Bad Things

18. Hold On

Camila's mother took Alex's hand, a bit hesitant, but gracious all the same. "Oh, well, it's nice to meet you. I'm Sandra, Kar—I mean Camila's mother. My apology, as I'm so used to calling my daughter as Karla."

"Well, its okay. Nice to meet you too," Alex grinned, and Camila could see what Hailee saw in him. He could be charming when he wanted to.

Then her mother's gaze flitted to Shawn and a strange sort of recognition crossed her features. Shawn just looked up at her, not saying a single word. Camila wondered if he was afraid or in some sort of shock, but then Alex said, "This is my friend, Shawn."

And it was as if it all clicked for her mother. "Mendes," she said. "Shawn Mendes."

He nodded once. "Yes, ma'am."

"I thought you looked familiar. I knew your mother in school. I was sorry to hear about her passing." She studied him for a moment. "You have her eyes."

Camila saw Shawn's throat move, but he didn't respond. There was a flash of pain in his eyes, one that probably not many people would have noticed—it was there and gone so fast—but she saw it.

Camila's mother extended her hand to Shawn now and smiled: soft, kind. "It's nice to meet you, Shawn."

Shawn stared at her mother's hand for a moment as if he wasn't quite sure what to do with it, before he stood, his long body unfolding slowly. At full height, he towered a full head above both of them. Tentatively, he took her mother's hand and said, "You too."

Camila peered up at him and let herself, for that infinitesimal second in time when her mother's focus wasn't on her, really look. There was something more going on with him—something different from this morning. His eyes were tight, stressed, and his entire body seemed to emit an unfamiliar anxiousness. Camila tried to tell herself it was just this awkward meeting, but something about that felt off. Uneasy prickles crawled up her spine and scattered across her skin.

Shawn let go of Camila's mother's hand and stepped back to his seat, but when he went to sit, his arm brushed over a stack of papers Camila hadn't noticed earlier, and sent them fluttering to the floor. A look of mild panic crossed his face as he bent to gather them back up, at the same time her mother did.

She scooped up a couple and just as she went to hand them over to Shawn, she paused. Her fingers grasped the papers lightly and a small smile lifted the corners of her mouth. "Oh, my—"

But before she had the chance to finish what she was saying, Shawn snatched the papers out of her hand, his cheeks blazing red. Camila blinked at the sight, never having seen him look so uncomfortable before. Her gaze darted to the papers once more, but he'd succeeded in rolling them up and hiding any of the print. What were they, and why did he seem so protective of them?

Shawn slid back into his seat and kept his head down, refusing to look up at Camila or her mother again. She just needed his eyes for a second, just one second so she could see in them what was happening, but he refused to look. Instead, he glanced over at Alex and Alex's brows rose in understanding. Shawn still held the papers rolled up in his hands, and Camila saw the way his fingers were squeezing and releasing them, as if he were trying to rub them out of existence.