The Deal || Luke Hemmings

Music Room

      My conversation with Michael yesterday bothered me so much that I was eager to know what Ashton thought about the rest of the members in the band; whether or not he had a feeling he was only there because he knew what to do with those two sticks.

It was easy for me to look for him since he religiously came to one other place inside the school premises: the music room. If students passed by it, all they could hear was someone pounding on the drumset. In all fairness, his African drum group really pushed him to play well.

I peered through the door, my ears feeling like they were splitting in half from the noise, to see if I could make it inside without looking shady.

He dropped his drumsticks the moment I entered, and I pretended not to see that he had pushed back some of his brown curly hair that landed on his head, glistening from sweat.

One of his drumsticks had rolled off when it had fallen from his hands, and now collided with my shoe.

Well, this was even easier than I thought. I didn't have to say anything to catch his attention.

"Are you alright? he asked.

"Is this a pick up line?"

I felt like slapping myself after I had said that. I sounded so conceited, I just wanted to get a pocket watch out of nowhere and move it around and tell him, "Ashton, you didn't see me! I was never here!"

Although, he seriously didn't think I'd get hurt by his stick, right?

"Of course not," he laughed.

I looked down in shame, and tried to cover it up. "Sorry, I wasn't concentrating. Anyway, I'm all good, why?"

"Nothing, I believe you," he said as I returned the item that belonged to him. "So, what made you come here?"

"I just came here to...

Uh oh. I hadn't planned thos earlier. I looked around, formulating some type of excuse, when the perfect one popped up in my head.

"I came to play the guitar." I pointed at the school's old, abandoned guitar case on the side of the room. No one knows who the owner of it is. Legend has it that it's so haunted that at night, KPOP music can be heard from it. That was really something to scare anyone off, even me. I couldn't understand what Koreans were saying. For all I know, they're mocking us in their language chattering things with each other like, "Hehehe! Those stupid Australians fall for our pranks!" Some people say a senior made this story up, and I thought it might've been Ji-woo Park, who was my batchmate and happened to be a Korean who loved KPOP.

"There's nothing inside, you know." he chuckled. "and I don't think you'd want to hear eerie KPOP sounds coming from it...unless that's your thing now."

"No, you're right," I slowly made my way towards the door. "I guess I'll be on my way then."

"Hey," I heard him call out. "You could, uh, stay for a while. I mean, I'm not forcimg you to, only if you want."

"There's nothing for me to do here anyway. I'm sorry for disturbing you too."

"No! It's fine! I can...teach you how to play a simple beat on the drums if you'd like," he urged some more. Why not? I always wanted to learn how to play that particular instrument. I've heard it can be therapeutic too because when a person gets mad, he or she can pound on it and instantly feel better.

"Jackpot." I grinned.

"What?"

"Nothing," I excitedly scooted towards him in awe of the drumset. "Can you teach me how to play the drums?"

"Yeah, I'd love to."

He stood up, gave me his drumsticks and let me sit on the chair he once sat on. He let his hands direct my arms on where they were supposed to be placed. I actually knew where I had to position myself because I used to watch videos on Youtube all the time, but I let it pass. He taught me how to play the simplest beat there was, and I I got bored and attempted to play something else, which made him laugh because of how horrible it was.

After a few minutes had passed, I was exhausted and surely ready to pass out, but he wasn't.

"You really love playing the drums, don't you?"

"Yeah, especially when I play with the other members in my band." he replied, amused with what I asked.

"You like playing with Michael, Calum and Luke then?"

"Yeah, I know you don't enjoy playing with one of them though, but if you get to know him a bit more, you'll find out that he's really a nice guy."

"Sure," I rolled my eyes. "But I can't believe you like them because-

I stopped myself there.

"Because?" he gave me a worried look.

"Never mind."

I was careful not to say what Michael said to me yesterday. I didn't want to rub off the smile from his face. At least I finally asked him what his thoughts were about them. It was such a pity though, to know that he liked them, but they didn't.

To my surprise, he didn't question me further about it. Instead he asked me something worse.

"Can I ask you something? You don't have to answer me if it's a sensitive topic."

"Sure." I said cooly. Most likely it was going to be one.

"Why don't you like Luke?"

"I'm fine with him," I lied.

"Really? I thought you guys were long standing rivals."

"It's a long story."

As much as possible, I hoped he wasn't so curious.

"Sorry, I was just asking." he apologized. "You could have just said it was personal and I would've understood already."

I looked at him menacingly but he still smiled anyway. I couldn't help it. Why was he so kind?

"Come here," I ordered, giving him a look of annoyance. "I'll tell you why."

"Tell me what?"

"Why I dislike him."

"I thought you said you were okay with him," he grinned.

"Oh shut up and listen."

-

I had to research for a Korean name k

~God Bless!~