Ashton wasn't at school the next day, so I was forced to eat lunch again at my old table again. Things were a little better, as in, Brooke hadn't exploded at any of us yet. She also hadn't told me she was pregnant either, something I had been waiting for her to confess for a while. We were supposed to be best friends, and I could understand her keeping it from me at first but I felt that they only way for her to get the help she needed was to come clean and talk to me - or anyone else - about it.

"Do you want to hang out on Saturday?" I asked Brooke, in an attempt to get her to be a little more herself.

"No, I can't, actually. I have something to go to." Brooke glanced at Luke, who was silently sitting behind her. I hadn't had the time to figure out if what Michael had said about it not being Luke's baby was true or not, Luke hadn't been at school for the past few days either and I haven't been able to talk to him about any of this.

"What is it?" I asked. "Maybe we can do something when you're done."

"I'm not sure how long it will take." Brooke shrugged. Calum kicked at my foot from under the table and nodded in Brooke and Luke's direction, probably wanting me to be the first to tell that that we all knew Brooke was pregnant. I knew that if I didn't say something first Calum would, and that might not end well.

"What are you doing?" Calum questioned.

"None of your buisness." Brooke snapped.

"Brooke..." Luke looked up at her. The two stared at each other for a moment, as if they were having a silent conversation.

"No, Luke, not yet." Brooke finally whispered.

"You have to." He whispered back to her, leaning in closer in case Calum and I were listening, which we were.

"I will, just not right - " Brooke shook her head, and before she could finish heer sentence Luke spoke over her, shocking us all.

"Brooke's pregnant."

"Luke!" Brooke yelled, slapping him hard on the arm. She stood up from the table, her chair falling down behind her.

"They're your best friends, you can't keep this a secret from them." Luke muttered, picking up a fork off the table and stabbed his sandwich with it, obviously not hungry anymore. The four of us stared between each other, waiting for someone to make the next move.

"Dude." Calum was the first to speak.

"I have to go." Brooke said quietly. She picked up her bag from the floor and slung it over her shoulder, quickly exiting the lunchroom.

"What the hell?" I stood up, grabbing my own bag. I understood that Luke just wanted to get it out there and not have to hide from us anymore, but he really didn't handle that the right way. I knew that Brooke had been acting like a bitch to me lately, but it wasn't completely her fault. She had a lot on her plate at the moment but she was still my best friend, I would still defend her.

"Oh, please. You two knew anyway!" Luke scoffed, letting his head drop into his hands.

"You didn't have to blurt it out like that!" I yelled at him.

"We were trying to ease her into it." Calum said quietly, obviously taking my side.

"Well it's not my kid anyway, so why should I even care?" Luke looked up at me, his eyes beginning to fill with tears. This wasn't anything new to me, Michael had told me that Luke wasn't the father almost a week ago, I was just waiting for the right time to bring it up, and I hadn't been planning to for a very long time.

"What do you mean?" Calum asked, at the same time I spoke. "Do you know who the father is?"

Luke shook his head. "She won't tell me."

"How do you know it's not yours? You've had sex with her, right?" I asked. It never crossed my mind that Brooke could have possibly lied all the times she told me about her and Luke sleeping together, I never realized how easy it would be to exaggerate about something like that.

"Of course I have. Not for a while, though, the last time we did it was the beginning of last summer." Luke spoke into his hands, clearly not proud of what he was saying.

"The beginning of last summer?" Calum laughed. "Geez, you're slacking."

"We haven't had the time or privacy, Calum!" Luke shouted, growing frustrated with Calum and probably with me too.

"I'm going to go try and talk to Brooke," I said, slowly backing away from the table.

"Have fun, she'll probably try to bite your head off." Luke muttered, putting his head in his hands again. Calum scooted his chair closer to Luke, trying to comfort him a little even though I could tell he wasn't really good at that type of stuff.

I made my way to the girls bathroom that was connected off of the lunchroom, figuring that I might as well check there first. I stepped in, sliding past a few freshman as they shuffled their way past me and through the door. I had no idea what I was planning to say to Brooke, I just felt that it would be right to try and talk to her about this.

