Travel // Shawn Mendes

thirty-eight

Jen had paced around the hotel room so many times that my head was starting to spin. She was dressed in just her undergarments, her hair straightened and in a small ponytail.

"Fuck! Rachel is wearing a red shirt. I wanted to wear a red shirt!"

I was sitting on Jen's bed for the next two weeks, already dressed. The party would be a more casual one, so I dressed in leggings, and plain purple shirt, and a jean jacket. No part of me was famous yet, so I didn't care too much about the simplicity of the outfit I chose.

"Jen, a vibrant red would look so good now that your hair is back to its natural color. You've gotta wear it." I point to the shirt laying next to me, and Jen huffs before shutting her phone and sprinting towards her suitcase.

"Okay, jeans or shorts?"

"I'm not listening!"

To put it kindly, Jen had a serious decision making problem. She's unable to make even the slightest choice on her own, and always needs to hear the input of another person. I was trying to help her out by excluding my own thoughts on the matter of her outfit.

"Agh! Why are we even friends?" She sprints to her phone and before I know it, she's FaceTiming her mom.

"Mom, emergency!" She starts, and as she shows her the outfit I put a mental note to text my mom a goodnight text and call her in the morning.

Five minutes later and Jen is completely dressed, (she chose the shorts, by the way) seated and lacing her shoes.

"We're going to be so late! Not even fashionably late, just ugly late," Jen sighs and opens the door to the hotel room, dashing out. I follow, but not before grabbing the key card that would allow us to come back in when the time came.

"Do you think I'll be able to find Caleb at the party? Maybe no one will be able to point to his direction," Jen ponders aloud in her rental Honda as the GPS tells her where to go.

"Aidan and Shawn are already there, so I'm sure they've seen him at least once by now."

"Is it alright if I spend tonight with just Caleb, instead of the whole group? I feel like I've barely hung out with him ever since I lost the necklace." Jen frowns involuntarily, and I nod my head. While Jen was busy doing her shows and meeting fans, Caleb stuck back with me, sad he wasn't getting any one on one time with his girlfriend.

"Of course. You're going to be the one to explain to Aidan why he has to be third wheeling, though."

Jen scoffs. "Please, Aidan is going to have a girl on each side of him. He won't be third wheeling."

We continue our conversation as Jen drives to the place Rachel was renting. Apparently, it was a beach house by the ocean that all of us were going to visit in a few days for a bonfire. She invited a mass of people in celebration of her appearance in The Zone. Well, soon-to-be appearance, since they've yet to actually record an episode.

According to Rachel, we were to park in the lot "close to the house". Jen was stressed she wouldn't have been able to find the space, but we knew exactly where to go the moment we saw the sea of Jeep Cherokees.

"Of course I had to rent a Honda Civic," Jen groans, joking.

Back at New York, not many of us actually had cars. We just took the subway to wherever. Jen, however, wanted a car more than anything on this earth, and so on her seventeenth birthday, a Honda Civic is what she got.

"Alright, how do I look?" Jen asks as we step out of the car, fluffing her hair.

"Like a model," I say, giving her a thumbs up.