Painting Flowers // Ashton Irwin [au]

Twenty-seven (Part 1)

Emilia's POV

There's nothing worse than falling asleep with a sense of fear and worry. It seeps into your dreams and forces you to watch the potential travesties that haunt your mind. It prevents you from escaping your unconscious. You have to endure it throughout the night until you are finally released by waking up. And not even that is easy.

It's been a while since the last time I've had a nightmare. I rarely remember my dreams to begin with, but the ones that I do remember are always so vivid and make me question what reality is. It doesn't help that it involved Ashton and his unfortunate situation with Reina. What's even less comforting is how in my dream I was sitting on a plane back to Denver with an empty seat next to me. It was far too quiet and reminded me too much of the days before I met Ashton and my other friends. I hated it.

However, there's nothing better than waking up from such a dream to the person who should be across the hall but somehow slithered his way into bed with me.

I poke Ashton's cheek and his lips twitch up into a smile, and then immediately fall into a straight line. I poke his cheek repeatedly, giggling as he tries to keep a straight face. "I know you're awake," I say.

He opens his eyes and greets me with his brilliant smile.

"I don't think Julia will appreciate you crashing our slumber party," I tease.

"Well she's not here so I'm not too worried," he says.

My eyebrows furrow and I roll onto my side and find that the other bed, where Julia slept, is empty.

"Julia came and got me after she heard you mumbling in your sleep," Ashton says. "She thought it'd be best if I stayed with you the rest of the night. Did you have a nightmare?"

I tuck my chin into the blanket. "Yeah."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Do you mind if I keep this one to myself?" I ask.

"Yeah, of course. I can respect that."

"Thank you."

After a few seconds, he asks, "Was it that bad?"

"It shook me up to say the least. I'm sorry you had to come over here. You were supposed to be spending time with your friends."

"It's fine," he says. "I'm actually thankful Julia pulled me out of there. I don't know how she's able to sleep in the same room as Calum. He farts so much in his sleep."

I cringe in disgust. "I really didn't need to know that."

"Well I didn't want to experience it, so I guess we're both out of luck," he says, his smile growing by the second. "Now get up. It's already noon."

"Why didn't you wake me up earlier?"

"You looked cute," he says with a shrug. "Plus it gave me time to make some necessary reservations."

"Reservations for...?"

He tsks and shakes his finger. "You know how this game works," he says. "But I'll give you a hint this time; we'll be up in the air."

"That sounds more scary than thrilling."

"We'll find out later," he says with a wink.

I reach out and run my fingers through his hair, and the length isn't as long as it used to be. "You got a haircut," I say.

"You just now noticed?"

"Excuse me for not being super observant right now; I just woke up."

He cracks another smile. "I love sassy Emmie."