and give a shit, more people will be inclined to stand up for each other. Or at least stop being pricks. I've seen the way Todd McClain comes after you, don't you want to at least try and stop it? Ashton, I think you're a great girl and I don't think you deserve all the shit they give you on a daily basis." Ashton froze, her hands pausing on the book she was shoving in her backpack.

"Girl?" She questioned. Luke's eyes widened and his cheeks tinted pink.

"Sorry, was that wrong? I know that you're gender fluid and I've done a little bit of research on it so I know it's different for everyone. I just assumed with the skirt, but I guess that's the problem isn't it? I shouldn't have assumed, I should have asked or just not have said anything at all." Luke scratched at the back of his neck awkwardly.

"No, yeah, girl, that's- you're right, I just- people don't usually care to get it right," Ashton's voice was suddenly and noticeably softer, a sigh falling from her lips as she looked up at the ceiling. "I know someone who sings"