Nothing // l.h

Chapter 19

I went back to sleep after I swept Luke out of my house at one in the morning. When I got up the clock read that it was twelve on a Sunday. I checked my phone for messages and was shocked when I saw one from Ashton. He sent it two hours ago.

Hey. I want to talk. Meet me in the park at one.

I locked my phone and looked around my room. It seemed empty and I wasn't sure why, nothing had changed. I slowly dragged myself out of bed and got dressed. I threw on black skinny jeans and a black and white stripped crop top. I grabbed my phone on the way out and started my walk to the park.

When I arrived I looked around. There were kids on slides, parents pushing their children on the swings, couples having a picnic, and women walking their dogs. I saw Ashton sitting at a picnic table, looking down at his phone.

"Hey." I said and sat down across from him.

"Hey." He locked his phone and looked up at me. "Thanks for coming." He smiled, almost like nothing ever happened. It's been almost a month since I had last talked to Ashton. It was nice to hear him talking to me again.

"No problem. What's up?"

"I feel really bad that Calum and I freaked out over the whole Luke thing. It was ridiculous."

"Is it just you who feels this way?" I leaned against the table. I didn't think Calum would be the first to talk to me, but I was kind of surprised he didn't come with Ashton, and that he waited this long. Ashton nodded. "That doesn't surprise me."

"Calum's upset because he's been there for you for everything, we all have," He explained, "but he takes these things more personally. This really sucked for him, that you didn't tell him. He takes his friendships very personally. But you know all of that."

"I like Luke, Ashton. I like him a lot, that's surprising, I know. I'm sorry if you want me to stop, because I can't. But I want my friends back. I hate that just because I like Luke means I can't have my best friends. That's fucked up." I put my hand on my forehead, feeling flustered. "If you come back maybe Calum will see that. Please Ashton?" As I sat across from him, it was strange that I was the one begging for his friendship again. I wasn't sure how this was going to play out, but I didn't think it would be like this.

"I'll see you in school tomorrow." Ashton rose from the table. "Save me a seat at lunch, okay? I don't know if Calum will be there. I'll try my best." I got up too and walked over to him, letting him wrap his arms around me in a hug.

"Thank you." I said as we continued to hug.

"I'm probably still going to hate Luke." He laughed a little, but there was a loy of seriousness in his voice. I nodded and pulled away from his embrace. "I'll drive you home."

Ashton dropped me off at home and I went straight to my room. When I opened the blinds I saw another note on Luke's window, instructing me to call him. I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and dialed Luke's number.

"Ellie!" Luke's voice rang in my ear. "I've been waiting for you to call. Did you just wake up?"

"Nope. I've been up for a while I guess." I sat down on my bed, kicking off my shoes and crossing my legs. "I saw your note and here I am. "

"That's good, I guess." Luke chuckled. "Anyways I've been wanting to ask you something."

"Shoot."

"Do you want to go to dinner with me? I guess it doesn't just have to be dinner. We could skip dinner, do something else." It sounded like he was asking me out on a date. I haven't really ever been asked out on a date and this is what it sounded like.

"That sounds fine, Luke. But how will I need to dress for an even that you don't know about?" I walked over to my closet, holding the phone between my shoulder and cheek, and started flipping through clothes.

"Probably something casual." There was some muffled sounds coming from Luke's end of the phone. "I'll see you tomorrow around seven, okay?"

"Sounds good." I said and hung up. At times like these I wondered why I didn't have a best friend that was a girl, or even have my sister here, someone to help me.

It took me two hours to figure out what I wanted to wear for tomorrow. After I was finished I called Michael to come over. He arrived with a smile and tacos. On the phone, I told him that I saw Ashton and I needed to talk to him. We spread all twelve tacos on the kitchen table and started to eat.

"So tell me," Michael wiped his mouth of any hot sauce, "what did Ashton talk to you about?"

"It was more of me begging him to be my friend again. God knows what Calum will want to do." I finished my first taco and went for my second.

"So is he going to come back or no?" 

"He made it seem like he wants to, but he told me that he's still going to hate Luke. After that I said that hopefully Calum will catch on. I mean he can't ignore us forever." I waited until we both finished our second tacos to tell him about tomorrow. "Luke asked me out on a date. A real date."

"I thought you guys have already done that." Michael furrowed his eyebrows, confused.

"We've gone to the bookstore and hung out here. I wouldn't really consider those to be dates. The first time I hung out with Luke was because he practically forced me to."

"So you don't know where he's going to take you?" Michael dug deeper into the subject.

"Not really." I put my taco down, thinking about my earlier conversation with Luke. "He did mention dinner but he didn't seem too sure about it. He told me to dress casual so that's what I'm planning on doing." 

"That's good. I'm sure you'll have fun." Michael shoved another taco into his mouth. "Just remember that if you need me, I'll be there for you, no questions asked."

"I know." I smiled at my best friend. It was nice to know that I could never lose Michael, no matter how hard I tried. He always had my back and wanted the best for me. "Hey quit stealing all of the hot sauce." I reached across the table and took four of his probably eleven packets. 

"I didn't think you would notice!" He defended. 

"It sucks not having Ashton and Calum here." I sighed, looking at the two empty chairs beside me. Once a month we would all buy a shit ton of tacos and hot sauce, but now it wasn't the same with just me and Michael. "I hope Calum comes around." 

"Me too." Michael agreed, focusing on not trying to spill any hot sauce while he squeezed it out of the packet. 

**

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

lil filler for ya but more exciting things to come so stay tuned 

gwyn