Sweaters [Lashton AU]

Chapter 6

Ever since his uncle came over, Luke has been worrying a lot. He has been short-tempered and distancing himself. He didn't know why, but he was mad. Not at his uncle, but at everyone. He hated getting angry so easily, but it's happened before and it's been happening again.

Luke is just naturally an easily upset person. He always finds himself getting overly upset about everything. It could just be his pizza coming a few minutes late or his friends forgetting to text back. He finds something to get mad about and that's his problem. He wants to make himself angry, it seemed.

Is that normally? It surely didn't seem normal. But, he wanted something to be mad at. Because, he gets mad at nothing, so he tries to find a reason to be. His logic never really made sense and it's times like these that he realizes he's really weird and didn't know why.

His friends always said he had an anger issue. That's why he likes to take it out on alcohol sometimes. Since meeting Ashton, he hasn't done it a lot. But, now that his uncle was in town and bringing up his dad, he found himself sneaking tons of alcohol from his neighbors shed and drowning himself in beer.

It was a dumb thing that he's been doing. Luke has started drinking more since his dad died. He use to just do it once or twice at parties he went to. But, now he does it more and he can't stop. When Ashton appeared, he started doing it less and well, here he was at square one again.

His mum didn't notice his lazy mood that morning or the alcohol on his breath. Luke was so exhausted and almost forget he had school the next morning. So, he ditched. The reminder of his dad wasn't something he wanted to hear. It really just brought everything down and he was so close to almost forgetting his dad that he literally crashed down.

When he missed school, Ashton had texted him and asked where he was. The texts were so sweet and gentle. But, Luke didn't reply. He just took out a cigarette, lit it up and let the puffs of smoke leave his lips in rings. He soon was relaxing and that's how he spent the next few days.

He skipped almost the whole week. However, he remembered he needed to give Ashton guitar lessons and couldn't find himself to ditch the boy. Ashton's done nothing wrong and he didn't want to hurt his feelings. So, he tried to just will himself to go to school with a hangover.

It was hard enough dealing with math alone, but with a killer headache he nearly wanted to stab himself. Michael and Calum didn't say anything when he went to school. They were use to his antics and knew he was hungover. They just shared a look with one another, then sighed as they patted their friend's back.

The day was hell, to say the least. Luke looked like crap and he felt like it as well. He could barely keep his eyes open during class and was trying to stay awake. His teacher didn't seem pleased and probably knew he was hungover. He didn't give a shit, though. He was tired and sad and just sort of hated life at he moment.

It seemed like a lot of people were happy nowadays and he was just really sad. He also wondered if this is how Ashton felt sometimes, though, because Ashton seems so happy. But, what if he's really sad and just tries hiding it because everyone else looks happy? It seemed like a sad thing to think about.

Luke frowned as he headed to lunch. He felt a little nauseous and wanted to go home. He wondered if he would be able to run off, but kept reminding himself that he needed to hang out with Ashton today. He needed to know his secret, the mystery behind his poems and the reason why he's so sad inside, but happy outside.

When he got to the cafeteria, he saw Ashton wasn't there yet and grabbed his lunch. He just got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, not feeling up for anything to heavy. He then went over to where his friends were sitting and he saw Michael was trying to stick carrots up Calum's nose for some odd reason.