𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘸𝘯 & 𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘺 - 002 | we come back, crash.
Kendall Jenner never disappointed when it came to throwing a party. Even in this instance, the celebration being more low key than others within the guarded gates of her Mulholland Estates home, the guest list brought many faces Shawn didn’t recognise. Narrowly dodging getting run into by a girl holding a crimson drink, the tall singer wondered if the white polo shirt he’d paired with his black jeans and boots was a good idea. There were already a few people in the pool, which had wisps of steam coming from its surface now that it was moving into October. Others were chatting in groups or dancing with drinks raised in their hands surrounded by some small fire grates which kept the atmosphere warm. There was barely a moment that cheering or laughing couldn’t be heard, and the relatively intimate crowd was largely composed of models, groups of which had seemed to have come back from some kind of casting or shoot. In between getting pulled aside by a few acquaintances who spotted him in the crowd, the musician scanned both for the Kardashian to greet and thank for the invitation, and for a certain blonde friend he'd have no luck pretending he hadn’t entirely attended the party for.
It’d been several days since the string of sincere and somewhat raw texts between he and Hailey that’d spanned until 3 am. Hailey had been unable to sleep, and the Canadian had been awoken and had propped himself up on several pillows, pushing a hand through his bed-flattened curls and forcing his eyes open. He’d told the white lie that he was already awake partially because he knew of how guilty the female would’ve felt (which would‘ve stopped her from texting and thus him from being able to be there for her like he’d told himself he would this time). But also partially (mostly) because Shawn would have forsaken a great deal of sleep just to keep talking to her lately. The Baldwin had asked him if he’d ever thought about her and about them, which seemed to be all the musician had been thinking about those past few weeks. Even while he wasn’t in the studio, and when she wasn’t showing up on his feeds (posting things that maybe, possibly, if he wasn’t making a fool of himself, could’ve been about him?) he often had to stop himself from checking in on her too much. Shawn felt the tug from both sides, between what he wanted and what he thought was best for the female he cared about and respected as a friend. There had to be dozens of males trying to jump on her vulnerability right now, and he didn’t want to be one of many doing so. Then there was also the fact that he didn’t particularly want to get hurt, and if the pair started to find their feet as more than just friends so close to the breaking off of her engagement to Justin, then would it be what Hailey really wanted?
Several songs and conversations later, and Shawn had only run into Kendall and not Hailey (or Demi). Shawn had one hand wrapped around his second bottle of beer and the fingertips of his other clasping an orange ping pong ball, eyeing up his aim. Cara was far too good at this game, was getting cocky, and needed to down some of the sharp, malty alcohol before she took her next shot, or Shawn would be downing his fourth beer in under an hour, not counting the bottle in his hand. “Stop grinning at me like that. You’re distracting me,” Shawn shifted the ping pong ball from directly in front of his line of vision to fix Delevigne with a slight, playful glare. ‘Like what?’ the brunette model flashed an unconvincing pair of wide, doe eyes. There was a small crowd starting to gather around the (very expensive) makeshift beer pong table, perhaps sensing the competitiveness between the two, or simply how badly Shawn was losing. If this was a competition between them juggling the ping pong balls, he’d be doing a lot better than he was. Since he hadn’t found the part-Brazilian model he’d been searching for yet, he’d thought of pulling out his phone to text Hailey before Cara had pulled him in as her next victim. And maybe it was the nerves, or maybe the slight falling in his chest finding he only had messages from HoYeon and one of his co-writers — had Hailey decided she wasn’t going to come that night? — but he’d allowed himself to be roped into the game that revolved around drinking more beer way too easily.
‘Ooof’ several people gathered around murmered as Shawn missed his shot, the orange ball rebounding off the rim of the cup. So close. Of course, predictably, Cara’s returning shot smacked the surface of the beer in the cup in front of Shawn seamlessly. She gave an overdramatic bowing gesture, and Shawn chuckled, shaking his head and rolling his eyes. He was sure his cheeks were turning that slight pink that always gave him away when he was tipsy, as he smacked the now-empty cup back down. A few people clapped, a few drum rolled against the table, a few patted him sympathetically on the back. He was definitely tipsy. More tipsy than he’d been at the club and more tipsy than he’d been in a little while. He thought he probably needed some fresher air. “Okay, okay, I'm defeated, I’m calling in a sub.” / @haileyrhodcs
