"Ashton? Please respond. You went quiet all of a sudden," Michael begged as he poked my sides, earning no reaction from me. I'm quite ticklish, but right now I just wasn't feeling it.

Harry had his arms wrapped around me, believing that it would comfort me, but it wasn't helping at all. "Was it because of what we said?" he asked. "Did we go too far? We're sorry. Please talk."

"Luke looks worried. Don't look so glum."

He's not even paying attention to the little football game. His attention's on me.

I glanced up at Luke and saw that his eyes were concentrated on me. Fuck, why did I have to be on his mind right now?

"Hey!" Louis shouted, tossing the ball at Luke so it hit him right on the head. "Pay attention!"

I laughed a bit, because Luke seemed so confused when he looked over at Louis. His eyes briefly gazed at me, and when he saw the smile on my face he had one as well. I saw Louis pick the football up and bounced it back on Luke's head, scolding him once again.

"Aw, Ashy smiled," Michael cooed, grabbing my cheek and squeezing it hard. I swatted his hand away, shooting him a glare. "Hey, I know what'll make you smile again!" He reached into his pocket and fished out his phone. I raised an eyebrow and he shoved his phone into my hands. I stared down at it before Michael began unlocking the phone, going to his videos.

He opened up this one video and my eyebrows knitted together when I just saw a sleeping Calum.

"What the hell? How's a sleeping freshman going to make him smile?" Harry asked, pointing at the video.

"What are you ta-" Michael began, but cut himself off when he saw what was playing. "Oh, shit!" He snatched the phone from me and began sliding his thumb across the screen.

"I just have to ask," Harry started, "why the hell do you have a video of him sleeping?"

"Here, it's this one," Michael ignored Harry as he plopped his phone onto my lap. I just stared down at it.

I was in the video with Luke standing behind me. I was glaring at Michael and I looked like I was about to say something, but I was stopped when Luke's arms went around my waist. I noticed my eyebrows raised and looked anywhere but at the camera.

Luke brought his face close to my ear, whispering something, but I don't remember what he said. He pulled his head away, bringing it to the back of mine. His eyes were closed as he then did what he did.

I smiled, because I remember this.

It was the first kiss Luke gave me.

In the video he pulled away and began walking off, leaving a confused me staring at him. He called out that he was going to come over to my place and check up on me.

I watched as I turned around and I remember seeing the gaping looks on Michael and Harry's faces.

The next thing I heard was, "I'm done. I am so done. This is too much for me. Here are your keys. I'm going to detention early." Harry then appeared in the video, shoving my keys at me, and ran off.

"Wait! My phone!" I had said, reaching my arm out at him, but he was already gone. A groan escaped me as I sat down beside Michael who still had the phone aimed at me. "Stop that," I snapped at him, and then the camera started shaking vigorously.

In the video Michael had yelled out, "I GOT THAT ON VIDEO! YOU WANNA SEE?! IT'S SO CUTE!"

Then the video stopped there.

"Can you send that to me?" I heard a voice say and I jumped a bit, seeing Luke was looking down at Michael's phone.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him, my eyes also catching sight of Calum and Louis. Louis looked a bit annoyed at the fact that they were here instead of out on the field. I bit my lower lip, feeling a bit guilty.

"HE SPEAKS!" Michael exclaimed, throwing his arms above his head. "ASHTON IRWIN SPEAKS! WE MUST CELEBRATE!"

"WITH GOLDFISH CRACKERS!" Harry shouted next.

"No more goldfish crackers, please," I sighed, burying my face into my hands. I felt Michael's phone slip from my hands and I assumed it was Michael taking back his phone.

"Oh, if you want to send that video to yourself," Michael began, "send it to Ashton as well, so once his phone works again he can watch it and masturbate to it."

I sat upright and glared at Michael, slapping him. I only ended up failing as he scooted away, but he slid off the seat and onto the ground, earning a laugh from Harry. Louis just had his arms crossed and rolled his eyes.

"And that concludes our fifteen minute football session," Louis growled. "I think we're done for today. Come on, Haz, let's go." He grabbed a laughing Harry's hand and pulled him away from us.

"There goes our ride," Calum sighed.

"We can just have Ashton drive us back home," Michael said, not even asking for permission. I looked up and shook my head before jumping off of the table. Luke handed Michael's phone back to the owner and then the four of us began walking to my car. "Where to now?"

"We can go to my place," Calum suggested. "Nobody's there right now."

"Your parents are completely okay with that?"

"Who said my parents had to know?"

"Oh, you're such a rebellious Asian kid."

"I'm Kiwi and Scottish! There's no Asian trait in me!"

"Whatever you say, Chang." Calum began pouting, crossing his arms over his chest and huffing out like a child. "Aw, cute Asian boy."

"Shut up."

"Cute, sassy Asian boy." Michael swung his arm around Calum's shoulder, much to the younger boy's annoyance. I pulled my keys out to unlock the car door.

"Shot gun!" Michael exclaimed.

"Great, so if Ashton were to get us all into an accident, you'd be the one to die from the airbag," Luke told him.

"... Never mind, you can go die instead." Michael climbed into the backseat with Calum following him.

"The airbag is meant to protect you," Calum said as Luke and I got into the seats in the front. "It can kill, but it's better than crashing into the dashboard."

"We should watch movies when we get to Cal's!" Michael yelled, causing Calum to pout when he was ignored by him. "What do you think, Ash?"

"That's cool," I answered as I started the car and began pulling out of the parking spot. "Where's your house, Calum?"

"I'll give you directions throughout the drive," he replied. I nodded as I left the parking lot. I could feel Luke's eyes on me the entire time, and I tried my very best to push the uncomfortable feeling away.

