S H A W N M E N D E S
"Well?" Matthew asked after I didn't reply.
"What do you wanna know?"
"Tell me about life in Canada." He said. My left foot and leg started to shake, and I would clench and unclench my hand ever so slightly. But I guess it wasn't subtle enough, because Matthew looked down at my leg, then at my hands, and the looked at my face. I tried to hide my face by looking out the window.
"You okay man? You seem... nervous."
"Nervous? W-why would I be nervous."
"Beats me." Matt sighed.
"Life in Canada wasn't really much different."
And there's the million dollar lie I've been waiting for.
Matthew studied me very carefully. "Okay. What about friends and stuff. You have any friends back in Canada?"
I laugh, "What's that supposed to mean Espinosa?" I was just happy he changed the subject.
He smiles, "Nothing. I was just wondering. You're a cool guy. What did people think of you?"
"The same way they think of me here."
"Any sports? Hobbies, besides music?" He smirks.
"Nah." I did play hockey, but I didn't want to say, it's pretty stereotypical for Canadians to play hockey.
"Hmm, were here." Matthew said parking the car in a vacant lot. I open the door and climb out. The park was a large area of green grass and a swing set. Kids were running around everywhere and parents were chasing after them. There were trees acting as a border, making the park more secluded.
There was a trail leading in through the trees and I'm guessing that's where the dreaded date begins.
"Okay," Matt claps his hands together, "let's go. We have a long day ahead of us if we're gonna map this entire date out."
I groan. I seriously do not want to go on this date. I don't like Natalia, I will never like Natalia and the irony of this situation is really starting to piss me off.
"Come on. Stop being such a baby." Matthew said, nudging me forward. I try and give him my nastiest glare- which didn't work out, cause he just laughed at me.
Why can't I be intimidating?
"Let's go Mendes." Matthew said walking forward. When he realized I wasn't following him, he rolled his eyes, grabbed my arm, and dragged me to the trees.
"You try to be nice," He mumbles, "and where does that get you? Nowhere."
We started walking and I thought there were only like three or four trees and then we would end up back at the main road, but instead it's like a whole forest back here. There are trees everywhere and Matthew and I had a few run in with some deer.
About 20 minutes later, we reached a small little, like mini mountain, and Matt had this absurd idea that I was actually gonna climb it.
"Well, go." He ushered.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Climb."
"Um.. no."
"Come on the thing has only gotta be about 25 feet off the ground."
"That's 25 feet higher than I would like to be." I retaliate. Matthew glares at me and I remember to take mental notes. Although he's not much more intimidating than I am.
"Go." I sigh and start climbing.
I put my foot in one of the foot holes and pull myself up. I continue this until I'm closer to the top, but as I was getting closer, my foot slipped and I tried to regain my balance by grabbing onto one of the little hole things. ( A/n I'm so sorry, I know nothing about hiking as you can probably tell) But when I did, my hand scraped against a rock, and it started to sting so bad.
"Shit." I breath out, trying to resist the urge to grab my now injured hand, knowing I would have nothing to grab anything to balance with.
"What? What happened?" Matthew asked from a couple feet behind me.
I look up to see I only have a few feet left and that I'll just inspect it then. "Nothing." I push myself up harder and faster.
Once I get to the top I look at my hands. My left hand has gnarly blisters threatening to bleed at any second. My right? Well that one looks like World War III broke out on my hand. It's bleeding so bad and it stings like hell. I squeeze my hand to keep it from bleeding out, but my hand was already being drained of the little color that it once had.
Matthew finally made it to the top, and doubled over to catch his damn breath. He looks over and see's all the blood the is dripping down to my arm and rushes over,
"Damn it Shawn! What'd you do?!" I give him my best shut-the-hell-up look and tried to apply more pressure to my hand.
The stinging went down but the bleeding increased.
"How the hell are you still conscious looking at all that blood?"
I guess you can say I've had practice.
"It doesn't bother me. Is there a first aid kit?"
"No."
"You decide to go hiking, but don't bring a first aid kit?!"
"It was last minute okay?!" He snaps back.
I sigh and squeeze my hand even harder.
"Um, I think I have one in my car. I'll go get it." Matthew jumps off the ledge and runs to his car, which is probably a mile back, leaving me by myself.
I take a moment to enjoy the view. Since we were higher up, you had a view of the entire forest. You could see all the trees and a little creek. The crisp September air continued to blow in my face, the wind in my cut really hurt. But as soon as the pain subsided, I continued to look out into the distance, waiting for Matthew to return.
I applied enough pressure for the blood to temporarily stop flowing. My entire right arm drenched in now dried blood. And it took all my strength not to gag.
"I got it! I got it!" A breathless Matt came running through the foliage waving a first aid kit in his hands.
