Gabi.

"Wow, it's so good to see you guys!" Shawn exclaims, then gives each of the guests a hug. Laur and his exchange seems slightly awkward. When he gets to Aaliyah, he picks her up and spins her around.

"I missed you, little sis! So glad you could make it!"

"Mom and Dad weren't gonna let me but I convinced them." she smiles.

"Well I'm glad you did." he ruffles her hair.

The music turns on, and Shawn comes back to stand beside me. He puts his arm around my shoulder and gives me a soft kiss. "So, nice surprise?" I smirk.

"Yes. Didn't suspect this at all, thank you again."

"You're welcome." I smile. "You deserve it."

The party goes on, it's really fun getting to know Shawn's friends, seeing kinda what his life is like back home. There's no alcoholic beverages though, since his sister and her friend are here and they're only 13.

"Who wants hamburgers?" Ian yells and everyone goes over to get their food, as it's all been cooked.

We all eat up, Kenna and I had also bought some salads and veggies the other day while we were shopping.

After we're done eating, Kenna calls me into the house.

"What?" I ask. She waves me over. I pat Shawn's chest where I was laying, and tell him I'll be right back.

Once I get into the door, Kenna hands me a rather large package.

"They came in early?" I squeal and she nods. I open the plastic package and unfold the two black sweaters as I set them on the couch. "Wow, they turned out even better than I thought!"

"They look sooooo good." she nods in awe.

"Thank you, Kenna."

"Anytime, girly."

I grab the small gift bag for Shawn and the sweaters, and head back outside.

"What's that?" he asks as I walk over.

"Your birthday present, silly." I hand him the gift bag first, and flip over the sweaters on my lap so he can't see the front. "Open it." I demand.

"You didn't have to get me anything." he shakes his head.

"Yes I did. Now stop being stubborn and open it!" I laugh. He pulls away the tissue paper and takes out the box. "This is one of my favourite cologne brands! Thank you babe." he kisses me on the cheek.

"Just wait, that's not all." I say, and place his sweater in his hands.

I open mine up just as he opens his. "I love these!" he smiles. "This is so sweet, I feel like it's so us, it's totally something we would do to wear these in public."

"Well what are you waiting for? Put it on!" I say, and he puts it over his head and I do the same.

"Those are so cute." says Aaliyah, and the others who are standing around nod in agreement. "Stand up, I'll take a picture."

I hand her my phone. Shawn and I stand beside each other and gesture towards the sweaters.

(a/n KEDWIN aRe mY pArEnTs, also just pretend this is Shawn and Gabi and they're on the beach ok)
 
 
"I love you, thank you." Shawn says, pulling me in for a hug.

"I love you too." I smile, and he plants a kiss on my forehead, looks over in the direction of his friends awkwardly, then puts his lips on mine. He practically has his tongue down my throat until I lightly push his chest back, then give him a look as if to say 'what the hell?' I then come up with a plan to quickly change the subject because of what everyone just watched. "Hey Brian and Ian, do you want to get a bonfire started?"

They look at each other and nod, and I start to walk towards the house.

"Bri-" Shawn catches me once we're away from the crowd.

"What the hell was that?" I ask. "You never act like that around me in public, why when it's your friends?"

"I... She..." That's when I realize who he looked over at, because he's looking at her now. Laur. I knew something was up.

"Do you and Laur have history?" I ask nonchalantly.

"Laur and I... I-"

"Answer the question." I snap.

"Laur's my ex." he caves, looking sad.

"Okay, that's all you needed to tell me." I say, putting a hand on his shoulder. "If this is going to work out - if we're going to work out, we need to be open and tell each other things. Please, if there's anything else you want to tell me just tell me."

"There's nothing else. I'm sorry baby."

"It's fine, just no more secrets, okay?" I smile and he smiles back.

"Okay." he responds.

We go back out to the bonfire hand in hand, and I lay with my head in his lap while he plays with my hair.

"Hey Aaliyah, remember when you used to run around the house naked singing The Jonas Brothers?" Shawn laughs. "I don't know, that just crossed my mind."

Aaliyah blushes with a groan. "Why are you telling embarrassing stories about me? We should all be the ones telling embarrassing stories about you, it's your birthday." She rolls her eyes.

"No, that's perfectly fi-"

"I remember your Hannah Montana phase." Aaliyah smiles devilishly. "You had a notebook where you glued pictures of her and wrote love poems and the lyrics to all her songs. You kept it top secret and every time someone would ask about it or touch it you'd yell at them." She laughs.

Shawn's face turns as red as a tomato. "You promised you'd never tell anyone that." he groans.

She shrugs. "It's a surprise party, it's full of surprises."

"Shawn, you used to take videos of yourself making weird faces or making weird noises, like remember this one?" Matt asks, pulling out his phone and scrolling through, showing us all.

In the video he asks his mom to say marshmallow, and she says it in her British accent. After he shakes his head, making a weird noise that sounds like a dog is sneezing. (a/n if you have not seen this video, leave an in-line comment with your ig username and i'll dm it to you, it's so funny 😂)
 
 
Shawn gives up fighting back and just shakes his head and rolls his eyes.

My phone rings in my pocket.

"Who is it?" Shawn asks.

I look at the screen. "My mom. Sorry guys I have to take this." I apologize.

I walk away from the group and towards the boys' beach.

"Hey Mom, what's up?" I ask.

"Gabriella Reyes, when were you planning on telling me you have a boyfriend?" She says, sounding disappointed.

"Mom, I- What do you mean?" I play dumb, the only person I've told is Landon and he swore he wouldn't tell. He understood.

"You sure as hell know what I mean." She snaps. Okay not disappointed, angry.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to complicate things with the divorce and everything, I wanted to tell you but I didn't want to make anything worse than it already was." I say, feeling small. I really should've told her before, but I didn't get around to it and to be completely honest, I forgot.

"From my understanding it happened before you came home."
 
 
Shit. "Who told you this?"

"Why does it matter? It's the secrecy. You kept this secret from me when you know that I don't like you dating."
 
 
"I know, I should've told you sooner. And I meant to, but things kept happening and I didn't." I explain, biting my lip.

"Yes well, there are some serious consequences." she says, and anxiety surges through me like a bullet as I wait to hear my fate. "When you get back, grounded for one month."
 

"What? That's so unfair." I yell.

"It's hardy unfair. And who really drove you home that day, Gabriella?"
 
 
"At that point he wasn't even my boyfriend!"

"And you expect me to believe that?" she asks. "I'll see you soon." Then she hangs up.

I call my brother to see if he knows how she found out.

"Hey Mom found out about Shawn, do you know any way she would've found out? She won't tell me and I need to know."

"Did she call you?" he asks.
 
 
"Yeah, she just did. Why?" I ask.

"Gabi I'm sorry. I-I told her."
 
 

a/n
wow it seems like more and more
people keep disappointing her...
i posted this because i got 5k today!
love you guys! thank you so much!
I really appreciate all of you who
have stuck with me through my
busy schedule :)
~em 💗