The Bully || Luke Hemmings

Chapter 22

Skylar's *point of view*

I laid on Ashton's couch, with an ice pack against my cheek and my head on Luke's lap as he played with my hair.

I felt terrible for not telling Luke about my past and how bad things were. So when Luke got a call from his mother and left the room, I turned my head that was against the armrest to Ashton.

"We have to tell him now. He caught me smoking with Cal at school," I said. I immediately faced-palmed myself since I hadn't told Ashton that my habit was back.

"SMOKING! AGAIN?! HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED?" Ashton yelled and jumped from his seat. Luke took this moment to walk in the room, of course.

"What happened?" Luke asked, his face full of confusion. Ashton sighed and tugged at his curls, pacing around the room and completely ignoring Luke.

"You and Cal again?! Have you no sense?!" He screamed at me again. I shrunk at his accusation, but I couldn't deny it. I had said it and I couldn't take it back. Ashton could read me with just a glance at my eyes.

"What's going on?" Luke asked frantically. He rushed over to me and scooped me up into his lap. He deserved to know.

Ashton sighed and looked towards me and I nodded my head for him to tell Luke.

"Well, back in middle school we weren't the greatest kids ever," He started, " A lot had happened in our lives. Cal had serious disorders. Sky had her mum who was going worse and worse on her. I had family issues. We made friends with the high school kids that were like us."

"That got us into more trouble. We were almost 15 and about to go into freshman year in about 5 months. We decided on dealing with our problems the wrong way. Drinking, smoking, stuff like that which was easy since we had high school friends who could get us anything," He continued.

"Well all that drinking led to us hospitalized and our stomachs getting pumped cause of some very bad alcohol. The smoking was doing it's damage and we had to stay on the hospital for about a week because we needed to be hooked up to a machine to help us breathe regularly. Skylar moved away soon after that. We all had quit, but I guess they started again," Ashton finished.

I glanced over at Luke and saw him soaking in the information. He seemed shocked and when he looked down at me, I was expecting him to leave me. But instead, I was met with him placing a kiss to my forehead, causing tingles to shoot through.

"How come you guys didn't tell me?" He asked softly. I looked over at Ashton and he nodded towards me to tell him.

"I didn't want to dig up the past, I didn't want you to judge me, and I didn't want to not be friends with you based on my past. I don't know about Ashton though," I responded. He nodded solemnly at me and turned to Ashton.

"I was trying to forget about the past," He said in a sigh. Looking at Ashton, I saw him with his head in his hands. He hated to talk about this. He tried so hard to forget everything after the hospital and blow it off like nothing happened, but it still happened. I wonder if it haunted him as much as it haunted me.

I got off of Luke's lap and walked towards Ashton. I sat next to him and placed my arm around him, which he leaned onto my shoulder. I sighed and knew that Ashton would probably be really sad tonight.

"Luke, I'm sorry for not telling you," I said, breaking the silence. Luke looked at me with sad eyes and I felt so guilty.

"Did you guys not trust me?" He said. I shook my head no frantically because we just didn't want to remember as much as we already do.

"I'm calling Cal. Luke, I'm sorry again," I said before leaving the room to call Cal. He would want to be here for this. He would know what to do.

"Hello?" Cal said.

"Come to Ashton's. Uh Luke knows now," I said. We usually don't say hello or goodbye because we felt it was unneeded.

"I'll be over in about 20 minutes," He answered and hung up the phone. I sighed, walking back to where Ashton and Luke were. Luke still looked either shocked or sad and I knew it wasn't good to not tell him. I padded over to Ashton and sat the same way before I left. Except Luke walked over to me and picked me up, placing me on his lap. I relaxed against him. Hopefully, he won't be too mad.

Cal rang the door bell and I answered it, since Ashton wasn't making a move towards the door. I noticed the grocery bag and smiled, it was our thing we used to do back in middle school whenever we would feel terrible.

"I remember that," I said, snickering at the bag. It held pints of different flavored ice cream: about 6 or 7 from what I could tell. I lead him to where Ashton and Luke were and was happy to see that Ashton didn't look as sad.

"Hey Cal," Ashton said, "Old ways, huh?" I heard Ashton giggle as Cal unloaded all the ice cream pints and 4 spoons.

"What do you mean 'old ways'?" Luke asked.

"Our way of trying to be happy. Really bad days equals ice cream. But that was after the hospital," I explained. I saw the corners of his mouth smile as he watched Cal, Ashton, and I dig into out first pint. I handed Luke some and he began eating it too, even though he said he didn't want to ruin 'our thing'.

It was silent for a little while, but then Luke said something I was happy to hear, "I don't care about your past. It just kinda hurt cause I thought you guys would know I wouldn't judge you on your past."

Luke walked over to my seat on the couch and kissed my temple, before putting on the T.V. while we ate our ice cream. Leaning against him, we all fell asleep with something on our minds. Whether it was reminiscing, sadness, or happiness.

I think that is why we could still stick together after all the shit life put us through. We were all so different, yet we will still be here for each other. Always.