breathe ↠ mendes

Prologue // ❝ So, Mr. Loner ❞

[ narrator ]

Pulsing purple lights illuminate the dancefloor, and bodies move in time to the motion of the upbeat pop-rap song. It's loud in here, bouncing and bubbling with energy. The club stinks of cigarettes and drugs, like a smoke wrapping around the souls in there, smouldering into them and destroying them.

Destroying the unbroken ones, that is.

"I'll be back in a moment." A boy of about nineteen says to his friend. The boy's friend nods and watches as he slips away. The boy's friend stares down at his red solo cup, swirling the drink around in it. The glare of the purple lights and the orange-y look of his drink swirling in his cup creates some sort of confused symphony, one that reminds the boy of his mind.

"Hey!" A voice yells over the sound of the simplistic beat. "You look lonely!" The voice adds, and the boy frowns. He was not lonely. He had a lot of friends. Kind of, not really.

"So, Mr Loner, what's your first name?" The boy looks at the person where the voice is coming from properly, his hazel brown eyes scanning over the body of a tall and lanky girl, about five foot nine.

"Shawn." He says simply, looking into the eyes of the girl, who had a confused expression.

"Mr Shawn Mysterious Loner, hm?" She says jokingly, but her eyes were still staring hard into his, like she was trying to figure him out.

"Yeah," He says, and in an instant, the girl takes his hand and leads him out to a secluded area, surrounded by half-dead bushes and cigarettes.

"Your name?" Shawn inquires quietly, after a moment of long silence.

"Jacqueline." She replies, tucking a hair behind her ear. She pronounces her name oddly, like 'Jack-well-leene' instead of well, the usual 'Jack-lynn'. Shawn thinks it suits her though.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Jacqueline." Shawn breathes, and smiles - smirks - at her as she looks back at him.

"Nice to meet you too, Mr Loner."

But only if they knew how they would end up breaking each other.