SHAWN MENDES ONE SHOTS

1 | if i have to, i'll wait forever

5.6k words
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4:16 pm

He remembers it being sunny the day he first saw her. Really sunny, a rarity for their small town. The moving truck lined outside the house next door looked out of place amongst the other, er, family cars parked along the sidewalk. He saw the piles upon piles of cartons being brought in and out of the house, new neighbours, he remembers thinking. Also a rarity. He was still watching the movers when a Labrador came dashing out of the door, heading for the street. Panic set in, he had to do something, and his 10 year old brain thought it fit to run. And so he crossed the distance in quick leaps, making his way around his dad's car and onto the street, throwing himself in front of the dog's path in what he thought was an effective way of stopping the dog from running out.

"Coco! COCO STOP!!"

He was busy wrapping himself around the dog, trying to contain the bundle of energy and licks and a wagging tail to notice the small figure before him. When he finally looked up though, after the dog, Coco, had successfully pushed him to the ground and was now busy licking at his face, he saw her. She seemed his age, dark hair pulled into a braid, huffing and puffing after having chased Coco around the house before the menace dashed to the nearest exit - their front door. Walking up behind her was a woman who had the same long, dark hair as the girl before him, must be her mom, moving to help him off the ground.

"Hi, beta, thank you for that!," she smiled warmly, "our little hero, aren't you?"

He blushed a bit, the praise turning his ears pink. "Hi..."

"We've moved in just now! Do you live nearby?"

He nodded shyly, not very used to conversing with adults just so. "That's our house," he pointed to the house next door to their new neighbours.

The girl, so far so quiet, softly tugged on her mother's dress. "Neighbours, Maa."

"Yes, love, we're neighbours now. Maybe you'll even be friends n-"

"If you could bother helping me, maybe we'd be done faster," a voice from their front door said. The woman sighed before turning around, "I'm coming back, Dev-" but the door was slammed shut before she could follow him in. The little girl turned to Shawn, gaging his reaction, her eyes dancing around his face. "Papa."

Shawn turned to her in question - "What?"

"That's my Papa, and my Mama." she said motioning to their house. "And this our big puppy Coco."

Shawn smiled softly, the girl returning it.

"My name's Shawn. Can we be friends?"

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8:37 pm

"Wh-What do you mean you're moving out?" he didn't want to cry, he really didn't. But he wasn't entirely sure what it meant for him if his best friend in the whole world was moving to the city, leaving him all alone right where they met three years ago. She sighed before moving to sit next to him on the grass in his backyard, "They fight every day Shawn... any time they are in the same room, any time they have to speak to each other - it turns into a fight. I don't even understand why-" but she cut herself off. It was shameful enough to hate her parents' relationship, she didn't need to say it out loud and make it all the more real. But Shawn knew. He always knew. His parents weren't like that. He couldn't really imagine them being like that, but if having her parents scream at each other loud enough for him to hear them through his windows, it wasn't too hard to guess that it was scary. Scary enough for her mother to find a job in the city, an hour away from their town and far enough from her father.