"Finally." I mumble to no one in particular. "Throw it up!" I'm not about to loose more blood waiting for Matthew to climb back up here.
He tosses the first aid kid up and I instantly rip it open and bandage the deep gash running across my palm. I make sure to wrap the gauze very tightly and soon relax knowing that I'll be absolutely fine.
Matthew is now sitting by my side trying to catch his breath. "That was intense."
You don't know the half of it.
Once he catches his breath, he stands and offers me his hands. "Let's keep moving."
Um... you can, I'm going to stay here.
But knowing that no matter what I say, he's gonna make me keep moving, I take his hands and prop myself on my feet. I brush the dirt off my jeans and follow Matthew.
After about walking for what like an eternity, we arrived at an opening. It was very narrow, and unnoticeable, and we would've completely missed it if Matthew hadn't tripped on a root and fallen through the opening.
We walked in and what we saw completely took my breath away; it was a waterfall. The water was a gorgeous crystal blue/aqua color. There were vines growing out from the waterfall and the outer ledge was surrounded by trees.
Matthew nudged the arm the wasn't covered in blood, I looked at him and he was still looking at the waterfall.
"Hey, don't take Natalia here."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
xxxxx
We were driving back to Cameron's house to report what we found, the car pin drop silent. Not even the radio was on, which caused a very awkward silence to form in the car. I wanted to say something, but I had nothing to say.
I couldn't stop thinking about the date I'm being forced to go on tomorrow night.
When we arrived at Cam's place, we got out in an awkward silence. Matthew walked up to his door and just opened it, like he owned the place, proving these guys were just as close as people say they are.
"Cammy!" Matthew yells, his voice echoing throughout Cameron's large house. I could hear footsteps descending down the stairs.
Cameron emerged through the hallway near the stairs and smiled at us.
"Hey guys what did you-" He stopped when he noticed my arm, which I forgot to rinse off before we got here.
"Holy... what happened Shawn?" He asked stepping closer to examine my arm.
" A little rock climbing incident."
"You guys went rock climbing?"
"Yeah! And you'll never believe what we found! Shawn show him!" Matthew exclaimed.
I pull my phone out and head to the camera, where a whole bunch of pictures of our cool place were taken. Matthew and I decided that we were gonna use this place as a little meet up area. After we left, we covered the already narrow opening with leaves and branches, so no one notices. And I thing we did a damn good job.
I show Cameron one of many and his eyes widen, "You're taking Natalia... here?" I smile at him.
"Nope."
"No? If your not taking her here, then where are you taking her?"
"To the shitty place where Shawn almost lost a limb." Matthew interjects.
I give Cameron a sheepish smile and he laughs. "Hey it's not funny, it hurt like hell."
"I don't doubt it." He said looking at my arm.
"Okay." Matthew says. "Let's get you cleaned up."
"You can use the bathroom in my room." Cameron says. Matthew leads me up to Cam's room, and grabs some clothes for me, once again like he owns the place.
He tells me to go into the bathroom and take a shower. I do as I'm told and walk into the bathroom. I turn the shower on and slowly unwrap the gauze on my hands. I know this is gonna hurt like hell, but I'm still doing it. My hand wasn't stinging. Quite the opposite actually; it was numb. I couldn't feel anything at all.
Once I got all the gauze off, I was surprised to see how deep the gash was. No wonder it was bleeding so much, and why it hurt that much.
I slowly and carefully removed my clothing and got in the shower, I close my eyes and let the lukewarm water soak my body. My hand's stinging again, but I'm too tired to care.
Last time I checked it was 7:30 at night and I was only 24 hours away from my date with Natalia. This was something I could've avoided. If I just let her talk, then I would've been able to turn her down. And she wouldn't have demanded shit.
I shut the water off, and slip out of the shower. I dry myself off and slip on the clothes Matt handed me; a pair of Cameron's sweat pants, and a t-shirt. I made sure to take my wallet and phone out of my pants, and slip them into the pocket of the sweat pants.
I crack the door open and the cool air hits me hard, considering the bathroom was warm. I leave my hair damp, I could fix it later. (a/n Shawn's 'long' curly hair makes me very veryhappy)
I head downstairs with my clothes still in my hands. Once I get downstairs, Matthew instructs me to the laundry where I could wash my clothes.
I'm still very confused as to who's house this was.
I stick my clothes in the washing machine and head back to the living room, where Cam was on his phone. I sit down on the arm chair next to the couch where Cameron was laying.
"Nice outfit." He smirks, looking up from his phone.
"Oh? This old thing?" I smile at him. My hair wasn't as damp as it was before, and it was drying into it's normal curly long hair, that I need to cut soon. (a/n please don't)
"You have curly hair?" Cameron asks.
