Chapter Text
"No, you can't."
"Why?"
"Michael, you can't just skip classes until autumn break."
"It's only four days!"
"You're not punk rock enough to skip classes."
"I am!"
"You're not. The only time you missed school was this time when you couldn't stop puking."
"Okay, stop attacking me! I'm just tired. I wanna lie in bed all day and do nothing except play video games."
"Well you can bear with school for another week. And then you'll do just that."
"You just don't want to be left alone."
"Exactly."
"Ashton, please! I don't wanna see Luke."
"But he's always skipping classes anyway!"
"What if he doesn't skip again until Friday?"
Ashton glared at him.
"Okay. What about I don't skip classes, but you owe me a pizza?"
"Why the fuck would I owe you a pizza?!"
"'Cause you're forcing me to go to school this week!"
"Alright, whatever! Just stop it, people are glaring."
People were glaring. So Michael stopped talking, because he knew it got on Ashton's nerves when Michael just couldn't seem to lower his voice. He made a habit of reminding him to stop shouting whenever he began to. Which was kinda annoying, but also really cute, because Ashton was acting like a dad. But not like his real dad. Daddy Ashton was much better, and truly cared about him.
You could see it in moments like this, when he forced Michael to go to school, even though stupid Luke Hemmings couldn't leave them alone (especially Michael). Ashton didn't like Luke either, but he always bore with it, and helped Michael do the same.
So he pretended he just didn't want to be left alone, but there was more than that. Ashton just wanted the best for him. And that was so cute and heart-warming that Michael couldn't be angry with him.
A bell rang, announcing the start of the next class. Hundreds of sighs could be heard by all students as they made their way to another hour of torture.
Michael and Ashton had mathematics class in common and were, fortunately, sitting beside each other. Students headed to their seats as the teacher greeted them. They barely had time to sit when he already was giving them an exercise. Nothing surprising.
Michael sighed slightly, opening his book before turning his gaze to Ashton, who was looking behind them.
"What are you looking at?" Michael asked suspiciously.
"See, I told you that Luke wouldn't be here." Ashton said as he turned back to the board. "Shit, do we really have to do that? His exercises are so boring."
"Oh, that's so fuckin' great. We won't even have to support him during art!"
"There's still Calum."
"Yeah, but Calum doesn't bully us." Michael retorted, looking at Ashton like he was stupid.
"Hey, don't give me that glare!"
"Then just think before speaking!"
"I do think before speaking."
"Really? Doesn't seem like it."
"Oh, my god. Just stop it!" Ashton exclaimed with an indignant laugh.
The teacher sat down at his desk, looking as depressed as usual. And then somebody raised their hand and said they didn't understand.
"Well, it's nothing new for you." he replied, before explaining the exercise.
"Sassy mode activated." said Ashton, giggling.
Michael laughed before looking down at his book. He immediately felt annoyed. Seriously, he hated maths. Almost as much as Luke, which was something to say. At least this one wasn't there.
11:44 a.m. That's the first thing Luke saw when he opened his eyes. Well then, he was gonna skip school again. But did he give a fuck? Nope... It was such a normal thing for him now, he almost did it more than go to school.
And it wasn't just to play rebel, he also didn't see any point in it. Waking up early and pretending to listen when rude teachers tried to teach them useless things... it just wasn't his cup of tea. He'd rather stay home, sleep all morning and do nothing. So he often just didn't go and either waited for Calum to come over after his classes, or waited for him in front of school.
Luke got up, put on a shirt and checked his phone. He had three messages. Two from Calum and one from his mom, Liz. He began by reading Calum’s ones.
From Cal, 10:14 a.m.
bet you’re still sleeping…
From Cal, 10:15 a.m.
asshole
"Very pertinent of you Calum." he muttered.
To Cal, 11:53 a.m.
shut up, go back to work. gonna play fifa. You dick
Then he checked his mom’s message, even though he had a good idea of what it contained.
From Mom, 9:15 a.m.
School called me this morning. I said you were sick. Again... Hope you’re at home and everything is alright. Please answer me.
She knew Luke was probably skipping school once again, but she just wanted to know if he was okay and, mostly, safe. She was his mother after all. Even if she felt overwhelmed by Luke’s attitude, she kept on trying to make him do the right things. But he never listened to her.
