-- Thursday Morning --
8:15 in the morning, Shawn had made sure that I was packed and ready to go. The sky was a lovely pale blue, with some purple and pink.
"Wait," I tell Shawn as he packs up the trunk of his car.
"For what?" He responds, shutting the door closed.
"I have to get something. Two minutes, I swear!"
"Hurry up, babe." Shawn calls as I run back inside the house - quietly, not to wake up Paige - and grab my sketch book and my small pouch of my on-the-go Art supplies. I run back down the stairs and lock the front door before heading back into the car. Shawn is already in the driver's seat, buckled up and ready to go. "Art supplies?"
"I wanted to draw the sky." I say as I strap my seatbelt on. "Plus, what if I want to draw your family?"
Shawn playfully rolls his eyes before leaning over and giving me a kiss. "What do you say we take a little hour detour?"
"Just drive." I smile. He looks at me for a moment before focusing his gaze back on the road as he pulls out of the driveway and then drives down the street to the airport.
"You nervous?" Shawn asks me.
"A little." I nod. I open up my sketch book and take out my pencils. I glance up at the sky and begin to sketch. "Are they anything like my parents?"
Shawn lets out a laugh. "Nope. They live to embarrass me."
_______
"Flight A316 to Toronto, now Boarding. Flight A316 to Toronto is now boarding."
Shawn takes my hand in his and we walk towards the gate, our luggage trailing behind us with our free hands. "I've never been out of the country." I tell Shawn.
"Yet, you have a passport." He comments. I look up and see him glancing at me.
"Just in case I did." I reply. "And it came in handy today!"
We enter through the gate after getting patted down and our luggage checked by TSA. Shawn said that his parents got us First Class tickets, mush to his dismay.
"It's just a polite gesture." I tell him. I sit down by the window and Shawn sits by the aisle.
"Yeah, to you." He sighs. "But to them, it's just another bribe."
"For what?" I ask him.
Shawn turns to look at me and lowers his voice. "They want me back in the family business."
"And?"
"Babe. That means I would have to quit boxing."
"Why do you do it anyways?" I ask him as he turns his attention to the flight attendants that come out.
"Do what?" He replies.
"Box?"
He stiffens. I've caught his attention. I watch as he fidgets in his seat. I know Matt said it was personal, but I didn't think it was this personal. His reason is obviously something that would make sense to him, but not to anyone. "I-I'm sorry."
He turns to look at me and his expression has softened, but his jaw is still tight. "I didn't know it was..."
"Personal?" He finishes for me.
"Yeah." I softly reply.
"It's fine."
"No it's not. I didn't mean to offend you or anything."
"I'm not offended, Jasmine. I swear." He leans in and lightly says to me. "It's just a sensitive subject that I'm not ready to talk about."
I stay silent for a moment and think of something else to talk about. "What's your family like?"
"They're your average family," he replies, "except, they're not?" Shawn cocks his head to the side and thinks of who knows what.
"I guess I'll just have to see for myself?"
"I guess so."
I nod and look out the window. The plane starts to drive down the runway strip. My nerves start to flutter inside me and grow. Shawn places a hand over mine and I turn to look at him.
"They'll like you, Jasmine." He reassures me. "Once they see how crazy I am about you, they'll like you." He leans in and gives me a sweet kiss on the lips. Butterflies start to fly inside my stomach. And it's not from the feeling of the plane taking off.
"Okay, my brothers are picking us up. Just a heads up, they can be a bit loud." Shawn tells me as we walk off the escalator and towards the front of the airport. I look at Shawn and see he's nervous. He's never mentioned he has brothers to me before.
"Oh, here he is!" A deep voice says. I turn and see four tall boys, all together and walking towards us. Shawn let's go of my hand as they ann engulf him in a big group hug. For once, Shawn is shorter than someone. His brothers have to be, easily, four or five inches taller than him. At least.
"Is this her?" One of them asks.
"That's the one." Shawn confirms, looking at me as they all pull apart from their hug. "This is my girlfriend, Jasmine. Babe, these are my brothers."
They're all very tall, and very handsome. Unlike Shawn, they don't have his gorgeous topaz colored eyes. Instead, they vary from Hazel to Dark Brown. The tallest, my guess is the oldest, has a scraggly beard. Much like they did with Shawn, they spare no time in engulfing me in a big group hug.
"Damn," one says as they break apart the group hug, "you are short."
"Where are our manners?" The one with the beard says. "Hello, Jasmine. I'm Scott."
"I'm Jack," the one with Hazel eyes and light scruff says.
"I'm Daniel," the one with no facial hair says to me.
"And I'm Liam." The one with Dark Brown eyes says to me.
"Well, like Shawn said, I'm Jasmine. Nice to meet you all." I say to them.
"Here," Daniel says to me. "Let me take your bags."
"Oh, no. It's fine." I say to him.
"You're our guest." He insists. "Please." He takes my luggage in his hands and we all walk out the airport.
Shawn takes my hand in his and I lean into him. "They like you so far." He whispers in my ear, kissing my head afterwards.
- - -
"So, Jasmine, where're you from?" Daniel asks me as we drive to their parent's Cabin. Shawn took the passenger seat as I sat in the back seat with Liam and Scott, while Jack offered to sit in the trunk of their SUV with the luggage.
"I'm from Massachusetts." I reply.
"What do you do for a living?"
"I'm currently an employee at Lush."
"Oh, that bath store?" Jack asks from the back. I turn around and look at him.
"Yeah. It's really fun there." I nod at him, only to turn back to my original way in the seat.
"So, how old are you?" Scott asks me.
"I'm nineteen." I answer.
"Shawn always liked them young." He says, patting Shawn on the shoulder.
"It was always a one year difference," Shawn replies.
"Still. That's young." Jack says.
"You're on to talk, Mr. Almost-Had-A-Court-Case." Scott says. The guys laugh while I look at Shawn and he just shakes his head, a smile plastered on his face as his brother begin to shout.
_______
Just an FYI, this is an Alternate Universe. Shawn has nothing but brothers and no, there's no Aailyah in here :( Sorry if this was short, I didn't have the time to write this as I imagined, but the next chapter should be a bit longer...I hope. Anyways, enjoy!