"Yeah." I run my hand through my slightly damp hair.
We just sat there the entire time, on our phones, when Cameron spoke up; "Hey you guys wanna stay over?"
"Sure." Matthew says.
"Sounds good." I say, texting my mom, telling her I'm staying over at Cam's.
"Alright." He says clapping his hands. "My mom should be back in 20 minutes, and she's bringing back some Chipotle."
I nod and so does Matthew and we continue to wait, silently, for Cameron's mom.
Not long after, the front door opened, and a really nice and kind looking woman walked through the door, "Cameron, I'm home."
Cameron got up off the couch and walked to the door to give him mom a hug, and then took the bags of food from her hands.
She looked at Matthew and gave him a hug as well, her attention then turned to me.
"Mom, this is Shawn Mendes, he just moved here. From Canada." Cameron introduces.
"Well, hi Shawn, I'm Gina. So, Canada huh? Is the weather better here?"
"Yes ma'am. I never really like the winter." (a/n sameeee)
"Neither do I." She states smiling at me. "Well, Shawn from Canada, make yourself at home."
"Thank you." I say.
She walks into the kitchen and we take our food and sit down.
"So Shawn, you excited for your date tomorrow?" Matthew smirks and I scowl at him
"I would rather stick that rock into my hand again." I state and Matthew cringes remembering all the blood loss.
"A rock did that?!" Cameron says, choking on his burrito.
I nod my head and look at my hand, which I now realize I forgot to re-wrap.
I look back up at Cameron "Hey do you have any-"
"Bandages?" He cuts me off, I nod, "Yeah, I'll get them." He gets up and heads into the kitchen, leaving Matthew and I to ourselves again.
C A M E R O N D A L L A S
I walk into the kitchen to get Shawn's bandages, where I saw my mom flipping through a magazine.
"I like him. He's nice." She said, not looking up from her issue of Vogue.
"Shawn? Yeah. He's great." I say looking through the cabinet for the fist aid kit. I pull it out and take the gauze and Neosporin out.
"What'd you need that for?" My mom asked, then gasped, "Did Matthew play with the knives again. I told him someone was bound to get hurt!"
I smile at the memories of Matt trying to juggle the knives back in freshman year. Almost took my moms eyes out. "No, this is for Shawn. There was an... accident earlier today and it's a deep cut."
"Oh, what happened?"
"Matt and Shawn went hiking today, and there was a rock..." I trail off for two reasons, one; my mom'll figure out the rest. Two, I don't even know what happened.
"Ow, well make sure he's okay, and if you need anything else, ask me alright."
"Yeah okay." I kiss her on the cheek and walk out with the bandages and ointment.
"Here" I hand Shawn the supplies.
"Thanks" he said, wrapping it oddly fast. Like he's practiced this. Multiple times.
"No problem.
After dinner, we decided to watch a movie, and about ten minutes into it, Matthew fell asleep. Shawn was the next to fall asleep, but that was about 45 to 50 minutes into the movie. I fell alseep close to the closing credits.
xxxxx
After breakfast, Matthew took Shawn back to his house to get ready for his date with Natalia. Which I am perfectly okay with. I just don't want to be involved if that makes sense. So I'm trying my best to keep away from this whole date drama.
I'm sitting on the couch alone flipping through the channels, a lot of them in different languages, others about different countries. I landed on a news report from Canada.
Hey that's where Shawn is from.
Since there was nothing else on tv to watch, I decided to watch it. It kind of intrigued me to know what kind of things were going on in Canada.
There was a reporter on the screen. She was standing in front of what looked like a court house. She was wearing a pant suit, and looked very professional. She also looked some what sad.
She started to speak; "Joseph Mendes' (a/n once again, I don't know his dad's name, so we're gonna wing it) is still MIA, and the police are having no luck finding the soon-to-be convicted criminal. And when they do find him, the odds are not in his favor. They say Mr.Mendes is to be sentenced life in prison." Joseph Mendes? Is he related to Shawn? And if he is- or even if he isn't- what did he do that was so bad to earn life in prison? I turned it up.
She started to speak again, "The jury decided on the sentence a few days after he ran from Canada, after almost his sixteen year old, Shawn, to death. Shawn barley made it out alive, but thanks to some of Canada's best doctors, he was able to make it out alive and healthy. Shawn is currently living with his mom and sister in the United States." They showed a picture of Shawn from when he was younger and I just about fell out of my seat.
What... the..... hell?
S H A W N M E N D E S
Matthew took me back to my house, and I quickly ran up the stairs, hoping that Hailey and the rest of Aaliyah's friends weren't here.
I opened the door to my bedroom, and Matthew went straight to my closet. He started to rumage through my clothes and soon enough, he found me something to wear. He just picked out a Nike sweatshirt and basket ball shorts.
