Paint You Wings // Ashton Irwin [au]

Eleven

Emilia's POV

"Welcome home," Julia immediately greets as I lock the door behind me.

I join her in the small dining room that's attached to our even smaller kitchen, where she's drinking an orange smoothie of some sort. Her blond hair is high in a ponytail; a purple headband placed at the top of her head, holding down the front of her hair. A light sheen of sweat covers her olive skin. She probably just got home from her run around the block.

"Hey," I say, sitting down at the round dining table that takes up too much space for just two people living here. I grab an apple from the fruit basket and take a large bite, crunching loudly as Julia asks where I was. "I was at Ashton's house. We decided to make lunch instead of eat out since that's all we ever do."

A smile never leaves her face as I begin to tell her of mine and Ashton's shopping trip as well as the confessions of my parent's death and his ex-fiancé.

"I want to meet him," Julia declares, joining me at the table. "I want to meet the person who has turned my anti-social, people-hating best friend into a smiling, doesn't-hate-people-as-much woman."

I laugh. I really do want Julia to meet Ashton and his friends. Maybe then we can all start hanging out together. Just the thought of it causes me to break out into a smile. Before I can respond, my ringtone blares and I quickly answered the call.

"Emilia, it's Calum," he says; his accent thicker on the phone than in person.

"I realized that when I saw the caller ID," I say. "What's up?" Julia mouths for me to put the call on speaker and I reluctantly do.

"I was wondering if you wanted to come with me and the guys to the barbeque and drive-in movie thing that's happening on campus tomorrow."

Julia nods, choosing my answer for me, and starts to pointing to herself; mouthing "me" over and over. "Uh, yeah, sure. Is it okay if I bring my roommate with me?"

"Yeah! Of course!" Julia smiles in satisfaction, raising her fists in the air. "I'll text you the details tomorrow." I agree, and not long after, we say our goodbyes.

"Looks like you're going to meet them all tomorrow," I tell Julia. She grins, delighted that she'll finally be able to meet the four people who are raising my phone bill because of how much they call and text.

While Julia goes to take a shower, I go to my bedroom and start working on the small amount of homework I have. Most of the time (due to boredom), I will start working on assignments that aren't due for several weeks, so that I don't have much work and can work ahead without being overly stressed. I grab my trigonometry textbook from my backpack and begin working. It isn't until about four-thirty when I receive the promised text from Ashton.

"This is soooo boring," it reads.

"You've made it through almost an hour," I type. "You can handle another thirty minutes."

"But my dad makes his lectures extremely boring and his monotone voice can put anyone to sleep. I never realized how annoying an Australian accent is until now. Do I sound that bad?"

"Sometimes. I'm joking. Not really. It depends on the day."

He replies with a picture of him sitting in class with an overly dramatic sad face. I giggle and save it to my camera roll.

"So are you coming with us to the BBQ/ movie thing?" He asks.

"Yes. I'm bringing Julia too."

"Great! I'll be able to check 'get to know friends' off the list of things to do for the project."

I tap my pencil against my notebook, unsure how to reply to his message. I know Ashton wanted to become friends before the project was even announced, but sometimes I wonder if we're still going to be friends after the semester ends. I brush off the thought when I receive another text from Ashton.

"I have to go, class is going to end soon and my dad won't stop looking at me. I'll see you tomorrow."

I place my phone down on the desk and stretch out my arms out. Giving up on the stupid equation that I had been working on for about ten minutes, I decide to grab a random book on my bookshelf and lie in bed until my eyes fall shut.

___

The next day, Calum sends me a text saying that we will meet up around eight o'clock tonight. It's currently seven forty-five and Julia and I are heading to campus early, knowing there will be a lot of people there. We're lucky enough to find a great spot at the drive-in that has a perfect center view of the large sheets that covered the side of a building where the movie would be playing. It isn't long until Calum's truck pulls into the spot next to Julia's car. The boys all hop out and greet us.

"Julia, this is Calum, Luke, and Ashton," I say, pointing to each boy with the exception of Michael who is nowhere to be seen.

"I've heard a lot about you guys, especially you, Ashton," Julia says. She leans towards Ashton and whispers in his ear, a smile forming on his face from whatever she's saying. I don't know what she said, but Ashton looks pleased with himself.

"Where's Michael?" I ask.

"He has to finish a history paper so he's pulling an all-nighter," Luke says, and I nod.

Before the movie starts, we climb into the back of the truck where there are several blankets covering the bottom as well as many pillows for us all to make ourselves comfortable. Ashton helps me up into the truck and I take a seat in the middle with Julia and Luke to my left and Ashton and Calum to my right. Luke lays one of the extra blankets over the five of us and squeeze together to fit under it to keep warm from the cool October air.

____

Ashton's POV

Thoughts of my father swirl through my mind as we watch the sappy love movie. I want to tell Emilia what happened in class yesterday after I stopped texting her, but I don't want to bring it up now or on her birthday tomorrow. I'd rather not be a killjoy, so I'll wait until class on Monday to tell her.

I'm glad to finally be able to meet Julia. After Emilia met my friends, the next step would be for me to meet hers. Julia will be able to fit right in with our little group of friends. She's just as energetic and bubbly as Calum, so she's the perfect addition. She, unlike Emilia, has difficulty understanding us which was quite funny, so we all have to speak a bit more slowly for her sake. But what I like most about meeting Julia is the fact that she whispered a genuine 'thank you' to me for helping Emilia.

I glance down at Emilia who is pressed against my shoulder. Her eyes are glued to the screen, intently watching the cliché love comedy. Her long eye lashes flare out with each blink and the light reflecting off the screen makes her skin glow. This girl who I've only known for a short month has taken residency in all my thoughts, and I can't get her out. The more time I spend with Emilia, the more I can push Natalie to the back of my mind. It doesn't stay that way forever, though; Natalie always finds a way to torment me even in my thoughts.

You can't fall for her, my conscious repeats in my mind. I want to stop myself from developing these feeling towards Emilia, and so far, I've been doing okay. But now that she's leaning against me and I can't slither my way out, it's becoming more difficult to do so. I continue to watch Emilia like the creeper I'm becoming and smile at the way her nose scrunches up when one of the characters in the movie says something rude and how she gets crinkles by her eyes when she smiles or laughs.

This is torture. I don't want to screw things up if I do begin to fall for her. I don't want this friendship to be left in the dust. If it weren't for Natalie, I wouldn't be so conflicted right now. As much as I would like to fully let myself fall for Emmie, Natalie is holding me back for reasons even I don't understand. I take my eyes off of Emilia and focus towards the screen which is now displaying the movie credits. Well, then. I just spent almost two hours looking at a girl who I can't like.

With some struggle, we get out of the truck and send each other off with goodbyes and goodnights. On the drive back to the house, Luke speaks up.

"So what are we going to do for Emilia's birthday?" he asks.

"I have a plan, but I'm going to need your help with everything," I say, Calum and Luke both agreeing. I didn't want to do anything too drastic for her birthday because it's obvious she doesn't like them. Even if it's something small, I want for her to enjoy herself in the company of good friends.