instagram - shawn mendes / jack gilinsky

s i x t y - f o u r - r e a l i t y

"Nels, can you come here?" Manny called from the living room.

I quickly pulled on the hoodie I had gotten from my closet and shuffled out of my room. "What's up?" I asked, wrapping my arms around Manny's shoulders from behind the couch.

"You have a bunch of missed calls from Shawn. Read this first," he said as he handed me his phone.

I furrowed my eyebrows as I read the short article aloud. "Shawn Mendes, supposed boyfriend of Nellie Watson (who just released a super emotional album, check out what we think of it here), was seen at a club in New York last night, getting a little too close with a mysterious blonde girl, and then leaving together. We do hope that this is not the end of #Shellie, because they are the power couple that give us hope for love. We will update you on who this new girl might be once we get new info, so stay tuned and follow us for more..." I closed my eyes, pressing my hand to my forehead. "This better be bullshit."

"I would call him and talk to him," Manny said.

"I'm so not in the mood to hear whatever shit he has to say right now," I said, flopping down on the couch beside Manny and putting my head in his lap.

"You should probably talk to him at some point though," Manny replied, playing with my hair.

"I will. At some point. Do you want to go to a party tonight? Sammy said on of his friends is having a huge party and Gilinsky is going and I'm ready to get my mind of this Shawn crap tonight," I said to Manny, looking up at him.

"Sure," he shrugged. "Don't be making bad decisions though."

I shrugged. "Clearly Shawn doesn't care about making good decisions so why should I? I'll do whatever the fuck I want tonight and deal with Shawn tomorrow."

"Sounds like not the best idea but who ever goes for the good ideas?" Manny grinned. "I say yeah, do whatever fuckshit you want to do tonight. What time do you want to go to the party?"

"We can leave here at like, ten maybe," I said. "Doesn't really matter. We've got time. Where did the bong go?"

He gestured toward the counter. "Over there."

I groaned. "I'm not getting up."

"I have a couple joints in my pocket if you'd care to lift your head for a couple seconds," Manny said. I did as he requested and he fished two fairly large joints out of his front pocket and handed one to me once I had put my head back down. He lit the joint that I had just put between my lips, and then lit his own.

After smoking for a while, I was thinking about Shawn. I was still in Manny's lap and I looked up at him. "Manny?" I said, and he raised his eyebrows in response, looking down at me with red eyes. "Have you ever had the thought that you and I could end up together?" I asked.

He nodded. "Honestly? Yeah. Many, many times," he shrugged, tilting his head up, towards the ceiling. "You and I have been friends forever though, and I've never really thought to make anything happen between you and me because I don't want to lose you," he said. "I assume you asking this question means that you've thought about it as well."

I nodded. "I have."

"Recently I've realised just how much I do love you," Manny said thoughtfully. "Mostly love in the best friend way, but there's also more than that kind of love in it. I've realised that I am partially in love with you in a more romantic way, but not so much so that it pains me to not be with you. I hate seeing you with Shawn though, honestly, because I feel like I could definitely treat you better (get it?) than he does. And I'm not saying that he treats you poorly but I think you could do better than a guy that's going to leave for a while and, I don't know, go fuck some other girl or something."