"What else happened?" I asked Luke who was sat right next to me on the red love seat in his living room. I was asking him about the previous night since I still hadn't remembered much.

"Well, after taking a body shot off you," He began, reaching over to grab the remote to turn down the movie that was playing. "Which I'm sorry about, that was probably weird." He sheepishly said, falling into the back on the couch and resting an arm behind me.

"It's fine, really." I laughed. "It was a party. You can have some fun." I shrugged, trying to keep Luke from feeling like he did something wrong when in reality I didn't mind.

He stopped for a second just to give me a thin smile before continuing, "You and Michael were really fucked up, it was funny." He chuckled, obviously knowing more than I did.

I buried my face in my hands, "Oh my God, no. That's so embarrassing." My words were muffled, but Luke's laughing indicated that her heard me clear enough. I felt my cheeks burn as he went on.

"I promise you it was funny, all you guys really did was yell and try to be the DJ." He assured me.

"There was a DJ here?" I asked, which he only smiled at again.

"Nope." He answered, trying to fight back his laughter. "There were a lot of throwbacks, mostly from 7th grade." He added. "Plus there were only like 20 people left at the time. It was great really." He laughed this time, throwing his head back just a bit.

"Was that it?" I asked, still giggling a bit.

"That's just what Michael was telling me." He told me as he tugged on his lip ring.

"Where were you then? It seems like you missed the best part of your own party." I watched as he expression turned more serious.

"Remember Kat?" He questioned. I nodded my head at him. "I was with her." He said.

"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow at him in a suggestive way, just trying to get him to laugh again. He shook his head as his smile reappeared.

"No, not like that-Okay, yeah like that. But it's always an unconscious decision. Like, we wouldn't mess around if I was actually...sober." He kind of stumbled around with his words, but it was obvious that they'd been through this a lot. I didn't know much about her besides she left red bras, ones that matched her hair, in boys' rooms and lived on the other side of town.

"You're only happy when I'm wasted." I barely sang, their "relationship" reminding me of the song.

"'Stella'," He said, nodding his head at me. "Yeah, exactly." He looked relieved, like he was happy that someone was able to understand it. "But we wouldn't be having-I won't go into those details-I wouldn't even be talking to her normally. I don't even like her anymore. We had a bad relationship and I was do distracted by the idea of her than focusing on us." He explained, running his hands through his hair.

"There's something still there then." I told him, trying to sort out the mess he had going on.

"I don't know, sorry for bringing this up. It's a weird topic." He sighed.

"Don't apologize, it's better to look for some answers than keep it bottled up." I answered, giving him a gentle smile just to assure him that it'll somehow get better.

"You're going soft on me, Emerson." Luke joked, getting me to roll my eyes.

"Would you prefer it if I was harsh?" I asked. He just stared at me, a smirk growing on his face as the seconds passed. It seemed that being his only form of entertainment right now, I was doing a good job.

"I've had enough of harsh," he said. "It's cool to actually have someone who gives me an intelligent response rather than just saying 'just enjoy the free fucks'." He muttered, catching himself right after he spoke. "Sorry, you probably didn't care to hear that." He shook his head at me as he apologized.

"My two best friends are guys, I'm used to it." I told him. It was actually refreshing to talk to a guy that was conscious about what they said around girls, especially one sitting right next to them on a mini sofa. Usually a guy would try to make a move whether or not they liked the girl, any hook up seemed to be good for them. Luke definitely had a different mind set than the majority of guys are our school.

"Irwin," he began. "How's he?"

"Ashton?" I raised my eyebrow at Luke, unsure as to why he was even asking about Ashton. "I'm guessing he's good, he was late for work today and almost saw me naked, but that's nothing new." I shrugged, glancing between the TV then to Luke.

"I'm guessing there's a story behind this?" He questioned.

"He picked me up last night and took me home and I didn't remember in the morning and I walked downstairs in a towel to find him passed out on my couch." I explained, getting a snicker from him. "I'm glad you find humor in my embarrassment." I said.

"I'm a great person if you look past the part that I find joy in people's humiliation." He laughed, now sitting back up and bumping my shoulder with his.

"This is why we're friends." I said, peering over at him.

"Friends?" Luke looked over to me with a smile that he suppressed. "You're just the girl I hangout with in ISS," he said. I raised my eyebrows at him, noticing how hard he was trying to keep a straight face.

I narrowed my eyes at him, "You're a shitty liar." I told him. He hit my knee with his which got me to look up at him.

"You sound like my parents." He replied, biting down on his tongue to keep him from saying anymore.

"They aren't wrong." I told him, watching as he rolled up the sleeves of his t-shirt.

"I'm a terrible liar because I hate lying." He muttered, his tone going more serious. His tone was a bit unreadable, I couldn't tell if he was joking or genuinely mad or upset. It was confusing to even comprehend how it changed the mood of the conversation.

He moved back into his position where he first was, his back on the arm of the couch except this time instead of curling his legs up he rested them on my lap. I looked over to him, seeing that he was staring right back at me.

"Who wears shoes in their own house?" I questioned, glancing down at his shoes that laid over my thighs.

"Me, that's who." He laughed, crossing his ankles over each other.

"Two truths and a lie," I started, getting a confused look from him. "Have you ever played it?" I asked. He just shook his head at my question and I cleared my throat. "It's really simple, actually. You say three statements about yourself, two of them are true and one is a lie. The other person has to figure out which one is a lie." I explained.

"I'll play," he said. "You go first." He insisted, running the tip of his finger over his lip ring.

I rested my arms over his legs as I thought about what I was going to say. I tapped on my chin a few times as I collected my thoughts and started the game.

