Strings Attached (lashton, editing)

Six.

With Tim still staying at his fathers and work being slow, Luke found himself with a lot of free time. He spent a lot of that time thinking about the honey blonde he had spent much of his Sunday night with. 

Ashton had stayed till late, Luke made them tea and even brought out his above average home baking. The two spent the night talking, still scared to push boundaries while trying to break some of those down. Neither knew how it came to two in the morning and they were still sitting on Luke's sofa, drinking their tea and eating their muffins - but Ashton insisted he couldn't stay any longer. 

Luke had enjoyed his time with Ashton. 

Luke also hadn't spoken to Ashton since he drove him home that night (morning?), it had been three days. Though the two had exchanged numbers, neither had texted the other. 

"Do it Luke, just do it. The worst that can happen is he won't reply," Luke muttered to himself as he stared at Ashtons contact instead of the email he was supposed to be typing. 

Twenty seconds of courage, that'll do it. 

One, two, three...

Luke tapped on Ashtons contact, Okay I got here, what do I say?. 

Four, five, six...

Luke stared at the empty chat for a moment, typing out a couple messages in his head as he counted to fifteen. 

Erasing another message, Luke was losing his confidence. 

Sixteen, seventeen, just type something Luke, eighteen, nineteen...

Quickly jamming his fingers across the keyboard, Luke pressed send. Twenty.

Luke stared at the, hey, he'd sent. God, who was he? A 15 year old? He's 23 for gods sake, he should be saying more than hey!

Somewhat annoyed at his lack of ability to send a decent or interesting text, Luke put his phone face down and turned back to the email he should have been typing. 

Twenty seconds wasted, nice one Luke.

Moving through his work Luke felt anxious at the lack of "ding" noises coming from his phone, scared Ashton had given him a wrong number. 

-

Luke strolled through the doors of the cafe Luke met Calum at every week for a lunch date. He searched for the dark hair of his best friend across the bustling room before strolling through the tables and taking a seat. 

"Hey Cal, sorry I'm late. I got caught up," Luke smiled. When he says caught up, he really meant; I've been staring at my phone for the past two hours, hoping to get a reply. 

"Thats fine Luke, I ordered you a coffee anyway," Calum smiled, sliding a large coffee cup over to Luke who took it happily. "How have you been?"

Average, I met a cute boy but he won't reply to my text. 

"Good, work has been slow this week. I'm thinking of going for more custody of Tim, I'm sick of the way Mike treats him."

"More custody? I thought you guys weren't doing that," Calum stated, looking at his friend and remembering when Luke and Michael first broke up. For a long time they couldn't figure out a schedule, but they didn't want to bring lawyers into it. They knew lawyers tended to make things messy, so they wanted to figure it all out themselves. 

"I just...just every time Tim comes home he's so tired and he just never seems...right. I hate that Michael takes his gaming more seriously than his son, he doesn't even have a job right now!" Luke replied, wishing he didn't feel the need to take his child away from his other father. But, he also couldn't let his child suffer. "It's so hard Cal, he just won't listen and he doesn't want to talk."

"I thought Mike had a job? What ever happened to his business he was starting?" 

"I don't know, last week he didn't have one and that business is never going to happen. He doesn't care about anything anymore, I cannot put my boy through that. He deserves better," Luke felt frustrated. The past year Luke had been paying extra for Tim's kindergarten, for his food and clothes. Luke was only just finishing school, he shouldn't have had to worry about holding up Michael's end. 

"Okay, when are you gonna do it?" 

"This weekend, when I got o pick Tim up. I'm gonna talk to Michael about it. I'll give him two, maybe three, weeks to sort his shit. And, if not then I'm getting my son away from him," Luke didn't want to do this, he didn't want his son to grow up without getting to regularly see his other father. But he had to. "I'm sorry, I've just come in here today and ranted about Mike. How are you? How's the new job coming along?"

"It's okay Luke, I know it's been hard for you," Calum smiled at his friend, wanting to reassure him that he wasn't as alone as he felt. "But, I've been good. The new job is good, it's big and busy and scary. But it's my first proper office job, I feel like I'm finally getting somewhere thats for sure."

"Thats good, I'm glad. You deserve it Cal," Luke smiled at his best friend. As he did so, he heard a ding come from his jacket pocket. Pulling out his phone, he smiled to himself seeing that after a dreadful two hours, Ashton had replied. 

hey, sorry I was in a lab. I was wondering when you'd  text.

"What're you smiling at Luke?" Calum asked, reaching his hand out to take Luke's phone from his hands.

"Nothing, it's nothing," Luke quickly put his phone down so that Calum couldn't take it from him. 

"Is it a boy?" Calum asked, half jokingly. Since having Tim, Luke hadn't been one for finding a boyfriend in a rush. When Luke didn't reply, Calum perked up slightly. "Oh, it's a boy!"

"I...no it's a friend."

"Yeah, a friend. You gotta tell me all 'bout it Luke," Calum pushed, his best friend had met a boy for the first time in god knows how long. 

"He's a friend, there's nothing too tell. I swear," Luke hoped that someday soon, he would have something to tell Calum about Ashton. But, he barely knew the boy and he certainly didn't want to rush it with him. 

Luke wanted to take his time. He needed to get his life in order before he truly brought another person in. He knew that he needed to be careful, that he couldn't just bring people in and out of Tim's life like it was nothing. This was a big thing, for both of them. 

But that didn't stop Luke from ignoring his work all afternoon to text back and forth with the boy on his mind. 

-

Another chapter!!

This one is kind of a mess and cliche. 

Thoughts? 

-Grace