I think I'm worrying him. I don't want that happening. It means that I'm still on his mind. I really need to do something about that.

------

"Welcome to la casa de los Hoods!" Calum exclaimed as we stepped into his house. It was really neat and clean, almost like nothing has been messed with at all.

"Why are you speaking Spanish?" Michael asked. "You're supposed to be speaking the language of your people."

"What, English?"

"Do you speak Chinese?"

Calum pushed Michael so he fell on the couch that was nearby before he marched off to wherever.

"Idiot," he mumbled under his breath.

"Hey, I have a shirt that says that!" Michael exclaimed, a smile on his face. He then got up and went after Calum, me following right behind him. I didn't get to take a step forward before I felt fingers wrap around my wrist, holding me back. I turned around and was met with Luke's blue eyes.

"Are you still thinking you're distracting me?" he asked.

"N-No," I said, trying to sound convincing, but even I wouldn't believe that, because of the way I said it.

"Look, Ash, you have to believe me." He cupped my face in his hands and leaned in so our foreheads were touching. "You're in no way a distraction. Okay?"

I nodded and was about to mutter something in reply, but Luke cut me off by pressing his lips to mine. It was gentle at first, until he picked me up and I wrapped my legs around his body. I could feel Luke walking, but I didn't pay much mind to where, because I was too into the kiss that had gotten more intense.

The next thing I knew Luke was leaning forward, making me believe that he was going to drop me, but then my back was pressed into what seemed like a couch and Luke climbed on top of me.

"Just kissing," he whispered. "Nothing else, right?"

"Yeah," I managed to breathe out, "only kissing." But I had a feeling that there's going to be a little bit more than just kissing.

His lips brushed against mine before we were brought into another kiss. It involved more tongue this time and I felt his hand slide under my shirt. See, more than just kissing.

His other hand went to my hair, running through it. My hands wrapped around his body and clung to his shirt behind him, pulling him closer to me so our chests were touching.

"Ash! Luke!" Luke pulled away from me and our eyes darted for where the voice was coming from. He and I scooted away from one another until we were on opposite sides of the couch. I just realized now that my face had heated up and I placed my hands on my cheeks, hoping it'd cool my face down.

Then Michael appeared, staring at us. I was hoping he wouldn't suspect anything, but then he began laughing.

"Okay, there's no way nothing hot happened just before I came in here. "You two are so far apart. Anyway, we're going to watch Mulan, just because we can. Let's go."

Luke and I glanced at each other once Michael scurried off. We both stood up at the same time, Luke immediately grabbing my hand.

"I'm guessing you don't know where Cal's room is," he said, shrugging. "It's this way."

------

"LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS!" Michael sang loudly, and he purposely meant to make it sound annoying.

"TO DEFEAT... THE HUNS!" Calum added, tossing his arm around Michael as my idiot best friend did the same.

As they sang I was playing around on Luke's phone. He let me use it while he slept on top of me. His arms were wrapped around me and his head was over my shoulder while my arms were around him, holding his phone up

so I could see it. His legs were on either side of one of mine, and he was a bit heavy, but it didn't matter.

Small snores escaped him and I smiled, laughing a bit. How can he sleep through Michael and Calum's loud singing?

While I was playing Chuzzle on his phone his phone vibrated and a text popped up.

It was from Aleisha and it read:

AM: did you tell him yet?

I raised an eyebrow, wondering what she was referring to. I didn't want to be too nosy, so I ignored the text.

Five minutes later she sent another text.

AM: ill take that as no. you need to tell him soon. its not ok to lie to him.

What is she talking about?

I was really tempted to check what was going on, but I don't want Luke to get mad at me for snooping through his phone.

But what if this conversation has to do with me?

Maybe I could check just a bit. Only this once.

I went to the messages and began looking through the conversation from the beginning.

AM: hey wanna hang out later?

LH: sure. meet me at the park

I checked when those messages were sent and saw that it was during the summer vacation. I scrolled through more messages until I saw ones that were sent on Friday.

AM: u left the game? why?

There was no reply from Luke after. Then there was one sent hours after that one.

AM: r u ok?

AM: is he takin care of u?

LH: yeah

AM: use a condom (;

LH: birch

LH: shit i meant bitch

AM: loser

I laughed a little at that as I kept scrolling. Then there were no messages yesterday. However, there were a few from this morning.

LH: i need to make a confession.

AM: what is it?

LH: call plz. faster to explain. but we need to make it quick.

AM: why?

Then there was a thirty minute gap between the two messages.

I don't remember him calling anyone this morning. Where was I when he made that phone call?

Wait.

Is Luke hiding something from me?

"Michael, stop singing," I heard Calum scold. "The song's over. Just enjoy the movie now."

"It's stuck in my head," Michael whined. "Your fault for picking this movie."

"You picked it. I wanted to watch Frozen."

"And I'm glad we didn't pick that one."

"Just let it go, Mikey."

"Shut up, Cal. Go back to enjoying the Mulan movie. Disrupting just to talk about Frozen."

"Oh, my God."

I tuned them out by returning to reading the messages.

LH: sorry for hanging up so suddenly

AM: why did you?

LH: i thought he was coming back

Who's 'he'? Am I that 'he'?

AM: its fine. you should tell arse

AM: the hell? i meant ash. how did that turn into arse?

LH: i dont wanna lose him

AM: fine. just dont take too long, ok? the sooner the better

Then it pretty much ended there. The next message was the last two Aleisha sent.

I felt Luke stir on top of me and I quickly exited out of the message app and set the phone aside.

Luke only nuzzled his nose into my hair before he was back to sleeping.

So, Luke's lying and keeping secrets from me?

I worried my bottom lip, my head trying to think of what he might be lying to me about.

What in the world could Luke possibly be hiding from me?