goodnight // lashton

Ashton's POV

I was excited to finally be in high school. Of course, I'm now at the bottom of the food chain since I'm a freshman, but I think I'll survive. As long as I have Luke with me, this year will be fucking fantastic.

I felt someone's hands cover my eyes. 

"Guess who?" The voice said, which I immediately recognized.

"Luke." I said, turning around and giving him a hug. It felt good to be in his arms. I felt safe. Probably because I have a crush on him.

Oh, yeah, I'm gay.

"I missed you, Ash." 

"I missed you, too, Lukey." 

We walked to the gym for our "Back to School" assembly, also known as "Girls Squealing After Being Reunited With Their Best Friends." 

"Welcome back, everyone. And greetings, Freshman! I hope you had a great summer and are ready to learn!" Our principal said with way too much excitement in his voice. 

"Of course we are! Yay!" Luke said, faking enthusiasm. I laughed, playfully hitting his arm. He smiled, sticking his tongue out at me.

The principal went over some boring-ass shit for the rest of the assembly. Dress code, rules, systems, blah, blah, so on, and so on. All that jazz. Then we were dismissed to classes.

"Well, so much for homeroom." Luke said, laughing slightly. I laughed, knowing we had that class together. Was that the only class we had together? Did the assembly take away the only class we have together?

"Ash, we still have other classes together." Luke said, basically reading my mind. How does he notice these things about me so easily?

"Um, I knew that. I was testing you." I lied. 

"Is that so?" Luke questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Obviously." I said, making us both laugh. We walked out of the cafeteria and into the hallway. I grabbed Luke's thumb. He knew why I did that. I was bullied at my old school, so he knew that it was just for reassurance that nobody is going to hurt me anymore.

 "I've got to go to class, Ash. Nobody is going to hurt you, alright?" He said, bending over a little to be at eye level with me. I bit my lip, nodding my head for yes. He smiled, turning around and walking into his class. I'm all alone now.

The last time I was all alone I almost died... 

I shook my head, turning around and trying to forget the past. Everything is okay now. I'm not going to slip into old habits. I'm going to be okay.

I walked into my class, hoping high school wouldn't suck ass.

~

"Hey, Ash." Luke greeted, putting his hand on my shoulder from behind. I turned around, greeting him with a huge smile. My smile disappeared as I noticed people coming up to Luke.

Luke and I have always just hung out with each other. Occasionally, people would come up and talk to us both. We never talked to new people individually. It's as if we were the same person.

"Ash, this is Michael and Calum." Luke said, gesturing to them both as he introduced them. I waved at them, as I was too shy to talk to them yet. Luke said goodbye to them, noticing how I got nervous around them.

"Ready for lunch, Ash?" Luke asked, grabbing his lunch from his locker. I nodded, taking mine out of his locker, too. I normally did this in middle school, and the habit had not stopped yet. I told him I didn't want to have to walk to my locker to get my lunch, but I really just wanted an excuse to meet as his locker instead of the cafeteria. 

I sat down at a table, saving a seat for Luke as he got a soda pop from the vending machine. I played with my bracelets nevously. I had worn a t-shirt, but wore bracelets to cover up faded scars. I sighed, opening my lunch and taking out a bag or crisps. Luke came back, sitting down his soda and tossing a package of oreos on the table before sitting down next to me.

"I had extra money." He said, opening the package of oreos. I nodded, stuffing a chip into my mouth. Luke opened his mouth, making an 'ahh' noise. I got the hint, taking one of my chips and placing it in his mouth. 

"How's high school treating you so far?" I asked, taking a sip of his soda. This made me know we were really close, since he would've slapped anyone else who tried to take his food. 

"Doesn't suck so far. I made a couple friends. You saw them." He answered. I nodded. 

"I was hesitant to talk to them. since you weren't there. I like to make sure they like you before I get close to them. But they were new and I didn't want to seem like a huge asshole." He said, sensing how I got a little upset. It's just a thing we do. 

"They seemed cool." I said. I didn't exactly know if they seemed cool, since I barely caught a glimpse of them before I had put my head down. 

"Yeah. I think they're stepbrothers. They said something with the word brother but I kinda zoned out." Luke said. I laughed.

"Great attention-span, Lukey." I said, ruffling his hair. He pouted, bringing his hands up to his hair to fix what I messed up. 

"You messed up my hair! I hate you now." He said, crossing his arms and turning his back to me.

"Come on, Lukey. You know you love me." I said, wrapping my arms around his shoulders. He smiled, wrapping his arms around my waist.

"Okay, fine. I don't hate you." He said, smiling at his success of finally fixing his hair.

"Good." I replied, smiling and ruffling his hair once more.

~

"Dude, any guy would fuck Zayn Malik, no matter how straight you are." I said into my phone, falling back onto my bed. I looked at my screen, seeing Luke and I had been on the phone for three hours. Currently, we were discussing One Direction, one of our favourite bands. 

"I really can't disagree to that." He replied, laughing. I laughed, too. I looked over to my alarm clock, seeing it was two in the morning.

"We're going to be bitchy at school tomorrow." I said. He groaned. I could tell he was looking at the time right now. 

"Holy shit. I didn't realize we had been talking this long." He said. 

"We normally talk longer, so what did you expect?" I asked, laughing. 

"I don't know. But I gotta go to sleep. Love you." He said. I felt my heart speed up with his last words, even though I know it was just in a friendship way. 

"Love you, too." I said, standing up from my bed to change into pajamas.

"Night." He said. 

"Goodnight."

~