ShawnMendes entered Wattpad.

2

📩 Fortheoneandonly you've got a new DM - ShawnMendes wrote you a message

Hey. Just read the lyrics of your latest song. I wanted to tell you that I like the way you are writing. Where the hell do you get your ideas from??! I mean, your writing is really good.
It's not that I like the content of your fanfiction that much (I have to say that, I guess), but I like the way you put words together in your songbook. :)
Ah, and by the way, this message is for the girl who writes the songbook, not the one who writes the fanfictions. I saw that you share the account.

📨
Hey. That's nice.
Thank you for your (mostly) kind words.
You're writing to the right girl. :)
To answer your question:
I don't know. Where do you get your ideas for your songs from? (Just kidding, I know that you aren't Shawn Mendes. And I have to warn you: Calling yourself Shawn Mendes on Wattpad—and everywhere else—is called identity theft. You shouldn't do that; it's not allowed, and someone could think you're really Shawn Mendes—haha. Only joking again. At least about the last part. Nobody on Wattpad would believe that you're really Shawn Mendes.
But either way.)

📩
Hey, thank you for your answer. That's a really good question. But I have a good answer, too. ;) My inspiration has, as you probably know, currently been love and heartbreak. On other days, it's just the mood I'm in, sometimes even the weather.

Thank you for your warning, but I am Shawn Mendes. For real.

—

Mandy
I can't stop myself from rolling my eyes. "Hey Amy, you wanna see something? On Wattpad there really are idiots. There's this boy (or girl?) who's pretending to be Shawn Mendes. I shouldn't reply to this again, should I?"

My best friend Amy takes a look over my shoulder and reads the messages the Shawn Mendes impersonator and I exchanged. "I am Shawn Mendes. For real," she quotes, then she laughs.

I nod. "Oh yeah, of course, Shawn Mendes is reading his own fanfictions, and then he's texting the author under his real name."

"Sounds realistic." Amy grins as well. "Just reply that you want concert tickets for the show in two weeks. And more importantly: backstage passes."

I shake my head. "I don't know. I guess I should just stop answering him—if it's a him. On Wattpad there are way more girls than boys. At least that's what my statistics tell me."

"You're absolutely right. So then just write to him and tell him that he shouldn't steal someone's identity—I think it sounds like a him, though; I don't know why—and that it is really weird to pretend to be Shawn Mendes to other users. But say it in a friendly way—maybe—just maybe—he's really Shawn Mendes, and then it would be a shame if you ended up being the person he talks about in his next interview because you offended him."

—

📨
Look, you're surely a nice person. But I don't think we should write to each other again. You really have to understand that You. Aren't. Shawn Mendes.

You may love him, and you may wanna be married or at least be best friends with him, but there's a 99 per cent chance that's never gonna happen, okay?

📩
I assure you I don't wanna be married to myself or be best friends with myself, and I understand that you don't believe me.

Can I at least ask you some things about your writing technique? It's very unique. I liked your self-written songs, too. Honestly, they were the reason I decided to write to you. "My love" is so good. It's honest and pure, and the vibe ... damn. – It has real collab potential.

📩
I'm sorry, I meant a song in Shawn Mendes style, of course.

📨
Are you at least a boy?

Yes. And just to let you know:
I am 24 years old, and I am from Toronto.

Sure you are. Any proof?

I could send you a photo right now.
From my window. It's actually snowing at the moment.

I don't know exactly what it looks like in Toronto when it's snowing. Just from photos. And you could get an image from the internet. So, no.

I could send you a pic of myself.
Well, not of my whole self, because I really don't want this photo to be on the internet.
But I could send you a picture of my hand.

I'm having way too much mind-cinema.

Please don't.

Oh my gosh, relax. I just want to take a photo of my tattoo. You surely know which one.
The bird.

Okay, okay.
But I warn you: The second you send something weird or cringey or something like that, I will report you, and I will block you.
Right away.
Get it?!

Absolutely.

... 📷

Mandy
One second later there's an incoming picture. It's a male hand, with long musician fingers and rings, and yes, there's the tattoo.

My heart skips a beat. This can't be real. That's not Shawn Mendes. The person I am chatting with is not Shawn Mendes. My gosh. This person is really clever. He must have cropped a photo from the internet. Or maybe he has really gotten a tattoo that looks the same.
Yeah, that's the most logical answer, I guess. A fan would do that.
At least, he really is a boy, and (as a plus) he likes Shawn Mendes' music.

—

📨
I still don't believe you when you say you're Shawn Mendes, but I believe you about the rest (the 24-year-old-living-in-Toronto thing), I guess.
Any more information I should have about you? Can you sing, too?

📩
As I told you: I am Shawn Mendes.

Okay, fine. Just tell me: Why aren't you writing under a nickname? Why aren't you muffinlover_1998 or Wonderboy_on_Wattpad?
You wouldn't have to be afraid that I'd share our convo with the public—or, even riskier, post it on Wattpad.

—

I don't get an answer, and for the next two and a half hours, I'm sitting, quite distracted, in front of my study books. Then, finally, a new message flashes up on my smartphone.