CALL IT EVEN | shawmila

five.

Eight years ago...

The loud music was pounding in Camila's ears, but she barely noticed the way it made her head ache. She was too elated, too excited, too relieved that her sophomore year was over and she could finally breathe. She passed all her classes—one less thing for her mother to worry about.

Camila shuffled through the crowds of her classmates all in Brian's living room, their laughs and screams were barely audible over the music. She couldn't ever remember seeing this many people at Brian's parties before, but word must have gotten out that he had beer. Either that, or she and her friends were no longer considered underclassmen and therefore the better half of the school was no longer embarrassed to be seen around them.

She grabbed a solo cup in the kitchen and a beer from the fridge. She hated beer, it tasted absolutely disgusting, but she was newly sixteen and being buzzed was such a novelty. She filled her cup with water from the tap and stood at the kitchen island, alternating sips of beer and chugs of water to help it go down. She knew she looked like such a loser, but luckily all the seniors were too blasted to pay her any mind.

"Really? You need that much water, you're such a baby!"

"Shut up!" She turned towards Shawn, unable to hold back her smile, feeling her face flush. "I'm just making sure I'm hydrated. I don't wanna be hungover."

"Sure." He smirked like he didn't believe her, but she watched as he grabbed his own cup and went to the sink.

"Where's Brian?"

"Outside. I saw him and Connor wrestling and now there are bets for who's gonna pin the winner."

"Why do guys get so violent and gropey when they're drunk?" She asked, watching as Shawn's eyebrows went up, his face tinged pink and they both laughed.

"I think he's just happy so many people showed up—not that I understand why. He's going to be picking up trash for hours to keep his mom from knowing about all this."

"He might think it's worth it. For me, I know it's always better to be a guest than a host." Camila said, her stomach flipping strangely when Shawn smiled at her again.

"Shawn! Shawn!" Connor called through the backdoor into the kitchen. "Brian's down—you're up!"

"You're really gonna go wrestle some senior guy? He'll break your neck!"

Shawn smiled at her again, his eyes shining with determination as he chugged the rest of his beer followed by several gulps of water. He threw the can and cup into the trash as opposed to the piles of garbage on the floor and started towards the backdoor.

Camila considered going to watch, but the crowd of guys she could see from the backdoor was impenetrable. She rolled her eyes, reaching for her beer again and forcing more down, losing herself in the fuzzy feeling as more of her classmates stumbled into the kitchen.

"I need a drink, I swear—"

"Why are you so nervous?"

"Because he's here! He's so fucking cute, I'm going to kiss him tonight!"

"I still don't know who you're talking about."

"Shawn!"

Camila froze, her breath hitching in her throat as she sunk slowly to the floor, crouching down behind the kitchen island and watching Avery and Iris—two popular and beautiful girls—swipe beers from the bottom shelf of the fridge.

"Isn't he with Camila?"

"No way, they're just friends!" Avery grinned, using her perfectly long nails to pry open the can. "He's single, and he's mine tonight. I mean it—we were partners on that final project for history, and you should have seen the way he looked at me when we were studying. He looked like he wanted to kiss me."