THIS LOVE | shayne topp

1.21

   THE NEXT MORNING WAS hectic for Eleanore. She woke up to Alyssa slamming her bedroom door open while giggling, jumping into the bed next to her. Before Eleanore could even fully wake up, Alyssa was shoving her phone into her roommates face.

   "Explain this!" Alyssa said between giggles, showing her a picture of her and Shayne cuddling while sleeping.

   Eleanore blushed, sitting up in her bed and grabbing the phone, examining the picture. The two were still kind of sat up in the bed, Eleanore still nuzzled into Shayne's side with his arms wrapped tightly around her.

   She nodded her head no, handing the phone back to Alyssa. "It's nothing. We just fell asleep." Eleanore yawned, leaning back against the headboard.

   "That's not nothing, Eleanore." Alyssa said, finally the giggling stopping.

   Eleanore shrugged. "We have fallen asleep like that before while watching Tangled. It's not different with me and Shayne."

   But it was different with Shayne. It actually was messing with her mind a lot. Deep down she wanted Shayne to feel the same way about her but had no idea how to bring it up. Because how do you bring something up like that to a friend of fourteen, almost fifteen years?

   Eleanore never had a high school sweetheart. She pined over Shayne for so long during her teen years, but due to their age difference during their time on So Random, she never did anything. And during that time she was definitely more confrontational than she was now.

   "Whatever." Alyssa pushed herself back to stand up from the bed. "But please be honest with me. I wanna know whats going on!" She laughed, then walked out of the bedroom and closing the door behind her.

   Eleanore sighed, letting herself fall to the side, grabbing her phone off the nightstand that never ended up on the charger over the night. She checked to see many missed calls and texts from Aaliyah.

   It looks like Shayne told Aaliyah he fell asleep over at her apartment last night. Great.

   Eleanore didn't mind Aaliyah knowing that he fell asleep over at her place last night, but Aaliyah always took things out of proportion. Especially when it came to things like this.

   She loved that her friends like to be involved in her life, but not to this extent. Even with Alyssa and the whole picture thing, that was kind of creepy. She knew it was out of love, but sometimes those things she wanted to keep personal.

   Aaliyah had only ever known a side of Eleanore that was super comfortable talking about these things constantly. Any time Eleanore was talking to anybody or crushing on anybody, she would immediately go to Aaliyah and spill everything.

   So of course, Aaliyah had been expecting it with Shayne ever since they became friends again over the past few months. And the two have had the same conversation multiple times, Eleanore just brushing it off and always finding a way to change the topic.

   She knew eventually she had to talk to Shayne about all of this, because she knew that he was also probably having this same conversation with his sister too. Eleanore finally decided to check her texts with Aaliyah since there were also many missed calls.

Lia Topp
Omg
Shayne stayed over last night?
Hello?
Ella
Eleanore
I need details bc he isn't saying ANYTHING

Eleanore Haas
Yes, he stayed over last night
but it was nothing. we were just
watching love is blind lmao

Lia Topp
hmm
Okay. that was for real it?

Eleanore Haas

yup, that was it. both you
and Alyssa are so suspicious

Lia Topp
okay, im sorry. i'll
leave it alone

   Eleanore decided to just not respond, leaving it at that. Aaliyah was leaving it alone, and so was she. There was so much with this that Eleanore was dealing with mentally, so she didn't need anyone butting in to cause more stress on the situation.

   She was trying to stop herself from feeling these feelings, but they were too strong at this point to stop them. So now she was just pushing them back and trying her hardest to just live life with it not bothering her.

   Eleanore got out of bed, going to her bathroom and taking a long shower. She hit shuffle on her playlist that was well over three hours long, after connecting it to a speaker.

   This Love by Taylor Swift was the first song that played and it made her heart skip a beat. Ever since the song first came out in 2014, she fell in love with it. She always had some lingering connection to just the one song only.

   Her music was really loud, she was sure that Alyssa could hear it from any spot in the apartment. But she wasn't concerned about it, she was just trying to drown out her thoughts.

   Eleanore was in the shower for about twenty minutes, finally turning off the hot water and stepping out, wrapping herself up in a towel. She sat on the edge of the tub for about thirty minutes after, just getting lost on Tiktok.

   Her phone was about to die, so she took it as a sign to finally leave the warm bathroom and go to her bedroom which was just right down the hallway. She just put another set of pajamas on, not really planning on leaving her apartment today.

   Her and Shayne were texting briefly between him filming videos, just talking about last night. And, yes, he did tell Aaliyah that he fell asleep over at her apartment. He apologized profusely, which she had to respond with saying it was fine.

   They made plans to finish the rest of the series, but instead this time at his apartment so nobody would bother them about it just in case. Especially with the fact Eleanore had a roommate and Shayne didn't.

   The next few hours she spent just sitting at home, then packed lightly to go over to Shayne's for the rest of the day. And then on her way out, she told Alyssa she was spending the night over at Aaliyah's to finish watching the rest of Love is Blind.

   Now, she wasn't planning on spending the night, but neither did Shayne last night. So of course there was a chance she would end up falling asleep on his couch, especially because it was already nearing seven pm.

   The drive there she just played some Noah Kahan, only getting through about two songs since he only lived close to seven minutes from Eleanore. He was waiting outside his own apartment complex for her, just sitting on his phone.

   The minute he saw her, he put his phone into his pocket, and stood from his leaned position against the brick wall. Shayne smiled at her, meeting her halfway and immediately grabbing the backpack from her shoulder.

   This is now three nights in a row they were hanging out. And probably falling asleep beside each other as well. Well, maybe not. But now she has realized the past two nights have been the best nights she has slept in a long time. So, she wasn't going to complain about falling asleep over here.

   Once Eleanore was inside the apartment, she plopped down onto the bed, pulling the blanket off and setting it across her lap. Shayne walked around into the kitchen, grabbing two glasses and filling them with water.

   Eleanore felt comfortable enough over at his apartment, so she turned on the TV and put on Netflix. She checked how many episodes they got to last night, then played it on the TV, perfect timing as Shayne sat down right next to her.

   She was now more comfortable with being close to him, so she leaned over to the side and rested her head onto his shoulder. He wasn't tense like yesterday, so she wasn't nervous about her decision.

   They talked about the show briefly, but Eleanore fell asleep within the first thirty minutes of the episode, not having a care in the world of what other people thought of it.