shoulder kisses

6

"Hello, Mrs. Hemmings." Ashton greeted Luke's mom in the morning. "You can call me Liz, hun." She replied, smiling at the small boy. "Thank you so much for opening your home to me. You don't know how much that means." He said graciously, straightening out the shirt of Luke's that he had on. "Don't mention it, honey. It's the least I could do. You make my Lukey so happy!" She exclaimed, grinning honestly.

"Well, still. It means everything to me." Ashton said, walking back upstairs to meet Luke. Luke was up, sitting at the edge of his bed, phone in his hands. "Good morning, princess." He smiled cheekily, patting the spot next to him. Ashton sat down. "Your mom is so sweet. Which reminds me, I have to go back home and pick up some stuff. I might stay there for a while, actually. I have to clean." Ashton explained, noticing the frown growing on his friend's face.

"It's not forever, I just need to clear my head. Get away from everything for a while. I'll be back." Ashton smiled, brushing himself off as he got up. He left as quickly as he came, and was soon in his own home. As soon as he closed the door, the familiar scent of alchohol hit his nose and he immediately cringed, deciding it was cleaning day.

Ashton went to the kitchen first, and swept and mopped the floors. Within an hour he had done every room in the house, except one. His mother's room. He was scared even to step foot in that room, especially alone. The boy pulled out his phone, contemplating on who to call.

His thoughts wandered to one of his best mates, Calum. He nodded to himself, coming to the realization that this would be the best of his friends for the job. Ashton put the phone to his ear, waiting for that somehow calming voice to fill his ears. "Hello?" Calum said through the phone, and Ashton bit his lip, suddenly feeling very self-conscious about the whole situation.

He then realized that Luke was the only one that knew about his mother, and that all this information would hit Calum like a bus. But he couldn't turn back now. "Hey, Cal." Ashton murmured, picking at his fingernails. "Is there any way you could come over? I need help with some stuff." He explained, relief washing over him when Calum replied, "Yeah. Gimme five minutes." Before hanging up the cell.

Ashton sat down on the couch, awaiting his guest's arrival. At least it's clean, he thought to himself as a knock was heard in the front door. "Here goes nothing." He whispered to himself, opening the door. "Hey! What's up?" Calum said, before letting himself in. he plopped down on the couch, and Ashton followed. "Uh, so I know this is gonna be a lot to take in, but I just thought you were the best man for the job." Ashton chuckled, it sounded weird when he actually said it out loud.

Calum nodded, silently willing him to continue. "So my mom has always had a slight drinking problem. It's gotten worse over the years and, she was admitted into the hospital yesterday." Ashton cleared everything off his plate, taking a deep breath, not allowing a tear to fall down his cheek. "Aw, Ash. I'm so sor-" Calum began, but was cut off. "I didn't ask you to come here for pity, more for support. I have to clean out her room and, I'm scared." Ashton admitted embarrassedly, but Calum patted the spot next to him on the couch.

Ashton moved seats, sitting down next to his friend. Calum slung his around the boy's shoulder. "First off, you have nothing to be embarrassed about. Your mother's drinking problem has nothing to do with you, so you shouldn't be ashamed of it, she should. And second, of course I'll help you. That's what friends are for." Calum flashed Ashton a smile, before standing up. "C'mon. You'd probably want to do it sooner rather than later. And I think you've put it off long enough." Calum says, and Ashton points to the direction of his mother's room.

Calum slowly opens the door, and Ashton's jaw drops at what he sees. He expected there to be some bottles, but nothing like this. Cans and bottles littered the floor, making it difficult to see the dark blue carpet beneath. Ashton gasped, tears filling his eyes. He made a sharp sob-sound, causing Calum to immediately pull the smaller of the two to his chest.

He rubbed his back, cooing and shushing Ashton until about 10 minutes later, he had begun to calm down. Calum's shirt was almost sompletely soaked through on one of his shoulders, and Ashton mumbled 'sorry.' before rushing to his room to grab a new shirt for him. It was small on the man's broad chest, but he made it work as he helped Ashton pick up empty bottles and throwing them into the garbage.

They were done about an hour later, and Ashton insisted that Calum go back home, though he offered to stay. "Trust me. I'll be fine." He said, basically pushing his friend out of the door. "Call me if you need anything." He exclaimed, opening the door to his car as Ashton closed that of his house. He sighed, immediately crashing on the couch, not willing himself to cry as he drifted off into a restless slumber.

Ashton woke up in the morning, realizing he had school that day. He grabbed his backpack and walked outside, seeing Luke walking a couple houses down. He smiled to himself, running to catch up with the boy. "Hey Luke." He said, and Luke looked at the boy. "Hi." Was all he said, before he walked quicker than Ashton, obviously trying to get away from the boy. Ashton looked at his shoes. Is it something I said? What did I do? He asked himself as he witnessed his best friend literally ghost him.

Ashton walked to school alone, and it was the same then. Luke made no attempt to talk to the boy like he usually did, and was gone by lunch. Ashton flopped down on his seat, burying his head into his arms. "What's wrong, Ash? Is it about what happened yesterday?" Calum asked warily, aware of Micheal's presence. Ashton shook his head, breathing heavily. "It's about L-Luke. He's purposely ignoring me and, I don't know what I did."

"Ashton, you probably didn't do anything. Luke is just weird like that." Micheal chimed in, shrugging. "He'll be back to his normal self in a couple days. I don't know what it is, but he's done that to me before and the next day he apologized, said it was some kind of thing with his mind. I don't know." Micheal tried to console, though it did little help. As Ashton was trying to calm himself down from the panic attack that the other boys were oblivious to. He just wanted Luke. Luke would make it all better. But Luke hated him.

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