"Brooke?" I called, hoping that there wasn't anyone else in here.

"Go away, Dani." Brooke said quietly, opening up a stall door and slowly stepping out.

"I just want to talk." I said, holding out my hand for her to take. She took it, allowing me to pull her the rest of the way out the stall.

I ungracefully sat down on the floor, inviting Brooke to come join me. She plopped down next to me, crossing her arms over her chest. She wasn't crying like I had thought she would be, instead she just looked very angry.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"No, I'm 18 and pregnant." Brooke huffed. She glared down at the floor, and I was trying to figure out who exactly she was mad at here.

"Have you told your mom?" I questioned. Brooke's mom was pretty strict, always trying to keep Brooke under "control". She hated the way Brooke used to act, when she would sleep around with different guys she met at parties. Brooke and Luke dating was probably the best thing that had ever happened to her, because Luke put a stop to that. I could only imagine what she would think if she found out Brooke had gotten herself pregnant, much less with someone that wasn't Luke.

Brooke nodded. "She's going to make me move in with my dad."

"Is she really?" I gasped. Brooke's dad lived three towns over from us, he had ever since her parents got divorced when she was 10. Brooke absolutely hated when she had to go over there, I don't know how she was going to handle having to live there.

"She doesn't want me here, at this school. She's on the board, you know? It'll ruin her reputation and mine if I stay." Brooke sighed, not surprised by this at all. This was typical behavior for Brooke's mom, she felt that reputation was everything in this town.

"So, when are you leaving?" I asked quietly.

"As soon as this damn child starts growing enough to show, I guess. Then my mom is going to kick me out." Brooke groaned.

I nodded, not really knowing what else to say. As much as I wanted Brooke to stay, there really wasn't much I could do to keep her here. She couldn't really fight this. "You're going to keep it?"

"I'm putting it up for adoption." Brooke shook her head. "I figured that it would be best, since Luke's not even the father."

"Luke knows, by the way." I said. I sort of hoped that Brooke already knew that, I would hate to be the one to drop that news on her.

"I know, I told him." Brooke sighed again, running her hands through her tangled hair.

"Who's is it then?" I asked.

"That's the worst part, Dani, I don't even really remember!" She cried, "I got drunk at a party I went to with my cousin last month and had sex with her neighbor or something, he's in college. I think his name was Chad, or maybe Chase?"

"Wow." I breathed out, almost chuckling at what an awful situation Brooke had gotten herself into.

"I'm so fucked." Brooke laughed at herself. I was glad that she had been able to find some amusement in all of this. I know it wasn't the best thing for her to be laughing at, but I think it helped Brooke to humor herself in this, it lightened it up a little.

"Yeah, you're pretty fucked." I agreed, finally letting out the laugh that I had been holding in.

"I think we're all pretty fucked." A voice joined us. I turned around to see Michael standing in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest and a signature smirk on his face.

"Michael, what are you doing in here?" I yelped, scrambling to stand up.

"You know, every once and a whole I just hang out in here, sometimes I get a little lucky." Michael joked, wiggling his eyebrows up and down.

"Oh my God, it speaks." Brooke screeched, still sitting on the ground.

"Yeah, and "it" will shave your head in your sleep if you tell anyone about it, so shut up." Michael snapped at Brooke, instantly shutting her up.

"Michael!" I gasped.

"Sorry." He apologized bluntly, probably not even meaning it.

"What are you doing in here?" I repeated, hoping for a more serious answer this time.

"I was looking for you, I saw you come in here a few minutes ago." Michael scratched the back of his neck, awkwardly looking around the room. Despite his previous comment, I doubted that Michael had ever come in the girl's bathroom before. I didn't understand why he looked so confused, it really wasn't much different than the boy's bathroom.

"I didn't even know you were in this lunch period." I chuckled. If I had known that Michael had lunch with us I probably would have made an effort to sit with him, or at least made Calum go keep him company.

