chapter forty-six
fake
[anya rose steinburg]
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"good morning my honey bug." shawn presses kisses all over my exposed collarbone and cheek, waking me up from my deep slumber with a smile.

"good morning shawn." i mumble, turning over onto my stomach.

"i'm going to the gym with brian, i'll see you soon okay?" shawn says to me, as i sit up in his bed.

"when will you be back?" i whine, leaning up and wrapping my arms around him.

"an hour, i promise." he brings my hands to his lips, kissing them. "breakfast is downstairs, i made you coffee too."

"you're an angel." i lean up, pressing my lips to his, and i feel him smile against my lips. "okay you can go now."

"bye m'love." he grins, walking out of his room and rushing down the stairs. i hear the front door slam, and i sigh, flopping my back onto the bed, but then realising i should get up.

tiredly, i take my feet to shawns bathroom, brushing my teeth, using the toilet and washing my face before i head out of his room and down to the kitchen.

"hey aaliyah." i say, seeing her sitting at the table eating a bowl of cereal. "where's your mum and dad?"

"they've gone out shopping, and then somewhere, but they won't be back till night so it's just you and me for the next hour, and then shawn will be here." she explains. "how did you sleep?"

"great, what about you?" i see that shawn has left my breakfast set up next to aaliyah, and i smile, sitting next to her.

"normal." she laughs. "shawn made breakfast for everyone this morning, i'm surprised to see what has gotten into him. and it's not from a packet or box either."

"i told him yesterday that he's going to have to start getting used to cooking more." i chuckle, rolling my eyes. "i'm surprised he's being serious about it."

"can i come view the house with you? i don't wanna be home alone for the day." aaliyah asks me quietly.

"of course you can." i smile, eating the pancakes he made me. "okay shawns never cooking again, i think i'll have to cook everything."

"this is why i made cereal." aaliyah laughs, holding up her now empty bowl.

"well, i'm going to go get dressed, i'll see you in a bit, liyah." i take the plates, washing them in the sink, before taking my still warm coffee upstairs to shawns room.
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"anya! are you ready yet?" shawn yells from downstairs, as i rush about his room, gathering together id, money and a few other legal things.

"shawn where's your passport?" i yell back, raiding his drawers, finding nothing apart from his clothes.

"woah, anya, did a bomb go off in here?" shawn laughs, coming into the room.

"no, i'm looking for all the legal matters, did you go to the bank to get your half of the money?" he nods his head, holding up an envelope. "where's your passport?"

"downstairs, i've got it, chill out anya." he comes forward to me, taking my bag and paperwork out of my hands, holding them in his instead. "go in the car, i'll lock up, okay?"

"fine." i sigh, leaving his room and rushing down the stairs, taking his car keys and getting into his car, aaliyah following behind me.

"what was the shouting about?" aaliyah asks me, getting settled into her seat.

"just the stuff we need to bring with us, shawn being him decides not to give me his passport when i told him to yesterday, and then he doesn't tell me he got the money when he came back, later than i expected and oh god buying a house is so stressful." i groan, settling in my seat. "how can shawn be so calm about this?"

"he's stressing about it too, you can see it on his face anya." aaliyah tells me. "it's the same look on his face when he was stressed about your relationship early this year."

"he's still being an idiot." i grumble, sighing.

"okay, it's true, he should've at least informed you." aaliyah says, as i sigh, closing my eyes.

"if this is gonna be stress for the next several months, i'm out." i decide.

"out of what?" i jump, opening my eyes, seeing shawn getting into the car.

"nothing." i mumble, sitting up straighter. "give me your gps."

he reaches over into the glove compartment, taking out a sat nav and giving it to me. "your bag is in the back."

i sigh, getting out of the car and going onto the boot to get my bag. i return back to my seat, getting in and rummaging through the paperwork to find the address. i enter it into the gps, putting it on the dashboard of his car, the directions loading in.

shawn plugs his phone into the aux, handing it to me to choose some music. i put on illuminate, and he smiles softly at me, a red tinge at his cheeks.

"i think we both need to calm down." i say to him, as he grasps onto my hand, ruin quietly humming in the background. "don't worry about this shawn, and i won't either."

"well we are organised now, and we have kelsey's wedding soon, and i'm going on tour soon, and come on there's gonna be another baby on the way soon." he says, referring to kelsey and peter expecting. "there's so much to look forward to, come on anya we're starting our lives together."

"i know, i know." i sigh. "i should really call kelsey at some point today."

"what's happened now?" shawn asks, taking a turning onto the highway.

"just need to make sure she hasn't changed the dresses again because she's 'bloated'. news flash kelsey, you're pregnant, you're gonna get fat." shawn stifles a laugh, and i see aaliyah making a smirk with her face. "but it's true! when you get pregnant, you get fat."

