fade into you - lashton

one

Luke Hemmings thought about a lot of things. He would lie awake into the early hours of the morning thinking about existence and the purpose of it all. He would think about the the state of the world a lot too. He didn't understand all the violence and discrimination. He didn't understand why people were sick or poor or depressed.

Luke liked to think about these things but would drive himself mad because he just couldn't figure it out. His mind would run at a million miles a minute but it was okay because that's just how things were. He learned quickly that there was nothing he could do about the worlds problems and maybe he needed to think about his own life a little more. But he just couldn't when children were dying and people were hungry and animals were being beaten and fuck, the world sucked.

Nonetheless, he saw the beauty in it. While most 17 year olds were glued to their phones, Luke was glued to the sky. He believed the bad in the world was mankind. Of course, he knew their were good people. In fact, behind all the violence and peril he believed there were great people and had nothing but hope for humanity. However the true bueaty and purity in the world was nature. He didn't know why he felt so close with the outdoors; the sky in particular. Maybe it was because it was the only thing that made his mind shut up for awhile. A place where he didn't have to think about the human condition. A place where he didn't have to worry about other people or think about the fact that there were almost 8 billion other people. It was just him.

That was another thing about Luke, he was consistently aware of his surroundings and was filled with compassion for the people around him. He loved to sit and people watch, paying attention to every detail. More often than not people caught him staring and told him to stop being a creep or gave him a weird look. Luke didn't think he was creepy though-no, not at all. He was simply curious. Curious about everything from their deepest secrets to what they had for breakfast that morning.

And nothing, NOTHING bothered Luke more than when he couldn't tell what people were thinking. He hated not catching vibes from others, not being able to tell what they were feeling. He wasn't nosy, he was just so interested in people. It always made him pay particular attention to them to try and figure them out.

That was the exact reason every first period English he could most often be found staring at one Ashton Irwin. And it wasn't because Luke found the way he always held his pencil through his sweater paw hands to be immensely cute or that he thought his geeky glasses worked in perfect harmony with his soft golden brown curls. No, it wasn't that at all.

It was all due to the fact that he could absolutely not figure out Ashton Irwin. Not a thing. He'd never seen him smile nor frown. He'd never seen his eyebrows furrow nor heard him speak more than a word or two when the teachers would call upon him. Ashton didn't seem to have any nervous habits-no fidgeting, nail biting, feet tapping or knee shaking. And he absolutely never made eye contact with anyone. Ashton was blank. And that bothered Luke. It bothered him how Ashton seemed to be genuinely oblivious to the world around him.

What bothered Luke more than anything though was that despite knowing nothing about the mysterious and seemingly emotionless boy, he'd developed quite the crush on him. He didn't like Ashton per say considering he didn't really know him, he was just very attracted to him.  He wanted to get to know him though. He wanted to be the one to get through to him and he wanted to know if maybe there was potential for actual feelings.

Which was why Luke decided to try and talk to him. And shit was he ever nervous. As he walked into English that morning he shook his head and chuckled slightly to himself for being nervous just to talk to someone. Luke's eyes immediately went to the back of the room where Ashton was sat with his ear buds in, emotionlessly doodling on his notebook.