Stutter

Ashton's House

My wrist where Ashton's hand held lightly was tingling. His touch was gentle and warm, and when he let my wrist go when we walked though the front door, my wrist was cold, wanting his touch back.

I pushed the feeling and my thoughts away as I followed him past the living room and into the kitchen.

A plate of chocolate chip cookies sat on the counter. Ashton grabbed one and gestured to me. I smiled and took a still warm cookie.

Ashton led me through the kitchen, past the dining room, back into the living room, and up the stairs.

He opened the third door on the right and walked though. I walked in more slowly and observe his room.

His room was simple with a bed, a dresser, a desk with a swirly chair, and a set of drums in the corner. His room was adorned with the colors of red, black, and white, and for his room being a room of a teenage boy, it was surprisingly clean and tidy.

Ashton rummaged though his dresser drawer and then pulled something out of the closet. He tossed them to me and pointed to an adjoining bathroom.

I quickly went in the bathroom and changed into a plain long sleeve shirt and a pair of baggy sweats.

Ashton being bigger than me, his clothes hung loosely on my smaller frame.

Exiting the bathroom, Ashton sat on his bed, scrolling through his phone, but looked over it to drag his gaze down and back up my body.

It wasn't in a bad way, but it still made me a little self-conscious. He smiled sweetly at me and looked back down at his phone.

I went over to his drum set and sat down on the squishy seat. Grabbing the drum sticks, I lightly hit them against different drum heads, making random noise that didn't match together.

"Have you played long?" I asked.

Ashton had laid on his back, holding his phone above his head. He tilted his head back to look at me. He nodded and watched me while I still hit random drum heads.

I was concentrating on the sounds each of them made and tried making a good rhythm, but I didn't do all that well.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Ashton get up and come towards me. He went behind me and gently but firmly took both my wrists in his hands. He guided my hands to hit the correct drum head and helped me get a smooth beat going.

I smiled as he helped me.

Weirdly, I recognized the beat as Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus.

"You like this song?" I asked carefully watching the order of the beat.

He dropped my wrists gently and returned to the bed. He looked at me and nodded his head.

I easily remembered the order of the drum heads I had to hit and started from the beginning. I smiled when I got it right. I did it one more time, but this time, I sang the lyrics softly to myself.

"'Cause I'm just a teenage dirtbag baby, yeah, I'm just a teenage dirtbag baby, listen to Iron Maiden maybe with me.'"

Now, I'm not a bad singer, it's just not something that I do around people. I feel self-conscious about it and I'm scared of the mean things people could say about it.

I looked up to see Ashton's careful eyes watching me closely. I blushed and put the drum sticks back. Standing up I joined Ashton on the bed. My phone vibrated and I grabbed it.

From Batman :D
You have a lovely voice :)

"Thank you, but really?" I asked looking up.

Ashton gave me a shy smile and looked back down at his phone.

"Ashton," I started, but before I could say anything else my phone started ringing.

It was mom.

"Hi, mom," I said cheerfully.

"Hi, honey, I need you to watch Sadie," She said.

"Ok, I'll be home in five," I said hanging up.

I put my phone in my lap and looked at Ashton.

"I'm sorry, but I need to go home," I said.

He nodded and stood up. I grabbed my dress and heels and followed Ashton out.

He drove me home and parked in my drive way.

"Thank you," I said opening the car door.

I paused and closed the door.
Ashton gave me a questioning look.

"I know I already said it, but I'm going to say it again," I said turning my body in the seat to face him. "You can speak around me. I'm not going to make fun of you or tease you."

His cheeks turned red and he avoided my eyes.

"I understand that you're embarrassed about it and shy, but you don't have to be, not around me."

His eyes met mine briefly and he gave me a small nod. I slowly opened the door again and stepped out, but before shutting the door I turned and looked at him.

"I'll see you tomorrow," I said.

He gave me another shy smile and a nod. I closed the door and went inside.

"Thank you, honey," Mom said coming down stairs.

"No problem," I said smiling.

"I just need to go and get some groceries, I'll be back in an hour or two, and Sadie is asleep in her crib," Mom explained handing me the baby monitor.

She gave me a kiss on the cheek and left quickly. I went up to my room and put my dress in the dirty hamper.

I was comfortable in Ashton's clothes so didn't bother in changing them. I almost found it funny that my mom didn't notice, but again, this is something that would come out of my own closet, so.

I lay back on my bed.

My bedroom was probably different from others. My bed sat against the farthest wall, sitting in the middle of the room, a dresser off to the side, a desk off to the other side, a nightstand on either side of my bed, a variety of posters were hanging on my wall along with a string of pictures of me and old friends of mine from middle school. I had my favorite of my drawings also hanging up around my room, and lastly fairy lights were strung around the ceiling.

I liked my room, it was comfortable and personal. It was pretty clean for being a teenager's room. The floor was clean with a fluffy dark blue rug lying in the middle of the floor. A book shelf that sat by my dresser had books overfilling it and on my desk sat my laptop and random things including pictures, a vase of flowers, and different figurines.

Crying sounded through the baby monitor and I jumped off my bed, and headed to Sadie's room.

"Sadie Mae," I cooed as I picked her up.