Dirty Little Secret [5SOS]

2: Maybe..

Payson's PoV:

My sleep was restless, eager to prepare the house for the party this afternoon, so I decided to wrap myself in a blanket and go out on the balcony. I sat in the chair and stared out at the oncoming sunrise. It was barely peeking over the horizon and LA's beautiful lights could still be seen in the departing darkness. I heard a door slide open and I had sworn I left the door open. I turned to connecting balcony and out came a shirtless, slightly sweaty Ashton. He leaned up against the balcony's edge and ran a hand through his hair with a sigh.

"You OK," I whispered, causing Ashton to jump at my presence.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were out here. I'll go," he said, rubbing the back of his neck very animatedly.

"No, no, no. You can stay. Or you can sit with me. You don't look too good." I patted the seat next to me and Ashton lit up, running back into his room and soon joining me, with a black T-shirt on now. We both sat quietly, watching the rising sun. The two chairs were awfully close, but he didn't seem to mind.

"You OK," I asked, setting my hand atop of his.

"Y-Yah. Just can't sleep with the party and all." I can tell Ashton isn't telling the whole truth, but I shrug it off. Ashton had to of had a good reason to lie to me.

"I couldn't sleep because of the party either," I add, honestly. "I feel like we'll never finish with these boys unless we start like right now." I laugh and he grabs my hand, pulling me out of the chair.

"C'mon. Let's do it! Let's start now. C'mon," Ashton tells me, enthusiastically.

"What? Yeah. Yeah, OK. Let's do it. But let me get something else on." I look down at my oversized T-shirt and cotton purple shorts and Ashton just shrugs, leaving me to change.

"I'll go start something," he says before leaving the room. I change into some black shorts, a batman jumper, and socks that look like Converses. (Outfit on side >) I head downstairs and find Ashton opening the Rainbow Dash pony piñata we got and had started doing the "one for the piñata, two for me" system with the candy. I laughed and sat next to him popping a chocolate football in my mouth even though it's three in the morning.

"Is there anything you did besides eat candy," I ask him, nudging his shoulder.

"Yeah," he says pointing to a box on the counter, "I found the liners."

"Good boy," I say, shaking his hair and walking over to the box of plastic garbage bin liners. I begin to open the glittery party decorations and throwing away all the garbage around the house. I was blowing up one of the large white balls when Ashton finished filling the piñata, most of the candy ending up in his stomach. He tossed me a Snickers and opened up the red streamers. I grabbed a step ladder from the closet and set it up near one corner while Ashton held out the streamer roll and tape for me. I reached up to the celling and taped one end of the streamer to it. Ashton held on to the roll as I moved the step ladder to another spot, taping it again to the celling, and it went on like this until the inside and some places outside were covered in streamers and there were no more left.

"Balloon time," Ashton yelled, grabbing the packs of balloons and taking them out to the patio and I followed with the small helium tank. We both sat on the couch and grabbed a pack of balloons. Ashton immediately went for the red ones and I went for the blue.

After making a few balloons and tying them to a chair, Ashton decides to breathe in a bit of the helium and sing, "Pretty. Oh so pretty!" over and over again, making me laugh. I threw my head back in laughter and Ashton stops singing and I turn around to find Michael standing at the doorway with his arms crossed.