Strings | s.m (✔️)

Chapter Twelve

"Is that the Frozen soundtrack?"

Shawn turns to face the direction I was pointing at, and smiles before picking it up.

"Okay, first off, it was for Aaliyah, not me. And yes, it is the Frozen soundtrack."

"Well then put it in the CD player, I haven't heard 'Do You Want To Build A Snowman?' in a while." Shawn nods his head and I set my handbag down, ready to dig through some old photos. I start to hear the beginning of Let It Go, and Shawn makes direct eye contact with me before we begin to sing along to it.

"Oh. My. God." I say, staring at a photo of Shawn from second grade for a few moments, before erupting into laughter. I begin to catch my breath as he takes the photo from my hand to look at it, but my silence doesn't last long.

"So you like to laugh, don't you?" With that Shawn reaches for my waist and begins to tickle me, causing me to laugh even harder than before. I beg Shawn to stop, but he ignores me and continues to make me laugh. I somehow get off of the floor and rush to the other side of the basement, where Teddy, Shawn's stuffed bear, was sitting peacefully.

"Don't take another step if you want Teddy in one piece." I say, and Shawn freezes.

"You wouldn't."

"I would." Smirking, I hold Teddy tighter. Hopefully Shawn would believe my act and think that I would actually harm the bear. Before he can reply though, a new voice interrupts our intense conversation.

"She would, honey. Anyways, I made PB&J sandwiches, they're on the table. And I'm not even going to ask why you guys are playing the Frozen soundtrack." I smile, realizing that the voice belonged to Shawn's mom, and nod my head.

"Thanks Karen, this is why I like you better than Shawn!" I say, and make a beeline for the plate. Shawn follows and Mrs.Mendes laughs before walking back upstairs, leaving us to the food.

We eat in silence, Love Is An Open Door playing in the background. I begin to laugh, noticing that Shawn has some jelly on his face.

"What?" He asks, completely clueless.

"You have a little something on your face." I say, and he begins to wipe every part of his face that isn't the spot with jelly on it.

I put my sandwich down and begin to crawl over wipe it off, then smudge it on his nose. However Shawn backs up a bit, causing me to crawl closer and closer until I'm only a few inches away from him. I don't realize this until I look into his eyes and notice that we're so close I can practically hear his heartbeat.

Here's the thing though. For some strange reason, I don't move, and neither does he. We stay looking at each other for a good ten seconds, and I snap out of whatever haze I was in when I notice we were getting closer. Swiping my thumb across the area, I put the jelly on his nose and smile, acting like nothing happened.

Shawn then blinks a few times before coming back to the real world, and wipes the jelly off his nose as I back off of his legs and move a good amount of feet away from him, then beginning to eat the rest of my sandwich.

After eating, we continue to search through the basement, although it's not the same before. There's tension, and I can tell that same same question roaming around my head was going through his as well.

Were we about to kiss?

____

"Wait- so you guys didn't make out?"

"No!" I yell into the phone, embarrassed that April said that. I was beyond confused on what just happened, and April wasn't helping me.

"Alright, before I give my advice, do you like him like that? Because I ship you guys to the max but I'm not forcing it if you don't feel it too."

"I honestly don't know. At first I was sure, but it would be so weird, and he would probably not even want to be my friend anymore. And what do you mean by 'feel it too'?"

"Are you blind? For the past few weeks Shawn has literally been staring at you, getting jealous of when another guy spoke to you, and if you're telling me that he doesn't have a crush on you I'm taking a shovel and hurrying your dumb self six feet under."

"Really? The words 'Shawn' and 'has a crush on me' don't exactly fit together. I don't even know what I was thinking."

"Okay, answer this. When you guys were literally about to kiss, did he move?" Before I can answer, April moves on to the next question. "And did he pull you off him or correct you when you said you guys were dating to Devin?" Once again, my answer is interrupted by April. "No? Wow, shocker! Seriously though, don't even try to pull one of your independent woman things. If he doesn't say anything about it, neither will you."

I take a few moments to think about what she's saying, before coming to an agreement. "Okay, I won't. I just have a little crush after all." I realize what I said right after it came out of my mouth, and I know that April is smiling.

"Glad you finally admitted it, it took you long enough." I'm still staring at the wall, confused about all of this. The fact that I have a slight crush on Shawn and he might have one on me was overwhelming, to be completely honest.

"I didn't mean it. I just like his hair, smile, eyes, muscles, laugh, humor, and his care for others. Not to mention he's a serious gentleman and is the sweetest and- Oh, wow. I'm screwed." I put my and over my face and groan, hearing April laugh.

"Welcome to the land of crushes. Now I'm going to bed, it's like, eleven pm. How come your parents haven't told you to shut up?"

I sigh. "Dad's on a business trip and Mom is downstairs watching reruns of The Batchelor."

April laughs. "Well, I would go to sleep if I were you. Tomorrow all three of us are going to watch The Forest, and I'm not watching it at night, so we're going at twelve."

"Three?" I ask. I wasn't even surprised that April just told be about this plan, but more about how there was someone joining us.

"Shawn, duh. I don't mind being the third wheel, as long as you guys name your first daughter after me. Goodnight!" I roll my eyes as April hangs up, then crawling into bed. Before I fall asleep, a thought enters my mind.

I had a crush on the famous Shawn Mendes.

And that was anything but good.