"Plus one, guest list But you don't even know what her name is Secrets, endless I know that you feel me you're runnin', runnin', runnin', runnin' Making the rounds with all your fake friends runnin', runnin' away from it You can strip down without showing skin"
- In The Dark by Camila Cabello
Peyton heads over my way, with two drinks in her hand. I look over to her relieved that she can pull me away from the douchey producer that I was currently talking to.
"Hey, Can I pull Jules away from you for a hot sec?" P asks the producer guy. she playfuly bats her eyelashes and pouts her lip, using her "charm" on him. speechless, he just shakes his head yes. I roll my eyes at him and follow her.
She hands me what I think is a Gin and Tonic. "Men are so dumb."
I nod my head and raise my glass, "I can drink to that."
We start walking upstairs to the rooftop bar and fire pits. "Oh no! What happened with Shawn?" P asks.
I shake my drink around, taking a large gulp...
" two girls pulled him away and he eagerly accepted. You should have seen what they were wearing...practically nothing!" I respond. I start to feel a buzz come on.
"I'm sorry, Jules we should've never come. What was I thinking?" Peyton spoke, immediately I start to feel guilty about complaining.
"No no! You have no idea how grateful I am for this and how much I love you for doing this for me. Thank you so much!...and you have no reason to apologize." I tell her.
As soon as I tell her that, a guilty smile starts to form on her face,
"Then you wouldn't mind if i went to go get a drink with someone..." she said.
"Of course you can go! You don't need to ask me for permission. but who is it?" I state.
"His Name's Geoff." she says smiling, pointing to a guy with a beer in his hands, talking. Now it all makes sense why I couldn't find her all night. P gives me a hug, and walks away towards him.
"Be safe and have fun!" I yell to her. I sigh, realizing that I know no one else here. I make the decision head back to the bar to take advantage of the free drinks.
~~~
Once it gets past twelve, people start to leave. I tip the bartender a twenty and start making my way towards the balcony area, soaking in the view one last time.
"Beautiful isn't it?" I hear a voice say. I look at the sky, and how the cn tower was lit up in a ruby red color. the skyline was breathtaking, it felt as if time had stopped. I look over to see Shawn standing right next to me, looking at the view.
"I feel so small looking at everything." I state, turning to him.
He shakes his head, You're not, you're apart of the view I was talking about." he says, so calmly staring at me. blushing, I smile at him.
"Wow! I can't believe THE Shawn Mendes just complimented me." I sarcastically joke.
He sheepishly smiles, as I grin back. I wanted to stay like that forever. It felt comfortable, something so familiar yet at the same time so foreign.
"Does this life ever bore you?" I say, doing a three sixty around the rooftop. It amazes me how we live blocks away from each other yet maintain unique lifestyles.
He scratches the back of his neck, looking unsure.
"That's a tough question. I love what I do, but It becomes hard to tell where I can find constant happiness. I feel as if I'm addicted to the highs of preforming and its hard when the lows come. Sometimes I wonder who I am doing this for." he truthfully responds.
"I get that. Well I don't really get the celebrity and preforming aspect, but I understand trying to find that constant happiness. It's like no matter how many times you do what you love, like for you preforming, you're always going to have the lows. I think you just need to find that somebody that will make you forget about the sad parts." Shawn nods his head in what looks like agreement.
"Have you found your someone?" he asks.
"No, but I think i just admitted that I needed one."
Shawn looks over at me more confused than ever. I open my mouth to explain myself.
"After I had this bad breakup, I brainwashed myself into believing that I didn't need anyone else except myself. For a really long time I believed it. Now I am here practically telling myself that I need that someone."
"Honestly, this probably has been one of the best conversations, I've had in a while." Shawn tells me.
I smile and agree. I look around the roof and see everyone has cleared out, except for some of the bartenders cleaning up.
"I guess, I should probably get going." I say, not wanting to go, but at the same time not wanting to be a bother.
"no, no please stay. are you hungry? do you want to go out for a bite?" Shawn asks.
I turn around, nodding my head, "That would actually be great."
I start to take off my heels realizing I forgot my comfortable clothes bag at home.
"I don't want to be a bother but could I borrow some clothes?'' I awkwardly ask, looking down at my feet.
"Yeah, of course. Just follow me." he responds, walking down the steps towards his floor.
We go down around three flights of stairs and walk to a dark oak door labeled "568". I head inside seeing his house for the first time. he had a large L shaped white cloth couch facing a big flat-screen T.V. He had beautiful windows that reached floor to ceiling, and had a oak coffee table. It looked so cozy.
I look back at Shawn and start to follow him to his bedroom. On the way, we pass a studio area. I stand outside of is door, unsure if i should invite myself in. He rummages through his drawers and pulls out a military green cross fit sweatshirt, black Nike sweatpants and old black rubber flip flops.
handing them to me, I respond with a thank you. "The bathrooms to the right." Shawn mentions.
I nod my head, and go his bathroom, turn the light on and lock his door.
I quickly rip my uncomfortable and sweaty dress off putting on his over sized sweatshirt and sweatpants. I had to roll up the sweatpants at the waist so they would fit, and also at the bottoms.
I then proceed to wash my blotchy makeup off with whatever soap was in there, and put my hair into a ratty bun. I also managed to walk in his humongous flip flops. I go out of the bathroom to see he has changed as well.
"oh, I almost forgot one thing..." Shawn spoke, walking into his kitchen picking up black ray ban sunglasses and a grey baseball cap.
"Here. In case any paparazzi are out this late" I put them on as Shawn does the same with a maroon cap and different sunglasses.
I giggle at how stupid I look. "I thought this only happened in the movies."
"Welcome to my life." He jokingly says, picking up his car keys and opening his condo door for me.
