Crookedly in Love {a Shawn Mendes Fan Fiction}

7. Flashes and Fury

I sat beside Shawn while we presented the newest song to Nelson. We had recorded the demo, and now we were all hovered around his computer and listening.

He was nodding along to the song. Shawn and I had barely made eye contact the whole day, and I hadn't heard from him since we recorded the demo last week.

I was beginning to get used to the silence, as miserable as I was. Shawn glanced at me every so often throughout the song but I was careful not to return it. I couldn't take it.

Our friendship was on its way to over, and I wanted to live in ignorance for as long as possible.

"I love it," Nelson said, after it finished. "It's perfect. And people love the wholesome image of Shawn."

"Wholesome?" I asked.

"Yeah, everyone thinks he's pretty innocent."

"Is that good?" Shawn wondered.

"It's perfect. It's exactly what the audience loves actually right now," he explained. "They like that Shawn is very sweet, committed."

We both nodded. He did have a wholesome image, I thought, as I stared at him. He was your typical boy-next-door.

"Alright, we'll get you to release it next week. Your manager will set up a bunch of interviews for you," he said. "Julia, I assume you'll go to some of his interviews?"

I hesitated, looking over at Shawn, who returned the awkward glance.

"Well," I started.

"I'll actually bring my girlfriend, Mel," he intervened.

I had to refrain myself from rolling my eyes. He was just twisting the knife. Nelson narrowed his eyes.

"Okay, well we can see if you can bring both, no?" he asked.

Shawn and I exchanged glances again.

"Is there a problem with the songwriting duo?" Nelson wondered, suspiciously. "Because your chemistry is extremely important. If it's not working-"

"No, it's working," Shawn jumped in quickly. "Yeah, see if I can bring them both."

I smiled, not able to say anything. I might give myself away.

"Alright, Andrew will get you a schedule right away," Nelson said, dismissing us. We got up and left his office.

Walking towards the entrance, we were mostly silent.

"Andrew's my new manager," Shawn informed me.

I nodded. "Cool."

"I also noticed you're almost at 300,000 followers," he mentioned. I stared at him. "On Instagram."

"How did you know that?"

"I check up on you," he shrugged.

"Well, yeah. I mean, you're posting pictures of me," I said, almost smiling. "I'm, like, second-hand famous."

He laughed. "Are you kidding? I've posted so many of us from the last few years, people want more of you."

"Huh?"

"Seriously, people always comment on my pictures asking 'where's Julia?'"

I raised my eyebrows. "Come on, they don't actually know me."

He nodded. "They do!"

As we opened the glass doors to go outside, I saw a large mob of teenaged girls standing outside. They started absolutely screaming bloody murder when they saw Shawn appear. Security guards were ready and armed to surround us for protection.