italics for flashbacks
I let my phone die at the party, so I wouldn't check it. But I ensure you I plugged it in its charger, the first thing when I got in my room. I had some ounce of hope that Ashton responded. Even while I was dancing and trying to enjoy myself I still scanned every face at the party, hoping to see him. I had myself convinced that he was planning to surprise me at the party, but ha-ha, I convinced myself wrong.
If I told you I slept peacefully last night - I would be lying. I checked my phone every hour, that was how bad of a night I had.
I got home at two o'clock in the morning after Luke and I took advantage of our time together and decided to go to a twenty-four hour pizzeria since Arina wanted to go clubbing with her friends and Luke wasn't in the mood for that.
I sat across from Luke in our booth. Luke's knee brushed against mine as he impatiently awaited our food to arrive. We sat at the booth where the 'open' sign was on the other side of the window. The sign needed a sure change of bulbs because it would burn out and then come back on. Each time it was on, it painted Luke's face a beautiful neon blue color.
"...And so security had to remove the girl from Michael." Luke was reminiscing the tour while we waited for our food. A girl in Portugal pounced on Michael and screamed her cries of love for the boy.
"I think that's called dedication, not insanity." I smiled.
"Here's your pizza and hot wings." Our waiter placed our food down, taking our drinks for refills after asking if we needed anything else. You know, the typical waiter routine.
"Do you still talk to Alya?" It surprised me how quickly he ditched her for Arina. To me, Alya was always the complete package.
"No, she didn't want to get involved with me if I would be gone so often." I wouldn't blame her at this point. With distance, came being ignored or avoided. It made sense though, why he would leave her. Arina was more suited for the spotlight anyway. Tragically. "Apparently she's dating Christopher, remember him?" With the big mouth Christopher had, I was surprised all of the country didn't know the pair were a thing.
"Have you been okay?"
"Yeah." Luke wiped his face clean of pizza sauce. "Arina is great."
Luke might be to the halfway point of insane with that attitude. He had girls throwing themselves at him everywhere he stepped foot and he was here hung up on Arina. He could have anyone he wanted and he chose. "Why do you think that she's great?"
"She makes me feel good." Was it the drugs that actually made him feel good though? "Sometimes I think I'm more invested than she is." We all could've told him that. "I don't think she feels the same about me."
"Who wouldn't feel the same about you?" Luke shrugged off my question when he started a new slice of pizza.
Things were all too quiet and I didn't like it. "Can you please tell me what's going on with Ashton?" Someone had to come clean about this eventually.
He wiped his hands on a fresh napkin. "Sorry, I forgot I had to be back in Pasadena." He swung his blazer over his shoulder, sliding out of the booth. "It was nice seeing you!" He called out from the door before walking out. I slumped in my seat, blowing a piece of hair out of my eye. Luke was trying to cover something up with the way he was avoiding my questions about Ashton.
I checked my phone, but my lock screen had no notifications to give me. I tossed the device back on my nightstand, sitting up and rubbing my eyes. Black skid marks traced the sides of my pointer fingers and that was when I remembered I fell asleep in my dress from the party and didn't remove my makeup. Luckily, I had enough sense to take off my shoes before getting in bed.
