ShawnMendes entered Wattpad.

65

<<Does hate for you look like that?>>

"Hey, Mandy!" I hear a female voice, and I turn around. "Aaliyah?!"

"Yes, it's me!" She's smiling, and she hugs me, ignoring the shovel in my hand.

"What are you doing here?!" I look at her, scanning her from top to toe, noticing, that she's looking tired.

"Uhm, as you'll know by now: I'm living over there," Aaliyah says, apparently amused. "Once I realized your mum's daughter Mandy is Mandy Mandy I wanted to come over. But right now ... to be totally honest: My brother sent me."

"Oh yeah, I didn't realize all of this fully," I say and would've hit my head against a wall if I found a proper one. "So, when your mum said that 'Ally' was 'an influencer', she meant you, of course." I shake my head. "I can't believe I didn't combine all the signs. I didn't even get the idea to look this unknown girl up on Instagram."

"That you didn't look it up, says only even more positive things about you, than if you did." Aaliyah smiles impishly. "And oh my gosh, how cool is this, that we're now neighbours?! I mean, what a coincidence that you moved of all things in our street?!"

"I didn't move here, my mum did," I remind her with a little smile. "But yeah, it's really quite a coincidence." I shake my head, because the snow doesn't stop laying down on my hair. "It's fucking cold, don't we wanna go inside?" I ask and put the shovel on the growing snow mountain, I built right next to the driveway.

"You're right, but sadly I don't have time," Aaliyah says. "I have to do some college preparation stuff."

"Oh okay, yeah, of course. That sounds interesting."

"Ah, yeah, no, not really." Aaliyah shrugs and grins. "I have no idea what to do. It's not that easy to be Shawn Mendes' sister and going to college. It never was, but now... while he's on tour, it's much more complicated, because everyone knows his name, and his face is everywhere, and my Instagram page is growing and growing,..."

"Oh yeah, you're 'influenca,'" I say. "Well, if you want to, we can have no idea what to do together. I am clueless, too, as you already know. Maybe your mother mentioned it: I finally gave up my studies."

"No, she didn't, but that's really big news!" Aaliyah shakes her head. "I see, we have a lot to talk about since we last met! When you said you'd be coming to Pickering, I didn't expect us to end up as neighbours. I can't believe I didn't put two and two together!"

I pull a face. "Don't even get me started—I didn't realise who this Ally with a million followers actually was. I would have called you later to ask if you wanted to meet up. But meeting Shawn out of nothing on the street and finding out that my mum moved in next door to your family just whirlwinded me a bit. – We hadn't talked since the elevator-incident as you know, and our five-step-plan hadn't progressed very far until now."

"Sounds as you two had a nice chat." Aaliyah raises her eyebrows.

"It was nice. As nice as he could be I guess."

We grin at each other.

"But let's not talk anymore about your brother," I say. I have to admit, I'm a bit worried if the fact that my mom moved into Shawn's neighbourhood is destroying my newfound friendship with Aaliyah.

Aaliyah's next words tell me that I don't have to worry. "I think it's great that your mother moved here. That means that you're gonna be more often here in town – I already wanted to ask you, whether you wanted to visit me soon." She looks down the road. "Anyways. Shawn's gonna be fine."

I look down at my shoes. "Yeah."

Aaliyah smiles encouragingly. "So tomorrow then? We've got a lot to talk about, I see."

"I'd love to," I answer, and before she can get on her way, something she said earlier comes to my mind, and I shout: "Wait! Did you say, Shawn did send you?!"

Aaliyah stops and turns around. "Uh oh, yeah! Yes, he did. He said that you would be working outside, and that I should take a look if you're okay out in the cold. To be honest, it was more than an order."

"He ordered you to look after me?!"

"Yeah, surprisingly, he did," Aaliyah laughs a bit at my perplex and wondering expression. "And he said that you surely wouldn't have packed any warm clothes, so that he would like to give a..." Aaliyah hesitates. "That he would like to give a dumb bitch a pullover, so she doesn't catch a cold."

I stare at her, trying to process the words she said, while she's getting out of her bag something that looks definitely like a pullover in green and blue.

She gives it to me with a grin. "I don't know, what this weird affront, I'm supposed to communicate means, but I have the feeling, that there is hope, when it comes to your and Shawn's relationship."

I take the pullover. It feels warm and cozy. "We don't have any relationship. Nothing that even deserves the word friendship. Hate would be the more proper description, when it comes to him, I suppose."

"He never hated you," Aaliyah shakes her head. "And since he doesn't have contact with Amy anymore, you have the chance to clarify it all."

She looks at the pullover in my hand. "Does hate look like that to you?"