Travel // Shawn Mendes

twenty-three

Flights that are only about an hour are the most boring.

When I'm stuck in a seven hour flight, there are movies to watch, and with each of them lasting around two hours I'm out of the plane in no time.

But on the flight that would be taking me to London, I was drop dead bored. I couldn't start a movie and end it halfway through, so that was out of the question. I tried reading a book that was in my carry-on, but it had to have been the most depressing thing out there, and I didn't want to leave the plane with puffy red eyes.

So for an hour and a half, I listened to music and stared out the airplane window.

Of course, I ate peanuts too, and got up every once and a while to keep my circulation going. But I was out of there the moment the plane let me leave.

The situation with me not being able to pull out my not-even-filled-yet bag was the same here, except instead of a hot Greek god helping me, it was a mother of five, who looked like she wanted to throw each of her kids onto the luggage conveyer belt for someone else to take home.

Fast forward a bit more and I'm standing at the greeting area, looking at all of the people holding bright "Welcome home!" signs and wondering where Jen was.

We agreed over the phone that she would be the one to pick me up after I called her and accepted her offer to travel to two other foreign places, and now I was searching for both her and Shelby, her manager.

I reach into my pocket, ready to both call Jen and text my parents to tell them I had landed, before I hear a shriek of excitement behind me.

"My husband has returned from war!"

Jen's smile is contagious as she tightly wraps her arms around me, jumping up and down and suffocating me before letting go.

"These four days we spend in London will be the best days of your life," Jen tells me, and once I can catch my breath I agree, then saying hi to Shelby, who was a step behind us.

"Hand me this," Jen orders, grabbing my black carry-on bag and holding it, leaving just my suitcase with me.

As we walk to Jen's rental car, she fills the air with discussion, asking me about my flight, my last day in France, Annalise, and practically everything else except Shawn.

"So Shelby could have stopped the whole thing from happening, but she stayed outside," Jen ends her story as we stop in front of a red Jeep and my friend gets in the back with me.

"Don't act like you had no one, Caleb was with you," Shelby argues, and I look between both of them. Who?

"Caleb?"

"My little brother," Jen's manager supplies, and I raise an eyebrow at Jen.

"He's 18 too," she adds in, and I give her a look that meant she would be telling me absolutely everything about this guy.

"So he's just joining you guys on tour?" I ask, trying to seem non-interested, and Shelby answers as we drive out of the parking garage.

"Well, he's taking a gap year and all, y'know? Not my kind of thing, but he wanted to take a break and thought that joining me around the world would be a good change of scenery."

Staring out the window, I add more information to the mental list for Caleb, almost forgetting to respond, "Oh, cool."

"Anyways," Jen starts, "I've made a bit of a plan for tonight, since I know you'll have things you want to do today. Rachel is throwing a party and invited us."

"Us?"

"Well, me. But a plus one too, and everyone in the entire world knows that my plus one is always you."

"When did you say it was?"

I needed to go out and meet some of Jen's other friends anyways. They all knew who I was, either from Jen telling stories about us or seeing me in a few of her videos, but I barely knew any of them. Plus, Rachel had connections, so if I went, I might be able to meet someone famous.

Not that you don't already know someone famous, I remind myself.

"Well, it starts at nine, and it's," Jen pauses to look at her phone before continuing, "ten am right now. Which means I'm down to do absolutely anything after we get you to the hotel till then."

"Anything?" I ask. I had a good idea already, and I didn't think Jen would mind too much either.

"Anything," my best friend confirms.

"Great. Then I think all four of us should go out for lunch. Any places nearby to your hotel?"

"The four of us?" Jen repeats, and I nod my head enthusiastically.

"Yeah? You, me, Shelby, and Caleb. And Shelby, since you used to live here, do you have any favorite places?" I throw Caleb's name briefly into the mix, hoping it would slide in smoothly.

I was beyond interested in meeting him, since my only interaction with him was that one phone call in France that he jumped into.

"You want to invite Caleb?" Shelby asks, and I could tell that she thought I was trying to set a date up for myself.

"I've never met him or seen him. And if I'm traveling with him all tour I'd love to formally meet him."

"And don't worry Shelby, Nora's got-"

I shoot ice through my glare to Jen, and Shelby laughs.

"Xavier, right? Jen told me you saw him at Spain and France. How coincidental is that?"

Xavier? As in, my friend back in New York Xavier?

"I'm sorry, Nora. But I had to talk about your insane romance with someone."

Oh. That made more sense. She told Shelby about Shawn, and instead used my other friend as a cover up name.

"My lips are sealed until you two officially start dating," Shelby supplies, and I laugh.

"I wouldn't count on that, since I won't be seeing him again."

"Oh, please. Third time's a charm, right?"

I had absolutely no idea what that was supposed to mean, but I smiled anyways and nodded my head.

"Right."

"Moving on from your love life, though," Jen says, trying to apologize with her eyes as she changes the topic, "we need to talk about how Shelby's man still hasn't proposed to her."

"Oh, please."

"Seriously! You guys have been dating since you were twenty. That's five years!"

"He will, soon. And since when were you such the love expert?" Shelby counters, and I watch Jen shrug before answering.

"Oh, wouldn't you like to know."

OK SO I NEED TO ASK A SERIOUS QUESTION (fr)

WOULD ANY OF YOU GUYS ACTUALLY READ ONE OF MY STORIES IF IT WASNT SHAWN BASED??

LATELY IVE WANTED TO WRITE SOMETHING THAT WASNT A FANFIC (love Shawn ofc, but I've written five full stories on him). BUT AT THE SAME TIME IDK IF ANYONE WOULD ACTUALLY READ IT.

ANYWAYS, IF YOU WOULD, WHAT GENRE WOULD YOU BE LOOKING FOR?? (DYSTOPIAN, CONTEMPORARY, THRILLER, ETC.)

THANK U GUYS FOR ANSWERING (if u didn't you've cut a hole in me) ILY ALL