He loved her, and he understood that she just wanted what was best for him. It was sweet, but come on, he was Luke Hemmings. He couldn’t do normal and wise. But he always respected her. She was the only one, along with Calum, who had his respect. Because they were the only ones who he truly cared about.
He didn’t even remember how Calum became his best friend, he just knew that it began in kindergarten. Which was quite a long time ago. They grew together, always acted like brothers.
When they entered high school, they quickly gained this kind of popularity that made some people respect you, and other hate you. Firstly, a good part of the girls liked them because of how handsome they were. Secondly, making friends with people wasn’t hard for them. So, they were friends with almost everyone.
There was just one category of persons that never earned Luke's friendship: rejects. Bullying them was so much fun for him. It has been years since he started doing it, and no one ever succeeded in stopping him. Some of them tried to replicate, but it was just a waste of time. He couldn’t stand them, and made it a priority to show it. In fact, they were one of the reasons why Luke went to school sometimes.
But today FIFA sounded better.
After school, Ashton took Michael on his bike, as usual, and dropped him home. When Michael entered the house, his mom wasn’t there. Again.
He got into his routine: homework, dinner, TV, and bed. But he didn’t sleep immediately and instead played video games. That was an advantage of being on his own, because when his mom was there, he couldn’t do it. Having the house to himself was kind of a habit since his mom was always out with friends, or whoever they were.
She just didn’t really care about Michael since his dad left them. Which wasn’t so bad, seeing what kind of man he was. Would you want a father who always rejected you because you were destined to be with a person of the same sex? Well, Michael didn’t. So a part of him was glad when his father left.
Right, that wasn't completely true. He kind of still wanted his dad to come back, even though he was narrow-minded. Some parts of him were actually hurting so much sometimes that he felt like he couldn't breathe anymore. His dad may have been homophobic, but he was still his dad, so he necessarily was important to Michael.
He always had worried so much about the way his father would see him; always had looked up to him; always had tried to have his father's approbation and respect. And seeing all his efforts being thrown to pieces so easily, like his dad didn't even care about leaving... it hurt Michael really deeply.
Plus, it wasn’t as if Michael himself was grateful for it. If he could have chosen his soulmate, it certainly wouldn’t be that nickname on his thigh. Everyone in this world was destined to someone. It was supposed to be so simple. Why did it have to be so complicated for him? Why couldn’t he be destined to a nice, and funny girl?
Maybe then his father would have been different. Maybe he wouldn’t have been disappointed to know his son would be gay, and maybe he wouldn’t have left them when Michael got back from school one day, saying he had found his soulmate.
Instead, he inherited of a guy. Who, to make it all worst, was awful and stupid. What had he done in another life to deserve all that shit?
Michael turned off the console and lay down on his bed, sighing desperately.
Absently, he traced with his fingertips the “Lukey” impregnated on his thigh.
When he woke up the next morning, he didn’t feel too annoyed as he only had five classes. Ashton picked him up and drove them to school. They didn’t have any classes in common on Tuesday, so Michael made his way to his History class.
When he arrived, Calum was already here. Yeah, he had the chance of being sat next to Calum Hood. Not that he was an asshole or anything, in fact he was quite a nice guy. But, you know, Luke Hemmings’ best friend and all. It was just kinda strange to talk to him. Sort of awkward.
But Calum didn’t seem to think so, since he didn’t have any problem talking to Michael. He even had the habit of flirting with him. Well, not in a very serious way, but he liked to embarrass him by complimenting him and making some stupid innuendos.
“Hi handsome.” Calum said, smiling foolishly.
Michael glared at him.
“Don’t give me that look. I know you like it, deep down.”
“Shut up. You know I don’t.”
“Relax, I’m just joking. Did you do your exercises?”
“Yes.”
“Can you please tell me the answers?”
“No, fuck you! You can’t ask me at every damn class to help you cheat. Do you ever do your homework?”
“Of course I don’t.”
“Right, of course you don’t. Why do I even ask…”
“Michael, please.”
“No.”
“Come on. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please, Michael. Please. Plea…”
“Okay, okay! Just shut up!“
“Thank you!”
So Michael gave him the answers, once again, and the hour went on as always, animated only by some of Calum’s comments.
It was so confusing to think that this guy, who was anything but mean to Michael, was friends with Luke, resident bad boy of the high school. Even if Calum was kind of a bad boy himself - seeing as he sometimes skipped school, never did his homework and regularly smoked with Luke in the bathroom's school - it was a completely different kind of bad boy.
