ONE
9: BREAKFAST
"SOME PEOPLE ARE JUST NEVER MEANT TO BE."
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The trip to the local restaurant that Lauren and Shawn were supposed to be having breakfast was a short one, as it was literally only around the corner from Lauren's apartment. When Lauren had said that they'd be having breakfast together, Shawn was honestly surprised.

Honestly though, he didn't even know why.

The two of them took a seat outside under the warm sun, Lauren busy looking through the menu that was on the table. Shawn however, was admiring her from his seat as he pretended to be looking through the menu.

He had a habit of doing that all the time. Admiring her of course. He just didn't understand how she could be so breathtaking when she wasn't doing anything. But it was then in that moment that he understood what people meant when they said that people always look better when they're being themselves, not doing anything to impress someone. He understood it now.

"Are you going to keep pretending that you're looking at your menu, or are you going to tell me why you're staring at me?" Lauren spoke.

Shawn's cheeks flushed bright red when he realised that Lauren had caught him staring. His eyes flickered to the menu quickly, a sheepish look on his face at being caught red handed.

Shawn kept his eyes on the menu, not wanting to even make eye contact with her now because he knew he wouldn't be able to form a coherent sentence to explain why he was staring. Lauren just looked back down at her menu after staring at Shawn for a few seconds. She had decided on getting the pancake stack with cream and jam, and a regular hot chocolate.

"You know you can talk to me right?" Lauren mentioned.

Shawn looked up at her, staring straight into her eyes. He nodded his head in acknowledgment to what she had said. He just kept thinking about everything that happened between the two of them the year before. So many arguments over absolutely nothing, or over something so big that he's surprised they're still friends.

"Why did you let me fool around with you for so long? I treated you so badly and you still stayed. Why?" Shawn blurted out.

Lauren's eyes flickered up to his line of sight, where her eyes locked with his. She looked for any sort of sign that he was only joking around with her, but his eyes were filled with concern and the complete truth. She let out a small sigh, letting her eyes move from under her chin to the table in front of her.

"Because after I got to know you better, I started realising that the job of being your back up guitarist wasn't just a job another. It was something so much more important. Whenever you looked after me like you'd known me for years, I realised that you weren't just my boss, you were a friend. You were a lot closer to me than anyone else I'd met. You were there for me like no one else was, and I just fell for you. I let you treat me like the way you did because I was too blind to see what you were doing to me. I didn't want to leave you like everyone left me, because it sucks. I know. I didn't want to put you through that so I stayed."

Shawn stared at the blonde in front of him with complete admiration. He reached over the table to grab a hold of her hand, to which Lauren looked down at. Her heart beat started racing at the feeling of his soft hands resting against hers. The blonde just smiled slightly as her cheeks flushed red, bringing her hand up to tuck her hair behind her ear.

"Don't blame yourself. I was too stupid to realise what I was doing. I know you probably hear this all the time, but I shouldn't have ever done that to you. I've been thinking about everything that's happened so I can change myself, and I just couldn't get it out of my head. I regret everything I did. I was leading you on for so long and everything fell out of place. I made promises I couldn't keep and mistakes that would haunt me in my future. And I'm so sorry that I treated you the way I did."

He was sincere. He was being completely genuine. She couldn't ask for anything else. Her and Shawn weren't meant to be. Not everything was meant to be. Fate is an asshole, everyone should've known that by now.

"It's completely understandable. Some people are just never meant to be." Lauren spoke.

Shawn shook his head. "It's not even that Lauren- It was bad on my behalf and I'm really sorry I put you through that."

Lauren just smiled at him. "It's okay Shawn. It was in the past. I'd rather build a better, stronger future with you and not let past mistakes get in the way. Okay?"

Shawn nodded with a smile. "Okay."

He couldn't agree more. He wanted to do exactly that. Build a stronger future with Lauren. She meant so much to him, that it was difficult to explain just how much. He just smiled over at her like a complete dork, which brought a smile to Lauren's face. The brunette kept staring at her, and couldn't bring himself to stop.

Lauren looked up from the menu once again to find Shawn staring at her yet again. She just shook her head at the guitarist, reaching her leg out slightly to nudge him.

"If you're gonna keep staring at me, you might as well take a damn photo and post it for all your fans to see. I'm sure they'd appreciate us being together again." Lauren stated.

Shawn just grinned at her again. "I just might actually."

Lauren watched as Shawn pulled his phone out of his pocket, unlocking it with his fingerprint. The brunette opened up Instagram on his phone, getting ready to take a photo of the blonde.

"Put the caption as "guess who's back pitches"." Lauren blurted.

Shawn just let out a laugh at her, shaking his head in amusement. He held the camera up as Lauren rested her head on her chin. He snapped a quick photo, tagged Lauren, added a caption and posted it before he put his phone back into his pocket again.

"Ready to order?" A waitress came up to them.

Lauren grinned over at the young girl. "Definitely. Could I please have the pancake stack with maple syrup and strawberry's? And a regular white tea with two sugars please."

The waitress wrote the order down quickly, her eyes locking on Shawn afterwards. "And what would you like Shawn?"

Shawn looked taken aback at the formal way the girl had said his name. He wasn't used to people not breaking down into tears in front of him. He didn't mind it actually. He was being treated as a regular human being, and he couldn't have enjoyed it more.

"I'll have the same, thank you hun." Shawn replied.

"Only because instead of actually reading the menu, he's been staring at me the whole time." Lauren blurted.

Shawn kicked Lauren's leg from under the table, making the blonde let out a yelp of pain before she glared at the brunette. The waitress let out an unexpected laugh, while Lauren was giggling at Shawn's expression of complete surprise and annoyance. He had been caught out in the act.

"No worries, Lauren and Shawn. Your food will be out shortly."

The girl walked away with the menus, while Shawn was gaping at Lauren, and Lauren was gaping back at him. The two of them let out surprised laughs, definitely not used to having people being so formal with them.

"Damn. I'm definitely going to have to get used to that."

"High five to that."

Their hands connected in a high five.