"I'm an only child," I said, raising one finger to count my own sentences. "I was the one to crash prom last year, and I don't wear my shoes around my house." I watched him shake his head at me from my last fact. "So what's the lie?" I asked.

"Well, from the fact that you just shamed me for wearing shoes in my house, that's not it." He replied. I nodded my head at him to let him keep going. "I don't know if you're actually an only child, but we all know it was Michael who crashed prom last year, so you didn't actually crash prom." He pointed out, making the story of Michael ruining prom run through my head.

"Good job." I smiled, nodding at him. "Now you go," I said.

"Alright," He recrossed his ankles and looked up to the ceiling. "I don't wear my shoes around the house, I prefer cold showers over hot ones and I currently have my legs in the lap of a pretty girl," he said with a light smile.

I shut my eyes as I smiled, my cheeks instantly turning red. It was obvious what his lie was and he made it clear that he was telling the truth when he had said I was pretty. It didn't help either that Luke was now giggling along with me. I opened my eyes to find him with a smug smile across his face.

"I'm guessing that your lie was the first one." I said, biting back my bottom lip to keep myself from bushing even more. It was actually ridiculous how horribly I reacted to any form of compliments.

"Correct, Andy Emerson." He pulled his legs off my lap and scooted down to my end of the couch. I was leaning into the corner, watching as he neared me.

"You're still a bad liar." I told him, locking eyes with him.

"I'm sure you are too." He mumbled, placing a hand on either side of me. My breath hitched as he came closer to me. "And you're even cuter when you're nervous." He smiled, gazing down at me from only a few inches away from me.

"I'm not feeling too nervous." I told him, tilting my head back just a little.

"You're still blushing," He whispered, the tip of his tongue sticking out of the side of his mouth. He moved back away from me, now sitting eye level with me. He smiled, "I'm glad I have that affect on you."

-

"Ands!" Someone shouted as I was walking towards homeroom. I turned around to find Ashton running towards me. I stopped in the middle of the hall so he could catch up to me which only led to me getting pushed by other students.

I started walking once he got to my side, "What's up?" I asked, weaving through the sea of students.

"First of all, I asked Blair to prom," he said, trying to catch his breathing after running and pushing past people. I grabbed onto his arm immediately and nearly squealed from the information.

"Really? What'd she say? Wait, no, how'd you do it?" I asked, clearly excited that he actually jumped on the opportunity and went through with it.

"Well, I asked her this morning, actually. I told her if she wanted to go meetup before school started at the coffee place we always go to connected to the bookstore." He explained. "I went up and ordered for her and told them to write 'prom?' on it."

"Oh my God, that's so cute." I gushed, turning down another hall to get to homeroom.

"I know, and she said yes and-"

"She said yes?!" I interrupted.

"Did you think she was going to say no?" He laughed, looking over to me.

"No, no, it's just-Aw, Ashton. You guys are going to have so much fun." I told him, pushing his arm.

"Thanks," He smiled, looking down to his feet for a second. "And you seem in a good mood today." He told me as we entered the near empty classroom.

"I am, actually." I replied, heading towards the back and setting our things down.

"Can I ruin it?" He raised an eyebrow at me as we sat down. He had always sat in front of me since the first day of school for the soul purpose of getting to talk to me for the whole period.

"It depends, will it actually ruin it?" I asked, glancing up at him as I pulled out my homework that I was choosing to do now instead of last night.

He shook his head, "Probably not, it's just a question," he said.

"Go ahead then." I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, opening up my binder and pulling a few papers out of it.

"I heard that you and Michael Clifford were supposedly a thing now." His voice took all of my distractions away and I now only focused on what he was saying.

"A thing?" I questioned.

"Luke's party, what happened there? Apparently you guys got a, uh, little cozy."

"'Supposedly', 'apparently.'" I put the words in air quotes, completely ignoring his question. "Who'd you hear that from?" I asked.

"Kara." He replied instantly.

"Why the hell are you listening to her?" I was now lowering my voice as people started pilling into our class.

"I don't know, I didn't know if it was true or not. That's why I'm asking you." He explained.

I sighed, "Nothing happened, I promise you. We're just friends and I'm sure he already has a girlfriend." I told him.

"Ren," he said.

"Ren?"

"Ren Marshall. That's Michael's girlfriend." Ashton replied, making me shake my head.

"How did you know that?" I asked, laughing a bit.

"Calum told me, but technically she's his ex-girlfriend now." He informed me. He turned around for a quick second before coming back to me and lowering his voice. "Andy, you're getting in some serious stuff with those two guys."

"Luke and Michael?" I furrowed my eyebrows at him, unsure of his actual thoughts of them.

"Who else?" He said sarcastically. I rolled my eyes at him as he continued, "I'm just worried, I guess." He confessed, shaking a hand through his hair.

"They aren't bad kids, trust me. You know I make the conscious decision to not do extremely stupid things." I leaned back into my chair, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Ands, I'm just-"

"You don't know them." I interrupted, raising my eyebrows at him. He stared at me as I shook my head, "They're my friends. You don't have to interact with them." I picked up the pencil on my desk as the tardy bell rang, getting me to remember I had things to finish in the period.

"I swear, if they do anything to get you in trouble I'm going after them, alright?" His tone was serious, but we both knew Ashton could never lay a hand on anyone, especially kids that scared him a little too much.

"Alright," I laughed, trying to wave him off to get him to turn back around.

"And if they try to get in your pants it's okay to punch them." Ashton chuckled. I tilted my head at him, glaring at him while maintaining my thin smile.

"I'll let them just because I know it'll piss you off." I joked.

He scoffed, "I'm serious."

"Alright, alright, I won't." I said just as Ashton turned his back to me as I went right back to my homework.

-

A/N:

YES AN UPDATE

landy is getting closer ((literally))

ENJOY MY TAQUITOS