"So where are we headed?" I curiously ask, as we make our way down to the underground garage. I look around to the rows of cars.
"Um I was thinking we could head to this diner down the street, its open 24/7 and has the best burgers."
"mhhm That sounds so good!" I close my eyes, as I rub my stomach. Shawn starts his car and heads down the road . I buckle my seat belt, and look around his car amazed that I was driving in a jeep.
giggling Shawn asks, "let me guess, you can't believe you're in The Shawn Mendes Car?"
I laugh as he looks over at me flashing his one of a kind smile. "How did you know?" I joke, pretending to be in utter shock.
"No, but actually?" he questions.
"I was in love with a jeep when I was in high school, hell I still am. It's practically my dream car. Of course for my sixteenth birthday my parents surprise me with an old blue ford pickup truck. "
"The universe is funny like that." He responds.
I look out the window, as we start to leave bustling Toronto, "Tell me about it."
_________
About twenty minutes of driving we pass sign that reads "Welcome to Pickering!"
"Since you're such a big fan, you would know that this is my hometown." Shawn proudly jokes, while nudging my shoulder.
I look at him, "There's fine line between me, a fan of your music, and a stalker who knows where you live."
he smiles at me as he pulls into "Jennie Maries Diner"
The outside was a baby pink color, with a slanted roof. He holds the door for me as we go in. The inside looked like it had not been changed since the sixties. they had a spinning dessert counter, next to a bar set up.
A lady wearing blue eye shadow came to greet us, she looked to be the only waitress working.
"Two?" she asked while yawning. We nodded, as she slowly took us to a teal leather booth which was accompanied by faux metal table. We both sit down as the waitress hands us the menus.
"What would you two like to drink?" she asks us.
She looks at me first. "Could I please some decaf coffee."
She nods her head then looks over to Shawn, "And for you?"
"I'll take the same." He responds.
She shortly comes back with our drinks, as we both order cheeseburgers, except Shawn holds the tomato on his. He puts two packets of sugar and one cream in his coffee, I decide to just keep mine black.
"I feel like I barely know you, tell me about yourself." Shawn says, while he takes a sip from his cream colored mug.
"'Well, I played field hockey all through high school. I'm wrapping up my junior year at University of Toronto for Criminology." Oh and I was a HUGE one direction stan. I know every one of their songs. That's pretty much the story of my life."
"I would have never thought you were a one direction stan." he comments. I grin looking into his deep brown eyes.
"Oh, I totally forgot to ask you this, how did you and Peyton meet?"
I laugh remembering it as well. "It's a long story."
He supports his head in his hand, while his elbow is on the table. "I got time."
"So flashback to the sixth grade, the bell had just rung for lunch. I went to my locker which was all the way on the bottom floor to get my food. I remember that it was Peyton first day of school and her locker was right next to mine. She was lost and had no idea where lunch was, so I decided to take her under my wing. When we got to the cafeteria she started cussing like a sailor because she forgot her lunch, so I split my peanut butter and jelly sandwich with her. When she started cursing that's when I knew she was going to be my best friend. It's funny how you can tell like that." I say twisting my necklace around.
Shawn's smile felt so warming like drinking a hot chocolate on a cold winter day. Everything felt so familiar...so right. Something inside of me clicked like putting in the last piece in a puzzle. Everything seemed to make sense now.
Sure most of my high-school years were filled with posters of him on my wall, and me falling in love with the idea of him, but this was something different. Something so far away from my high school self, yet somehow I could not tell the two apart.
"I've known Peyton for a while, and she's talked so much about you." Shawn says.
surprised I start to choke on my coffee, "Oh, really? I would take anything that comes of her mouth with a grain of salt."
"She talked about how you and her would go on vacation's to Shelter island with her family. She also said how you convinced her to stay up all night and play board games, go night swimming, and watch movies. She called you a fish too because you would stay all in the ocean so much, someone would have to drag you out."
I laugh remembering those awesome summers. "I remember...and how much I sucked at mini golf. They were the best summers I had!"
I pause becoming nostalgic of every memory Peyton and I shared.
"Who was your best friend growing up?" I asked him, feeling the need to change the topic on something other than myself.
"Um..probably my high school friend Brian. We have known each other since 9th grade, we had the same chorus class together."
__________________________
Time flew by faster than I expected. Surprisingly our conversations had not run dry once.
"Favorite movie?" he asked me walking out of the dinner.
I let out half joking, half frustrated groan. "Thats almost impossible, there's so many to choose from!" I exclaim waving my hands in the air.
Shawn laughs, moving his whole head like a dog shaking away the water from his fur. "Do you at least have a favorite genre?"
I pause and think, "Oh! Im a sucker for the sappy rom coms, like the fault in our stars, Dear John, The Notebook, Forest Gum-"
Shawn smirks, "so you're the sucker for the ones were the man grabs the girls hand" He slowly starts to grab mine. My face flashes a bright red color like a flame suddenly igniting.
Shawn starts whispering again, "Then he holds her other hand too, pulling her gently towards him." Shawn starts to do the same to me, as a sheepish smile starts to draw on my face.
"Then the girl wraps her arms around the guy..."
"And then the guy grabs the girls waist pulling her closer..."
We were both whispering to each other, I started to feel as cliché as it sounds, butterflies in my stomach slowly stirring to my chest.
At this point we were so close, I could feel his warm breath floating to my neck. I let out a hesitantly light moan.
I decide to be brave, kissing him first. The kiss was light and soft, everything I imagined kissing The Shawn Mendes would feel like.
It was Absolutely amazing.
"Clunk! Clunk!"
Little did we know, that the paparazzi like Anne-Maries too...
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To be continued hope you guys enjoyed this one, sorry it took forever to get uploaded...
xoxo
J.T