(Phoenix's POV)
"Are you okay, love?"
I nodded and held the bag of frozen peas to my face. It hurt, badly. My jaw was swollen and I had a large bruise covering my entire cheek. My eye was partially swollen shut as well.
Luke brushed his fingertips lightly over my jaw and I winced. "Sorry, babe."
I leaned back against the counter and Luke stared.
"What are you looking at?" I asked.
He shook his head. "I'm just worried about you. What if I hadn't been there last night? Or Ashton? What if you and Raven had gone out by yourselves? What else would he have done to you?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. I don't want to know. All I know is that you were there when I needed you and that's all that matters."
"Does anything else hurt?" He asked, looking at the bruise on the back of my arm from making contact with the stall door when I'd fallen.
I nodded. "My back and my shoulders. When I fell I hit the stall door really hard."
He spun me around and I felt his fingertips graze over my shoulders and upper back. "You're bruised pretty badly, actually."
He pressed lightly and I whined. "Sorry, sorry."
I pulled at the bottom of the bustier I was still wearing. I hadn't changed the night before and the tight seams were cutting into my sides. "Will you help me get changed? It kind of hurts to move."
Luke's eyes widened for a fraction of a second before he nodded and took me back upstairs.
Once we were in our bedroom, he shut the door and walked over to the dresser. He pulled out my favorite pair of plush pajama shorts and slouchy pink tank top. "Do you need a, uh, bra?"
I nodded and he grabbed a black one out the drawer.
"Unzip this." I said, referring to the tight bustier.
He grabbed the zipper and his hand pulled it down shakily.
I let it fall to the floor and Luke looked away.
"Babe, I don't care if you look at my boobs." I laughed lightly.
He gave me a brief smile but didn't let his eyes trail any lower than my chin.
"Do you, uh, need help with the skirt too?" He asked and I nodded.
He grabbed the waistband of the skirt, still without once looking at my chest, and tugged it down. It pooled around my feet and I stepped out of it. He then handed me the bra he'd grabbed, easily the sluttiest bra I had. Black lace, adorned with a red pattern tracing along the top of the cups.
I smiled just a little and slipped it onto my shoulders. "Can you fasten it for me?"
"I can try. I've only ever unfastened a bra and that was just once." He said.
I laughed. "It's not that hard. Just clip on the second part."
After a few seconds of struggling and cursing, it caught he smiled. "I got it."
He then helped me slip the tank top on and while I adjusted my bra straps, he tugged my shorts up and tied the little string.
"Thanks, babe." I said, stretching onto my toes to give him a kiss.
He kissed back briefly. "No problem."
He handed me the bag of peas I'd placed on the desk while changing and I held it back up to my face. It didn't help much but did take at least a little bit of pain out of the dark purple bruise.
"So, you never really told me exactly what happened last night." Luke said.
I chewed my bottom lip and walked over to the bed. I sat down cross legged and leaned against the headboard. Luke sat the same way but at the foot of the bed so he could face me.
"Okay. So, basically me and Raven went in the bathroom to look for Kasey because we thought maybe she got sick or something. When we walked in we heard, like, moaning. Then we looked under the stall and we could two peoples' feet. I recognized the one person as Kasey because of the shoes she was wearing. And the other person was a guy wearing Nike's. So we pretended we didn't know and Kasey was saying she didn't feel well. Eventually I just got annoyed and decided we were going to tell Ashton. But then Kasey came out, all disheveled and trashy, saying we would ruin his night blah blah blah. Then Jarrod came out and he said something about wanting to hurt you so I just punched him. Then he hit me back, really hard. And I fell down and Raven came running over to help but he shoved her and she fell and Kasey ran away like a little bitch. Jarrod was about to hit me again when Raven opened up the door and screamed for Ashton because he was the closest. Then he came in and Raven sent Calum to find you. Ashton immediately pushed Jarrod away and was hitting him and Raven made sure I was okay and then you guys all came in and you did the same thing as Ashton basically and Calum helped me take care of my face. And Michael was trying to calm me and Raven down. Then we took Jarrod to Nat's to avoid any trouble and we came home. The end." I rambled.
"So Kasey and Jarrod hooked up?" He asked.
"Apparently."
"Has anyone told Ash?"
