"Ellie," Ashton called after me as I pushed past him and Calum to get back inside. "are you dating Luke?"
"Don't be ridiculous." I shook my head, sitting back down at my spot at the kitchen table. Michael still sat across from me, calm as ever. I didn't have any desire to be Luke's girlfriend any time soon.
"You have to have some explanation why you were kissing him." Ashton stood next to me with his hands on his hips. "After all that we've been through." What did he mean by that. "Look what I mean is that after all you've been through, with Julia."
"This is ridiculous. We're done talking about this." I told him, looking back down at my notes.
"Michael you're being awfully quiet. How come you're not freaking out?" Calum questioned once him and Ashton had returned to their seats.
"I wouldn't say that I don't care," he said to himself, "I just think that if Ellie feels like she wants to do this then I can't stop her." He told them nonchalantly. I smiled at my friend and mouthed a 'thank you'.
"You would think she had more common sense." Calum said to himself. I wasn't sure if I was meant to hear it or if he was really bad at whispering.
"You would think that I thought we were friends." I sat back in my chair. Even though I didn't want to have this conversation anymore, it was clear Calum wanted to continue. "Why can't you be like Michael and just deal with it? It's not like we're getting married. I'm not even dating Luke! We've kissed three time, not even for that long. The guy annoys me to no end and he knows that."
"If he knows that then don't you think he's just using you?" Ashton chimed in. No I didn't think that. They didn't know what he's said to me and they haven't been there. They had no reason to assume anything.
"Either stop talking about it and do your work, or get out." I said bitterly. By now they were just getting annoying, like a little bee buzzing around you that you couldn't get rid of. Calum and Ashton exchanged a look before collecting all of their papers and stuffing them back into their backpacks. It was fine with me that they were leaving. I didn't want to deal with it. Once they had both packed up they left without another word.
"What?" I said in response to Michael's continuous staring. "Stop looking at me like that!"
"You like Luke." A slight chuckle came out of his mouth. He instantly covered his mouth with his hand, realizing that this was no laughing matter. "But you don't want to. I know why and I respect it, you just need to live. It's not going to be a repeat of history. Plus you know enough to stop it when you need to. Just take a chance. A chance that you know you want." He leaned in closer. Michael was truly a sight of you got close enough. I didn't understand why he didn't have a girlfriend, he was beautiful. "Stop being so afraid."
"I guess you're right." I furrowed my eyebrows and bit down on my lip in thought. "I need you to go."
"Why?" He looked shocked. "I didn't mean to sound like Calum and Ashton. I'm on your side."
"No no no I know that." I laughed a little. "I'm going to do something and I don't want you here if the outcome I hope happens." I stood up and grabbed him by the arm, pulling him out of his seat.
"What about my paper? I have to study too you know." He questioned as I pushed him towards the door.
"Study before class." I said before I shut the door on him.
"El-" Was the last thing I heard come out of his mouth before I bolted upstairs. I ran into my dads office and grabbed a piece of copy paper and a sharpie. Being careful not to slip on the wood floor in my socks, I entered my bedroom. I scribbled on the paper I had take and taped it up to my window, the one that faced Luke's house.
I sat down on my bed, seeing that his lights weren't on, and waited. I turned on the TV and flipped through the channels. I sat back on m bed and mindlessly watched How I Met Your Mother. I had seen every episode so it wasn't like it was anything new.
I guess I had fallen asleep while watching TV, next thing I knew I was woken up by the doorbell. "I got it!" I yelled across the house as I ran downstairs. "I got it, Mom." I smiled as I shooed my sweet mother away from the door. She shrugged and returned to the living room with my father.
"I saw your note," Luke started talking as soon as I opened the door, "I must say copying is the best form of flattery." He smirked. "Now what did you want to talk about." I walked outside to the dusk evening, and closed the door behind me.
"I have a couple of things to say." I announced. Luke held up his pointer finger, telling me to hold on as he made himself comfortable on the bench. I followed. "Okay, first, I'm sorry about my friends earlier. They didn't know about the things we've been doing. I guess that was my fault but I knew how mad they would get."
"Understandable." Luke nodded. "Considering they hate me."
"Right. Anyways, I realized that I can't hate you for the past. I can think you're annoying, which I still do by the way." Luke let out a deep sigh. I needed to get to the point faster. "I need to take risks."
"What are you saying, Ellie?" He sounded somewhat annoyed.
"I'm trying to say that I want to take this risk. With you." I smiled, hopefully.
"I don't want to be something you do because it's new. I told you that I made up my mind before I kissed you. Hopefully you understood that."
"I know what you meant and I know what I mean. I don't want to go out with you because of that. I want to because I need to stop being afraid of my own thoughts." I got closer. "I want to give this a shot."
"Fine." He held back a smile. He thought he was too cool to even smile at something like this. "I knew you would come around. All it took was one kiss and you were hooked." He finally cracked a smile.
After a moment of silence his smile faded. "I hope you're not doing this to make your friends mad, Ellie."
"Of course not! If they were really my friends they wouldn't care who I liked. They would be happy for me. Besides, I think Ashton was mostly mad because he liked me." I was glad Calum and Ashton were mad at me.
Luke chuckled as he stood up. "Well he's got good taste. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Bye Luke." Man I never thought I would be smiling after having a conversation with Luke Hemmings.
**
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
idk how I feel about this bye
picture is michaels smile bc of how he smiled at ellie at the table
gwyn
