Travel // Shawn Mendes

thirty-five

The day was perfect.

From the moment Shawn and Aidan had arrived, it was like everyone's mood had somehow automatically boosted (including my own). Jen had run off to say hello to some of her family members, and I joined her after a bit to say hello to two of her cousins.

"Nora? Well, haven't you grown?" Adeline says, jumping up from her seat by the unlit campfire pit.

Her straw colored hair had grown a lot since I had last seen her, but then again that had been a while ago. Her braces were gone, replaced by a straight row of teeth, and it was almost like her freckles had multiplied.

There couldn't possibly have been that many the last time I had seen her, I thought to myself.

Isla was next to get up, dressed in a pair of washed out jeans and a white shirt, unlike her identical sister's outfit.

The twins lived about two hours away by car, much closer to civilization than Jen's aunt was. They were dressed in clothes that I would see everyday at school, while I was stuck in jaded cowgirl boots.

"You look so different!" Isla says, and I make sure to double check that there was a mole under her right eyebrow (the only thing separating the two of them). While I look at her face, I notice a small stud on the left side of her nose, and gasp.

"So do you! Since when did you get the piercing?"

"It was for her sixteenth. Mom and Dad were livid when they saw it," Adeline comments, before wrapping her arms around me and giving me a tight squeeze.

"They're more excited to see you than me," Jen jokes, and the twins look at each other for a mere second before turning back around and shrugging at the same time.

"We are."

"Alright, so where's the boyfriend?" Adeline asks, excited. If there was one thing that was completely different between the two, it was that Adeline inhaled romance, planning a wedding after a guy even looked at her. Even though were weren't freshman in high school anymore, I could tell that still hadn't changed about her.

"Mine should be here any second. Her's is getting a water bottle," Jen answers, and I turn around to look for him in the crowded backyard.

"Oh, he's a cutie! Congrats, Nora." Adeline nudges her sister, and Isla rolls her eyes in a light-hearted manner.

Turning my head again, I notice that they were both staring at Aidan, who had a cold bottle of water in his hand as he walked into the house. First he was mistaken as Jen's boyfriend, now mine?

I almost laugh, before realizing how offensive that would come off as, "Uh, no. That's Aidan. Mine is-"

I'm cut off by Isla's long manicured nails digging into my skin.

"Okay, cool, not like I'll need this arm later in life," I say, giving her a death stare. Her grippen loosens, but only slightly.

"Don't turn around now," she starts, letting go of my arm as I look down to check if it would be bruising, "but Shawn Mendes is behind you."

Shawn had had no trouble with the rest of Jen's family, seeing as either none of them knew who he was or none of them cared. I had forgotten that the twins would.

"Uh, yeah, well-" I begin, connecting the words in my brain before I say them. Shawn was one step ahead of my explanation, though, as he wraps an arm around me and hands me some water.

"Thought you would want one," he says, and I smile at him before opening the bottle and taking a swig out of it.

The twins do nothing but stare in shock.