"I'm usually not." Michael shrugged, implying that he was ditching.

"Why were you looking for me?" I asked after staring between Brooke and Michael for a moment.

"Do you know where Ashton is? He didn't come home last night." Michael said. He grabbed my arm and pulled me a little closer to him, as if that would stop Brooke from overhearing our conversation.

"No, I haven't seen him since yesterday after school." I shook my head, suddenly becoming worried. I had just assumed that Ashton was staying home sick, he had mentioned not feeling well the day before. I didn't think he was going to completely disappear.

"I'm, um, I'm kind of worried about him. He usually comes home, that's all." Michael muttered, tearing his gaze away from me and looking down at the ground.

"He's probably home, I bet he just came in early in the morning and you didn't notice before you left for school." I assured Michael. I knew that Ashton wasn't the type to go off and do something stupid, he probably went on a walk and got a little sidetracked.

"I'm just worried." Michael whispered.

"Aw, this is so cute. You totally care about him" I laughed, jokingly poking Michael on the shoulder.

"Well I don't have much left to care about now, do I?" Michael snapped again, his mood suddenly changing.

"Well sorrrry." I dragged out the word, rolling my eyes at him.

"Can you come with me? I want to go home and see if he's there." Michael looked up, still speaking quietly.

"Right now?" I asked.

"Yeah, I know how to get out of here without anyone seeing." Michael nodded. I turned to Brooke, who was just now picking herself up off of the ground.

"You can go ahead," Brooke said, brushing herself off. "I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yeah, thanks for...this." Brooke smiled.

"No problem. I'll be around if you ever need to talk, okay?" I nodded at her, before finally turning around and following Michael out the bathroom door.

"Brooke knows it's not Luke's baby?" Michael asked, glancing over his shoulder as he lead me down a small hallway that I wasn't even aware of before.

"Uh, yeah?" I answered, not sure why Michael seemed to care about any of this.

"And Luke knows it's not his too?" He chuckled slightly. We came to a door at the end of the hallway and Michael jiggled the doorknob, opening up without having to use a key.

"That's what he said." I shrugged.

"Good, everything's falling into place." Michael laughed.

-

"Does he talk to you about music a lot? He always tries to get me into this band he likes, it drives me crazy." Michael went on, adding to the mental list of complaints he had been making about Ashton for the last half an hour as we walked back home.

"Well I like some of the same music he does." I shrugged.

Michael picked up a rock on the ground and threw it across the street, nearly missing a parked car. He let out a loud laugh. "It would have sucked if I hit that."

"Right." I nodded, not really understanding what Michael was doing.

"When I was 12 I did the same thing, only with a moving car. The rock hit the window, it went straight through the car and came out the other side." Michael laughed. He added, "They called the cops on me."

"Did you get in trouble?" I asked, holding back a giggle.

"Nope, I ran away." Michael laughed even louder now, almost too hard.

"Michael Clifford, hiding from the law at a young age." I joked, pretending that I was reading it off a newspaper headline.

"Yeah, I think I've toned down my reckless ways a little." Michael said, kicking at the side of a trash can that was still left out on the curb from the last garbage pickup.

"You're surprisingly energetic for someone that doesn't like to do much." I noted, watching as Michael kicked at just about everything on his path as we walked.

"That's because before you came along I hadn't talked to anyone for almost five months. I had a lot bottled up." Michael continued, "And these new meds they put me on make me extremely fidgety, I can't really help it."

"They're probably working." I said.

"Yeah, they are. It's just so annoying, Ashton is always bothering me about taking them. His dad, Jack," Michael rolled his eyes, "is never around so he isn't able to remind me about them. It's like Ashton's job taking care of me."

"Well you're lucky that you have someone to take care of you." I sighed, suddenly wishing that my parents gave me half the attention that Ashton gave Michael.

"I'd rather that it wasn't Ashton." Michael said, cracking his knuckles.

"You can't hate him forever." I laughed softly, wondering if Michael was ever going to get over this whole thing.

