𝒆𝒗𝒂 ➙ 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒘𝒏 𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒔

twenty-one

adelaine miller
TORONTO, CANADA

the day after christmas we spent it all together, my mother made her famous hot cocoa whilst karen decided to make a classic full english breakfast — i couldn't wait to try it.

yes, they spent the night at my house, it was an insane night, luckily i had bedrooms to spare. i shared mine with avery, mya and aaliyah. eva had her own of course, shawn shared with my brother and then i had two other guest bedrooms on the lower ground with a jack and jill bathroom which is where the parents stayed.

i thought that they at the very least deserved some privacy.

clearly, the upstairs part of my house was extremely loud, we only went to bed like an hour ago, it was total mayhem.

i don't even think eva went to sleep because i could hear guitar strums all night long but i was unsure whether it was from eva's room or from the room where shawn and daniel were staying, since they were both next to each other the sound was hard to decipher.

everyone was exhausted, well, beyond exhausted. in my room, the girls were talking about the day, they also spoke about the present shawn gave me — constantly talking about how we were going to end up together, even aaliyah was on their side.

as i step out of my bedroom, to make my way over to see eva when someone puts their hand on my arm, making me turn to face them. "hey, can we talk?" shawn asks and i nod, guiding him back to my bedroom, luckily there was no one there.

i was the last one to wake up, as usual.

the same room where we shared that night a couple months back, "what did you want to talk about?" i ask shawn, guiding him to my bed where we both sit down, facing each other. he just looks at me for a while, both of us not saying anything.

until i break the silence, "well?" i ask, he clears his throat, taking a deep inhale.

"so do you remember that day where i gave you a shoddy excuse of a question, where i asked you to be my girlfriend?" he asks and i nod my head, laughing slightly.

"yeah i told you that you're going to need to ask again, because that was a trash way to ask someone." i mutter, wondering where he was going with this.

"oh hey, i forgot to give you the rest of your christmas present yesterday." he says fumbling around his pocket.

he pulls out a small velvet black box and hands it to me, "open the box." he whispers with a smile, i do as he says, the necklace was still there, so i was confused. "now lift the sponge."

beneath the sponge was a... guitar pick? "i'm very confused." i tell him, making him chuckle. "i don't play guitar?"

"stay here for one second, i'll be right back." shortly after he returns with the guitar i gave him, playing the melodic tune that i couldn't stop hearing last night.

so that's where the noise was coming from.

shortly he began to sing, this was a revised version of his song, strings.

once he stopped, he smiled, looking down. "this song was about you." he begins, and i raise my eyebrow in confusion, he didn't know me when he wrote this song?

"now you're the one that doesn't remember." he chuckles, "we went to the same school, yeah? what you forgot was that i was crushing on you majorly, we were in the same maths and also music class. but i was failing maths, and you were my tutor."

that's when everything clicks in my head.

shit, he was right.

"the night we hooked up. i knew it was you, you didn't change a single bit, still that annoying know-it-all girl that i couldn't shake for whatever reason." he begins, making me slap his arm playfully. "but what i didn't expect from that night, was a child. i however, couldn't be any more happy about it."

"ok so, very sweet but can you please shorten it because i'm starving and i can smell my mom's hot cocoa." i groan, making us both laugh.

once the laughter died down he looks at me, right in the eyes. that sensation immediately made me tense up my shoulders, "you're the girl for me, you always have been. every single song i wrote so many people thought they were about camila but in fact it was you. you were the muse behind every single song, i was always keeping tabs on you. you're my person, adelaine, ever since that day i met you in music class."

"shawn—"

"be my girlfriend, ade?"