The Free Pass

Chapter 14

Mallory

When Shawn posted the pic of the two of us on social media, it quickly got out who I was. Social media has a crazy way of identifying people, and soon my name was known. That was no surprise.

Not long after he posted that picture, he announced our engagement. During our last weekend together, we'd taken a picture of our two interlocked hands. It was actually a very cool photo. Shawn switched it to black and white, which really brought out his swallow tattoo and my engagement ring. He posted this to Instagram and Twitter. No caption, because it wasn't needed. Everyone knew what a diamond ring meant.

He waited to post it until he'd had a chance to tell his best friends. They'd had a big guys weekend together. Shawn hadn't had a lot to say about it, other than that he was glad they knew. He'd texted me in the middle of the night during the weekend to tell me he promised he was going to be a good dad and husband. I had no idea how to reply to that.

To say things went nuts after the engagement was announced was an understatement. Shawn's fans were positively rabid. I felt it was too much, too fast for them. They'd hardly had time to adjust to their idol having a girlfriend when BOOM! they had to accept that he was getting married. I'd had a mega crush on Harry Styles when I was younger. I knew what it was like to obsess about someone, so I understood the way Shawn's fans felt. That didn't mean I was okay with all the hate I was getting; it just didn't surprise me. It still hurt. I knew things would only get worse when my pregnancy was revealed.

Shawn was getting interview requests from pretty much everyone he'd ever sat down with in an interview before. Andrew was fielding these calls and was putting off any meetings. He wanted to wait until after the next big reveal. It would look bad if he gave interviews and didn't mention the baby, only to have it revealed right after.

It didn't take long for my pregnancy to get outed, though.

The baby was growing like crazy, which meant I was growing. Virginia was having an uncharacteristically hot spring, so I couldn't continue to wear leggings or sweats and gigantic sweatshirts. I made a point to wear loose things, but there was no hiding my belly. It had popped, just as I'd read it would in my pregnancy books.

I'd been in a coffee shop off campus one day getting an iced green tea. The baby started moving a lot, and reflexively, I reached down and cupped my belly. In hindsight, I know I shouldn't have done it. Nothing screams "baby!" like a woman holding her bump.

Some asshole I'd had a class with last semester saw the whole thing, realized I was pregnant, and then took a series of photos. The person sold the pictures to a trash news outlet along with a statement that he knew me from a government class and could confirm that the pregnant person in the pictures was Mallory Everett, Shawn Mendes's future wife.

As no surprise to anyone, most news outlets speculated that we were only getting married because of the pregnancy. If it weren't true, I probably would have been upset. It was true, though, and I had to grit my teeth and put up with the gossip.

Shawn took it harder. He was pissed. Andrew kept reminding him that this was far better than the alternative stories. Being labeled a deadbeat dad or sexual assaulter would definitely harm his reputation more than being the guy who 'did the right thing' and married his pregnant girlfriend.

I hated being unfairly judged by the public. It sucked that I had to put up with the endless stares and whispers of my peers at school. I'd walk down the hall to class and people would literally point at me. It's not like I was the first college girl ever to get pregnant, but I guess getting knocked up by a celebrity makes it much more gossip-worthy.

At one point I'd called Shawn crying saying I just wanted to drop out. He immediately got on a plane and flew to Virginia for the night, hoping to make me feel better. He had no real advice for me on how to handle the people at school, but he did encourage me to stick out the last few months of the semester. He was right of course. I'd put almost four years into my education; dropping out at the end would be ridiculous.

A beautiful thing happened during that quick visit. We were curled up in bed on the morning of the day he was leaving. We were looking at nursery ideas on his phone when the baby started to move. I quickly moved my hand to my pregnant belly.

"Oh! Shawn! Feel this!" I cried out. For the first time ever, I could feel the kicks on the outside.

I grabbed his hand and placed it right where the baby was kicking. He waited. Nothing happened. He gently rubbed the spot, though I wasn't sure if that helped. He waited some more. Finally the baby moved for him.

"It's moving. I can feel it!" he said excitedly.

Until he had leave to catch his flight, he had his hand on my belly constantly. Each time he felt the baby kick, he'd flip out. I felt the same way; it really was magical. I loved feeling the baby move inside me, but feeling it on the outside was insane.

By the time spring break rolled around, most people stopped giving me attention at school. I'd occasionally catch someone looking at me, but it wasn't like before. The novelty had worn off.

My friends had supported me through the tough period, which helped. Vera and Kris liked being the roommates of the pregnant girl Shawn Mendes was marrying, but they loved me more than they loved the attention that got them. I knew that on more than one occasion they'd told people off for jumping to conclusions about my relationship with Shawn.

I was looking forward to spending a week with him. We hadn't had that long a visit since I'd gone to Toronto in December. We saw each other so infrequently and for such short periods. We needed time together, since in many ways we were still getting to know each other.

Since November, so much of our focus had been on the baby and what we should do after it was born. It consumed our relationship. Sure we'd gotten involved semi-romantically, but I often wondered if we'd done that because it was an escape from reality. When we were having sex, our minds were off our child and our future. I didn't like thinking this way; I wanted to believe that Shawn and I were pulled together because we had growing feelings for each other. I could only speak for myself, but my feelings had definitely changed in the last few months. I was pretty crazy about my future husband. He may not have loved me, but I was in love with him.