Desire | Shawn Mendes

FORTY FOUR

Song of the Chapter: Love Is a Wild Thing - Kasey Musgraves

"Even if you lose it, it will find you / There's no way to stop it, but they'll try to..."

- j -

"Pst."

"Hey, Jasmine."

"Jasmine."

"Jaaaaaasssssmiiiiiinnneee."

"Pst!"

"Oh my fucking....WAKE UP!"

I get shoved playfully and end up falling to the floor with a thud. I've hit my foot by my shoes and I rub at my knee as I turn my body onto my back and open my eyes. Shawn's head pokes from the bed and he smiles at me as he cocks his head to the side. "Hey sleepy head!" Shawn says. He reaches down and places a finger at my nose. "Happy birthday."

"Was yesterday's heavy break-seatbelt-choke not enough?" I ask him as I prop myself up on my elbows.

"You wouldn't wake up, what do you expect?" Shawn replies with a laugh.

"Happy birthday." Shawn says as he leans down and kisses my forehead. "Twenty four, eh? You're getting kinda old."

"Talk shit all you want, I have way less wrinkles than you." I say as I get up from the floor.

"I should have slammed the breaks harder." Shawn says. I grab a pillow and whack it at his face and he laughs. "Come on, let's go downstairs."

Shawn gets up from the bed and runs his hand through his hair as we walk out of the bedroom. As I walk out first, Shawn playfully slaps my butt and I turn around and whack him on the arm. "Aw, throwback to when you whacked my ass in the Hamptons!" He says as he laughs.

I let out a laugh as we walk down the stairs and the smell lingering in the air is a dead giveaway of what's to come next. As I turn into the kitchen while inhaling the sweet scent of maple and cinnamon, I see his family in the kitchen as they all have balloons in their hands, except for Karen, who has her hands clasped together as she smiles.

"Happy birthday Jasmine!" They tell me in unison.

I bite down on my lower lip before giving into the humongous smile that has consumed me. Karen opens her arms out to me as I hug her first and I watch as Manny slaps Shawn's hand away from a waffle, making me laugh more.

"Happy birthday, I'm so glad I get to hold you again." Karen says to me. Her words give me butterflies and I hug her tighter as she rubs her hand up and down my back and kisses at the side of my head.

"I love you, Karen." I whisper to her and she hugs me tighter. "Thank you."

"It's no problem," She replies, "and I always knew you'd come back to us."

"You two done?" Manny asks. "Other people want to hug the birthday girl."

Karen let's go of me and I walk over to Manny and hug him tightly. "Happy birthday, Jasmine." He tells me. "It's good to see you again! Hopefully my idiot for a son doesn't mess things up again."

"I don't think he will." I say as we part from our hug. I'm then squished in a big group hug by his brothers and baby Lilly, who laughs at the warmth of the hug.

"Jasmine don't ever leave us again!" Jack says.

"She technically didn't leave." Liam says.

"Oh. Right. Shawn, don't ever be a dick again!" Jack says instead.