All She Wishes | Shawn Mendes | ✔

20. Of Wishes And Malls

"Love is like an hourglass.
The heart fills as the brain empties."

▫▫▫

For a second or two, I stared at the notification with my jaw hitting the ground. Shawn had never texted me or even called me before so I was so confused as to why he'd done so now.

I tried to recollect if I had seen him at the cafeteria and I was convinced that I didn't. Meaning he didn't get to hear Tanner's apology, so that couldn't be the reason why he had texted me.

"What's wrong?" Jace asked, looking back at me. "You've been staring down at your phone for at least two minutes. Come on, we've got to get to class,"

"Uh, go ahead." I snapped out of my daze. "I'll join you in a minute,"

Jace shrugged and Lynelle pulled his arm as they both sauntered out of the cafeteria. With shaky hands and a mind swirling with questions, I opened the text.

Can you meet me at the after school? I wanna talk. It read.

I gulped. Shawn actually wanted to see me? Talk to me?

Yeah, sure, I texted back.

Okay, I'll be at the table hidden by a couple of shelves. It's the one closest to the window. Shawn typed almost immediately.

I sent a reply and stuffed my phone into my bag.

As I sat down in the Spanish class, I was barely listening to whatever the teacher had to say. All I could do was wonder why Shawn wanted to see me. I hoped it was something spectacular, and I was darn sure that I would cry my heart out if it wasn't.

The bell to signify the end of the last period rang and I hurried out of the classroom. I went straight to the girls' bathroom to see if there was anything that I needed to fix about my current outlook. Wavy blond hair cascaded down my shoulders and my makeup was right on point. There were no obvious creases on my dress and there wasn't a single speck of dirt on my shoes.

I gave my reflection a thumbs up in the mirror and then I heard a snicker. I turned around to see that brunette girl, Stephanie, that had been all over Tanner when I had confronted him about the rumors.

Stephanie's beautiful face was twisted in a deceitful smirk. "It's a surprise how the mirror didn't shatter from your reflection alone,"

"Excuse me?" I croaked.

"Listen to me, bitch," She snarled, her sickening smirk fading. "If you think you can sink your ugly claws into Tanner, you're horribly wrong. Who the hell do you think you are? How dare you tell him to apologize in front of the whole school?"

I tried to speak, but my mouth felt dry and I couldn't get any words out.

"You're an ugly, shameless and self-conceited bitch," Stephanie continued, pointing a manicured finger at me. "And this is just the beginning. You'll hear more of this if you don't stay the hell away from my man."

With a final glare, she flounced out of the bathroom, leaving me standing there transfixed. Thoughts raced through my mind and it took me a while to recollect myself. I shook off her derogatory words and held my head high as I left the bathroom. There was no way I was going to let someone bring me down now that I was meeting Shawn. No way at all.

There were quite a number of students in the hallway. Some talking, - rather, gossiping - others rummaging their lockers, and a few heading out of the building.

I made my way to the library and tried to find the table Shawn had told me that he'd be sitting. It was slightly difficult to find since it was hidden by a few shelves. But I found it nonetheless.

I hurried over and greeted with a nervous smile, "Hey,"

"Eiffel," Shawn smiled back. His dark hair was styled perfectly and his clothes were dark as usual.

I sat. "Um, you wanted to talk?" I prompted and he nodded, nervously scratching the back of his neck.

"So, um," Shawn cleared his throat. "How are you?"

"I'm good," I answered, feeling some sort of tension that was in the air between us. "You?"

"Never better," His smile swept me off my feet. Good thing I was sitting down.

He linked his fingers and placed them on the table. "There's, uh, this new place that just opened about a week ago. It's called Fleur's Café, and I was wondering if maybe you'd like to check it out with me tomorrow evening,"

My heart fluttered, doing a repeated somersault. Shawn was asking me out on a date? A shade of red pinked my cheeks and I couldn't seem to be able to hide it.

"Y-yeah," I stuttered. "I'll check it out with y-you."

He smiled that devilishly handsome smile again. "Great, I'll come by tomorrow at six thirty?"

"Perfect,"

I was literally on cloud nine as I made my way out of the school building and into the students' parking lot. I found Jace's car easily and he was already sitting in it with Lynelle. I fixed myself into the back seat and we drove towards the mall.

We arrived at the mall a couple of minutes after and Lynelle didn't hesitate to pull me and Jace with her from store to store. I figured shopping was her favorite thing to do and according to her, if she ever had to choose between being stuck in a mall or in a famous celebrity's concert, she would unhesitatingly go with the mall.

"This would look so beautiful on you," Lynelle grinned, holding out a half-sleeved blue and black tartan shirt.

I eyed the shirt, biting my lip. It looked good all right, but I wasn't sure. I wasn't really a tartan person, I preferred polka dots.

"Try it on," Lynelle urged and shooed me into the dressing room before I could resist.

I buttoned up the shirt and the shirt and stepped out of the dressing room so Jace and Lynelle could assess it. But they were both busy by the time I got there.

It wasn't really a usual sight to see both your best friends making out in the middle of Macy's. Passers-by averted their eyes from the hormonal teenagers and I mentally face-palmed. I cleared my throat as loudly as I could and they both sprang away from each other immediately.

Caught in the act.

Lynelle's face was hot and Jace's hair was ruffled as Lynelle's hands had performed their magic in it. I stifled a snicker at their mortified expressions.

"It looks great on you," Jace managed to say.

"Lynelle?" I prompted the girl with flushed cheeks.

"The color, uh, accentuates your eyes," She stumbled on her words and I bit back a giggle. "I'll buy it for you,"

I tried to dissuade her from doing so, but she bought the shirt for me anyway and we headed to the jewelry store.

A/N: Hey, guys! My exams are coming up and I may not be able to update for a while, but if you see an update, it means that I'm done with my exams.

So for this short period that I'll be gone, please share this book with as many people as you can. I plan on hitting 1K reads before the end of the year and you guys are my only hope!

Please vote and comment! I love you all so much!! 😘