stutter » a. irwin

chapter 09. confused

❀ J U L I A ❀

Upon entering the diner, I was surprised to actually see a few customers. It was way too early to be up, let alone functioning, yet, they all went about their daily lives like they always got up at the crack of dawn.

I kept yawning as we waited for our food, and Ashton noticed. I guess he didn't want me to pass out in the middle of the floor or something, because when our order came, he quickly ushered me out the door.

"Okay, so." he began, setting the food down gently on the floor of the car. "There's a park nearby, and I was thinking that we could take our food there, catch the sunrise and all."

"Ashton, are you trying to get romantic on me?" I gasped jokingly. In reality, the thought of him trying to pull moves on me was so utterly hilarious because it was about as likely as pigs flying.

He laughed his cute little giggle before leaning back in his seat and winking at me. "Maybe I am, maybe I'm not... guess you'll never know."

My face flushed and I quickly brushed off Ashton's comment. He was only kidding, and I was overreacting like usual. In response, I simply shook my head at him in amusement and gestured for him to drive.

That was how I ended up sitting in a car with Ashton Irwin at 5 AM, eating and patiently waiting for the sun to rise. Just as I finished up my bagel, Ashton glanced over.

"Are you sure you don't want something else to eat?"

I had only ordered a plain buttered bagel, and since the diner didn't serve French vanillas, I settled for a hot chocolate too. I wasn't much of a breakfast person, but apparently Ashton was. The human vacumn took it upon himself to order half of the menu with a hot chocolate, a cream cheese bagel, a blueberry muffin, six chocolate chip cookies, two hash browns and some sort of breakfast burrito.

"Don't worry, I'm good. At the pace you're scarfing down that bagel, you're going to need all of your food." I pointedly stared at the bagel in his hand that he had been chewing furiously moments before.

Ashton followed my gaze and self-consciously began to chew slower, which only resulted in laughter from me.

"Look, the sun's coming up," Ashton said, successfully diverting my attention from his eating habits as he gestured to the sky.

We were in the parking lot, facing a forest that was located behind the playground. Beyond the forest, I could see that the sky was painted a variety of shades, ranging from deep orange to light pink. It was, to put it simply, breathtaking. The birds were chirping and there was a morning breeze. I didn't think I'd ever felt more content in my life than I did in that moment, as cliche as it sounded. Feeling completely relaxed, I closed my eyes for a few moments to cherish the morning. It was only a few seconds before I felt sleep taking over again, and the last thing I vaguely remembered were warm fingers brushing back my hair before I dozed off on Ashton's shoulder.

❀❀❀

I woke up feeling very warm. I stirred trying to find a comfortable position, but something wasn't right.

This wasn't my bedroom.

I quickly shot up and opened my eyes to recognize the familiar setting that was the 5sos living room, except this time the room was filled with light coming from the windows. voices were coming from the kitchen so I stood up disoriented, but stopped when I heard Calum's familiar voice.

"Atta boy Ash, didn't know you worked that fast." I stealthily peeked around the corner to see Calum patting Ashton on the back. "A night, or should I say morning, with the Irwin; what a lucky girl."