Bad Reputation - Shawn Mendes

13 - Ridiculous Article

Eleanor.

I head up to my floor and open up the door to my room to see Aaliyah laying down in bed watching Netflix. She immediately sits up and pauses the movie as soon as she hears the door open. "How did it go?" Aaliyah asks excitedly. "It was nice hanging out with Shawn. We ate a pizza restaurant and went to a lovely art exhibition." I tell her while putting down my bag and taking off my shoes. "Did anything else happen?" She asks while putting away her laptop and focusing everything on me. "Oh, we did bump into some paparazzi after eating but Shawn hid my face from the cameras." I say. "Yikes, they're so annoying, always invading other's privacies." She comments and i nod in agreement. "I'm glad my brother protected you though." She adds and i can't help but smile. Shawn has always been sweet, but today made me realise how much he truly does care for me.

My phone chimes and i turn it on to see a text from an unknown number. It read, "Hey, its Shawn." I subconsciously smile at my phone after reading the text and type back, "Hey, its Elle." I save his number into my contacts and name it as Shawn Mendes, quite boring but i like it. My phone chimes again and its another text from him.

S: Thanks for today again, i really enjoyed myself.
E: Me too, thank you for showing me around.
S: Let's do it again some time :)
E.: Sure, but we should call Aaliyah with us.
S: Sounds good.
S: Let me know when you guys are free and I'll check with my schedule also.
E.: Alright, will update you.

(S stands for Shawn and E stands for Elle)

"Aaliyah?" I finally look up from my phone and call her. "Yeah?" She answers. "Shawn just texted me, saying he wants to meet up again some other time. And i was wondering if you'd like to join us?" I ask. "Hanging out with my brother and my best friend? Of course I'd love to." She exclaims and hugs me. "Okay, when are you free?" "Tomorrow?" "Okay, how about tomorrow dinner? I need to finish my work first." I tell her. "I'm down." She replies and i smile. I quickly type to Shawn to let him know that we're free for dinner tomorrow and he says that he is too. He invited us to go to his apartment since Aaliyah knew the way and i agreed. We've been going to restaurants, and it would be a nice change of environment to hang out at his place.

Now that tomorrow's dinner is settled, it's time to settle today's dinner which I remembered after my stomach grumbled. I look at the clock and it's almost 7. "Have you eaten dinner?" I ask Aaliyah and she shakes her head. "Do you wanna order chinese?" I suggests and she screams 'yes'. I search up for a nearby chinese restaurant and call them. I order chow mien, fried rice, and sweet and sour pork to share.

As we're waiting for the food, Aaliyah suddenly gasps. "Oh my god, you guys are trending right now!" She says and shows me her phone where there is a picture of Shawn and I coming out of the pizza restaurant but my face is covered. I click on the photo, and see the article headline, "Shawn Mendes and his mysterious bae". Why would they think I'm his bae? And that word honestly sounds ridiculous, who the hell came up with that? "They really come up with the fakest news possible huh." I say as i return the phone back to Aaliyah. "You guys do look like you could be a couple." She says and i can't help but laugh. There's no way a guy like Shawn would even look at me that way, and besides he's just being nice because I'm his sister's roommate, right?

My phone chimes again and i look over to see Shawn calling me. I pick up the phone and answer, "Hello?" "We need to talk." He says in a serious tone, and my heart drops. "A-about?" I ask, although I'm pretty sure he's going to talk about the article that had just came out. "The photos." He says and i swallow the huge lump in my throat. "Okay." I say as i sit back down on my chair. "I'm going to clear up the rumours and say that i don't have a girlfriend, and that you're just an old friend. And what I need you to do is, dress casually for the next few days and hopefully not get any attention. Can you do that?" He requests. "I can do that. Are you going to get in trouble?" I ask, worried that his manager or publicist might scold him for being reckless. "I won't if we handle this well." "We will, and besides we really aren't dating." I say and Aaliyah smirks at me. "Right." He says into the phone, and we both stay silent for awhile. "Thank you Elle." He breaks the silence. "Of course Shawn. And by the way, are we still on for tomorrow night?" I ask since I wasn't sure after this whole mess had just happened. "Yeah, but like i said, you would need to dress casually and not stand out too much." "I will." I reply. We both say our goodbyes and eventually hung up the phone.

Someone knocks on the door and i stand up to open it. As soon as i open it, the delivery guy who's holding our food stands there looking back and forth from his phone and me. And that's when realisation hit me, I haven't changed out of my clothes, so you can tell from the photos that it's me. I've just been caught and I've screwed Shawn's career.