Travel // Shawn Mendes

twenty-one

"It's four am, you better be getting murdered right now."

"No, but even better."

"I'm hanging up, call me when it's a decent hour." I tell Jen.

"Okay, fine, I guess tomorrow when you're in London and I'm still in London I just won't call to meet up."

"Fin- wait, what?" I ask, blinking a few times in the dark room to wake myself up a bit.

"Yup. My flight got cancelled, so I leave in like five days. Which means that we have one full day with each other in London, plus more if you want."

"If I want?"

"So, I know how you were telling me you were gonna stay in London for a solid two weeks, and I respect that. I also get that you're supposed to join me on my tour once I come back to America. But, after my five days are up, you could totally come with me instead of going back home after London." She explains, and I sit up a bit straighter, now fully awake.

"Jen, are you serious?"

"A hundred percent."

"I dunno." I respond, getting up to turn on a light so that I wasn't still in the dark.

"What? Why not?"

"You're going to like, two more places after London, and I didn't financially plan for that. I don't have money for tickets."

Would I love to travel the rest of Jen's European leg of the tour with her? Of course. But at the same time, I wasn't exactly rich either.

"But that's the best part, sis. Tickets have already been bought!"

"Huh?"

"The tickets, have been bought. You pay zero. Zilch. Nada. Nothing."

"Jen, you did not spend money on me."

"Uh, no, I didn't. I didn't forget your weird thing about accepting stuff from people, Nora. These tickets are free. I didn't buy them, so you don't owe me anything. Plus, if you don't take them, it's just full tickets going to waste. That doesn't hurt your heart at all?"

"Oh my God, Jen." I groaned at how dramatic she was being, but that the same time, she was right. That did hurt my heart just a tiny bit.

"I get if you want to say in London for two weeks, though. I've been here for a while already, and I love this place. But it wouldn't hurt to start touring with me earlier." Jen tries convincing me, and I hear another voice in the background as she does. What shocks me, is that this voice belongs to a guy.

"Jen, first, you're already paying for my transportation for all of the American part of your tour. Second, want to introduce the guy near you?"

"First, it's called a bus, Nora. There would be space on it with or without you, so why bother letting that space stay empty? Second, what guy? Guys have cooties, remember?"

As she says this, I remember my conversation with Aidan, and I smile at the floor. I was seriously going to miss his company. Fuckboy or not, I definitely had a new friend.

"Oh, but th-" I start, but cut myself off the moment I hear the voice getting closer to the phone, clearly talking to Jen.

"Cooties? If I have cooties, then you've definitely got to see the doctor."

Holy shit.

"Oh my God, Jen. Oh my God." Jaw open, I begin to wonder everything that has gone on with her today, and why she was with a boy at eleven pm in London.