Strings | s.m (✔️)

Chapter Five

"Ring. Ring. Ring. Why do I even bother just anSWER YOUR PHONE BELLA CMON IM WAITINGGGGGGG. seriously. Right now." The welcoming voice awakens me from my dream where the principle was chasing me with a cheeseburger, and I shake my head awake, picking up my phone and answering the crazy chick behind it.

"UGGHHHHH." I groan into the speaker, and I can feel April's eye-roll intensify.

"Nice to see you too." She says dully, and I instantly know something's wrong. Did her cat eat another sock again?

"April, What's wrong?" I ask, concerned. Usually, April was extremely cheerful, and never felt down. Unless someone died, her cat ate a sock, or something else normally anyone would feel sad about. That's why we're best friends. She balances me and my "I'm not crying because I'm soulless" act out, and I balance her "I'm going to be very happy but if you exclude me from one thing I'll shove my flute down your throat" act out.

April doesn't answer for a moment, and I start to get up from my bed so I can run over to her house immediately. As I pushed myself up from sitting position, she cleared her throat and began to speak. "Oh, nothing. Just, I though my best friend would want to, y'know, inform me when the next big thing/old bestie comes over to eat dinner with you, and then lives back in the old house he once lived in."

"Oh. That. It's not really a big deal." I lied. April hated that last sentence with a passion. She always has. See, April takes every single tiny detail, and strings it together to become one. However, before April can lecture me on my choice of words, I quickly ask her a question. "How'd you find out anyways?"

She takes a deep breath, as if I should know the answer to this. "Duh. Aaliyah told me."

This is when I groan. Not because that Aaliyah told her. I couldn't care less. Nope, it was something much different. "You woke me up. At eight AM. to tell me this."

"Pffft. No. I just wanted to tell you that ditch bish was playing guitar, and I can't concentrate on this Gossip Girl episode if he keeps strumming."

Gossip Girl. At eight AM.

I introduce you to April Baker.

Only then though, do I hear guitar in the background, and the more I payed attention to it, the louder it got.

Show off.

He obviously opened his window on purpose so he could catch someone's ear. It's not even hot outside.

I. Hate. Him.

And that's exactly what I tell April everytime he's mentioned. But as usual, she goes 'tisk tisk' and tells me what she always says.

"Hate is a strong word Arabella Stone."

Which I always reply, "Exactly."

"Ugh. You are such a mood-killer. I-" she stops talking, and I check if the call was still going. It was.

"April? You okay?"

"I thought you only shared your songs to me..." She says disappointed, and at that moment, I know exactly what was going on.

Guess I had to break my silent treatment sooner than I thought.

"I'm going to murder his soul and compress his body into canned dog food." I say, my teeth gritted.

Why was I going to do such a thing? Because I heard my lyrics to one of my songs coming out of the mouth of Shawn Mendes.

No wonder I didn't recognize it at first, he made up a tune for it. But as I listened closer and closer, the familiar words came to mind extremely fast.

"He better says his prayers now." I say into the phone, quickly running to change my clothes. As I do this, I set the phone on speaker, placing it on my dresser.

I pull on the skinny jeans quickly, and slip into my "I'd rather not" sweatshirt fast. Roughly, I brush my hair and put it in a bun, then running to the sink to splash my face with water. I didn't even bother to put on makeup, besides a quick bit of foundation. I thought by the time I finished all this, he would stop singing, come over on his knees, and beg for mercy. But nope, he was still singing MY song.

"Bye." I tell April, but before I end the call, she yells for me to stop.

"WAIT! I want to listen to you slaughter him!! Put the phone in your pocket, I'll be watching from my window."

Will do, April.

I jog downstairs, slip on my tennis shoes, and storm over to his house, only one thing going through my mind.

I was going to knock that boy out.

I had a girly side that every single person knew. The side everyone likes. I also have the "don't mess with me unless you want to be thrown six feet under" side, that barely anyone has seen.

Guess it was Shawn's lucky day.

I knock the door and Aaliyah answers it, surprised to see my angry face. Then, a large amount of "oh my gosh no way" hits her, and her jaw drops to the floor as she moves out of the way, making a way for me to enter.

I storm to the room I used to go to every day and without knocking, I push open the door to find Shawn sitting on his bed, looking at a sheet of paper, his guitar in his hands. He turns his head to see who it is, and surprise surprise, it's me. His eyes widen and I can tell he's already scared for what I was to do to him. I stomp over, grab the piece of paper with my song lyrics on them, and rip it into pieces, letting the small shreds fall to the floor. Next to him is his phone, with a picture of the lyrics, coming from my songbook.

So that's how he got it.

I stare at him for a moment, disgust in my eyes, and wonder if I should yell my lungs out to him, out punch him in in the face. Both are very good ideas, I'm just not sure which one I should pick. Shawn's parents aren't home, since the driveway is empty, so I could do either one and get away with it.

I grab his phone from next to him, and show the lyrics straight to his face, making him take a good look at it. Then, I drop his phone and shake my head in both disgust and disappointment.

Disappointed he would stoop this low.

"You make me sick." Is all I say, and with that, I exit his room, noticing a card in the center of his desk.

My birthday card.

I turn my head away from it and walk downstairs, and outside, Aaliyah waving goodbye to me as she shuts the door behind me.

I didn't hear one guitar sound since then for the rest of the day.