Cold | Lashton.

-5-

Ashton's POV

As I continued to look at him my friends quickly followed my gaze, and whatever smile Luke possessed was soon gone and replaced with a worried look. I was nervous when I got distracted and suddenly remembered Luke was waiting behind me, then I was happy at the thought of him finding the whole silly string fiasco funny, and now I was nervous again about how Michael and Calum would react to Luke and how he would react to them.

Surprisingly, the guys just looked away from Luke after a moment or two and went back to their business (the normal business that wasn't pranking me). Calum sat down on the sofa while Michael went into the kitchen to get something, and when he was done he came back in and joined Cal on the sofa. Michael had some cheese strings in his hand and I was going to ask if I could have one, but I stopped myself and focused on the real reason I needed to talk to him and Cal.

I took a deep breath and discreetly waved Luke towards me. Once he was standing next to me I cleared my throat to get the guys' attention and told them in the simplest way possible. "Guys, this is Luke. He's going to be staying here with us."

There were a few seconds of silence with Mike and Cal just staring at me with confused looks on their faces before someone actually spoke.

"Why?" asked Michael. He was unwrapping one of the cheese strings and judging by the numerous empty plastic wrappers on the table, I'm guessing it wasn't his first. Calum reached over his shoulder and tried to steal it, but Mike slapped his hand away and moved closer to me and Luke. Mike was very protective of his cheese sticks.

"Because he needs somewhere to stay." Luke was watching Cal and Mike closely by my side, picking up on every little thing they did. He looked nervous, even scared to be here. His eyes looked alert and he was biting his lip hard. I don't understand why, we weren't going to hurt him. I was trying to help him.

Michael took a bite of his cheese string. "Why?"

I sighed and shrugged my shoulders. "Well, he doesn't exactly have a bed... or a house." Calum quirked an eyebrow as Michael stood up before sitting back down by his feet with crossed legs. "He lives on the streets. But not anymore."

"Why?"

Rolling my eyes, I put my head in my hand, but I couldn't help laughing a little. "Michael, just shut up and accept the boy is gonna be living with us." I paused for a moment as he held his cheese string in front of his mouth. "And eat your damn cheese."

Michael looked down at his cheese and carried on eating whilst Calum simply said 'okay'. He had been quiet the whole time, looking at me and listening as I explained the whole situation, unlike Mike who had been repeating the same question over and over again and ultimately getting on my nerves. I wasn't sure how he felt about it; although he seemed cool with it he could be completely against the idea and not want Luke in the house at all. At that point, as if by magic, Mike stood up and walked over to Luke allowing me to talk to Cal in private.

When I walked over to Cal he stood up, and I gave him a small smile which he thankfully returned.

"Are you okay with this? You know, Luke moving in with us." I asked worriedly. I had a strange feeling he was going to be angry or upset or think I was absolutely crazy for bringing a random dude off the street into our house, but he seemed quite chilled out as he simply shrugged.

"Well I don't know, I mean you're asking for a stranger you met on the street to move into our house. Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"I'm sure, I mean I think it is." He raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms. "Alright, look. I know Luke is some random kid I ran into on the street, but he doesn't have anywhere to go. He's out in the cold every night, all on his own, and nobody even pays any attention to him unless they're giving him dirty looks or kicking him out of a doorway. Do you really think he deserves to live like that?" As I asked the question he rolled his lips together and uncrossed his arms. "I think he's a nice person. He may be shy and closed away now, but he just needs a little friendliness and encouragement to get him to come out of his shell."

"Do you really trust him?" I quickly nodded. "Well then, I do too. If you think he's a good guy and we can help him, then it's cool. He can stay." He smiled and I couldn't help but smile back as I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him in for a hug.

"Thanks bro." We pulled away and I just couldn't stop smiling. "So now all we have to do is see what Mike thinks." Cal seemed a little distracted as I spoke, but I decided to just ignore it for the moment. "How do you think he'll react? Do you think he'll be cool with it too?"

Calum nodded, but he was focusing on something behind me. Frowning, I turned round and looked at Michael who was now standing in front of Luke, staring at him like he was some kind of alien. It was obvious Luke was uncomfortable, he was biting the nails of one of his hands while fiddling with the zip on his jacket with the other.

Awkwardly, I moved towards him and cleared my throat. "...Michael?"

"Yeah?" He said, not looking away for a second.

"Could you stop staring at Luke? I don't think he was expecting a staring contest as soon as he got here." I laughed nervously and scratched the back of my neck.

Michael suddenly tore his eyes away from Luke and glared at me. "I was not staring at him. I was just looking at him... for a long time."

"Like a creepy pervert." Calum added, earning a 'shut up' from Michael.

Well, looks like it's going to be a fun night.