Project Daddy || a.i

Chapter 4 || "She's going to kill you."

- Pandora -

"Luke!" I screamed, storming into my house. Ashton followed on close behind, his expression a mixture of humour and relief.

After a long discussion with a young waitress at the diner, we discovered that a blonde boy had been seen walking out, carrying a large plastic baby in his hands. I could only assume it was Luke, him being the only boy I knew who was 'as tall as a giraffe' and had 'a sexy ass lip ring'. Plus, it wasn't very common to see teenage boys walk around with baby dolls in their hands.

"Luke, where the hell are you?" I yelled again, storming up the stairs.

Loud music came from his room, the sound of a guitar being played along with Luke singing. And I could hear Calum in the background, his voice harmonizing with my brother's. They were actually pretty good, but I would never dare tell them that; their egos already dangerously high for boys of their maturity.

"Luke!" I shouted, struggling to be heard over their music as I threw open his door.

As I entered, the music was abruptly cut short, the boy's attention quickly diverting to the new presence invading their serene environment. If they noticed Ashton's presence behind me, they didn't bother to comment upon it, their confusion and annoyance directed entirely towards me.

"Why are you in here?"

"Give me back my baby." I ordered, stretching my hand out towards Luke expectantly. Instead, I was met with a swift high five from Michael, who burst into hysterical laughter afterwards, only to be silenced once I gave him a disapproving glare.

"What baby?" Luke frowned, placing his guitar carefully down onto his bed. Ashton shoved past me and sat down next to Calum on the floor, picking up a pair of old drumsticks and gently tapping them against the wooden floorboards, a soothing beat.

As usual, he didn't want to get involved.

"Don't act dumb." I sighed, my eyes desperately scanning the room, "Where is it?"

I couldn't see it, but that didn't mean that it wasn't there.

"Are you talking about your project?" Luke frowned, slowly standing up from his bed.

I nodded, watching as he weaved his way through a maze of dirty laundry that littered his floor to arrive at his desk, reaching behind a large basketball trophy to retrieve my baby. And she looked exactly as she did a couple hours ago, except now she had a large smiley face drawn on her hand, an obvious addition to what had once been pristine plastic. I quickly took her from Luke and studied the drawing more closely, my eyes wide with horror.

Ashton was the first to ask what was wrong, glancing around in isolated stupor as the boys softly began to giggle; an annoying harmony. 

"Luke," I began, my voice eerily calm "what did you do?"

Luke shrugged, a cocky smirk spreading across his face. "I just wanted to have some quality bonding time with my new niece."

"Why did you draw on her?"

"He did what?" Ashton frowned, pausing his drumming to look up at us "Let me see."

I slowly turned the baby around to show Ashton her hand, expecting him to freak out just as much as I was. Instead, a large smile broke across his face, a loud laugh escaping his cheery lips.

He found it funny.

"I approve." He chuckled, shooting a thumbs up towards Luke.

I rolled my eyes in a desperate attempt to stop myself from crying and cradled the baby back to my chest, forcing myself to remain calm. I silently prayed that I would be able to simply wash the tattoo off, and if not, then I had no idea what I would do.