"Why isn't he eating?" Brooke questioned, staring at Ashton off in the distance.
"He doesn't like the food here. He usually gets something to eat on his way home from school." I answered, proud that I had learned this small fact about him.
"He eats out every night?" Calum asked. I loved talking about Ashton around Calum, because he got so excited. He was so fascinated with Ashton, sometimes it was easier to talk to him about my little crush than Brooke.
"Well, yeah. Just fast food or something." I shrugged. "Or sometimes if his dad's home he cooks, we had leftover lasagna last Saturday."
"Last Saturday?" Brooke leaned forward.
"Uh, yeah? What, did we have plans?" I rolled my eyes again, tired of Brooke informing that we had plans after they occurred.
"I thought we were going to the mall." Brooke said coldly, scooting away from Luke.
"You never called me or anything, I didn't know. Sorry." I said, shrugging again.
"We talked about it on Friday, I thought you were going to call me." Brooke scowled at me.
"Didn't you go to the mall two weekends ago?" I asked.
"Brooke needed new shoes." Luke said quietly.
"Shut up." She said, smacking Luke on the chest. "I needed new shoes."
"Well, I'm sorry. Call me next time." I said, giving Luke a sympathetic look. He didn't deserve to have Brooke be so mean to him.
"Dani, I just don't understand why you keep blowing us off." Brooke frowned.
"I'm sorry, I'm not trying to blow you off. I didn't think we had definite plans." I apologized for the third time.
"Brooke, it's not a big deal." Luke sighed. He tried to calm his girlfriend down by rubbing her shoulder with his hand, but she shook him off. They've been fighting a lot lately, but obviously I hadn't been around enough to know what about.
"I barely see you anymore, Dani, you only spend time with Ashton now!" Brooke yelled.
"He's my friend." I shrugged.
"Well you're my best friend!" Brooke groaned. "What about me?"
"Brooke, Ashton really doesn't have many friends, Dani's just being nice." Calum added, and this was the one time that I was actually thankful for one of Calum's inputs.
"Your little crush on him has gotten kind of out of hand, don't you think?" Brooke asked, crossing her arms.
"No, actually I think it's working." I said, leaning back in my chair. I was angry with Brooke, she was blaming me for doing exactly what she had told me to do in the first place. I was slowly fixing Ashton.
"He likes her back." Calum said quietly, and Luke nodded.
"He likes me back?" I questioned.
"He told me he liked you." Calum said, turning around quickly to glance at Ashton, who was sitting alone on the other side of the lunch room.
"I didn't even know the two of you talked that much." I furrowed my eyebrows at Calum. I knew that they had spoken a few times, but I didn't think Ashton was going to blab about his personal life to Calum.
"I've started walking with him in gym. He gave me a cigarette the other day." Calum beamed, obviously proud that Ashton liked him enough to share cigarettes with him.
"Oh, great!" Brooke exclaimed. "He's slowly turning you all into drug addicts!"
"Brooke, it's fine." Luke said, reaching out for her again. She swatted his hand away.
