Paradise

chapter six.

She stops laughing and a concerned look crosses her face.
"Hey, are you okay? It sounded pretty rough in there."
I sigh. "I'm okay. I don't know if Cole is though. I pretty much just broke his heart." I shake my head in defeat. "He told me he had feelings for me, Mak. He told me he really likes me."
"He did?" she asks, a look of confusion crosses her face.
"Yes."
"What happened after that?" she asks.
"I basically told him that I only see him as a friend and that I like Shawn now."
"Oh" she pauses to think "do you think that he just now started liking you because he's jealous of you and Shawn?"
"Yes, I do think that. But the thing is, he helped me text Shawn once and he genuinely seemed happy for me."
"I don't know what's going on with him. Maybe there's something else going on?" she says.
"Yeah, maybe." I sigh.
"Hey! I know what'll make you feel better!" she says.
I lift my head up and say "What?"
"LET'S GO GET COFFEE" she yells.
I chuckle and say "OKAY" in the same voice she used, mocking her.
We go inside and tell Liam that Mak and I are going to the café in town and that we'll probably go and look in some stores for a girls day.
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After we change, we take the car and leave for the coffee shop down the road. I order an iced vanilla latte and Mak orders an iced caramel macchiato.
We get our drinks and start to head over to the mall. Once we get there, we shop for a while and get our nails done. We then decide that we're hungry so we drive down to a small café and decide to head into there.
After we ordered our food, we go and sit down. Makenzie goes to the restroom and I sit there waiting for our food to come.

Someone taps me on the shoulder, and I turn around and see Shawn behind me. "Hey Avery! I didn't know that you'd be here" he says.
"Oh hi Shawn! Yeah, Mak and I decided that we wanted to come and eat here. You can sit with us if you want to." I say.
He takes a seat next to me.
"Hey, I'm not trying to be annoying or anything but I texted you a while ago, like this morning, and I never got a response." he says shyly.
"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry. I've had kind of a rough day and I didn't even realize that I left my phone at the house."
"Oh no, it's perfectly okay. I was just scared that you didn't want to talk to me anymore."
I say "Oh no no no that's not-"
He chuckles and says "it's okay, I know you didn't mean to. So, you said that you had a rough day. Are you okay?"
"Yes I'm okay. It's just that Cole and I got into a big argument this morning, and it just really sucks."
"I'm sorry to hear that. You don't have to tell me all of the details if you don't want to, but if you need anything or want to talk to me, just tell me and I'll be here."
I nod my head and smile at him.

He is so caring and kind, I just love that about him.

Soon, Mak joins us, and we all eat our food and just talk about the most random things to get to know each other. It gets really late, and Shawn offers to bring me home, so I ask Makenzie and make sure she's okay with it.

"Hey Mak, will you be mad if I left you to ride with Shawn back home?"
She giggles.
"No, you two love birds have fun. Well not too much fun."
I laugh and hug her goodbye, and tell her to drive safe.

As we walk out of the café, Shawn slips his hand into mine. I automatically blush. I don't know why he makes me feel this nervous and happy inside, but it's a good thing. No other guy has ever made me feel this way.

He opens the passenger door to his car and helps me in. He jogs around to the other side and hops in.
"Any music requests?" Shawn asks.
"Nope, I wanna hear what you like to listen to." I say.

Perfect by Ed Sheeran comes on, and we both know all of the words to it. He sings in his angelic voice, which soon makes me feel nervous and self conscious singing in front of him. I decide to hum to the melody of the song, but then I start to sing along quietly, hoping he won't hear, but unfortunately he does. He looks at me in awe for some weird reason so I stop singing and look at him.

"What is it?"
"Keep singing."
"Why?"
"Please just do it."
"I don't know-"
"Please? For me? I just wanna hear your voice."

I don't know what else to do so I nervously sing along to the rest of the song while Shawn continues to drive.
A playful smile appears on his face, and I wonder why he's being like this.

I turn down the volume, look at him and say, "Okay Shawn, what's the deal?"
He chuckles. "What do you mean?"
I roll my eyes playfully and say, "So are you gonna tell me why you wanted to hear me sing or not?"
"Because."
"Because...?"
"You have a beautiful voice."

I stare at him in shock.
After I take in what he says I say,
"You, of all people, think that I, have a good voice?"
He pauses to think. "Well, yeah I do."
"Oh...thanks?" I say, I can't think of anything else to say to him but that.
Soon, we arrive to the house.
He furrows his eyebrows together and says "Why do you doubt yourself? Your voice is amazing."
"I don't know-"
"Listen to your voice next time you sing, and you'll know. Your voice is beautiful. Just like you" he gushes.
I blush.
"Thank you for bringing me home. I had a great time with you tonight."
"You're welcome. I did too."
We look at each other for a minute, and then his soft lips crash on to mine. We kiss passionately, my hands end up tousling his soft, curly hair.
His hands are cupping my face to deepen the kiss. A pure feeling of euphoria rushes through me.

He soon gets out of the car, jogs over to my side, and opens my door.
He holds out his hand so I grab it and get out with a smile on my face, and I decide to give him a quick peck on the lips. He smiles and walks me to the door, and tells me goodnight. I tell him to drive safely and that I'll see him soon.

After Shawn drives off, I open the door to the cabin and see Cole sitting on the couch waiting up for me.
I walk in and I turn my head away from him.
"Avery, I-"
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hey you guys! i'm back:) sorry for the long wait for this chapter. i've had a lot going on recently but it's officially spring break so i get a week off! thank goodness! thank you all so much for your support and for checking up on me, it means a lot. i love you all so much.
•don't forget to vote!
•comment where you guys are from! i would love to know❤️

- xx, taylor