treat you better ; shawn mendes

prologue

Riley's POV
The dimmed streetlights only add to the creepiness of tonight's sky. It's slightly cloudy with the sun going behind the trees. It's getting dark. But tonight has only just begun.

I'm walking the quiet streets casually with my friends; Lyss, Danielle, Matthew, Jack and my boyfriend, Dylan.

Dylan's arm is swinging loosely from my shoulder as he talks with Jack about god knows what. Matthew and Lyss are talking and Danielle is standing beside me. We're all a tight group of friends and I couldn't ask for more.

There's just one small problem; Dylan gets abusive when he's drunk, and he gets drunk a lot. It's okay though. It's usually my fault. It always is.  Sometimes I guess I just say the wrong thing. I just need to be more careful.

Am I happy with Dylan? I guess so. We get in a lot of fights but he makes me happy.

"What the fuck? Look, they blocked off the land." Matthew says. I look to my right and see that where the part we usually walk in is, is blocked off by a huge fence saying 'private property'.

"Someone bought it?" I ask. We always knew that this was land that would eventually be bought. It's been up for sale for years. My friends and I have been coming here for ages. We just hang out, sometimes someone would bring along a drink or two, but we never expected anyone to buy the place.

The land is right next to a house, a beautiful one at that. I guess the people who lived there must have bought it for more room.

"They can't buy it." Dylan says, anger written all over his face.

"Yes they can, dumbass. It was up for sale. It was going to be sold eventually." Jack laughs and Dylan shoots him a look.

"Come on, let's jump over it." Dylan says.

"We can't do that!" I exclaim, "this is someone's property now. That's trespassing." I add. Dylan's arm tightens around me.

"Come on, baby. Live a little. Let's have some fun." He says before letting go of me and starting to climb over the fence. My stomach twists in a million nervous knots.

"What if we're caught?" I whisper to Lyss as Matthew and Jack begin to climb it too.

"Then they'll catch us and throw us out. Besides, look how big this place is and look how many trees there are. They won't find us." Lyss says optimistically before she runs up and climbs over the fence.

"That's my girl!" Matthew cheers. Once Lyss reaches the other side, they all look at Danielle and I expectantly.

"Come on!" Jack urges. I sigh. This is wrong on so many levels but I'm not up for going home just yet.

I put my hands up on the wire holes and stick my feet on there as well and begin to climb. When I get up to the top, I swing my legs over and climb down.

Dylan holds onto my butt as I climb down, as if he's trying to help me but I know helping isn't his intention.

I jump down to the ground and Danielle follows.

We walk around, talking about seemingly pointless topics before we decide to sit down on a fallen log.

Dylan pulls out a bag from his pocket. Inside it, I see six cigarettes.

"You brought weed?" I ask him. He looks at me and winks.

"Of course I did baby girl." He says in his husky voice. I've tried weed before and it ended in having Jack to take me home because I got really sick.

"I can't have that." I say, worried I'll get sick once again. Dylan's arm wraps around my waist and he pulls me into his body.

"For me." He says as he hands it to me. I sigh and take it from him. It couldn't possibly hurt, could it? Dylan cheers and everyone else gets theirs out the bag and lights it up.

I watch as Dylan inhales a huge puff and breathes it out, slowly letting the cloud of smoke engulf the air around us. I'll admit, he looks really hot doing it.

"Your turn." He says. I smile and inhale the smoke before breathing it back out. Everyone goes on with their own conversations, meanwhile, Dylan just stares at me.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I ask.

"Because I can't believe someone like you is all mine." Dylan smiles, his small dimples poking through before he leans in and kisses me passionately, leaning forward making my back arch into his body. His tongue slips into my mouth before he breaks the kiss and sucks at my neck.

"Get a room!" Lyss laughs. Dylan stops kissing me and laughs.

We keep going like this for a solid hour before I realise that it's getting really dark.

"Hey guys, should we go back?" I ask. Before anyone can answer, I hear a twig snap behind me.

"What are you doing here? Can't you see this is private property?" I hear a voice say from behind me. I turn around and see a guy I recognise from school. I don't remember his name though. He's tall, muscular and has dark brown hair.

"Uh yeah, is this your place?" Matthew asks.

"Yes and if you don't leave now I'm calling the cops." He says. Everyone's eyes widen and we all slowly get up and butt out the cigarettes.

"Okay, we're leaving." Danielle says. My heart beating fast and I start shaking with fear. We just need to leave... now. But of course, Dylan has to make things hard.

"Hey buddy, why don't you just lay off okay?" He says, getting awfully close to the other guy.

"Why don't you get off my fucking land." He says. I watch as Dylan's jaw clenches and then all of a sudden he throws a punch at the guy.

"Dylan!" I yell. The guy falls back and I see him clutch his bleeding nose.

"Run!" Dylan yells. I turn around and begin to sprint as the guy starts to chase us. I feel myself trip over what must be a small twig and I fall face first on the ground.

"Fuck, guys wait!" I yell, but they can't hear me and they didn't see me fall. I try to get back up but I'm stopped when I feel arms help to lift me up.

"Riley? What are you doing here?" It's him. He looks at me with his deep brown eyes and blood smeared across his lips. I know he's from my school but I just can't remember his name. How does he know me?

"How do you know my name?" I ask, trying to break free of his grip but he doesn't let go of me.

"We go to the same school. I'm Shawn Mendes." He says.

"Shawn, please let me go. I promise not to come back here. Just please don't hurt me." I say, my voice shaky. Shawn's expression softens and he lets go of me but I don't dare to move.

"I would never hurt you. I have no intentions of ever hurting you, Riley." He says in a soft voice.

"I need to leave." I say before running away and not turning back.
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a/n: this is the first chapter yay! I know it wasn't the best and wasn't relevant to the video but this was just to introduce the characters and make connections between Shawn and Riley.
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