"okay anya, calm down." shawn laughs, squeezing my hand.

"concentrate on the road shawn." i mumble, rolling my eyes.

"are you mad at me?" shawn asks, looking at the road again.

"no, i just don't want the car to crash."
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"great to see your interest in the property, come this way and we can discuss placing a deposit." we follow dave, the realtor, to the dining room, taking a seat at the chestnut wood table.

"i love it." shawn whispers to me, sitting down beside aaliyah.

"now anya, you've said you wanted to place a deposit?" i nod my head at him.

"yes, we saw the place online and we were so impressed and fell in love with the property immediately." i brag. "visiting it made us fall in love all over again."

"that's great to hear!" dave chuckles. "now we do have a starting deposit at 7000 dollars, with VAT of 4000." he explains. "if you are wanting the property, place the deposit today, and once the house is off market, you have about two months to pay half of the deal, which is 2 million. now, this property is very well loved by a lot of people, meaning that there already are a lot of deposits." i look at shawn, and his face falls. i'm pretty sure my face looks the same.

"we can pay it all today." shawn quickly says, as i look at him and nod.

"yeah, i mean we will have to write a cheque instead of direct cash but we can."

"i'm so sorry, but we physically can't do that yet."

"when is the house off market?" shawn asks quickly.

"tomorrow." dave says. "you guys are so enthusiastic about this, i hope you guys get the place."

"okay, we'll place the deposit now." i say softly, taking out the paperwork and our passports.

"mendes? i knew i recognised you from somewhere." dave laughs. "my daughter is obsessed with you."

"oh really?" shawn laughs nervously. "tell her i say hi."

"will do." dave laughs, handing out passports back. "okay, the payment in cash."

"yeah, hold on." i reach into my bag, taking out the two envelopes, one with my half, and the other with shawns half. i realise we are still 1000 off, so i go into another envelope, taking out 1000 of the back up money, putting it into one of the envelopes, handing them to dave. quickly, he counts the money, putting it all in one envelope.

"if you don't get the property, this will be returned as soon as possible." dave tells us, as all four of us stand up. "hopefully see you two tomorrow then, oh and it'll be in the offices, the address is in the paperwork."

"thank you, dave." shawn and i shake his hand, heading out of the property, following aaliyah to the car.

the three of us get in, sighing and shutting the doors at the same time. "well shit." shawn curses. "we are getting there first thing in the morning."

"i love that place." i moan, sighing. "it's beautiful and i know i could spend basically my entire life there."

"the basement is perfect for a recording studio, i'm mad." shawn groans. "why do other people like this house?"

"i really don't know shawn." i sigh. "look lets just go back, get to a bank, get a larger cheque book that we can write out 4 million in, and camp out outside the offices."

"i have a cheque book that can do that, just pay me back your half, lets go back home." shawn says, clearly upset with the entire situation. "and we are not camping out."
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shawn unlocks the door, the three of us slumping inside the house. shawn walking straight upstairs, and aaliyah and i standing there, wandering why he left us so quickly.

"give him some time." aaliyah mumbles to me. "he's upset, leave him be for a while."

"i'm gonna go start making some lunch for us." i say.

"i'll help." aaliyah and i walk into the kitchen, going straight into the fridge, getting vegetables out to make soup. i end up taking some carrots, a pepper and fresh coriander, along with an onion and two cloves of garlic.

"aaliyah, could you chop up the onions and sauté them?" she nods, taking a chopping board and knife out, beginning to dive up the onion to sweat down in a pan.

i start on the vegetables, cutting them up into cubes, before adding them to the onions aaliyah sweated down, adding more water to the pan, and letting it come to a medium simmer.

after they had been sweated down, i take the gloop out, putting it in a blender to whiz until smooth and creamy, before dishing the hot soup into three bowls.

"shawn! lunch is ready!" i shout, sitting at the table with aaliyah.

we wait for shawn until we physically finish eating. i sigh, taking our empty bowls to wash. he still hasn't come down.

wiping the sweat that has formed on my forehead, i open up the microwave, warming up the soup for shawn again. the beep goes off, and i take it out, putting it on a tray, and pouring a glass of water, along with placing a muffin on a plate, and putting them on the tray too.

"anya don't be annoyed at him." aaliyah says softly to me.

"i'm not annoyed, i'm mad at myself." i mumble to her, picking up the tray and walking to the stairs. "do you wanna go shopping or something?"

"sure." she shrugs; i walk up the stairs to shawns room.

the door that's usually open is now shut, and i hear music going on inside his room. i try to open it with my free hand, but its locked. "shawn, open up, please?" i beg.

no reply.

"shawn, let me in." i ask softly.

again, no reply.

"your lunch is outside okay? aaliyah and i are going out shopping." i tell him. "i love you so much baby."

"you can take my car." i hear him croak out.

