Step Brother

The Notifications

Scarlett Johnson

     "Aaliyah, what's wrong?"

I questioned once she had shut the door loudly behind her, her eyes were red and puffy from all the tears.

Aaliyah didn't speak for a quiet moment, so I slowly approached her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

     "He dumped me..."

Aaliyah stuttered out, my eyes widened, she was only thirteen and already dating?

   "Who did?"

I questioned, Aaliyah's lip quivered as she went on talking.

  "Spencer, he dumped me for Sabrina!"

She sobbed out, she shoved past me and ran down the hallway for her bedroom, I watched as she slammed her bedroom door behind her.

    "Shawn!"

I called, but there was no answer, so I slowly made my way up the stairs and into the hall.

Once I was in front of Shawn's bedroom door, I quietly knocked.

    After a few moments of silence I got up enough courage to walk in, but only to see that his room was empty, where had he gone off to?

    Just before I was about to turn around I heard the door click shut behind me.

I turned around to see Shawn leaning his back up against the now closed door, the widest smirk on his face.

    "Where were we?"

He asked, obviously his mindset was still set on the event from earlier.

    "Shawn, wait... Aaliyah needs you."

I told him quietly as he slowly approached ne, my heart dropped as his face was only inches away from mine.

   "I thought she was at Sabrina's? What happened?"

He asked his mood changed at once, I then noticed how much he cared about his family just from that little action.

  "She's down in her room... She said some guy named Spencer dumped her."

Shawn gave me the most confused expression I'd ever seen and without saying another word he turned and left me alone in his room.

I heard his footsteps travel down the stairs, and then it went silent.

     I wondered across the hall into my room and took a seat on my bed, I picked my phone up and automatically saw all the twitter notifications.

  "Shawn Mendes's Father Manuel Married a women from the states... More details to come soon!"

I read the first notification, my friend Candace from back home had sent me a lot.

   "Shawn is rumored to have a new step sister."

The next one read, I continued scrolling through the long list of unread things, until my eyes landed on the last one, my heart skipped a beat.

    "Rumors spread around their high school, are Shawn, and his new step sister a secret thing?"

It read, I dropped my phone and it landed at my feet.

   "What's wrong?"

I heard Shawn ask from the doorway, I looked up to see him staring in at me.

I didn't move, so he came in slowly and picked up my phone from the floor.

He glanced at the screen, and his eyes widened moments later.

    "Shawn, I feel like the universe is telling us we shouldn't do this..."

I whispered, Shawn stared down at me, my phone was still in his hand.

    "But it doesn't mean we can't."

He told me, I looked up to see his eyes staring at the phone in his hand.

   "I really like you Scar... I can't be your step brother."

He told me, I froze at his words.

   "Just think about it please?"

He asked quietly, I slowly nodded.

   He squatted down in front of me and handed my phone back, his fingertips brushed up against my skin which started up a firework show in my stomach.

    He got up and started for the door, but I stopped him.

   "Wait, is Aaliyah okay?"

I asked him, he turned and smiled at me.

"Ya, she's going to be fine."

He told me with a wink, my cheeks turned red and he disappeared into his room across the hall.