Desire | Shawn Mendes

FORTY ONE

- Shawn's View -

Song of the Chapter: First Day of My Life - Bright Eyes

"So if you wanna be with me, / With these things there's no telling, / You just have to wait and see..."

- s -

The door to the study closes and I take a seat just as Jasmine's dad takes a seat behind his desk. I look around the room and take note of his degrees and awards and photographs that are all on the wall. There's news clippings that are in picture frames and some are about him and some I recognize as Jasmine's.

"A father knows when something is up, Shawn." He speaks. The box burns in the pocket of my pants as I look at him. "The minute you walked in with her, it confirmed what I already knew."

"What do you know?" I ask him.

"The two of you just so happen to be single at the same time? And run into each other in New York? On the same day?" He asks. "How long have you two been seeing each other?"

"About a week." I tell him.

He nods his head and I realize why Jasmine said I wouldn't want to be in here. It's scary; it resembles the office of a principal or something with all the awards and the dark color scheme. It's intimidating. Especially him.

"She already told you that I know everything, right?" He asks me and I nod. "But she left out a very important key detail in telling me your reaction. So Shawn, what was your reaction?"

"Th-That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about, sir." I stammer. "I want to talk to you about what I did and also about how I feel towards your daughter."

"How'd you react?" He asks me.

"We both reacted wrong towards one another." I begin. "But mainly me. I grabbed her at one point..."

"How did you grab her?"

"By the jaw."

"Continue."

"And I pushed her down to the sand." I say. "But we've talked it out, and I have apologized to her and I want to let you know that I am seeing a therapist to help talk over the abortion and my reaction towards her. Mr. Callaghan, sir, you have to understand that I am not this person. Not even when I'm angry. I'm not this person."

"Then why'd you hurt her at that time?"

"I don't know."

"That's not a good answer, Shawn." He tells me.

"With all due respect, have you had the love of your life tell you that they aborted your child?" I ask. He's silent and then motions for me to continue. "But as I was saying, Jasmine is the love of my life. She has been since four years ago. I look at her and I think I was blind before I met her because I look at her and it's like I've never seen color or a face before."

"What are your intentions with my daughter?" He asks me.

"Do you remember when you told me to swallow my pride?" I ask.