"i'm sorry." i mumble, rushing down the stairs, joining aaliyah at the front door. i take shawns car keys, as both of us leave the house, getting into shawns jeep.

"actually can we just go to timmys?" aaliyah asks.

"sure, i kinda don't know where the nearest shopping place is." we both chuckle nervously, as i begin to drive to the place shawn always takes me when we're in toronto.

"i swear, i'm gonna need to organise his car one of these days." i say, getting out, and sheets of paper falling out with me. i pick them up, gazing at them, seeing it's song lyrics he's written. i smile softly, putting them back under his car seat, shutting the door, and following aaliyah inside.

"should we get shawn a coffee or something?" i ask aaliyah, taking out my purse.

"get him a coffee." aaliyah says. "i'll order. what do you want?"

"a plain cappuccino please." i tell her. aaliyah quickly orders, and i take my card out to pay, putting in the pin and taking out the card, aaliyah collecting our drinks.

"i love your brother, don't get me wrong, it's just he frustrates me so much." i mumble to aaliyah. "its like he thinks he's the only one stressed, and i want to help him so bad, but he's not letting me in."

"he's stressed from everything anya, i told him to take a year break but he wouldn't listen to me at all." aaliyah says. "he is frustrating, i'll give you that."

"i just want him to know he's not alone." i whisper, turning into their road. "i'm gonna have to go alone tomorrow, right?"

"i guess, i bet he's given up." aaliyah says, as i let out a sigh. i park the car, taking the drinks and getting out, whilst aaliyah unlocks the front door, entering the house.

"hey shawn, we're back!" aaliyah shouts, while i close the door, walking into the kitchen and placing the coffees and aaliyah's frappe down.

"he's not gonna come down aaliyah." i put my bag down, taking my shoes and jacket off.

"i'm gonna have a word with him, i'll take the coffee." aaliyah mumbles angrily, taking his coffee and rushing up the stairs. "shawn mendes i swear-" i hear her say, before a door is opened easily. "anya come up here!"

sprinting up the stairs, i reach shawns room, and a panicked aaliyah. "where's shawn?" i ask concerned, going into his bathroom, and closet, not seeing him anywhere. "shawn, hunny." i say loudly, walking around upstairs and checking every room. "shawn where are you?"

"where the hell is he?" aaliyah asks me, walking into the upstairs main bathroom.

"i'll check downstairs, call him, aaliyah." i run down the stairs, wandering about the living room and kitchen, opening every door and calling his name.

i scrunch my face up in confusion, seeing an empty soup bowl on the kitchen counter, a trail of the soup next to it. "the garage." i mumble, taking the door leading to the garage, seeing his parents car gone. they took that car this morning.

taking out my phone, i dial up ian's number, pressing the device to my ear. "anya?" he asks.

"ian, i need your help." i bite my finger nails. "i can't find shawn anywhere, he's not in the house and he hasn't got his car because i took it to timmys and-"

"wait he's not in the house? he just texted me to come over. i'm on my way now." ian says confused.

"wait, where are you?"

"turning into the road." he states simply. "where would he be?"

"walking distance away, i don't know!" i panic. "we left him for 20 minutes- and he's in a stressed state because of the house and he's stressed with everything to be fair, and he's upset-"

"anya calm down, look come outside, i'm almost there."

"okay, okay." i exit the garage, going out of the house the normal way, and sitting on the porch steps.

i see ian walking up and i hang up my phone, shoving it into my pocket. "where the hell is he?" ian asks, as i stand up, walking towards him.

"i don't know- all i know is that he's upset and angry and-" i stop myself, seeing shawn crossing the road and coming up the driveway. "what the fuck?"

"oh ian, sorry i got here later than you." shawn laughs nervously. "anya why are you crying?" he asks more concerned, approaching me.

"damn you!" i slap his arm. "you got me so worried- i thought you were gone!" he brings me to his chest, as i continue to punch it, cursing at him.

"ian go inside, aaliyah's there." shawn tells him, sitting me down on ten porch steps again, as he sits next to me, pulling me to his chest.

"you leave a note next time! you text me next time! you got me so damn worried!" i shout. "for god sake shawn! don't ever do that again!"

"i'm sorry, i'm sorry." he says softly to me, pressing a kiss on the side of my head. "i went out to grab a few things from brian, i'm sorry i didn't tell you."

"it's okay." i mumble. "shawn don't worry about the house, please. we'll et it, and if we don't, there will always be another property."

"but i really love it." he says. "i'm just worried we won't be able to get it."

"don't be honey." i tell him. "if we don't, it's okay, it'll just be a little longer till we move in together."

"i'm sorry for ignoring you." he whispers. "the soup was good."

"thank you." i smile. "come on, lets go back in."
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shawn! is! a! human! treat! him! like! a! normal! person! and! not! an! exhibit!