stutter » a. irwin

chapter 08. flustered

❀ J U L I A ❀

I woke up in a haze, not quite knowing where I was. Just as I began to stir, I vaguely felt something weighing me down. My eyes finally adjusted to the darkness and that was when I realized: I wasn't in my bedroom. Out of fear, I shoved myself off the couch with as much strength as I could, but as I fell on the floor another body followed, earning a blood curdling scream from me. Looking up at the person on top of me, I was able to roughly make out parts of Ashton's face.

"What happened? Are you okay?" Ashton mumbled, his voice husky and clouded with sleep. Feeling embarrassed, I quickly disentangled myself from his grasp and struggled to stand up.

"Yeah, I- uh, just had a bad dream. Did I fall asleep on you?" I whispered, staring at the floor, but then remembered it was too dark for Ashton to see my flaming cheeks.

He rubbed his eyes and also got up, but instead of answering me, he started feeling his way to the other side of the room. Suddenly the living room was flooded with a dim light and as Ashton strode back over to me, I was taken aback by his appearance. His curls were messy and looked like someone had ran their fingers through it several times, but he still managed to look absolutely adorable.

I highly doubted I looked the same.

Starting to panic, I self-consciously ran a hand through my tangled curls and prayed that I hadn't talked in my sleep like I normally did.

"You ended up dozing off about three quarters into the movie, but you seemed really tired, so I didn't wanna wake you. The rest of the lads kind of fell asleep too." he spoke quietly while gesturing to the three shapes that I made out to be Luke, Michael and Calum. Luke and Mikey were cuddled together on the floor, Luke's head resting on the other boy's shoulder, while Calum was curled in a blanket on the couch, spooning a huge stuffed bear.

"You can stay in my room if you want, and I'll take the couch with Cal," Ashton smiled softly, displaying his lovely dimples. "He's a great cuddler."

While the offer was certainly tempting, I didn't really know how I felt about staying over night. I already felt like I had intruded on their movie night and we were barely friends. It all felt too sudden. So, like I always did when I was nervous, I began to ramble.

"No, I really shouldn't, I mean, I don't want to intrude. I'll just catch the bus. I'm sure I've taken a bus in this area before; I take a lot of buses-" Ashton cut off my tirade exasperatedly.

"Julia... I don't think the buses run in this area at," he paused, looking over my shoulder to check the time on a clock behind me. "Almost four in the morning."

Crap, he was right. The buses ran late, but not at this hour. However, I was determined to avoid staying over.

"Well, I could always walk home, I-" Ashton cut me off again and I sent him a look. It couldn't be that far of a walk, exercise was always good for the soul, right?

"You sure are stubborn as hell," he grumbled fondly, rubbing his eyes again. "If you really want to go, at least let me drive you."

I noticed how exasperated he sounded and how he looked like he was about to fall asleep any second. I really didn't want to bother ashton any more than I already had and he was so persistent, so I agreed reluctantly, telling him my address.

The first bit of the drive was silent, maybe because it was four in the morning and we were both sleep deprived. I turned to look at Ashton and marveled at how even at this hour he still looked ready to be in a photo shoot. I didn't even bother checking out how I looked before we left.

Suddenly ashton glanced at me and caught me staring. I tried to play things off by quickly looking out the window, but I could still feel his gaze on me. He cleared his throat, directing his gaze towards the road but glancing at me from the corner of his eye.