14 | l.s mpreg

chapter eight

"Zayn... why is there a giant bucket of condoms in the bathroom upstairs?" Liam asked as he walked down the stairs and into the basement where the group of friends spent a lot of time. Zayn's father had converted the basement into a hangout space for him, although Zayn was pretty sure it was only because he and his friends could be quite annoying at times.

"Uh, they're my brother's," Zayn said with a shrug of his shoulders, not looking up from the screen of the television where he was playing Mario Kart with Niall, Ashton, and Luke, who seemed perfectly fine with one another at the moment.

"Okay, sure. But does he really need that many?" Liam asked curiously as he plopped down onto the couch next to Eleanor.

"Have you seen him?" Eleanor asked as she looked over at Liam. "I mean... wow." She said with a small smile and then laughed a little more when Zayn gave her a look. "Hey, I'm only telling the truth here."

"I'm serious, guys. There were like a thousand condoms in that bucket. I'm pretty sure anyway." Liam said and then looked over at the screen where Ashton was in the lead.

"Did you sit there an individually count them or something?" Louis asked with a small, amused smile as he glanced over at Liam. "Because a thousand is a pretty specific number, Li."

"Okay, so it was an estimate." Liam rolled his eyes and then shook his head. 

"Are you all done talking about Zayn's older brother's condoms?" Luke questioned, his eyes staying glued to the screen doing his best to get past Ashton, but he was unsuccessful thus far.

"Can we talk about Zayn's older brother instead? Because... he really is..." Harry trailed off and then glanced at Louis who looked at Harry in a way that told him to continue, but Harry decided against it, laughing a little and then kissed his boyfriend's cheek gently.

"I know what we can talk about," Ashton said moments later, and honestly it sounded as if he was about to stir up some drama and no one was trying to stop it. Niall gave Ashton a knowing look and Luke only glanced over at Ashton for a moment before looking at the screen again. "How are things going with Bella, Luke?" Ashton asked, sounding less than pleased.

"Ashton, seriously?" Luke asked and then lowered his controller, not even really trying to play the game anymore because he was too preoccupied with Ashton's jealous words. 

"Seriously," Ashton answered, the room grows quiet except for the sounds from the game while the rest of the room watched Ashton and Luke. Well, apart from Zayn and Niall who were still playing the game. "Because I heard a little rumor going around."

"Ash, maybe you should—"

"I heard that you two are pretty serious already." Ashton ignored Liam's words completely and continued talking to Luke. 

"You have no clue what you're talking about, Ashton," Luke said, and he wasn't even bothering to play the game anymore as his controller was lying in his lap, his eyes staring at Ashton.

"How was she?" Ashton asked and the room was starting to feel very tense, but there wasn't much their friends could do.

"Ash—"

"How... was she?" Ashton asked again as he turned his head to look at Luke who was still staring at Ashton.

"Better than you," Luke replied without missing a beat, and now no one was paying attention to the game anymore, instead focusing instead on the two boys. They didn't know whether they would continue to bicker or if they'd get in a fight or if one of them would start crying, knowing they should step in but they never really knew what was going on between the two of them.

"Okay," Zayn interjected, pausing the game and then looked over at the two boys, "both of you, just stop." He said softly as the two boys continued to stare at each other.

"Fuck you, Luke," Ashton said softly and then stood up from where he'd been sitting on the floor next to Luke, placing the controller on the coffee table. "I'm gonna go." Ashton announced to the room, a chorus of Ashton's name and 'no's' being said around the room, not wanting the boy to leave so soon.

Harry guessed this is what his sister meant when she said that sex complicates things, but he could never imagine Louis and himself in the situation that Luke and Ashton were in.

"No, you know what? I'll go." Luke said as he stood up, putting his controller down too. "You all think I'm the bad guy anyway, so I'll just go." He said, everyone in the room begging him not to leave as well. "Bye," Luke called before walking up the stairs and exited the basement, shutting the door behind him.

"Come here, Ash," Harry said softly, patting the spot next to him in between himself and Eleanor, even if it was going to be cramped, he still felt as if Ashton needed a few hugs right about now. Ashton walked over and sat next to Harry and Harry wrapped his arms around the boy, basically just cuddling with him.

"I think... we should watch a movie," Zayn announced softly after a few moments of silence between the friend group and then moved to sit on the other couch with Niall and Liam since the other couch was a little crowded.

"Z, blankets, please," Eleanor said with a small smile and Zayn nodded, going to get blankets for them all, coming back moments later before he picked a movie that they could all watch.