A Little Too Much | Shawn Mendes (COMPLETED)

08 | Dinner Date

Allie's POV;

I let myself out of Shawn's backyard and jog back over to my house. When I come inside, Hannah is making lunch. "Oh, there you are, sweetie! Could you set the table for me please?" I nod and grab two of everything and distribute it all.

"So, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for the way I talked to you guys yesterday," I say as I finish setting the table.

Hannah smiles as she sets hot dogs and macaroni and cheese on the table, along with a fruit salad, "I know that this must be hard, but ..."

"I know, I have to respect you," I finish.

She smiles. "And if you ever want to talk about something, I'm always here," she reminds me. I nod, but still make a mental note not to in my head. When I talk about my past, it only ends up scaring people away. Plus, it's not something I'd brag about. Is rather just forget my sorry excuse of a childhood and move forward as a mature adult.

"Oh, so remember my coworker, Paula I told you about?" Hannah says as we start to eat. Adam is at work, so it's just the two of us. Honestly, I really don't mind if it was always this way.

I nod. "Well, Paula, her husband Lance and their nephew Max are coming over for dinner tonight. Max is your age, so I was hoping you could try to be his friend. Since his parents died, he's been having a rough time." I nod. "I'll try," I say. She smiles. "Good. Thank you."

•••

I spend the rest of the afternoon helping Hannah tidy up the house. Because only the three of us live here now, there's really not much to tidy.

"Oh, I was also thinking the Mendes family could come over for dinner. It'd be nice to have a little summer get-together, don't you think?"

I shrug, "Sure."

Hannah smiles. "How about you go across the street and ask if they'd like to join us?"

I shrug again. "Okay." On the inside, I'm excited I have an excuse to go over and talk to Shawn again. I really hope he's the one who answers the door.

When I get to their porch, I hear screaming inside. Aaliyah is shrieking and laughing. I smile and knock on the door.

"Shawn! Cut it out!" She shrieks. I hear the door open and can't help but laugh. Shawn has opened the door, and has Aaliyah slung over his shoulder.

"Am I interrupting something?" I say with a giggle. Aaliyah wriggles her way out of Shawn's grip and gets to her feet.

"Hi Allie!" She says. I laugh some more.

"Hi. Hannah wanted to know if your family wants to come over for dinner. She's having her coworker's family over and thought it'd be fun to invite you guys, too."

Aaliyah gasps. "I'll go ask!" She says and sprints away from the door. Shawn chuckles, still out of breath, and opens the door wider to let me in.

"Do you guys do that a lot?" I say with a laugh.

He shrugs, "When I have time," he says breathlessly. I nod.

"Mom says we can come," Aaliyah says as she runs back to the entrance. "And she also says to take it easy because I'm fragile," she huffs with a laugh, shoving Shawn's shoulder playfully.

"And your arm is broken," I say, gesturing at her cast. She rolls her eyes, "Yeah, that too."

I smile. "So, I guess I'll see you guys at five then?" They both nod and I walk out. As soon as I do, I hear the shrieking start again. I shake my head with a laugh as I walk back across the street.

•••

Shawn's family is the first to arrive, exactly at five o'clock. I'm not surprised they'd be first. They do live right across the street, so getting here isn't very hard.

Aaliyah hands me a bowl with tin foil over it. "I helped my mom make this for after dinner," she says, bouncing on her toes. I smile and lead them inside. "Thank you."

I can't believe how much energy Aaliyah has. She's always moving. She must've had her mom chasing her all the time as a toddler.

"We'll be eating on the back patio," I say as I open the glass sliding door. Hannah greets them with a huge smile.

"It's so nice to see you all! Aaliyah, how's your arm?" She lifts it up for everyone to see. "No more sling, thank god," she says. Mrs. Mendes laughs lightly.

We sit around the table and talk until the Peterson's arrive about ten minutes later. Hannah gets up to greet them and bring them around back.

"So, everyone this is Paula, Lance, their five children, and their nephew Max." Paula names off the kids, Faith is the oldest, she's my age, Peter is 14, Reagan is 11, then Lucy is 8 and Tommy is 6. They're very riled up today.

"Faith, I've told you about Allie," Hannah continues, "These are our neighbors, Shawn, Aaliyah, Manny, and Karen Mendes," Hannah finishes. Everyone says hi and we all sit to eat dinner.

"So Allie, how long have you been in Pickering?" Faith asks me. I take I bite of steak, "Um, probably about a week now," I say. She nods. "And how do you like it?" I smile. "It's good, I guess." Shawn shoots me a sideways glance. "Good? That's it? We have the best hockey teams around, you know." Aaliyah giggles. "Yeah, I've gathered that," I say.

After we eat dinner and desert, us kids go up to the "playroom" on the second floor. The younger kids occupy themselves doing other things. Since there's a TV, there's also a wii and X-Box hooked up. Shawn, Faith, Peter and Reagan play some racing game, and Max just sits off to the side. I decide to try to be friendly.

"So, you're awfully quiet this evening," I say sitting next to him.

He glances at me with a bitter look then stares at his hands. "Whatever."

"Well, don't you wanna do anything? We could play that racing game with Faith and Shawn," I suggest.

"No thanks," he says.

"Well, you're a very interesting person," I say sarcastically.

"Why don't you just leave me alone," he snaps, stomping down the stairs.

Aaliyah watches me with wide eyes. "Well, he seems nice," she says.

As the night drones on, Paula, Lance, Max, Faith, and her siblings get ready to leave.

"Don't pay any mind to the way Max treats you," Faith says as I walk her out. "He's gotten really bitter since his parents died." I nod. At least he got to know his.

"Hey! Max, wait up," I call as I see him walking to the door. Faith watches me for a moment, and I lock eyes with her. She gives me a small smiles and ushers her parents out to the car. Max sighs and shifts his weight from one leg to the other with annoyance. "I told you to leave me alone," he says bitterly.

I fold my arms across my chest. "Look, I know your parents died, and that's awful. But at least you got to know them. I was left on the corner of a street at two weeks old, and have been to twelve different foster families in my seventeen years of living. At least you had a relative that actually cares about you."

By the time I've finished, I'm shaking. I can't believe I just said that. I've never told anyone this before. He watches me for a long time before quietly saying, "okay." I nod, and he leaves quietly without saying another word.

A/N - Hi everyone, I'm so sorry I haven't updated recently, I've been crazy busy! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter:) xoxo - Em❤️😊