I saw and had a conversation with Ashton Irwin whilst he was naked.

That's the only thought running through Luke's head the next day at school. He had hoped that things would be fixed, that since Ashton had seemed friendly, things would be okay. He said see ya around, which probably meant he wanted to see him.

Luke walked into school with a happy, confident smile on his face. He nodded at a couple people who were at the lunch table the other day, and was a little confused at the dirty glares he got in return. Ashton should have told them to back off by now, why weren't they—

He felt pressure on his backpack and ended up tumbling on the floor, stopping when he crashed into someone's legs.

"Oof," he grunted, looking up at none other than Ashton Irwin.

Ashton was wearing a cream colored sweater with black jeans, and his curly hair was fluffy and light and Luke just wanted to run his hands through it. It kind of looked like the cotton candy from the amusement park.

"Oh, hey, Ashy, can you--"

"Get away from him, Daisy, or your gay will rub off on him," Calum sneered, pulling Ashton away. Luke watched him as long as he could, noting how Ashton turned back for a moment to glance at him with an unreadable expression.

Luke had had it with this kid. Either he wanted to be Luke's friend or he didn't. Either they would be together, or Ashton needed to go. Luke was worth more than being treated like a princess one day and then discarded like trash the next. He didn't suffer his entire childhood for being gay just to wind up in a friendship (or relationship) with someone who wouldn't be proud of him.

He just had to tell Ashton that.

Thankfully they had another tutoring session today. Mr Peralta had switched the lesson because he wasn't available after school on their normal day. Luke tried to tell him it didn't matter since he was never there anyway, but the teacher had insisted they move it. At least now Luke could talk to Ashton.

And that's exactly what he did.

After Mr Peralta had left the library with another excuse—this time it was a meeting with the principal—Luke crossed his arms and stared at Ashton.

"What?" he challenged, looking down at the small boy. He knew the second he showed confidence, Luke would cower away and they wouldn't have to talk about something Ashton didn't want to discuss.

Well, maybe he secretly did want to discuss it, but it was certainly easier not to, so that's what he chose to do.

"No, I've had it up to here with you, Ashton," Luke seethed, slamming his hands down on the table. The librarian looked over, and Ashton expected him to scold Luke for making too much noise, but all he did was give Luke a thumbs up and walk out of the room.

"What's going on?"

"I'm sick of you treating me like this. You want to bully me? Fine. You want to be my friend, my boyfriend? Also fine. But if you think you can go around pulling me along on a chain and picking each day which role you want me to fill, you've got another thing coming. I do have respect for myself, thank you very much, but now I need you to see it and respect me. Because this shit you've been pulling is despicable, Ashton. You should be ashamed of yourself."

Ashton's eyebrows rose all the way to the top of his head. He couldn't believe shy little Lukey was able to say all of that. His face turned red as he glared across the table at Ashton, breathing slightly heavy as he finished his rant.

"Well? Got anything to say for yourself?" He snapped.

Ashton sighed heavily, resting his head on the table.

"I guess I should start with an apology." He looked up at Luke and saw fire in his blue eyes.

"You're damn right you should!" Luke shouted.

"Hey, I know I deserve it, but shit mate, cool it." Ashton rolled his eyes. Luke just shrugged. Now that he'd started speaking up for himself, he found it hard to stop. He just wanted to go shout at everyone who'd ever upset him and give them a piece of his mind. "Can I continue?"

"I suppose."

"Thank you." Ashton cleared his throat. "I am, Lukey, I'm so sorry about the whole thing; the bet, the pretending to be your friend, the things I said in the storage room the other day," Ashton lowered his head in shame. "I was so over the line, I never should have said that."

"I knew you were—"

"Please let me finish." Luke bit his tongue and nodded, allowing him to keep speaking. "I didn't mean any of those things, I just felt so guilty for using you like that after learning what a great person you are. I guess I started to...actually develop feelings for you along the way," Luke's eyes lit up, but Ashton continued on. "And that made me think about all the things I'd done to you and I couldn't take it. Just when I'd look at you, I'd get this churning feeling in my stomach. You're so pure and nice and genuine...and here I was spending time with you for a bet,"

"Oh, Ashton," Luke whispered, dropping his hands onto the table. They itched to reach across and hold Ashton's but he wasn't sure what this moment was or what it called for.

A small tear dripped down Ashton's nose, splashing onto the table in front of him, and Luke got up, sitting next to the jock. He scooted his chair as close as he could so they weren't touching but they easily could if they wanted.

"It's fine, I'm fine," Ashton insisted, but Luke put his hand on his arm. He wanted to be the one to initiate contact. "Anyway, I was being a complete dick to you and I felt so bad I actually got sick. So I knew I needed to stop being around you. I figured maybe if I went back to being mean to you, you'd stop trying to be around me and I could get over it."

Luke laughed.

"While you were trying to get away from me, I was trying to figure out how to fix what I did wrong that made you want to stay away."

Ashton shook his head violently, looking desperately into Luke's eyes.

"Don't ever think you were the one who did anything wrong. All you did was be yourself, and I nor anyone else can blame you for that. That's not something anyone should punish you for, and I'd like to apologize for what I did, and what I lead other people to do to you for so many years. That's so not right."

"But it wasn't all your fault. I was way too desperate for someone to like me. You were the first person who was nice to me in so long..." he trailed off, picking at his nails. "It just felt so nice and I never wanted it to stop. I was willing to do anything to make you stay with me."

Ashton nodded thoughtfully.

"If we're going to continue anything between us, friendship or...otherwise," he blushed and looked away from a shyly smiling Luke. "Then you have to promise you won't let me or anyone else walk over you. If something happens that's not right, come to me and we can work it out."

Luke nodded.

"Deal. I'll let you know if I feel I'm being taken advantage of, and you'll stop doing that."

"Okay," Ashton exhaled before biting his lip. Luke leaned over and put his hand on Ashton's cheek, hoping to comfort the nervous boy who  leaned into the touch.

"Even after all that abuse, you're still the kindest, nicest person I've ever met." Ashton admitted, trying to get over the guilt. He couldn't fix his past actions, but he could work every day to be better and kinder than he was the precious day.

Finally Luke was the one who felt a little uncomfortable, he blushed at the praise. Ashton laughed.

"I know you probably won't want anything to do with me ever again, but--"

"Ashton, hey. I trust you," Luke said, looking at him with a gentle expression. "I always did and I knew it was right in that decision."

"But what if I break your trust?" Ashton whispered, looking down.

After a moment of silence, he met Luke's eyes as he awaited his response.

Luke bit his lip, cracking a smile and replying, "Trusting you is my decision, proving me right is your choice."

Ashton thought about that sentence for a moment before gasping.

"Oh my god, I'm breaking up with you. I can't believe you just quoted SpongeBob at a time like this!" the brunette squealed, shaking his head as he watched the blonde double over with laughter.

"Aw come on, it was the perfect way to end the conversation. I do, Ashy, I trust you to not hurt me like that again. You showed remorse, you want to fix your mistakes..."

"I do, Lukey, I do." he leaned close to the boys head, his breath hitching as Luke met him halfway.

"Care to finish what we started the other day?"

"Mhm," Ashton hummed. "I'm so sorry about that too, I—"

Luke closed the distance, tired to hearing Ashton talk. They could talk later but for now...they had unfinished business.

***

I kinda find it funny that Ashton is My Guy™️ but I keep writing all these stories about Luke 🤪

Anyway, I kinda think this book is shit. I'm mostly pleased with it, I did fix it up quite a bit so I could actually be okay publishing it, but idk. It's not my fave.

~ashtonfortherwin