Dirty Little Secret [5SOS]

8: Internet Boyfriend

Ashton’s PoV:

Everyone finishes their dinner and Payson is nowhere to be seen. Michael and Calum are playing GTA while Luke is sprawled across their laps on his phone.

"I'm going to bed. OK guys," I say, not really expecting an answer.

"Why? You don't have to go anywhere tomorrow," Luke asks, looking back at him.

"I think I am going to get an early start tomorrow. Maybe I'll do a follow spree for the fans tonight," I explain, walking upstairs, and Luke shrugs it off. I make my way to Payson's room and I was planning on knocking but the door is half open so I just call for her.

"Yeah. In here! Come on in. Ooh! Ash! Can you help me," Payson yells from the closet and I follow the noise.

"You made quite a mess there," I laugh and smile, looking at the pile of shirts Payson has sprawled around the floor and on the bed.

"Yeah. I am trying to find something to wear for tomorrow. Her crutches are loosely hanging from her sides and she is on the tippy toe of her good foot, grabbing some shirts off the hangers. Ashton notices how short she actually is. He's never noticed before because it’s never really bothered him. He also notices that she isn't the curviest girl, her hair is kind of frizzy at the ends and the bottoms of her feet are kind of dirty. He smiles at all the little things that make Payson, well, Payson.

"This one," she holds up a sweater with a cute little fox on it, raising her eyebrows for approval. Her eyes are a light brown colour, just like him.

"That's cute," I say before chuckling at the fox.

"Nah. I've worn it before anyway. Plus he has the same one so what if he accidentally wears it too," Payson rambles on. She's so cute when she's nervous, I think to myself.

"Who," I ask, totally confused once I realize what she had said.

"Christian," Payson says like it is the most obvious thing in the world.

"Who's that?"

"Well, he is kind of my internet boyfriend," Payson shrugs pulling off another sweater with little flowers all over it and raises her eyebrows at me. I shake my head at the sweater and she goes back to looking.

"Aren't most people on the internet like fifty percent old creepers and the other fifty like the opposite gender?"

"No. He's a YouTuber. Christian Novelli? TouchTheSkyFilms? I know he is real. Plus, we Skype all the time."

"Wait. Your boyfriend is Christian Novelli? Like, lives-in-Seattle Christian?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"It's just strange considering you live in Australia." I shrug and get a bit nervous talking about relationships so I start picking through some of the sweaters scattered around the room. Red with white stripes. Green with little brown trees. Baby blue with black hearts.

"I mean we've never met, but it works. I am usually up late so he Skypes me then."

"So that's why you wanted to go to Washington so you could meet him, not because you just wanted to visit the city."

"Well the city is nice too, but yeah. I kind of wanted to meet him. You know, we could go on an adventure. He could show me all of his secret spots and maybe make a video with him." Payson sits on the floor, going through more clothes, and blushes.

"So, how'd you two meet?"

"Well, I am kind of into video editing so I helped him edit his videos when he didn't have much time because of uni. So we met through there. Then we had to exchange numbers because of the video editing thing, so we talked through there and I just kind of fell in love with his videos. He was so sweet and we began talking just about each other and it grew from there," Payson smiles, never looking up off the ground and blushing like a tomato.