Dirty Little Secret [5SOS]

9: Sweater Shopping!

Payson’s PoV:

I lie in bed, my mind full of wonders, when there is a knock at my balcony's glass door. I slowly get up and make my way to the door. I move the curtain and see Ashton there with a big smile on his face. What's he doing up at one in the morning, I thought to myself, looking at the clock.

"Back again," I ask, opening the door with a smirk.

"Very funny. I couldn't sleep," he explains and I follow him outside. We both sit on the patio and look out at the stars. We did this a couple times after everyone was asleep the first week I came, but now it’s become a habit when Ashton couldn’t sleep to come over. Sometimes he came just after a few minutes and other times he came in the middle of the night.

"How come you couldn't sleep?"

"I don't know. I guess I just was thinking too much."

"About what," I ask, looking over at him. The moonlight reflects off his face in just a certain way that makes me want to smile.

"Well, I was thinking about the humungous amount of sweaters you have," he laughs and I slap him playfully.

"For your information, most of them were gifts." I raise my eyebrows at him.

"Really? I don't believe you."

"Yes. Christian and I had an agreement. We bought each other sweaters and we would wear it a day before sending it over so we could like, I don't know, smell each other."

"That's weird."

"Hey! Come on, I think it’s cute. It was his idea."

"That makes more sense."

"Ashton! Shut up," I say in defense and end up laughing as I actually thought about it. I continued and asked, "Did you want to say hi to him tomorrow?”

"Are you sure? I don't want to ruin your date."

"You won't ruin it. And it really isn't a date."

"OK. I'll say hi. I'd like to meet Sweater Boy," he winks and laughs.

"Wow," I say, hanging onto his arm and leaning my head on his shoulder. I felt really comfortable around him for some reason and I just smiled, thinking about it.

"I think I'm going to go back to bed," Ashton says quietly.

"No," I whisper and he laughs. We both slowly stand up, Ashton handing me my crutches, and he starts to walk back to his side of the balcony, but I pull him back.

"I have to go to bed,” he tells me.

"Stay," I smile and pull him back to my bed. We both lie down and he wraps his arm around my waist, closing his eyes.

The next morning, I wake up to a crumpled piece of paper in my hand. I rub the sleep out of my eyes and unfold the paper, squinting at the writing.

Left around 6, will be back for our shopping date.

-Ash  ;)

I sit up more and look over at the clock. The red illuminated numbers are blurry so I rummage around for my glasses and place them on my face. 11:25 I get out of bed and start searching the house for any significant life. I find none and finally go to get myself brunch. I reach for the cereal on the top shelf and my crutches fall from my sides and on the floor.

"Cheese balls," I mumble to myself and jump up on the counter to sit. I grab the bowl, milk, spoon, and cereal from that spot and make myself brunch. I eat and by the time I am finished, the front door opens with a sweaty Ashton walking through. I give him a little wave and a small smile. He breathes out heavily, ignoring me, and walks upstairs. What was that, I think to myself. I set my bowl down and wait for him to come back down. He doesn't seem to be coming down anytime soon so I hop down, landing on only my good foot and carefully picks up her crutches. I smile at my accomplishment and start to make my way upstairs slowly, finding out that Ashton is in the shower. I go back in my room and sit on the bed, playing with my phone and then deciding to brush my hair out. The water turns off and after a few minutes, Ashton comes in. He plops down next to me with a cheeky smile.