7 Minutes In Heaven // Lashton

Chapter 18

Hanging out with Luke wasn't that bad. He actually wasn't as annoying as Ashton had originally thought. Ashton was still a bit uncomfortable, but he actually did enjoy himself, which he didn't expect to feel that way. After he apologized, Ashton actually felt better and like a weight was lifted off of his shoulders. The boy rarely apologized to people like Luke, but whenever he would, he never got that feeling. It was a bit weird.

"Ashton?" Clare asked, opening his door a little and poked her head in.

"Hey, Clare," Ashton greeted with a small smile. "What's up?"

"I was just wondering when you got here. I didn't hear you come in," Clare said, walking into Ashton's room and taking a seat next to him on the bed.

"Not too long ago," he told her.

"Why so late? But you didn't have practice or anything today," Clare pointed out with a confused expression.

"No, I actually stayed after with, erm, a friend, I guess is what you'd call him?" Ashton told her, not really sure what to call Luke. They weren't exactly friends and they weren't exactly enemies.

Clare snorted. "Out of all of your friends, I can't see any of them staying after school with you if it was for something that wasn't sports related. Honestly, I can't see you doing it either. No offense."

"He's not in sports and he's not really a friend, but he was working on a chemistry paper and wanted to know if I wanted to stay after school with him while he worked," Ashton told her.

"So you're branching out from the jock world? I'm impressed, Ash," Clare said with a smile. She knew that Ashton was a good person, but he had always been so sucked up into the world of popularity and never wanted to be friends with someone who wasn't a jock or a cheerleader. She was proud that he was finally going out of his comfort zone.

"Well, yeah. I guess so," Ashton shrugged.

Ashton's phone began ringing on the desk next to him and Clare just gave him a soft smile and pat on the back before getting up and leaving the room. Ashton reached over, grabbing the device to see that it was Michael calling. He furrowed his brow, confused as to why the boy would be calling when they usually would just text. He figured that it was something serious considering, so he swiped to answer.

"Hey, Michael," Ashton answered hesitantly.

"Hi, Ashton. Are you busy right now?" Michael asked, his voice sounding sad.

"Um, no. I'm just sitting on my bed," Ashton told him. "What's up? You sound sad."

"I'll tell you when you come here," Michael huffed.

"Okay...I can be there in a few minutes," he told him and then hung up.

Ashton got off of the bed and hurried down the stairs, grabbing his key off the ring and went out to his car. He had an idea where Michael lived, but he wasn't 100% sure, so he was going to wing it and hope that he would get the right house. Before he backed out of his driveway, he sent Clare a quick text to tell her that he wasn't going to be home for dinner.

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Ashton pulled his car in front of the house that he assumed was Michael's, hesitantly getting out and walking up to the door. He wasn't one to get embarrassed, but for some reason, getting the wrong house would make him feel that way. With a deep breath, he slowly knocked on the door, praying that he was at the Clifford residence.

After a few long minutes, a blonde woman answered the door with a small smile on her face. She didn't look like Michael. "Hello, can I help you?"

"Yeah, does Michael Clifford live here?" Ashton asked politely.

"Yes, he does. May I ask who wants him? He won't come out of his room otherwise," the woman laughed.

"I'm Ashton," he told her, smiling.

Before she could yell for him, Michael was opening the door and walking past her. Ashton could see that something was wrong with him because he didn't think that he would be that rude to what he assumed was his mother. Ashton gave her a small half smile and hurried to catch up to Michael, who was already at Ashton's car.

"Is everything okay?" Ashton asked as he lowered himself into the driver's seat.

"I'm a bit pissed if you couldn't tell," Michael said, his tone sharp.

"What? Why?" he asked, pulling away from the curb.

"Because Luke is being a little bitch. I told him about us being friends and he went off the deep end. He was acting like a child. What pisses me off is that he was pissed that I was helping you and being there for you. We never fight like this and here he goes scolding me for hanging out with just after he got done telling me that he was hanging out with you," Michael vented as the two drove down the street.

"He's seriously mad at you for that? Does he hate me that bad?" Ashton wondered. Luke didn't act like he hated him at the library, but he went and blew up at Michael? It just didn't make much sense to him.

"That's what I have been thinking about. I think he was jealous as fuck of me hanging out with you when he didn't and he resorted to yelling at me and telling me that it was wrong," Michael explained. "I think he likes you, Ashton."

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Ashton was sitting at the dining room table, picking at his food. Clare kept asking him what was wrong, but he didn't answer more than 'I'm tired'. He didn't know how to feel about what Michael told him. Ashton was just accepting himself as gay and for him to maybe already have someone crushing on him kind of overwhelmed him. Luke wasn't as bad of a person as Ashton thought, but he didn't know how to take the fact that the boy might have a crush on him.

He didn't know if he felt anything towards Luke back. Sure, he's had crushes on girls before and knew what it felt like, but he didn't know if having a crush on the guy would be the same. It was dumb for him to think that way because it shouldn't be that much different, but he did.

Before he had dropped Michael off, the boy had given him Luke's phone number. Ashton didn't really know what to do with it. He didn't know if he should text him because he was afraid Luke would fly off the handle knowing that it was Michael who gave it to him. Also, considering that Luke may like Ashton, that made him unsure whether or not to become friends with him. He wanted to hang out with Luke more to make up for being an asshole to him all these years, but he just wasn't sure if he'd be getting the wrong idea.

"May I be excused?" Ashton asked Clare quietly.

"Yeah, put your dishes in the sink, please," Clare nodded, looking at Ashton with slight concern.

Ashton got up from the table, taking his dirty plate into the kitchen and putting it into the empty sink. He went upstairs and grabbed his phone from his desk, going into his text messages. He opened a new text, typing in Luke's name. He took a deep breath, figuring that maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea.

[To: Luke Hemmings]

It's ashton. do you wanna hangout tomorrow???

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