He told me to text Natalia and tell her to wear something comfortable.
"I don't have her number." I state
"Oh." Matthew fishes in his pocket for his phone and he pulls out Natalia's phone number. "Here."
"Great. Thanks." I mumble.
I text her and tell her to wear something comfortable.
Natalia: Okay :) and here's my address 1565 Andrews Road
That's right next to the park.
"Hey, why do you have her number anyways?"
"I got it when she and Cameron were together."
"Oh, okay."
"Alright, now go put this on." He said handing me the clothes. I walk into my bathroom, and lip the clothes on. I fix my hair and put on deodorant. I remember to pack a first aid, because if we have a repeat of what happened yesterday- which I hope we don't- I won't let anyone bleed out.
I walk out and go into the kitchen to pack some snacks. I throw it all into a backpack along with the first aid kit.
"Hey, where are you going?" I turn around to see Aaliyah and Hailey.
"I have a date today." I sigh.
"Already?! With who?" Hailey screams.
"Natalia-"
I was cut off with Hailey screeching "Roberts?!"
"Yeah...?"
Aaliyah starts laughing, making me even more confused than I was two seconds ago.
"What?" I ask.
"You... have... a ... date... with Hailey's..... sister!" Aaliyah says in between laughs.
Honestly, looking at Hailey, I don't doubt that Natalia is her sister.
Hailey stomps out of the kitchen, and I can now really see the resemblance.
Aaliyah is still laughing "You know, it isn't that funny, I don't get why your having such a grand ol' time with this." I say walking out of the house. Leaving Matthew Espinosa alone with the two girls.
Sorry?
I make it to Natalia's house and knock on the door.
She opens and I see that we're wearing almost the exact same thing. Except instead of basket ball shirts, she has Soccer shorts on.
"Hey, look we're twinning." She says.
"Yeah."
"So, where are we going?"
"Across the street." I point to the park.
"To the park?"
"Sort of."
We walk across the street in silence and I try my best to remember which way Matthew and I went yesterday.
We walk through the trail, and Natalia pieced it together, "Oh! Are we going on a hike?"
"Yeah." I lead her through the trail, and we make it to the place where I almost died of blood loss.
I start climbing, and look back at Natalia who seems a little phased.
"Come on." I gesture for her to start climbing. Is this how Matthew felt yesterday?
Natalia places one foot in the foot hole and starts climbing, fast. And soon enough, she's passed me.
Once we make it to the top, I look at her with... I don't even know. I was just confused, and a little amazed- although I would never admit it,
"What? I am a cheerleader."
Of course you are.
I unzip the back pack and pull out some of the snacks, and hand them to Natalia. She takes them with a quiet 'thank you'.
After a couple minutes of silence, and looking out at the view, she speaks up. "You know, I didn't mean to cheat on Cameron."
I look at her, "You don't need to tell me this."
"Yes I do. You all look at me like I'm the devil's sister. I swear, it was an accident."
"You can't accidentally cheat on someone, Natalia."
"I know that. I guess it wasn't an accident. But it wasn't like I wanted to do it. That night, at the party, I was talking to some of my friends, and this guy came up to us. I recognized him from our Social Studies class and we started talking. We were talking for what felt like forever. And he kept having drinks. I didn't think it was a problem until he tried to make a move.
"I tried to get him to leave me alone, but he wouldn't listen. And the he started to.. touch me." Her voice cracked at that and tears started to brim her eyes. "When I screamed for help, he hit me." By now they were freely falling. "He started to kiss me, and that's when Cameron walked in. I swear I didn't mean to hurt him like that."
"The why don't you tell him that?"
"You think he'll listen to me? He doesn't even want to look at me." She turns to me, her eye lashes wet with tears and her bottom lip quivering.
"Why don't you tell someone. He hit you Natalia."
She smiles at me "You got my name right."
I dryly chuckle "Yeah. But really, tell someone."
"There's no point. I don't even know what happened to the guy, he moved shortly after. It's not like I can get him into any trouble if he's halfway across the world. Anyway, after Cameron oh-so-kindly broke up with me, I transformed myself. I swore that I wasn't going to let people treat me like that again. And I let go of Cameron. I moved on. And I think he has too, if he's okay with you going out with me."
I'm not so sure.
For the rest of the time, we eat in silence, and occasional conversation here and there. But the entire time there was only one thought swarming my mind; Natalia isn't as big a bitch as I thought.
But that doesn't mean I should forgive her.
Even though she did absolutely nothing to me?
Authors Note: Well, this is a lot longer. There secret place is to the side >>>
Cameron found out about Shawn's secret!?
Do you think Natalia is still a bitch?
Hope you enjoyed
~Hayden~