For example, Calum usually wasn't disrespectful, while Luke was with all people he didn't like. But most importantly, Calum never bullied anyone, while Luke couldn't even control himself. And that alone made Michael wonder how those two could hang out together all the time.
At lunchtime, Luke was sitting beside Calum, as he chose to go to school when he woke up, not feeling like doing nothing. He decided to come bring some action here. Except Calum started to lecture him.
"You really should have come this morning, Luke. There was an important exam in English."
"Oi, I'm here, am I not? It's already quite rare from me to bother coming, you can't also expect me to come the morning." he answered, frowning. "Seriously, Calum, you know I don't care about all that shit."
"Yeah, I know. But maybe you should. You still don't know what you're gonna do after high school. I'm worried about it, I told you a million times."
"Yeah, and there is no need to. I'll be just fine."
They stared at each other for a few seconds, before Luke went back to his lunch. The tan boy just couldn't help wondering what Luke was going to do, as they already were in year 11 and he still didn't do any efforts to succeed in his schooling.
Michael and Ashton sat down at their usual table. And when they looked around, they saw Luke sitting at another table, Calum at his right, several people sitting with them. He wasn't skipping today then. Oh how happy that made them...
Their last hope now was that he would leave them alone for once, which was quite unlikely to happen. The days when Luke let them be really were rare. And when Luke looked up and made eye contact with Michael, he immediately knew today wouldn't be one those days.
It was impressive how just a look could hold so much hatred. It never failed to give Michael goose bumps. It also never failed to irritate him even more. Sometimes he didn’t even remember how they ended up hating each other that passionately, because all he could think of was how much he couldn’t stand him.
They broke eye contact and went back to their lunch. Sat at their table was a guy who Michael knew was in some of Ashton's classes. He also was rejected by everyone, even though Michael had no idea why. Well, actually he didn't even know why he was rejected himself.
Why did everyone hate them so much, when they didn’t even do anything to deserve this? This guy seemed nice, and smart. But he also seemed kinda strange, and people didn’t like strange. Just like they didn’t like nerds, geeks, outcasts, and all kinds of different people.
Ashton began talking with him about some English’s work they had to do, while Michael simply listened to them.
Then, when Michael and Ashton were almost finished, Luke and Calum stood up and got rid of their trays. Of course, they made their way to them.
“Ashton, fuck, look. He’s coming towards us.” Michael said, bowing his head.
“Yeah, I know. Chill out, let’s just ignore him. Don’t even look at him.”
"How could I chill out when all I feel like doing is ripping his fuckin' head off?"
Ashton glared at him. They couldn't add anything as Luke already was sitting down smugly in front of them, while Calum sat at another table with some guys who called him out, still throwing them some looks.
“Hey, shitheads. Did you miss me?” Luke said, smirking.
“Here we go…” mumbled Ashton.
“Oh? Cause you weren’t there? I didn't even notice.” Michael replied with a fake smile.
“Nope, I was busy fucking your mom.”
"I don't think she would be desperate enough to fuck trashy guys with little dicks.”
The blond guy lost his smile. Before he could retort, Ashton urged Michael to just get up and get rid of their trays. They were about to go when Luke suddenly gripped Michael’s arm, hard.
“I highly recommend you not to say things like that again. I don't really appreciate when rejects like you talk back at me.” he snarled.
Michael freed himself from Luke’s grip.
“If you think I’m gonna let you talk to me like you do and not say anything, you’re completely wrong.”
Then he walked away. When Calum rejoined him, Luke hadn't moved from his seat and looked ready to kill someone.
“Luke, just let it go."
The quiffed guy took his bag and left the cafeteria.
At the end of the day, Ashton and Michael found themselves alone in Ashton’s room. After school, they almost always went either to Ashton's, or to Michael's.
Sometimes Michael wondered how they still had things to say to each other, how they still found something to do together, but the truth was that all of this was so natural that they didn't even have to think about what to say or do.
And if one of them didn't feel like talking or doing anything, then they just lied together in bed and listened to some music. Sometimes they cuddled until one of them fell asleep. As Michael was the most clingy of them, he didn't even need to ask anymore before clinging to Ashton and burying his face in his chest, while Ashton circled him with his arms.
