Definition [ot4]

three

Ashton's walking from the kitchen to the living room when the phone falls out of his hands and drops to the floor with a terrible shattering noise.

Calum glances over to see him frantically bending down to grab it, flipping it over, then groaning in annoyance. Michael and Luke glance over from where they're sitting, practically in each other's laps, on the couch.

"Well, shit," Ashton says. "Isn't that just fucking great?"

He scowls and runs his hand across the cracks in the screen, standing up again and pausing to make sure the phone still actually works. Luke hums a little and turns back to the television, hands resting on top of Michael's thighs where they're in his lap.

Ashton makes a frustrated noise when the phone doesn't even turn on. "That's fucking gay." He mutters angrily.

Luke's head snaps back over to him. "What the fuck did you just say?"

Ashton glances away from the phone and over at Luke, while Michael and Calum share an awkward glance. They haven't really made huge attempts to speak to each other since the band meeting, which isn't that hard, considering Calum only comes out of his room like, once a day for food.

"Dude, chill," Ashton says. "Its jut a saying."

"Its not synonymous with broken!" Luke scoffs.

Michael reaches over to rub Luke's shoulder comfortingly. "Just ignore him, he's straight, he's not going to get it."

Luke looks back at Ashton and gets this terrible sneer on his face that Calum's never seen before. "Hetero," he hisses, like its an extremely vulgar word that needs to be hidden away from small children. Calum gapes at him.

Ashton sputters for a few seconds, stuttering out useless syllables and word fragments that he can't seem to string together to make a coherent sentence. His face is red, but Calum can't tell if its from anger or embarrassment, and his eyes are wide.

Michael and Luke watch him in amusement, like they're proud of making him hurt, or something.

"Excuse me?" Ashton finally gets out.

"Is asexuality even a sexuality?" Luke asks. "It doesn't explain anything about who you like, I don't think it counts as a sexuality. You're not queer, Ash, get over yourself."

Ashton scoffs loudly. "I'm plenty queer!"

Calum can't believe this is an argument they're having.

"Lgbt," Michael says suddenly. "Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender. Luke's on there, Calum's on there, but where's Ashton? Oh, that's right, with the other allies."

"I'm not trans," Calum mutters, but its really no use anymore. No one's listening to him, and even if they were, they'd just ignore him. Besides, this is Ashton's fight, Calum's not going to steal the attention from him now.

"Asexual is queer!" Ashton argues weakly. "I looked it up, it's totally queer!"

"Actually, its optional," Luke shrugs, still keeping that nasty expression on his face. "When your sexuality is optional, you know its not real."

"I'm right here!" Ashton yells suddenly. Calum flinches at the loud tone. "I'm real, I'm ace, and i exist! Don't tell me I don't!"

"Uh," Calum steps in, because Ashton's struggling to defend himself. And Ashton would do the same for him if their roles were reversed. "The term is usually lgbta+ now, on support groups or help lines."

"You would know," Luke mutters, earning a snort of laughter from Michael. Calum sinks down in his chair and wonders how his best friends can be so mean.

"The a stands for allies and Ashton," Michael hums.

"The a stands for asexual!" Ashton protests. "Besides, you're not in the lgbt spectrum either, you fucking hypocrite!"

"I don't need to be," Michael shrugs nonchalantly. "I know I'm queer, I don't need a little nametag to make me feel like I'm accepted in the community. Fucking hetero."

Ashton starts stuttering again, so Calum helps him out.

"Heterosexual is a person who's sexually attracted to someone of the opposite gender," he explains. "Ashton's not, so he's not heterosexual. Which means he's queer."

"Calum, we're not even talking to you," Luke quips. "This isn't your argument, stay out of it."

"Oh, fuck off, homo," Calum snaps.

"Fucking girl," Luke counters.

Calum snorts at the weak insult. "You say that like its a bad thing." Luke gapes at him for a second, allowing Ashton to take over the argument and steer it back on track.

"A is for asexual, asexual is just as important as your dumb sexuality!" He exclaims.

"Yeah, except your doesn't exist," Michael mutters.

"I don't think you understand how hard it is to be ace!" Ashton gestures towards the forgotten television, where there's some couple kissing. Calum can't remember what movie was even playing. "This makes me fucking cringe! The entire world revolves around sex, and I'm left wondering what the fuck is wrong with me! You, all three of you, constantly talk about how hot someone is or how you'd fuck them, and I can't!

"Do you know how long I felt like there was something broken inside me, because my sex drive wasn't working? I thought I was fucking defective, because you were all talking about girls or guys or whatever the fuck you were into that day, and I didn't get it! I still don't! So fuck you, telling me I don't exist, I struggled just as much as you all did, fuck you!"

Ashton ends on that note, huffing loudly and storming out. The living room is dead silent. Ashton's bedroom door slams shut then, making the three of them jump. Its quiet for a few more seconds, before Luke whispers, "shit."

"Yeah, shit," Calum echoes. "I don't know if you dumbasses know this, probably not, but who do you think he came to when he was struggling with this?" Michael and Luke are still silent. "He cried all over me, complaining about he should be taken back because he was defective, and I didn't get it until now. So thanks for bringing back those emotions, you assholes."

Calum remembers when Ashton had crawled into his bed a year prior, curling up against Calum's chest in the middle of the night and sobbing violently, asking what was wrong with him. He remembers rubbing Ashton's back softly and kissing the top of his head, even though Ashton had cringed away.

"Oh," Luke whispers.

Calum grits his teeth and refrains from killing them both.

((Y'all this was 210% made up of things people have actually said to me. Like, to my face. No joke.

Think before you speak, my fronds.

Asexual alligator on the side because you know, Ashton and shit. (I put the asexual alligator on the last chapter and some ace valentines on the one before that, too because it's fckn gr8.)

-Mel))