The Daddy Project || s.m

Sixteen

Aubrey

It was now night time. We were laying on the picnic blanket star gazing.

"I'm nervous, Bree." Shawn blurted out.

"You'll be fine," I reassured. "Claire really loves you, she'll say yes."

"No, I'm not nervous because of that."

"What is it?" I sat up to look at him.

"The feeling is just so overwhelming." He said. "All the responsibilities I'll have as a married man."

"But you'll have Claire to help you with that."

"What about parties and clubbing?"

"You never liked clubbing." I laughed.

"I feel like I won't have freedom anymore." He said. "Because of the responsibilities, not Claire."

I grabbed his hand, "You can do it, you came all the way to California to support your baby as a single father. It'll be so easy for you."

"I wouldn't have done it without you." He smiled.

There was a moment of silence, while I tried to figure out what to say. It was so overwhelming. Shawn's proposing, he's moving out, and I'm graduating. We're going to drift away, I know it.

"Whats wrong dawg?" Shawn broke the silence.

"I-I didn't realize," I chuckled, wiping my tears.

"Tell me about it."

"I can't."

"I told you how I felt, and you're the first person to know," He said. "Why can't you tell me?"

"I don't want to make it seem like I'm stopping you from doing something you love." I explained.

"Say itt.."

"Nuh-uh."

"You're gonna miss me.." He sang.

"As if!"

"Admit it, you will."

"Fine, only because you're annoying me." I said. "Im scared that once you get married, and I graduate university, we're gonna drift away."

"Remember the summer before ninth grade when we overheard our moms talk about how we'll drift away once high school starts?" I nodded. "And how we proved them wrong at our graduation?"

"Those were the days." I chuckled.

"This time, we just have to prove ourselves wrong."

"Challenge accepted."

"Besides, why would we drift away now? We've been best friends since we were fetuses."

"Yup." I yawned.

"We should go back to the hotel and get some sleep."

We packed our things and got into the car.

"Find me the nearest hotel." He said into his phone.

"What do you mean by find? I thought you booked it already."

"Oops, I lied."

"Dude!"

"At least I found a four star hotel two blocks away." He drove to a really nice hotel.

"Room for two." Shawn said.

The concierge gave us the card, "Have fun."

"Um okay?"

We went up to our room, I was so ready to crash.

"I thought you asked for a room for two, not one." I said to Shawn.

"I did, they must've thought we were gonna-"

"Oh that's just gross!" I exclaimed.

"I could ask for a two bed suite."

"Sure, but I don't really care."

After he left the room, I got ready for bed. He came back while I was brushing my teeth.

"So?" I asked.

"All the two bed suites are taken."

"I can sleep on the floor if you want." I offered.

"No, it's fine. You take the bed."

"You drove two hours straight, you deserve it."

"Why don't we both sleep on the bed, we used to always have sleepovers."

"If we fit. Besides, it's awkward sleeping next to a guy who's gonna propose."

"But this guy happens to be like the brother you never had."

Yeah, a brother that you have been debating whether or not you have a crush on him for the past two months.

"Eh.. What the hell." I flopped onto the bed and wrapped myself with the blanket.

While Shawn was getting ready I decided to watch some t.v. Unfortunately, there were only two channels. One was some shopping channel, the other one was a Spanish soap opera.

I felt my eyes closing and then I dozed off.

That night, I woke up, Shawn laid beside me shivering, almost falling off the bed. He had no blanket because I had it all, oops.

I unrolled myself out of the two layers of blankets I wrapped myself in and carefully draped it over Shawn's cold body, pulling him closer so he wouldn't fall. At this point we were an inch apart.

"Thank you." I heard him mumble.

"Sorry for hogging it."

"It's fine."

"You could've woke me up, or grabbed the blanket from me."

"I didn't want to wake you," Shawn said. "You would've beat me."

I felt something freezing brush against my leg. I yelped, "You're feet are freezing."

"I'm cold."

"Are you feeling okay?" I asked touching his forehead with the back of my hand.

"You're so warm." He said snuggling close to me.

"Just this once, Mendes." I wrapped my arm around him playing the role of the big spoon. But I didn't want this to be the last time I cuddle with him.

"Goodnight, Bree. I love you."

"I love you too." Usually, I meant this as a friendly 'I love you' but this time, I meant it as more than a friend.