"Oh fuck. I don't know." I said before jumping up and running towards Raven and Mikey's room. I knocked on the door and it opened a second later.
"Did you tell Ashton about what happened with Kasey?" I asked my sister.
She nodded with a sad look in her eyes.
"Should I go talk to him?" I asked.
She nodded again. "You always know how to calm him down."
I turned and walked towards Ashton's door. I took a deep breath and knocked. "Ash, it's Phoenix. Can I come in?"
"Yeah." He called quietly.
I walked into the dark room and shut the door behind me. All of the lights were off the and the curtains were drawn.
It took a second for my eyes to adjust but I saw Ashton laying face down in his bed. His head buried under a pillow. He still wore the jeans he'd had on the night before but had shed his shirt.
"Raven said she told you." I said.
He said something, his voice muffled by the pillow.
I walked over and pulled the pillow off his head and placed his below his head.
He stared up at me with watery eyes.
"It's not your fault." I said, running my hand through his messy hair.
"Who's then?" He asked.
"It's her fault, Ash. And Jarrod as well. You didn't do anything. As far as I could tell, you were perfect to her the whole night." I said.
He shook his head. "You were drunk."
"Not too drunk to forget."
He buried his face in the pillow and groaned.
I pushed him over on the bed a little bit and laid beside him. I laid over his back, resting my unbruised cheek against dip of his spine. One of my hands rested on his shoulder and the other searched for his hand. He noticed me searching and held his left hand out for me to grab.
"Will you sing to me?" He murmered.
I smiled. "Of course. What do you want me to sing?"
"Anything." He said.
I thought for a second before I began singing Stay With Me by Sam Smith. It was one of Ashton's favorite songs and he loved hearing me sing it.
He took in a shakey breath as I finished the first chorus and I raised my head. I looked up at him. "You okay?"
"Just keep singing."
So I did. I finished the song and sat up a little. "Did that help?"
"A little." He muttered.
I squeezed his hand once.
"Will you just... Will you just lay with me for a little while?" He asked.
"Of course." I said and laid back down across his back.
At some point, between talking about the previous night and sharing stories of past breakups, Ashton and I fell asleep.
I was sleeping against Ashton's strong back when someone gently shook my shoulders.
I opened my eyes to see my sister standing in front of me with a large smile on her face and a party hat on her head. I was confused until I looked over at the clock it was 12:01 on the 16th of July. It was Luke's 18th birthday.
I jumped up immediately and shook Ashton awake.
"Is Luke awake?" I asked Raven quietyly.
She shook her head and whispered. "Not yet."
I grinned and she handed Ashton and I party hats which we gladly put on. Michael stood in the doorway with a hat of his own and held a small cake.
"Where did you get the cake?" I asked.
"We made it!" Calum said proudly.
I grinned. "It's so cute."
He tore open a pack of noise makers with his teeth and handed one to each of us.
A few seconds later we all stood outside the door to me and Luke's room.
"Okay, so I'll open the door really quietly and we'll be really quiet when we go in. Calum, you'll stand by the light switch. I'll count to three, we'll all yell surprise, that's when you'll turn the lights on. And then we'll go crazy and yell happy birthday and blow the noise makers and- fuck - who has the confetti shakers?" Raven said.
"I have them." Calum said.
Raven took one of them from his hand and popped the small cap off, Ashton took another, and Calum kept one for himself.
Just before we went in, Raven lit the candles on top of the cake.
Then she grabbed the door handle and twisted it slowly before pushing it open. I grabbed her hand to stop the door before she pushed it any further because it creaked at a certain point.
We all crept into the room and I saw Luke laying on his side, my pillow under his head.
I smiled softly and we all stood around the bed.
Raven almostly silently counted to three.
After three everyone screamed surprise.
Luke started and nearly rolled off the other side of the bed.
We blew the noise makers and screamed happy birthday and Calum flipped the lights on.
Luke smiled when he saw Michael holding a birthday cake with the number 18 candle and all of our party hats and the confetti that rained down on his head and our duvet when Raven, Calum, and Ashton shook the small tubes filled with it.
We quieted down a minute later and he was still grinning. "I fucking love you guys."
He blew out the candles on the birthday cake and gave everyone a hug.