"He was in the accident that killed my sister, Dani." Michael stopped walking. He turned around and stared at me, both of us not moving for a moment.

"And he's really sorry about it." I finally said, realizing that Michael had nothing more to say.

"I know he is. And I guess I forgive him, I don't know." He shrugged. "I'm just not ready for things to go back to normal yet."

We walked silently the rest of the way down the block until we reached Ashton's house, where I was praying that he was inside. I didn't know where else he would have gone, that's why I was acting like I was so sure that Ashton was really home. The whole walk home from school I had been assuring Michael that Ashton would be in here, I would hate to have unintentionally lied to him about it.

I really didn't have much to be worried about, because the first thing we saw when we walked into the living room was Ashton, curled up on the couch and fast asleep.

"Oh look, maybe he's dead." Michael muttered as we stared at Ashton, watching him as he slept.

"He's sleeping." I laughed quietly, trying not to wake him up.

"Oops, my mistake." Michael shrugged. He walked off down the hallway, not inviting me to come with him.

I sat down on the couch next to Ashton, moving his feet out of the way so I had room to sit. He stirred in his sleep, causing the pillow he had under his head to fall off the side of the bed. He looked extremely peaceful and I really didn't want to wake him up, especially because I wasn't sure how long he had even been asleep for. My plan of silently sitting next of him didn't really work, though, because seconds later Ashton was opening his eyes.

"Murphy, hey." Ashton said softly, squinting as he sat up.

"Hi." I gave him a little wave, not sure how I was supposed to explain why I was there.

"What are you doing here?" He stretched his arms out in front of him, inviting me to come lay with him. I scooted closer to him, letting him wrap his arms around me and pull me back down onto the couch with him.

"I just came by to check on you." I said quickly. It wasn't a lie, I was just leaving out the parts involving Michael.

"I went on a walk last night and fell asleep. I just got home a couple hours ago." Ashton whispered into my ear, his voice still sleepy.

"You fell asleep while walking?" I asked.

"Well I think I sat down at one point." Ashton chuckled. I heard a door slam in the hallway, forcing me to look up and see if it was Michael coming out. It was him, he passed by the living room and caught my eye, gesturing for me to follow him into the kitchen.

"I'm going to go get something to drink." I whispered, untangling myself from Ashton's arms.

"Mmkay." Ashton hummed, leaving a small kiss on my cheek before I could get up all the way.

I entered the kitchen, where Michael was leaning up against the counter, his cell phone in his hands. He turned it around and showed the screen to me, bragging about his newest high score on Flappy Bird that I still couldn't beat.

"I leave the two of you alone for two minutes and you're already sleeping together?" Michael whispered, obviously kidding.

"Shut up." I groaned quietly. Even though Ashton was probably asleep again I didn't want him to overhear me talking to Michael.

"Whatever he tells you is bullshit." Michael said, the tone in his voice becoming more serious. "He went to my sisters grave and slept there."

"Your sisters grave?" I questioned. "He's never talked about going there before."

"It's not something that you just go around speaking to people about. 'Hey, I'm gonna go sleep at my dead girlfriends tombstone tonight, wanna come with?'" Michael said harshly, his voice raising for a moment.

"Shh. I'm sorry, Jesus." I said, quieting him down again.

"Sorry. I get a little...defensive." Michael shrugged innocently.

"Yeah, I've realized." I scoffed.

"Anyway, that's where Ashton was. That's where he always tries to go when he goes on those walks." Michael shrugged. "He just sits there."

"How do you know all of this?" I asked, assuming that Michael didn't tag along whenever Ashton went out.

"I know everything." Michael licked his lips, a small smile appearing where he was frowning a few seconds earlier.

"I'm pretty sure you don't." I said, rolling my eyes at him. I folded my arms across my chest, staring up at Michael who only stared back with the same amount of intensity.

"Oh, but I do. I'm the eyes and ears of this neighborhood, Danielle Murphy. None of your secrets will ever be safe as long as I'm around."