SHAWN MENDES ONE SHOTS

5 | your boyfriend is...

It's not like she was famous - but it's also not like she was not. She had a following, sure, a few hundred thousand on Instagram because of her very unusual yet relatable hauls, story time videos and travel vlogs around the world. She wasn't a content creator, per se. She had a passion for sharing her life with the world, as she had stated in her self introductory videos on YouTube about 3 years ago and there weren't very many videos on there either, but she liked it. Which made her viewers love whatever she put out because it came from a space of sincerity.

Her daily life was ridiculously normal she liked to say. Which is what drew people to her. She worked a 9-5 job at a firm and only took holidays when she could absolutely afford the days off. Which was 3, 10 day trips in the last 3 years - like clockwork. To the people she worked with and the people who kept up with her videos, her life was normal.

What they probably, just, maybe didn't know was that she'd kept one tiny little secret from the world. She'd casually mentioned a boyfriend in passing in one or two of her old videos and no one had really thought of it as something. Because it was something, and there was a someone. No one but a few nosy fans here and there had picked up on how she had a Bali vlog on her channel days after he was evidently MIA in the eyes of the paparazzi. No mentions of how she had a Toronto Gods sticker on her laptop when she clearly had nothing to do with Toronto. No one connected the dots about her matching floral tattoo to his butterfly one. It was easy to sneak around, easier so when he was hardly in the city because of the job he had, and the easiest because he basically pitched up a tent in her house when he was home, both of them refusing to get out alone unless they were in a foreign city with next to none chances of being spotted. Her life felt stress free not having people know about him. And so was his.

Life was ridiculously easy dating Shawn Mendes.

Which is why she had made it clear in a previous Q&A on her channel that she was willing to share absolutely anything with them. The more you make the audience believe they know everything about you, the lesser room you leave for doubt, she taught him when he got finicky about their relationship. She'd taught him well over the years. His family, his crew knew who she was, helping with every visit on tour, a 10 day trip for any 2 legs she could make it to being made seamless. Her family and best friends knew who he was, helping both of them hideout when he stayed over at theirs anytime he stopped by for tour.

We tell them on our own terms. It's our choice over theirs, doll, he'd tell her as a way of reminding himself. A test of his own will power just to make her feel safe with him. His job was the reason why she'd said no to him after their second date. She'd lied at first, telling him she's just now realised how she doesn't have the time for something so serious, that she has too much on her plate and she can't drag him in just to not give him all of her. He'd backed down immediately, not wanting her to feel discomforted by him.

Until he thought of how she blushed the times he bought her coffee whenever they met, not because of the coffee, but because he had her order memorised. He remembered how her eyes lit up when he asked her out, how she was nearly floating off the ground when he asked her for a second one. It hit him that there was more to it than she was letting on, and so his relentless pursuit began, he made it his mission to sweep her off her feet, make her see he was worth it.

She'd told him the truth then. As much as he tried to argue, she was a regular girl, she had no previous experience with the scrutiny they would be hit with, given the chance that their... relationship would actually last. It's easy to be a bully online, and just as hard in person. She'd know, having been on twitter since her #Directioner days, and she couldn't picture herself being a "mysterious brunette spotted with the Canadian pop star!" Over everything else, she still had a normal life to live, a normal job to maintain. She didn't see a place for herself in his very busy, very public life, and it may have been too soon, but it was already hard for him to picture a life without her. Cheesy, she said. It's the truth, he said.