He stepped up to me and squeezed me tightly, placing a small kiss on my lips. "I love you."
"I love you." I whispered. "Happy birthday, baby."
We pulled apart a second later.
"Okay. Time for fun. Everyone meet in the kitchen in like two minutes so Lukey can open his present and we can eat this beautiful cake." Raven said.
Everyone nodded.
Calum and Ashton went to their bedrooms to retrieve their gifts, Michael took the cake down to the kitchen while Raven got their present, and I shooed Luke out of the room and instructed him to follow Mikey so I could get the gift that had arrived the previous day.
When I could hear him talking to Michael, I opened my drawer of the desk and pulled out the square box wrapped in blue paper and topped with a silver bow.
Everyone headed downstairs and placed the gifts on the breakfast bar in the kitchen.
"Guys, you really shouldn't have done this. Any of it." Luke said.
We all rolled our eyes.
"Luke, oh my god, shut up." Calum said. "Don't pretend you're not going to love all of these."
Luke laughed before grabbing the bag Ashton held out. He tore tissue paper out of the way and pulled something out.
It was a record. An actual vinyl record.
"Holy shit." Luke muttered.
I realized it was Blink 182's self titled album, on vinyl.
Ashton grinned. "I saw a couple weeks ago. I knew I had to get it for you, mate."
Luke gently placed the record on the counter and hugged Ashton. "Thank you so much."
I smiled and the boys pulled apart.
"Mine next!" Calum said and held out a box.
Luke tore the wrapping paper off and pulled the top off the box.
He laughed. "Socks."
"Look what's in the socks." Calum said.
Luke reached into one of the socks and pulled out a pair of scissors. He gave Calum a look.
"So you can cut up that damned fake ID." He said and Luke laughed.
"The real present is in the bottom." Calum explained.
He pulled something out that was rather large and wrapped in paper.
He removed the paper to reveal a large glass beer mug with the 5 Seconds Of Summer tally marks on it. "Dude!"
"You can't get much better than custom drinkware." Calum said.
Luke hugged Calum just as he had Ashton.
"This one's from both me and Mikey." Raven said and handed him the next gift.
It was a rather small box adorned with a bow.
He opened it up to reveal an beautiful black watch.
He let out a low whistle and pulled it out.
Luke clipped it around his wrist and grinned. "This is sick as hell."
He hugged Raven and Michael and thanked them.
I handed Luke the small box and he smiled.
He ripped the paper and tossed it to the side.
I held my breath as he pulled the top off.
He picked up the first present and grinned. It was a black Foo Fighters t-shirt.
I knew he didn't have any Foo Fighters shirts and I figured it would go well with gift number two.
"Look in the bottom." I whispered.
He folded the shirt and laid it with his other gifts before pulling out the small envelope laying in the bottom of the box.
His eyes met mine briefly before he opened it and pulled out six small slips of paper.
His blue eyes met mine once more.
"Read what they say, baby." I encouraged.
Luke turned his attention back to the slips.
He read the print several times before it sunk in. His eyes widened and he looked back and forth between me and the tickets.
"Phoe." He whispered and ran at me, the slips still in his hand.
He wrapped his arms around my waist tightly and picked me up.
"These are amazing. Thank you so much, princess. This is the best thing anyone could've ever gotten me. Thank you so much. I love you. God, I love you." He whispered in my ear.
I looked up at him and I swear he had tears in his eyes. "Don't cry, birthday boy."
He laughed shakily. "They're amazing. I just... I can't ever thank you enough. This is easily the best present I've ever gotten. Ever."
I smiled. "You're welcome."
He hugged me one more time before turned his attention back to the rest of our friends.
"Well, go on! Tell us." Ashton ancouraged.
Luke smiled widely. "Uh, they're six concert tickets for a show next week."
Everyone grinned.
"Who is it?" Mikey asked.
Luke turned to me, his smile growing bigger.
"The Foo Fighters. It's tickets to the Foo Fighters."
~!Surprise! I hope you guys liked this chapter. It's definitely my favorite chapter so far just because of the end, omg. Please review and tell me what you think. I hope you guys love reading this as much as I love writing it. Thanks so much for everythings, guys. I love you heaps. -Aly!~