Starry Eyed. Lashton AU

8.

The fifth week in, Ashton's smile was decidedly my favorite thing about him. The way all of his pearly white teeth, all aligned perfectly and just existing there, all smiling at me, seemingly invented only for me.

His smile reached every part of his body; his lips, his eyes, laugh, his hands, everything.

On Friday that week was the first time he came over to my house. He was wearing black skinny jeans just like always along with one of his many many band shirts.

We watched movies for a few hours, ordered pizza, talked about nothing in particular. Most of the night was just two very close friends having a good time, until about 9:00, at which Ashton asked if he could just sleep over, to which I just shrugged even though I was pretty excited on the inside.

At 11, Ashton wanted to go on a walk, which I don't know why I agreed because if anyone else in the whole world would've asked me, it would've been an immediate no. But for some reason, on that cold fall night, I agreed to go on a walk with a boy who made me feel warm no matter what time or season it was.

He took me to the playground at our primary school and we ended up sitting on top of the monkey bars after he bet me I couldn't climb on top of them on skinny jeans. Somehow, he had the bright idea to both start from opposite sides of the monkey bars and race to the middle, to see who was faster.

"1... 2... 3!" He shouted from the opposite end as me. The monkey bars went in an S shape so we both had to do a C and meet in the middle. I used my legs for momentum and began climbing them, skipping over them with ease since my arms were so long.

I beat Ashton by two seconds. I counted.

I let go of the bars, falling not even 2 inches since I was already almost touching the ground, but Ashton kept holding on, staring right at me, a bit higher up than me for once.

And then I couldn't stop looking at his lips again. And before I knew it or could stop myself, not that I wanted to, I was pressing my lips against his and all I could feel was the beating of my heart in my chest and pins and needles all over my body and the cool wind blowing against us and I kept kissing him and he kept kissing me back. At some point, I reached up and brought him down from the monkey bars and when he pulled away was when I remembered I was supposed to be breathing.

"I totally planned that," he said, out of breath.

And that was the first of our many kisses.