Daylight

Part 2

It was still dark outside when Shawn got out of bed, the sun would probably be rising in the next hour, but he knew he wouldn’t be getting any more sleep. Once he has shorts on and his running shoes, Shawn plugs his earphones and makes his way out of the house while listening to some music. He was used to running at the beach during summer, but this was the first time he got up so early. He hated to admit it but seeing Camila again had impacted him in a way.

 As his feet hit the sand over and over, his mind went back to the day before. He was in shock at first when he saw her, not only had it been nine years since they last saw each other, but she also wasn’t that seventeen-year-old girl anymore. Sure, he remembers thinking at twelve years old that she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, but the grown-up version of her had completely knocked him out. However, some parts of the girl he once knew were still there. Her laugh was still just as contagious and her eyes still had that glow he had been fascinated by.

 Shawn is not sure how much time he spent running, but after the sun is up for a while, he returns to the house. His mom is reading a book by the pool with a cup of coffee next to her, but as he enters the house, he knows by the silence filling the air that his sister is still asleep in her bedroom. He just takes a cold shower before making his way to the kitchen to do the thing he knows is his best chance of getting distracted from his thoughts. As he opens the fridge, he notices a lot more supplies than the day before, meaning his mom probably went to the grocery store. He gathers all he’ll need to prepare some pancakes, Aaliyah’s favorite choice of breakfast, moving on to other recipes once those are ready. He’s not even sure what he’s doing, but this is the best way to keep his mind busy. It had also become his favorite coping mechanism after his dad passed away. It made him feel connected to him, after all, cooking had always been the one thing the two of them shared.

 As he chops some vegetables, Shawn hears voices coming from outside and his eyes immediately go to the glass doors. He can see Camila’s house from there, noticing her father and sister had finally arrived. He thinks of maybe walking there to say hi, but then his eyes catch a glimpse of Camila in a very small bikini before jumping into the pool. He doesn’t even notice his mother talking to the three of them from the pool area of their own house, or when she walks back inside with her empty cup of coffee. His mind is still stuck on the image of Camila in that bikini, she definitely had a lot more curves now than he remembered back then.

 Shawn tries to keep his eyes on the TV across from him and the movie they’re supposed to be watching, but instead, his eyes keep going back to the game the three girls are playing in the middle of the living room. Sofia and Aaliyah had pleaded with Camila to play Twister with them and now the older girl was pretty much bent over while trying to reach one of the yellow spots on the game board. She had really tiny denim shorts over her swimsuit and Shawn couldn’t help but stare at his babysitter.

 “ You lost!” He heard Sofia accuse her older sister as Camila lost balance and fell to the ground.

 “ Whatever. You two win.” Camila laughed with them before looking at Shawn from her spot on the floor. “ Come on, Shawn! Play with us.”

 “ He’s not gonna play. He hates this game.” Aaliyah tells Camila.

 “ Pretty please?” Camila pouts at him and Shawn knows he would do anything that girl asked him.

 “ Sure. Why not?” Shawn stands up from the couch and walks to where they are, helping Camila stand up when she extends her arms for him.

 “ Of course you’ll play now that Mila asked.” Aaliyah says teasingly, making his cheeks go red as Camila laughs. His sister might be only seven, but she was probably the first one to notice his crush on their babysitter. But how could he not crush on her? Camila was not only drop-dead gorgeous, but she also talked to him like they were equals. She didn’t treat him like some annoying kid she had to take care of when their parents were out, she treated him like they were actually friends, even if he was five years younger than her.

 “ Shut up, Liyah.” Shawn rolls his eyes at his younger sister before they restart the game. He can see Camila laughing at their interaction and hopes he wasn’t being too obvious.

 His sister was right, he never really liked that game. However, a few minutes later when they were all starting to get tangled around each other, Camila lost her balance once again and fell over him. He didn’t even mind that he just lost the game too because of her, all he could focus on was the way she smiled at him when their faces were so close, soon breaking into one of those contagious laughs of hers. She was laughing so hard that she couldn’t find the strength to stand up, making him and the girls join her. 

 Eventually, she rolled to the side and laid down on the floor next to him as they tried to breathe after laughing for so long. He turned his head to the side and observed her for a moment, her eyes catching him on the spot. She just looked back at him for a few seconds with a smile on her face before sitting up and fixing her hair that was falling from the ponytail she had on. In seconds she had already convinced him to play it again and he knew Aaliyah would tease him in front of their parents about Camila again, but at that moment he didn’t care.

 “ Ouch!” Shawn immediately drops the knife he was using to chop the vegetables and walks to the sink, letting the water wash away the blood from the cut he accidentally inflicted on his own hand.

 His mom had just entered the kitchen and reached in one of the cabinets by the door for the first aid kit. She looked at him and shook her head like she was judging him by what had just happened, helping him place a band-aid over the cut on his hand.

 “ Why are you looking at me like that?” Shawn asks, putting the knife in the sink and the chopped vegetables in different bowls before returning them to the fridge.

 “ Just thinking that you might have avoided this cut in your hand if you were paying attention to what you were doing instead of watching Camila in the pool.” She says casually.

 Shawn stops what he’s doing, trying to think of an excuse, but then realizing his mom won’t buy anything he says other than the truth.

 “ Okay.” He sighs, closing the fridge and resting his back against it. “ You’re right. I was looking at Camila.”

 “ I can’t really blame you.” His mom says, going to the sink to wash the dishes. “ She’s got even more beautiful with time.”

 “ I’m not sure I get what you’re trying to imply, mom.” Shawn crosses his arms over his chest, his eyes going back to the glass doors as he sees Camila and her sister swimming in the pool of their house.

 “ I’m just saying…” She trails off with a smirk on her face.

 “ Saying what?” Shawn continues.

 “ Come on, Shawn. You always had a crush on her.”

 “ Yeah, when I was twelve.” He tries to deny it.

 “ But now you might actually have a shot.” He hears Aaliyah’s voice as she walks into the kitchen and sits down at the table, reaching for the pancakes he made her.

 “ Who invited you to the conversation?” Shawn stares at his little sister, who giggles at him.

 “ She’s right, Shawn.” His mom agrees, making him groan in frustration.

 “ I can’t deal with you two teaming up against me right now, okay?” He says before taking some pancakes and bringing them with him upstairs to his bedroom.

 His mom and sister’s words kept coming back to him during the day and more and more he started thinking that maybe they were right. Even if he tried to deny it, it was pretty obvious that the second he saw Camila again, his crush had come back in full force. Suddenly, doing something about it didn’t feel so wrong, after all, he was no longer twelve. He was a twenty-one-year-old guy taking interest in a girl that was only a few years older than him. It didn’t feel out of reach anymore, it felt possible and that was liberating to him.

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A/N: Just in case it got confunsing, the part in italic is a flashback. Also if you're confused about their ages, Camila is 26, five years older than Shawn, who's 21. In the flashback he's 12 and she's 17.
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