Even if some people may found this kinda strange and ambiguous, it was all just affection to them. Even Ashton's mom had been suspecting when they first started doing it, but she quickly understood that their friendship was so strong now that there couldn't ever be any ambiguity between them, and that they seriously just felt like brothers to each other.
Today was one of these days. They were lying in Ashton's bed, and Michael was resting his head on top of Ashton's chest, who was playing with Michael's hair. There was no doubt that the intercation with Luke at lunchtime had made Michael a bit grumpy, and therefore cuddly to Ashton. But it definitely didn't bother him. Ashton always liked Michael's cuddles.
“I had English with Luke this afternoon.” he said. “He sent away the guy who was sitting beside me to sit at his place.”
“Seriously?” asked Michael, annoyed.
“Yes, seriously. He kept on attacking me, and he didn’t do anything when we were supposed to work together. He just pissed me off. And after the class, he bullied this poor Kevin.”
“Isn’t he this guy who’s always on his own? The brunette who sat at our table at lunchtime?”
“Yeah, that’s him.”
As Michael was about to say something probably insulting towards Luke, someone knocked at the door. Ashton's mom opened the door, a cute smile on her face - the same one as Ashton. Michael loved this smile. Actually, it probably was his favorite one in the whole world.
Plus, Ashton's mom was as kind as her son, Michael liked her a lot. She had always loved him, and welcomed him in her house anytime, no matter if it was simply Ashton inviting him over, or Michael needing to get away from his own empty house.
“Hi honey, hi Michael. I just wanted to know if you were gonna stay for dinner tonight.”
“Uh, I don’t know. Probably. Am I?” said Michael, looking at Ashton.
“Yes Mom, he is.”
“Well it’s almost ready. I’ll call you.” she said, still smiling sweetly.
“Okay, thanks.”
“By the way Michael, I love your blue streak.”
He gave her a big smile. Michael really liked Ashton’s mom.
On Wednesday, Michael only had three hours. Two of them were P.E.
P.E. had always been pure torture to Michael, as he trully didn't see any point in doing sports, and, to make it worst, sucked at all of them. He found it stupid to be evaluated in physical abilities. Like, seriously, who cared? But he had no choice. So he always tried his best - which wasn't much - even though it pissed him off.
Today, he had at least one relief: Luke was supposed to be in his P.E. class, but apparently skipped again.
Seeing as Ashton also only had three classes, they soon found themselves at Michael's during lunch. And talking about Luke again.
“I think you scared him away.” giggled Ashton.
“I don’t think so. Or, well, maybe he does have a little dick, and now he’s upset.” answered Michael, laughing lightly.
“Bad for you.” said Ashton, sarcastically.
“Yeah, I know. It couldn’t be worst actually. Not only is he the biggest asshole we’ve ever met, but he also has a little dick. I’m really starting to think I’ve been cursed.” he said ironically.
Ashton laughed.
“Doesn’t matter anyway. You’re not forced to be with him just ‘cause you’ve got his nickname on your thigh.”
Of course, Ashton knew about Luke being his soulmate and all - he couldn't hide anything from him.
But Ashton never accepted to tell him who was his, or even show him his thigh. He always found a way to hid the nickname on his leg actually, and Michael hadn't one clue about who it could be. Or, well, he obviously tought of some people, except Ashton never gave him any hint, and thus never indicated him if he was wrong or right.
The only thing he knew was that it was a guy. He admitted it to Michael when Michael himself told him his soulmate was a boy. He looked so shameful that Ashton felt like he had to tell him.
Michael always wondered who it was, why Ashton didn't want to tell him, and if he was ever going to know. So he often tried to manipulate Ashton into giving him some hints. Yet, it never worked.
“Is that what you think about your soulmate? And is that why you won’t tell me who it is? Is he as bad as Luke?”
“You know I’m not gonna talk about this with you. You already tried a hundred times.”
“Does anyone know? Except from you, obviously. Don't you dare answer that again.”
“He probably does. And probably doesn’t care.” he said bitterly.
“He can’t not care about a guy like you. Not with a smile like yours.”
“Yeah, right. If you say so.”
“Won’t you ever tell me?”
“I don’t know. Don’t think so. Now can we please talk about something else?”
“Why don’t we play FIFA?”
Ashton glared at him.
“What about we talk about my soulmate after all?”
“I know, you’d better play it in real life. But I’m too scared about the sun burning me alive.”
Ashton laughed, and Michael felt victorious as he made the boy smile again.