Photographs (Luke Hemmings)

Chapter 4

Tonight was Ashton's 18th birthday. Since it was a Friday night, and his parents were laid back, they let him throw a huge backyard party.

I was finally done getting ready, and Casey had finally stopped talking about Ashton. They had been talking non-stop since we hung out at Ashton's last weekend. She even told me they went to see the new Spiderman movie together and that she was starting to like him all over again.

I checked the clock and it was just passed 6pm. Now we would be fashionably late, even though we were actually just late in general because neither of us wanted to get off the couch and turn Netflix off.

I gave myself one more glimpse in the mirror before looking over at Casey. Ally was out of town visiting family so she wasn't able to come; she usually had family related things to do. That meant it would just be Casey and I for the night.

"You look so cute!" she exclaimed.

"Don't make me blush!" I laughed, turning back to my mirror to give myself one last look before we left. I didn't dress up often, so this was a rare sight.

"Hey guys!" Ashton said, greeting us once we walked into his backyard. I looked around scanning the crowd that had already gathered in his large backyard.

"Happy birthday!" I said hugging him first, then Casey following after me. Their hug lingered for a second longer.

"Thank you, you both look great" he said while smiling at Casey.

The feelings were there, it was obvious how Casey and Ashton were gravitating toward each other. I was just waiting for something to begin between them.

"Hey" Ashton said looking behind me, I turned around to see Luke.

"Happy birthday old man!" Luke said "I put your cane inside" he said, laughing at his joke.

Ashton rolled his eyes and walked off to greet the other guests.

"You look great" Luke said smiling towards me, "You too Casey" he said looking at her. I smiled and tried to hide the redness on my cheeks by looking down.

After dancing with Casey, we decided to sit down. It was a good thing we did because the DJ started to play a slow song.

Casey and I were in conversation when Ashton came over and stood next to Casey.

"Can I steal her away for a little bit?" Ashton said asking me.

"Oh yeah, I don't want her anyways" I said smiling at Casey.

"Casey, will you dance with me?" Ashton said holding his hand out.

I saw Casey contemplate in her mind for a second, and I cursed her under my breath, telling her to just go and stop overthinking it. Finally she put her hand in his and walked off. She looked back at me like she was going to make a fool out of herself and I was terrible for letting her do it. I just smiled and shook my head at her, mouthing 'you'll be fine'.

I pulled my phone out of my purse checking my messages and I snuck a few pictures of Casey and Ashton when I heard Luke clear his throat.

"Hey Luke" I said looking up at him.

"Having fun?"

"Yeah" I smiled. I knew people hated one word answers, but I was bad at small talk. Plus Luke was making me nervous, as usual.

"Wanna dance?" Luke said smiling at me.

"Oh uh" I stuttered. "I don't dance" I said shaking my head at the dance floor and trying to ignore the butterflies in my stomach.