Watermelon

Strong Girl

Shawn took a deep breath before knocking on the hatch door that led to the attic, also known as Jace's bedroom. The teenager had been home from school for about twenty minutes, and Shawn had spent those twenty minutes perfecting what he was going to say and working up the courage to go talk to him. He felt a little silly for being so nervous but him and Jace had been doing really great recently and he didn't want to do anything that could jeopardize that.

"Come in."

Shawn pushed up the hatch, climbing the rest of the way up the ladder into Jace's bedroom.

"Hey," he said casually. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Um...yeah. I guess."

Shawn could see that he was visibly nervous and felt horrible. This wasn't anything bad; or at least, he hoped it wouldn't be. He sat down next to Jace on the edge of his bed, running a hand through his hair and taking a deep breath.

"I wanted to talk to you about Camila."

"Oh. Okay."

"Her and I are, uh...we're getting pretty serious."

"Yeah? Are you like, in love with her?"

"Yes," Shawn said confidently but quietly. "I'm very in love with her."

"I'm really happy for you. I know we got off to a rocky start but I really do like her. She's cool."

"She thinks you're pretty cool too," Shawn smiled. "She really enjoys spending time with us all."

"I just like that there's finally someone in the house that knows how to cook a proper meal."

"Hey!" Shawn scoffed and nudged Jace with his elbow, making the teen chuckle under his breath. "I can cook."

"You have two meals that you can make adequately," Jace corrected. Shawn laughed and nodded.

"I guess that's fair."

"So is that what you wanted to talk to me about? That you and Camila are like...in love?"

"It's part of it. The other part is that as our relationship progresses and things become more and more serious, we'd really like to start spending even more time together. And, as long as you're comfortable with it, I'd like to have her start spending the night here every now and then."

Jace stared at him blankly and blinked.

"Are you really asking your sixteen-year-old foster kid for permission to sleep with your girlfriend right now?"

Shawn's mouth fell agape, surprised by the boy's response. What's funny is that he wasn't technically wrong.

"I'm more just asking if you'd be comfortable with her staying here," he explained while trying not to laugh. Jace, however, did not try to hold back his laughter. 

"I'm fine with it," he shrugged. "Especially if it means she might cook for us more."

"I have a feeling she'd be more than happy to do that," Shawn smiled. "So we're good?"

"Yeah. We're good."

Shawn held his hand up for a fist bump which Jace was happy to reciprocate. 

"Any homework?" the older one asked as he made his way back to the hatch door.

"Just algebra and history — and I'm almost done with the history work already."

"Sounds good."

Shawn stepped down that ladder and back into the main level of the house, peeking in Maggie's room to make sure she was still napping before walking into the living room and laying down on the couch. The relief he felt that Jace was okay with Camila staying over sometimes was nearly overwhelming. Maybe it was silly, but he really was worried that he wouldn't be okay with it.